He says it’s “totally embarrassing” to admit, but composer Adam Guettel has his mother to thank for “The Light in the Piazza.” She recommended Elizabeth Spencer’s 1953 novella about an American girl’s romance with a handsome Florentine.
No need to feel embarrassed. Not when your mother is Mary Rodgers Guettel, who wrote the music for “Once Upon a Mattress.” Not when her father is the legendary Richard Rodgers.
And not when your resulting effort wins the Tony Award for best original score.
“Sometimes a son will take a mother’s recommendation,” Guettel said with a laugh. “It doesn’t happen a lot, but. …”
Guettel, 41, used to be known as “the grandson.” “The grandfather” created (with Oscar Hammerstein) giant hits like “Oklahoma!” and “South Pacific.”
Heck, even in Rodgers’ 2001 biography, Adam only gets one passing mention in 457 pages.
But after having written the groundbreaking “Floyd Collins,” and now “Piazza,” a musical some have called the most lush and romantic since “West Side Story,” Guettel is quite comfortable with his place on the family tree.
“Sick of it? Not at all,” said Guettel. “In a way that is typical of any grandson, I was very proud of my grandfather. Just to know him. I didn’t really understand the scope or depth of his accomplishment as a 12-year-old. Only since I have been working in the same field have I reckoned with what he has been able to achieve, and I admire him all the more for it.”
Guettel’s mentor is Stephen Sondheim. His godfather is Arthur Laurents. And talk about kismet: In 1965, the year Adam was born, Rodgers was collaborating with Sondheim on “Do I Hear a Waltz” (which opens April 17 at the Arvada Center). That musical has a similar plot to “Piazza” but is based on a 1952 play, “The Time of the Cuckoo,” written by … Laurents!
But if people think Guettel was the beneficiary of nepotism in the industry, he said, “It’s almost the opposite.”
Guettel has established his own identity by making music that’s been called a bridge between Rodgers generations: a throwback to sheer romanticism, yet groundbreaking in form.
“That’s not what we set out to do, but I actually do buy into that, in retrospect,” said Guettel, an accomplished singer who says he uses his voice as his primary tool for writing.
“Piazza” is conducted almost entirely in strings. “Say it Somehow” is a duet between sweethearts who transcend the language barrier in the discovery of not even one word but one passionate syllable. Another love song sung entirely in Italian requires no translation.
“I absolutely set out to embrace the idea that music can be used as a vehicle for ecstatic expression, and to not be ashamed of going there,” he said. “I thought even if we fail, what’s so wrong with trying to do that?”
He calls “Piazza” a musical of emotional ambition.
“It’s about really reaching for someone, and it’s also about how it feels when you lose that person …. or when you are somewhere in between,” he said. “There are four couples, and each are somewhere on that continuum – and I think everyone in the audience is probably somewhere on that continuum too.”
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
“The Light in the Piazza”
MUSICAL |National touring production | THROUGH APRIL 8 | At the Buell Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex | 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday (plus 2 p.m. April 5) | $10-$65 | 303-893-4100, 866-464-2626, all King Soopers or denvercenter.org; 800-641-1222 outside Denver
COMING THURSDAY: Adam Guettel will guest on this week’s “Running Lines” podcast — listen at denverpost.com/theater.
