The assignment was daunting: Write a song for an onstage moment of transcendence.
Tony Award nominee Will Butler poses for a portrait on Monday, June 3, 2024, in New York. – Make it kind of funny and exciting and for a five-piece band. Write it so it justifies an audience sitting in their seats for two hours before they hear it. And, oh, it must plausibly be a rock hit in 1976.
Butler was connected with Adjmi by a mutual friend, and they first met at a diner about 10 years ago. Butler had just moved to New York and writing for theater intrigued him. It was a relaxed meeting and they hit it off: The two talked about “Moby Dick” for an hour. He tried to give the musicians a sonic backstory. They likely listened to Nina Simone and girl groups growing up. They likely heard Glenn Gould and folk music change from Peter, Paul and Mary into Bob Dylan.
Butler was also able to help the cast understand what long hours in the recording booth are like and helped with technical details — like that it might take an engineer 15 seconds to rewind a piece of music — but left the writing alone.
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