Creators
book and lyrics by Bill Russell
music by Janet Hood
Synopsis
Elegies For Angels Punks and Raging Queens is a dramatic and musical theater piece composed of free verse poems and songs reflecting the lives of people who have lived with and died from AIDS. There are over 30 poems… touching, dramatic, humorous. Each poem represents a character who has died from AIDS. The songs reflect the feeling of the living… the people who have felt the loss of so many friends and loved ones. Elegies… can be performed with a small group of actors playing several roles each or with one actor for each character, as has been done in the majority or stagings.
History
Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens had two primary sources of inspiration. When the Names Project Quilt was first unveiled on the Washington Mall in October of 1987, I was overwhelmed by its power and presence. I was also very familiar with Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology, the collection of free verse epitaphs of deceased characters speaking from a cemetery in the fictional town of Spoon River, Illinois. Having written poetry for a number of years, primarily in my own style of free verse, I had the idea to attempt a Spoon River of AIDS with the Quilt replacing Masters’ cemetery as the cohesive metaphor. So I started writing monologues in the voices of characters who had died from AIDS, based on friends and acquaintances and stories I’d heard. I thought there were theatrical possibilities in the material and asked Janet Hood if she would be interested in collaborating on songs to accompany the monologues, in the way that Charles Aidman incorporated classic American folk songs into Spoon River when he adapted that piece for the stage in the 60’s.As the piece developed over a number of productions in New York and then London, we tried to broaden its scope to reflect the wide variety of people AIDS has affected. Because the piece is modular, rather than linear, I still continue to update it occasionally. But I don’t see Elegies… as a literal history of the epidemic — rather a more personal response to the incalculable loss so many have endured.
To my knowledge, the benefit we did on April 2, 2001, in New York had the largest cast ever assembled for this piece. That was most gratifying, as the amount of loss due to this plague is, after all, part of the point. Over the years, Elegies… has afforded Janet and me the opportunity to work with many extraordinary performers and the production represented by the New York benefit recording gave us the gift of 52 amazing people inhabiting our characters and songs – the memories of which we will cherish forever.
More
Links
- Playbill.com article about the Fynsworth Alley CD
- Talkin’ Broadway article by Bruce Bossard on the genesis of the show
- Synopsis at the NODA Guide to Musical Theatre
- Production information at Samuel French Inc., the author’s representatives
- Aislesay interview with Bill Russell
- Wikipedia article for the show
February 9th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Hello Bill, you probably don’t remember me, but i was lucky enough, to be part of Elegies, in two Glasgow productions, in the 90’s
This year sees the begining, of a somewhat new career for myself and my business partners, as we launch, our new production company, INcorporatedmedia. (web site up and running by the end of this month). I would very much like to get in touch with you again, regarding the possibilty of producing the show, for the Glasgow Gay theatre/film festival, which runs every october here in Scotland’s capitol city. I have always felt that Elegies needed to be restaged periodically, as a reminder to young men and women, both gay and straight, of the Huge impact the epedemic has made, and continues to make to all our lives, both in western society, and also more threateningly nowadays, in the third world. I hope you are well, and busy, and happy, and i look forward to hearing from you sometime in the future, even just to say hello? and to keep open an intercontinental theatrical highway open! Much Love from Scotland. Derek C Munn. “i went STRAIGHT to Christopher st, tucked my suitcase at my feet” (I WAS that cowboy!) D.x
April 28th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Could you PLEASE PLEASE send me the lyrics to one of the songs in the show, i was hoping to use it for a school project about poetic form and while i was looking up elegies i found this and it meant a lot to me but i can’t find the lyrics anywhere and i don’t have time to order the play off the internet if you could that would be great but if not i totally understand
June 18th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Whereas RENT was brash, obvious, musically dull and theatrically boring , “ELEGIES… ” was its’ anthitesis -poignant, incredibly moving and musically thrilling. The kind of theatre that, in its’ very simplicity, rocked its’ audience to their core.
One of the most moving evenings of theatre I have experienced.
June 19th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Hi there,
What a great musical; really touching and what a truly unique outlook on life.
I recently sang My Brother Lived in San Francisco in a small concert and I just wondered if there is anyway you could give me any background information to the song. Who’s story it was and her character, it would help me add some depth to it and hopefully more of it’s originaly intended character to the next performance.
This would be much appreciated,
Thankyou.
August 4th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Hello, Mr. Russell!
I have been listening to “And the Rain Keeps Falling Down” on youtube for the past six months, and I have been wanting to sing it. However, I cannot find the sheet music anywhere! If at all possible, could I buy the score or just the sheet music for this song from you? I would be forever in your debt.
Matthew