A musical based upon the novel by Walter Tevis
Book by John Gallagher, Jr.
Music & Lyrics by Dave Sherman
In 1998, I had finished my first year of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop and was waiting to hear if my second year project idea would be approved. I had submitted an outline of a book by Gregory Maguire titled “Wicked”. That idea was rejected by the steering committee: ”As a rule, Hobbit musicals don’t work”. So I regrouped and thought about other things that interested me at the time… pool and poker.
One of my friends suggested watching the movie “The Hustler” and maybe finding a book writer to create a similar storyline. I fell in love with the story and a wave of jazz-styled music spilled out of my fingers while I imagined the scenes from the movie. I presented a couple songs based on the movie to my BMI class and the response was ecstatic—this was my second year project. I found out that the movie was based on a novel by Walter Tevis, so I did some research and finally found a copy after a couple weeks of searching many local bookstores. It was a great novel—fast paced, memorable, iconic characters and it had a fluidity that matched the lead character, “Fast Eddie” Felson. Most of the dialogue and plot from the movie was lifted straight from the novel. I thought this could really work for a musical, and I could try to option the stage rights to do a musical version of the novel. I enlisted the help of lyricist Amanda Green from my BMI class, and we presented songs for the estate at Second Stage Theater and Film; they wanted to workshop the musical. Brian d’Arcy James and Jessica Molaskey played Eddie and Sarah, and I had a jazz trio accompanying. The estate found while they liked the songs, that we had focused too much on a love story that wasn’t really central to the story. At the time, I can now admit, I was afraid to write a song for Minnesota Fats or Bert.
I was pretty devastated by the rejection and threw myself into being a sideman on piano, organ and keyboards for various well known artists for the next twenty years, as well as continuing composing and songwriting. I’ve had the privilege of playing or recording with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Donald Fagen, Boz Scaggs, Brian Wilson, Norah Jones, Dhani Harrison, Ann Wilson, Elle King, Valerie June, Chuck Prophet, Nicole Atkins and many others.
A year ago, my friend Sean Kaplan invited me out to a show to introduce me to some actors and possibly make a connection. One of them was John Gallagher Jr. and the other was Michael Shannon. Johnny and I really hit it off. We had some mutual musician friends and spoke about our experiences in musical theatre. I quietly thought to myself these guys could be Eddie and Bert. A week or so after, I told Sean about my idea from years ago – a musical version of The Hustler, and he was very excited. He said, “you have to see if the rights are available”. I contacted the literary agent, and her response was, “David Sherman from 20 years ago”? I said, “that’s me”. She said, “well, your timing is good. The rights have just become available”.
The experience of being a journeyman sideman for twenty years has given me the life experience to write the songs for The Hustler. After securing the rights, the first song I wrote was the theme for Minnesota Fats. Working with Johnny as the book writer, we put a draft of the first act together in four months, had a successful reading at St. Ann’s Warehouse with a dream cast and finished a draft of the full play at the end of 2021 - a draft we are excited to share.
For as long as I’ve been an actor, I’ve also wished to be a writer. Being given the chance to frolic on the prickly playground of Walter Tevis’ delightful words has been nothing short of a gift. I’ve always longed to see a stone cold jazz musical come to life on the New York stage and feel that a live version of THE HUSTLER featuring the sly and soulful songs of Dave Sherman provides the perfect alchemy for such an electric combustion of artistic elements. As joyous as the writing process has been thus far, I know that the real fun will begin once the rest of our collaborators knock on the pool hall door, pick up a cue stick and break some billiards with us.
THE CAST
from the June 2021 Reading
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FAST EDDIE
JOHN GALLAGHER JR.
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Sarah
ALI STROKER
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MINNESOTA FATS
NORBERT LEO BUTZ
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BERT
MICHAEL SHANNON
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CHARLIE
JOHN VENTIMIGLIA
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HENRY
BINKY GRIPTITE
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BIG JOHN
NICK SANDOW
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Collaborator bios
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Dave Sherman
ADAPTOR/MUSIC & LYRICS
Dave is a classically and jazz trained piano, organ, and synthesizer player, performer, composer, lyricist, and songwriter. He was a touring member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in 2018 and currently plays with Elle King, Valerie June, Kevin Morby, Hamilton Leithauser, and Nicole Atkins. He has also performed or recorded with Ann Wilson, Norah Jones, Brian Wilson, Donald Fagen, Boz Scaggs, Spooner Oldham, David Hood and many others.
As a composer for musical theatre:
🎱 Shoot The Piano Player (with lyricist Lois Walden and bookwriter Charles Smith) – Berkshire Theater Festival 1998, The Culture Project 2001, New 42nd Street Studios 2010.
🎱 This is on Me, An Evening of Dorothy Parker (feat. Angela Lansbury) - composer for “Ingenue Blues”, Schoenfeld Theatre 2006.
🎱 Put a Little Love in Your Mouth, The songs of Amanda Green - Second Stage Theater 2003, music “Together, Just Like This” (performed and sung by Billy Stritch) and “Has Anybody Seen the Moon”.
🎱 Member of the BMI Musical Theater Workshop from 1997 to 2001 as a composer and lyricist.
🎱 SESAC scholarship for songwriting at Berklee College of Music in 1994.
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John Gallagher Jr.
BOOK WRITER
John is an artist that balances work between performing in theater, film, television, and writing for the stage and screen. He’s also a songwriter that performs as a singer and plays guitar, bass, drums and harmonica, as a solo artist, collaborating with other artists, and in the band Lakes.
As a performer and writer:
🎱 Starred in premiere stage productions of new works by playwrights David Lindsay-Abaire, Conor McPherson, Beau Willimon, and Jez Butterworth, awarded a Tony for 2007’s musical Spring Awakening, and last seen on Broadway in Long Day’s Journey into Night opposite Jessica Lange, Gabriel Byrne and Michael Shannon.
🎱 Jim Harper for three seasons on Aaron Sorkin’s HBO TV series The Newsroom, in addition to: Olive Kitteridge, High Maintenance, Westworld, all for HBO.
🎱 Kenneth Lonergan’s feature Margaret, Destin Cretton’s Short Term 12 and the J.J. Abrams produced 10 Cloverfield Lane.
🎱 Playwright: Sláinte developed by The New York Stage and Film Company, 2013 Summer Workshop Series at Vassar College, and The King of Clovers developed through readings at The Rattlestick Theatre in NYC, 2015. Other plays include Shore Points and At Capacity.
🎱 Screenwriter: feature adaptations of the plays Sláinte and The King of Clovers, an adaptation of Matthew Parker’s book Goldeneye, in addition to original feature spec scripts Isla De La Otro, Crackerjack, and the TV series pilot See You on the Road.
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Sean Kaplan
ORGANIZING PRODUCER
Sean is an independent producer in the film, television, and theater space.
He has a working history in strategic business development, investor procurement, and media relations with international experience spanning across business disciplines having lived and worked in Italy, France, England, and the US in Arts & Culture, Green Tech/Sustainability, eLearning and the Entertainment Industry.
A former Fellow in Arts Executive Leadership at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, he got his start as an assistant under Martha Lavey in her inaugural season as Artistic Director at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago.
He went on to study acting, writing and directing in Paris, co-founded a touring theatre company and international drama school in Padua, and worked as a performer in television, film and theater in France, Italy, England, Switzerland, evolving his experience in the arts and culture sector to include project financing, development, special events management, and producing with organizations in Chicago, Washington, DC and New York City.
