THE PLAY "NEW YORK CITY"

 (A One Act Play by Bob Zolnerzak)

 

Influenced by the hypnotic quality of the songs in "Little Night Music," I hum many of the songs through yesterday and even read through the words before I file the record away, having played it during the last session with Rolf. Then I think that some songs could be written in a wonderful way about New York City, and I suddenly think that there's a PLAY there, about someone (like me) who lives in New York City and loves it, except that it begins to pile up on them and they want to leave. A sort of a revue‑type thing with lots of snappy numbers: just friends talking about leaving New York City, but frankly evaluating all the good things about it. "I gotta get out" would list the dirt, muggings, robberies, crowdedness, unemployment, rip‑off artists, and then segues into the next song, about the "Catastrophes" that could hit New York, based on "Towering Inferno," "Earthquake," "Seven Days to Noon" (the bomb), "When Worlds Collide" (floods), but that could trail off into a list of all the artworks, architectural wonders, private collections of books, opera houses, that leads to the song "Diversity" listing all that's available to see and do and experience in the city, not the least of which are its neighborhoods, bringing up the "People" number where the ghettos of Jews, Chinese, Italians, PRs, Greeks, Poles, Germans, Turks, Japanese, and all the various visitors could be celebrated in all those languages, accents, physical appearances, out of which "Gay Life" could unfold as the paean to homosexuality, bisexuality, bestiality, sadomasochism, transvestism, and eroticism available in the city. "Privacy" makes it easier, since your neighbors don't know you, but that leads to "Loneliness," one of the curses of the city, which could be the love song of the evening, showing the loneliness in crowds of people fallen out of love. "But Where Do I Go?" would have to be the climax of the FIRST ACT of the evening, describing the possibilities of all other attractive cities in the world, yet they are all countered by the advantages of living in "New York City," which would have to be a special praise‑number which would INDEED climax the evening with a song of praise, exultation, tempered with the idea that "But it better treat us right, or we'll just leave it to stew in its own WASTES!"

Song: The Bar Scene
Tune: Harold in Italy

BZ:
I
stride by
and each guy
over fifty‑five
tries
to catch my EYE!
You
glide through
and the crew
dressed in navy blue
vies
to dance with YOU!
If
there are dolls
in the halls
YOU,
without fault
give them halt
and you all have the night to yourselves.
When
there's a hunch‑
back in the bunch
he
looks at me
in his glee
to add me to the trophies on his shelves.THE PLAY "NEW YORK CITY"

Influenced by the hypnotic quality of the songs in "Little Night Music," I hum many of the songs through yesterday and even read through the words before I file the record away, having played it during the last session with Rolf. Then I think that some songs could be written in a wonderful way about New York City, and I suddenly think that there's a PLAY there, about someone (like me) who lives in New York City and loves it, except that it begins to pile up on them and they want to leave. A sort of a revue‑type thing with lots of snappy numbers: just friends talking about leaving New York City, but frankly evaluating all the good things about it. "I gotta get out" would list the dirt, muggings, robberies, crowdedness, unemployment, rip‑off artists, and then segues into the next song, about the "Catastrophes" that could hit New York, based on "Towering Inferno," "Earthquake," "Seven Days to Noon" (the bomb), "When Worlds Collide" (floods), but that could trail off into a list of all the artworks, architectural wonders, private collections of books, opera houses, that leads to the song "Diversity" listing all that's available to see and do and experience in the city, not the least of which are its neighborhoods, bringing up the "People" number where the ghettos of Jews, Chinese, Italians, PRs, Greeks, Poles, Germans, Turks, Japanese, and all the various visitors could be celebrated in all those languages, accents, physical appearances, out of which "Gay Life" could unfold as the paean to homosexuality, bisexuality, bestiality, sadomasochism, transvestism, and eroticism available in the city. "Privacy" makes it easier, since your neighbors don't know you, but that leads to "Loneliness," one of the curses of the city, which could be the love song of the evening, showing the loneliness in crowds of people fallen out of love. "But Where Do I Go?" would have to be the climax of the FIRST ACT of the evening, describing the possibilities of all other attractive cities in the world, yet they are all countered by the advantages of living in "New York City," which would have to be a special praise‑number which would INDEED climax the evening with a song of praise, exultation, tempered with the idea that "But it better treat us right, or we'll just leave it to stew in its own WASTES!"

Song: The Bar Scene
Tune: Harold in Italy

BZ:
I
stride by
and each guy
over fifty‑five
tries
to catch my EYE!
You
glide through
and the crew
dressed in navy blue
vies
to dance with YOU!
If
there are dolls
in the halls
YOU,
without fault
give them halt
and you all have the night to yourselves.
When
there's a hunch‑
back in the bunch
he
looks at me
in his glee
to add me to the trophies on his shelves.