Huzzah!, a new musical from Nell Benjamin and Laurence O’Keefe, is set at a Renaissance Faire. Its props include pavilion tents, turkey legs, and beer steins. Its concession booths boast names like The Rhythm of the Knight (instruments), Ale Mary (drinks), To Bean or Not to Bean (coffee), and The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smoothies. And an old whiskey barrel, suspended by a rope? That’s a ride for the kids, obviously.
It all sounds silly, but it’s no spoof. Huzzah!, which plays Sept. 13-Oct. 19 at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre, offers audiences a celebratory glimpse of the immersive medieval phenomenon that has fascinated Americans for decades. The world-premiere musical—the first major stage effort from the married book writers-composer-lyricists since their hit adaptation of Legally Blonde in 2007, though they’ve racked up many other credits on their own since then—was born of their own immersion in the Ren Faire world.
“When we were in L.A. in our 20s, we had some wonderful Hollywood friends who were snarky and fun and said, ‘Oh my God, we went to this stupid thing that’s like Disneyland for Lord of the Rings geeks—you’ll laugh your ass off and maybe you can write a TV show about it,’” recalled O’Keefe in a joint interview during a recent rehearsal lunch break. “We had never heard of it, so we went, and no one was stupid. Everyone was good. People were performing, making things with their hands—it was an energy and a delight that I hadn’t seen anywhere else. I saw nothing to make fun of.”
“They were all silly,” Benjamin conceded about that first fair visit in San Bernardino, “but they took their silliness seriously. And they were all working together on their obsession with love, creating this communal vibe in the world of business—that’s just like everyone in the theatre.”
The resulting stage show blends their signature contemporary pop-rock musical sound with Renaissance-era influences. The pair deepened their research by visiting Ren Faires all over the country, some with their now-adolescent daughter in tow. The story they’ve set on, about two sisters attempting to rescue their father’s festival from financial ruin, isn’t based on any specific real-life enterprise, though it is inspired by the fact that so many of these fairs are founded and operated by families who, after striking it rich, can fall victim to their own success.
Of the two sisters in Huzzah!, Benjamin explained, “One sister has grown into a romantic dreamer, and the other sister is an organized type who works on the business side.” For the premiere production, they are played by Cailen Fu and Liisi LaFontaine, respectively. “So the questions are: How are these two women, who don’t naturally get along even though they love each other, gonna do this together? When you’re handed a mess, and your reflex has always been to work in the background, what happens when you have the power? And on the opposite side, what kind of person exercises power without any responsibility?”
“Fixing is not the same as leading, right?” O’Keefe chimed in.
“They have lots of fights along the way, and they also go off and do the wrong thing and have to come back to the community they’ve let down and say, ‘Follow me anyway,’” Benjamin continued. “So it’s about looking at the big picture and saying, what do we want from the place we all live in together, and can we stop sniping at each other long enough to produce that?”
“And protect our family-slash-fair-slash-civilization from those who would take advantage of our division?” added O’Keefe (the two often continue each other’s thoughts). “Our show’s Renaissance Faire is a family entity that can either destroy itself from within by division and misunderstanding and not trying. Or they can choose to come together and heal.”
The intended takeaway about how best to lead a community feels timely, of course, though Benjamin and O’Keefe have been working on the musical for 15 years.
“They’re known for their brilliant comedy, incredible power ballads, and explosive, showstopping numbers,” said Huzzah! director Annie Tippe (Ghost Quartet, Octet) of the writers. “But this piece, to me, represents them at their best, the thing that’s at the heart of their work. It has guts, humor, and something very earnest to say, without being preachy or narrow or obvious. It certainly has a point of view about the world, but it does so with great generosity.”
The married writers, who met as Harvard students auditioning for the university’s improv group, previously had developmental readings of Huzzah! at Williamstown Theatre Festival and Theatre Aspen, and performed snippets at cabaret shows and in living rooms filled with industry colleagues. They’ve paused sporadically to seize opportunities with other collaborators, and, coincidentally, each worked on hit musical adaptations of movies centered on high school girls: Mean Girls, for which Benjamin wrote lyrics for Tina Fey’s book and Jeff Richmond’s music, and Heathers: The Musical, which O’Keefe co-wrote with Kevin Murphy (currently having a successful revival Off-Broadway, even as Bat Boy, the cult musical O’Keefe wrote with Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming, gets the Encores! treatment next month).
Since Legally Blonde, Benjamin and O’Keefe worked together on film and TV projects, as well as on a smaller-scale stage show Life of the Party, which has so far been performed at NYC’s LaGuardia High School and at NYU Steinhardt School. How do they work together? Occasionally the process disrupts their sleep—“Sometimes one of us will wake up at 2 a.m. to tell the other, ‘I just figured out how to fix that lyric!,’” said O’Keefe—or spurs disagreements.
“It’s fun because, if we have arguments, they’re substantive and there’s usually a deadline involved,” said Benjamin. “I think it’s actually helpful as a couple to have something productive to work toward together.”
The husband-and-wife team are already underway on their next stage musical. After opening Huzzah! at the Old Globe later this month, they’re heading to London for a reading of Fado, a political farce set just before the 1755 Lisbon earthquake “with very sad songs,” according to O’Keefe.
When asked if their working styles have shifted since they debuted Legally Blonde in San Francisco before its jump to Broadway, they continually complimented each other, downplayed their individual contributions, and finished each other’s sentences about making art together. Both agreed that their professional partnership has improved because they’ve become more open to compromise.
“I second-guessed myself a lot, and that made me, conversely, a little precious whenever something had to change,” said Benjamin of earlier collaborations. “I’d mope for a couple days, thinking it’s not good. And it’s like, no one’s saying it’s not good, they’re saying it’s not right—and that’s a lesson learned. I think I’m a little better now at recognizing when something isn’t right and trying other things quickly.”
“Nell has a long history of providing the best lyrics in shows that I wasn’t writing with her,” O’Keefe said with a smile. “Early on, it became very clear that she was a better lyricist than me, so I figured it’s better to work with the competition. I think I’ve gotten more okay with the notion that half of what I used to do is now moot, and hopefully I’m less judgmental about, ‘Don’t change my stuff!’”
“That’s the goal as a theatre artist, right?” Benjamin said. “Start with a dream, come together, and figure out how to make it work.”
Ashley Lee (she/her) is a Los Angeles-based entertainment reporter and critic who writes about theatre, movies, television, and the bustling intersection of the stage and the screen. @cashleelee
