A Musical Love Story
Jelly Beans is a musical written in 1982-83 as a day in the life of the President at the time during Ronald Reagan’s first term. As the subtitle indicates it is not a political piece and was written to frame my involvement in dinner theater and my interest at the time in some of the classical show tunes of the first half of the 1900’s from stage and film. I was inspired by the works of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hammerstein, and the other icons of musical theater and thought my career was on track for the Great White Way, but my interests turned elsewhere.
Several years later after I had met a scion of one of this latter team, I made a half-hearted effort to resurrect the play and sent my friend a copy. He didn’t think it belonged in New York City for political reasons. I don’t think he read the book or listened to the songs. Oh my!
I still think its a great first attempt. The songs are a rough cut demo version with inclusion of partial stanzas. Its offered here for fun or profit, all rights reserved of course.