In Gay Company was my first attempt at writing lyrics as well as music for a theatrical work. Actually I had started writing my own lyrics in 1966 when I wrote THE TWELVE DAYS AFTER CHRISTMAS. How that came about is an interesting story in itself.

I had just moved into a remarkable rent controlled Penthouse at 78th and Amsterdam Avenue in New York City. It was the first week in December and I was up on a ladder painting the ceiling of my living room. Because I had just moved in, my stereo wasn't set up yet so I had a radio on. The carol, The Partridge In A Pear Tree started playing. I have always disliked that carol so I climbed down the ladder to change the station. Having done so I resumed painting when they started playing it on the different station. In my haste to get down the ladder to change stations again, I slipped and twisted my ankle. In anger, and in pain I screamed out, "What the fuck did she do with the Goddamn gifts!" Eureka!

I grabbed a pencil and in 15 minutes wrote the lyric to the TWELVE DAYS AFTER CHRISTMAS. My friend, Don MacAfee published it, and my agent, Bruce Savan sent it to Carol Burnett who performed it on her Christmas Show on CBS. That night the switchboard lit up at CBS as over 10,000 people asked how to get a copy of it. I made more money from that song than anything else I have ever written. It also taught me a metaphysical lesson. There is no difference between a stumbling block and a stepping stone.

It's how you approach and use the experience.

IN GAY COMPANY came about because of a bet I made with one of my closest friends. Joe and I had gone to see some horrible piece of Gay trash at an off-Broadway theater on the West side. I am angry when I see bad work so I told Joe I could write a hit musical revue about Gay life in three weeks. He said, " if you can write it I'll produce it."

I wrote the draft of the musical, and about twelve songs, on the beach at Fire Island. I remembered a character, Florence Dana Moorehead, in the play I Remember Mama. She was a successful author who told Mama that her daughter, Katherine, had talent but that to use it she had to write about things she knew, things she had experienced. I decided to take this advice and wrote about Gay life in New York City in the late fifties and early sixties when I came out. It was about my experiences. It was about what I thought was funny, or touching and beautiful.

I was a member of Lehman Engel's writer's work shop produced by BMI. With great trepidation I played and sang for the class three songs I had just written out in Fire Island, A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO CRUISING, HANDSOME STRANGER and IF HE'D ONLY BE GENTLE. The class went wild with laughter and Lehman Engel was beaming.

He told me in front of the class that the writing was original and that I had a great gift for comedy. He programmed those three works at the annual show of works created for the class at the Edison Theater in The Hotel Edison in New York City. Almost anyone who was anyone in the theater was in the audience.

Three years later the show opened at The Little Hippodrome Theater in the east sixties of New York City with a cast of Five, four men and one beautiful young woman. The production was directed by Sue Lawless with sets by Michael Hottop and musical direction by Dennis Franceshina. Business was slow because the press reviews were coming out slowly. Because of the title and subject this show was not on everyone's 'A' list. As each press review that came out was a rave, each surpassing each other, business gradually picked up and we were full weekends.Then as business began to pick up after the rave review in the NY Times some wonderful things happened. Arnold Weissbereger, the top theatrical lawyer in the business and his partner, Milton Goldmar the top theatrical agent in New York City, bought out the entire house and arranged a private performance for their clients and friends. In the audience that night was Truman Capote, Hermione Gingold, Alexis Smith, Lee Radizell (Jackie Kennedy's sister), Maureen Stapleton, Marilyn Cantor Baker (Eddy Cantor's daughter who was to become a close friend) and other celebrities whose names escape me.

Truman Capote took me aside and told me that with my talent I should be writing full length plays. When I told him that I didn't know how he offered to teach me. The saddest thing I remember about the evening was the magnificent Maureen Stapleton chasing two of the men in the cast. She was obviously a bit inebriated and in quite a romantic mood that evening.

GAY COMPANY was nominated by the Outer Drama Critics Association for the OBIE but lost to a show which had opened later that season at Joe Papp's Theater called A CHORUS LINE. Still the Lincoln Center Archives thought it an important enough work to include it in their Video Tape collection in black and white. An original cast album of the New York Production was never made although Clive Davis offered to release one if I would insert a rock ballad into the show. The show was frozen by that time so I wasn't able to fulfill his request The Los Angeles original cast album is available and I sell it as well as the Vocal selections on this website. I also license the work and can provide working scripts and scores of the show