Much Ado Out West
A year or so had past after the “Midsummer” musical, and I was itching to create another one. I began composing songs for a very silly cowboy musical. The original plot was about unlikely western con-artists who pose as masked heroes — you know, like the lone ranger.
I think I wrote about eight songs for the show — some of them pretty good. But I had a problem — I didn’t have a talented composer anymore. Rachel was living in Orange County and had a very busy schedule. So, without someone to help me with the orchestration, I began to think of other ways of telling a western story. One of those ways became Cowboys and Idiots — the cowboy movie Joshua and I made back in 2004.
Another story was forming in my mind simultaneously. I took the basic storyline of “Much Ado About Nothing” and set it in the old west at the end of the Civil War. It’s a fun, battle-of-the-sexes comedy that has been well-received amongst school and community theaters.
The world premiere of “Much Ado Out West” (published by Eldridge Plays) took place at the Fresno Christian High School (pictured above).
But teen-agers aren’t the only ones to perform the show. A group of senior citizens performed “Much Ado Out West” for their theater group in Independence, Missouri. Read the complete article.
