Video: Go Inside Rehearsals with the Cast of MEMOIRS OF AMOROUS GENTLEMEN

Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen, featuring music and lyrics by the late Duncan Sheik and a book by Leah Nanako Winkler, is preparing to open in New York, and BroadwayWorld stopped by to get a sneak peek at the new musical and catch up with its company.

The project takes on an added significance following the recent passing of Sheik, whose music helped shape the show over years of development. For Winkler, the collaboration was an especially personal one.

“We both put so much of our lives in these lyrics and in this story,” she explained. “Duncan would ask me for what he liked to call ‘raw pages,’ which were scenes and monologues that would never make it into the musical... just for him, so that he could metabolize them and turn them into these beautiful lyrics. I felt like I’ve never felt more seen or erased at the same time, because he would just take the crux of what I was saying and turn it into this beautiful song.”

That deeply personal connection can be felt throughout the score, which offers audiences a particularly revealing glimpse of Sheik as both composer and lyricist.

“I think people will come and really feel Duncan’s life and passion that will continue to live on through his music,” shared Winkler. “And I think this one’s a little different because... he wrote the lyrics. This is all, like—you’ll see his humor, you’ll see his empathy, his love, his darkness. All of it will be here.”