30 Days Of NYMF: Day 19 My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding

My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding
30 Days to NYMF by By David Hein

My mom came out to me as a lesbian when I was thirteen - at the time I had no idea that my wife, Irene, and I would end up writing a musical about my mom's coming out process, her rediscovery of her Jewish faith, and her marriage to a Wiccan woman up in Canada. These were always just funny stories that we'd told our friends - but after a while, people started to ask questions like "wait... if you have two moms, then where did you come from?" and "wait... gay marriage is legal in Canada?" - and then they started to tell us "you should really turn this into a musical."

Fast forward to today. The show was a hit in Toronto and we're thrilled to be bringing it to NYC. We're working with an amazing cast featuring Liz Larsen and Ann Harada as my moms. Both are mothers themselves and understand that this is a show about families of all shapes and sizes - and a love story between two women.

Stafford Arima, who directed Altar Boyz, is returning to NYMF because he says he "believes in this show and its ultimate message that nothing's impossible." He's been amazing, pushing us to explore the story, the characters and the songs. The songs, based on my acoustic singer/songwriter show, have been amped up to 10 by Ethan Popp, hot off of Rock of Ages; they and the inventive choreography by Matt Williams are making our show bigger and better every day.

Most of all, I'm excited to see what my moms will think. They're coming down from Canada to see it - and will probably hold hands, laugh, cry and sing along. I hope you will too.