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Things are seldom what they seem in After the Fair, Stephen Cole and Matthew Ward's musical of love and self discovery
Following a preview of The York Theater Company's After the Fair, Stephen Cole and Matthew Ward's spun cotton candy of a romantic musical at the Theatre at Saint Peter's, the duo was ambushed by legendary composer John Kander and a host of creators of successful musicals, including Maury Yeston. The word "brilliant" flowed from every creative tongue.
Composer Ward says, "It's nice coming from those we admire." Cole, the book writer and lyricist of the team, laughs, "It's very flattering. It'll be especially flattering if the critics throw around that word."
Together and with other collaborators, Cole and Ward have won acclaim, awards and grants. Both in their forties, they're veterans of every aspect of theatre, but admit that the road hasn't always been easy. "Easy?" quips Cole. "When? We've struggled 12 years, and we're still struggling."
"After the Fair's been in the works ten years," states Ward. "It's finally having its New York premiere after productions in Chicago, Seattle and Dallas." Along the way the authors have made many changes, but, says Cole, "This will be the definitive production. It's helped that we've been blessed with a director [Travis L. Stockley] who's simpatico with our vision and a stellar cast: James Ludwig, Michele Pawk, Jennifer Piech and David Staller."
Based on Thomas Hardy's short story On the Western Circuit - with more than a few parallels to Cyrano de Bergerac - After the Fair is set in 1890's England. Anna (Piech), an uneducated maid, employs her mistress Edith (Pawk), a 40-year-old woman unhappily married to Arthur (Staller), to write letters to her love, Charles (Ludwig). Edith's lyrical words on the page lead her to discover that she herself has a soul mate in the young man. By the end, with such other elements as deception, class distinction, envy and blinded love, these four lives are drastically changed.
Stephen Cole was fascinated by the strong female characters and found much to explore in what he saw as a tale of the physical and mental side of love, "and how, together, Edith and Anna make a whole person."
Michele Pawk, fresh from playing Fraulein Kost in Cabaret, became enamored of Edith while performing in a workshop with Piech, who was prominently featured in Titanic. "Jennifer said there was a role in a musical she'd be doing that had my name on it," relates Pawk. "There aren't a lot of parts for a woman of a certain age. I found Edith's journey into uncharted territory, at the breaking point in her marriage, haunting."
The York production, says Cole, "Is the big turning point. We'll have a recording. And it's New York, which is still the center of the theatre universe. Everywhere else is lovely, but it's still everywhere else."