WRITER

If I'm any one thing, I'm a writer. If I'm any two things, I'm two writers.

I've been writing for the theatre since childhood. My best-known effort is my adaptation and expansion of Will B. Johnstone's original book and lyrics for I'll Say She Is.

Recent work includes Quarantigone and Home Again: The Marx Brothers and New York City.

Amanda Sisk and I co-wrote the Nero Fiddled political musicals. My earlier plays and musicals include Missing Manhattan, Love and Cheese, The Men in Mabel's Life, and The Fourth Wall (co-written with West Hyler).

My book Gimme a Thrill: The Story of I'll Say She Is, the Lost Marx Brothers Musical, and How it Was Found was published in 2016 by BearManor Media. You can read the first chapter for free before buying copies of the book for everyone you know.

My essay "Anatomy of a Moustache" appears in Matthew Coniam's excellent That's Me, Groucho! The Solo Career of Groucho Marx.

I wrote and illustrated Love Marches On, a daily comic strip adapted from my unproduced musical Broadway Memory. I later expanded Love Marches On into a beautiful book.

My first book, 400 Years in Manhattan, is based on my stage show of the same name. I'm sure you already own at least one copy.

I've also written numerous articles and essays about theatre, musicals, the Marx Brothers, New York City history, and politics. You can find some of this on my Medium page. Also, this homage to Damon Runyon. I've contributed to Zelda magazine, Spaz Comics, and other fine publications; and I've blogged about politics, comedy, and musical theatre.

SONGWRITER

I take the craft of lyric-writing as seriously as I take any of these other crafts, which are less exact sciences. I don't think any other kind of writing is more difficult, or more satisfying when it works out well.

My most recent lyric-writing credit is also my longest-gestating project -- my adaptation of the lost 1924 Marx Brothers musical I'll Say She Is. I spent years researching, adapting, and expanding Will B. Johnstone's original book and lyrics, and am responsible for roughly half the lyrics in the adaptation. Some of my I'll Say She Is lyrics, and a discussion of the songwriting challenges specific to that musical, can be found in my book Gimme a Thrill.

I've also written some of the lyrics which appear in the Marx Brothers graphic novel Giraffes on Horseback Salad.

Together with my constant collaborator Amanda Sisk, I wrote the music and lyrics for the Nero Fiddled musicals. [And we wouldn't make that claim without also acknowledging the arrangements of DJ Thacker (Moral Value Meal and Life After Bush) and Death Mask (Burning Bush).] Five songs from Life After Bush are available online: "Corporations Are People Too," "It's Been a Bad Eight Years," "Rudy Rudy Rudy," “The American Dream,” and a deleted number, “Everyone is Trying to Kill Us.”

My unproduced musical Broadway Memory became my produced comic strip, Love Marches On, and the lyrics for a few songs survived into the strip. The Love Marches On book includes additional lyrics from the stillborn stage version.

More: My "United Nations Song," featured in Travesties of 2012, is now a Vaudephone video, produced by and Trav S.D. Watch it here. (Watch the older "flag video" version here.) I've written songs for several children's musicals, as well as The Fourth Wall (with West Hyler) and The Men in Mabel's Life. And Sisk and I have composed music for our pals Mel & El, with whom we shared a 2008 Backstage Bistro Award for Best Comedy Song.