Cara London Exhibition on View at TNC Alongside Run of YOUR NAME ON MY LIPS

The protagonist in "Your Name On My Lips" (book, music & lyrics by Eric B. Sirota) is an artist.

The paintings onstage are the work of artist Cara London, whose works are also on exhibition at the TNC Art Gallery. Eric Sirota and Cara London are husband and wife and have been married for almost 25 years.

Your Name On My Lips will be playing at Theater for the New City (www.theaterforthenewcity.net) from March 2- March 19. The director is Gerald vanHeerden, choreographer Maria Torres, and music director Anessa Marie.

The protagonist is Sam, a self-taught painter, who struggles to get into an art institute while fighting to hold onto Suzanna, the love of his life. He is a painter, she plays the cello. He has bonded with her since childhood and she has been, well, his muse. Their youthful connection is genuine and devout, but it is tested as their paths diverge in their college years.

Without the benefit of art education in high school, Sam never envisions art as a career and starts to earn a living as a house painter. He is initially content to do art as a hobby with Suzanna practicing her cello at his side. As Suzanna prepares to go away to a liberal arts college with a scholarship and on to endless possibilities, their relationship changes. Sam feels that to be worthy of Suzanna and true to himself, his career must be that of an artist, so he sets his mind to go to an art institute. They pledge to always fall asleep "with your name on my lips," but Sam's path is fraught with obstacles and Suzanna encounters parental and peer pressures which threaten to pull them apart. The show is not written as if it is looking back on youth by someone older, wiser and maybe cynical. It holds that the young characters' feelings are real, powerful and valid, warranting soaring, passionate music. Sirota's contemporary, classically-infused score is firmly in the Broadway genre, arranged for piano, cello and percussion. It staunchly intends to transport you back to when love was earnest, feelings deep, and romance unabashedly unapologetic.

Sam's numerous paintings that are seen on the stage throughout the musical are the work of artist Cara London (caralondon.com), who is the playwright/composer's wife. Concurrent with the production, the TNC Art Gallery will offer an exhibition of Ms. London's work. The gallery is immediately outside the theater and an opening reception for the exhibition will be on Thursday, March 2 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM, immediately preceding the first performance.

Eric B. Sirota graduated from Stuyvesant High School and Brown University (where he studied musical composition with Ron Nelson and Gerald "Shep" Shapiro) and got his PhD in physics from Harvard. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society. He hails from Flemington, NJ and in his "day job," he is a highly published and cited physicist. He says, "I'm not a rocket scientist, but I am a soft-condensed matter physicist, and writing book, music and lyrics for a musical is much more difficult."

Sirota's work first hit the NYC stage in 2012 as composer for a "A Day at the Whitehouse" at the West Village Musical Theatre Festival. Another short musical, "At the Well," had a production at the Players Theatre. His first full length, "Day of Wrath," based on Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," was in NYMF in 2015 as an Official Selection of the New York Musical Theatre Festival's Reading Series.

"Your Name On My Lips" was developed with staged readings at the Emerging Artists Theatre, Midtown International Theater Festival (where it was nominated for awards), the West End Lounge and Shawnee Playhouse (where it was a finalist in the Original Playwright Series). This was followed by a first production in the Dream-Up Festival at Theater for the New City and is now returning to TNC after a year of rewrites, dramaturgy and more rewrites. Sirota declares, "I am incredibly grateful to Crystal Field and TNC for the continuing opportunity to develop my work, and now truly feeling that I am part of the community with this resident production. The work of TNC in educational outreach is especially important to me. It is particularly meaningful to be here at TNC, returning to the neighborhood where I went to high school, decades ago. Arts education, or the lack of it, plays a role in setting up the plot for "Your Name On My Lips." It is there for the storyline and originally not intended to make a statement; but while as a scientist I know that scientific literacy is important, it is no more important than humanities or arts education."

In initially devising this musical, Sirota knew little about art but felt the plot he envisioned would work best with Sam being an artist. Little did he know that shortly after finishing his first draft, he would meet an artist, Cara London, whom he would soon marry. For about a decade, musical theater took a back seat to his science career and family life. But eventually he returned to writing, both new works and revisiting his earlier works with fresh eyes, a greater maturity, and a better understanding of writing for musical theater. "Your Name On My Lips" took on new depth and inspiration, understanding the drives, fears and aspirations of an artist, absorbing the influence of London's prolific and powerful painting.

IF YOU GO:

YOUR NAME ON MY LIPS
March 2 to 19, 2017
Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave. (at E. 10th Street)
Presented by Theater for the New City
Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 8:00 PM; Sundays at 3:00 PM
Additional performances Wed March 15 @8 PM and Sat March 18 @ 3 PM
$15 general admission ($10 students & seniors).
Box office 212-254-1109, www.theaterforthenewcity.net
Runs 2:10 (plus intermission).
Info: yournameonmylips.com | www.facebook.com/YourNameOnMyLips2

Pictured: Matt Mitchell, Michelle Siracusa, Brandon Grimes and Erin Evers. Photo by Jonathan Slaff.

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