What's the show about?

When you tell someone you’ve written a new musical comedy, the first question they ask is: You? (Just kidding.) The first thing they ask is: What’s it about?

You’d think that would be an easy question to answer. But figuring out the answer to that question can take a year. It’s often taken me more than a year to boil something I’ve written down to its essence so that I can describe it succinctly.

And then there are different approaches to answering the question. When we first wrote Regretting, and people asked me what it was about, I gave them plot. I told them it was a musical comedy about the long marriage of Anne and Clay, and when Clay’s passion for Anne wanes, etc., etc., etc. Not the least bit succinct. And, in a way, not particularly responsive to the question.

Five years later, I’ve taken a step back. Now I see that Regretting is about a middle-aged woman who is content but wants more and sets out on a quest to get it. (I could also say it’s about a middle-aged woman who leaves her marriage because she wants better sex, but that didn’t seem like the way to go.)

Here’s another way to describe what the show’s about: It’s about Love, Sex, and Children. And there’s music. And humor. A musical comedy about Love, Sex, and Children. Love, Sex, Children, Music, Humor. What else is there?