Forest Hills resident Mark Lord has lived in Queens since 1969 but it wasn’t until a few years ago that the idea struck him to write a musical all about the borough.
Written and directed by Lord, Let’s hear it for Queens is being billed as an original multimedia musical about the most diverse spot on earth. The show is slated to run for four shows next month as part of the Community Theatre Group at the Free Synagogue in Flushing.
Along with the show’s Musical Director, Paul Johnson, and Choreographer Amanda Montoni, Lord said the cast of more than 30 is both multi-ethnic and multi-generational including performers of all ages from the early teens to the 80s.
Photo Courtesy of Mark Lord. Kieran Larkin as Antiquous, the “tour guide” through the history of the borough, pictured with members of the ensemble during rehearsal.
“I had the idea for this show about three years ago while I was out covering a story for a local Queens’ newspaper on a unique and little-known spot in the borough,” recalled Lord during a recent phone interview.
Lord, a graduate of Queens College who also taught English for nearly 30 years, was unable to recall the exact spot which triggered his creative epiphany, but he remembered thinking to himself that the location was so intriguing that there might be many other, undiscovered sites across the borough.
“There are many places right in our own backyard that people are just unaware of,” Lord said.
In describing the plot of the play, Lord said he created a character called “Antiquous,”who becomes something of a tour guide to usher the audience through the history of Queens starting from the mid- 1600s to the present.
The show, according to Lord, opens with this character telling the story of the borough while other characters gradually appear to continue the historical journey.
“Antiquous also appears throughout the show to help keep the action moving, much like a master of ceremonies,” he relates.
Lord, who noted he didn’t want the show to come across as a “history lesson,” said he wrote seven original songs and lyrics along with composer and friend, Joe Ferrante. Together, Lord said, they wrote the music inspired by different pieces of borough history.
One such comic number, The Queens we mean, sets up the show by explaining that what is being referenced is borough history, and not heads of state or even “drag queens.”
Yet another number, titled Unisphere, is a beautiful hymn which pays homage to the Unisphere, the large, steel globe which is one of the last vestiges of the 1964-1965 World’s Fair at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
Still another song, At the corner, recounts a little old lady who wouldn’t sell her house on Queens Blvd. when several commercial developers wanted to build retail stores near 56th Avenue on Queens Boulevard, near what is now Rego Park. Lord noted that the stores were built around the woman’s house as a result.
“The show is all about things based on real life, real people connected to the borough of Queens,” Lord said.
Lord pointed out that another interesting segment of the show is a series of seven monologues, based on interviews done with Queens’ senior citizens, recalling what life was like in the 1930s and 1940s.
“Some talk about what life was like being a student in Queens College in the early 1950s,” Lord said.
He recalled one interview of a black woman who spoke candidly about life as a preacher in Jackson Heights, back when she was one of very few black people in the area.
Lord said the play also pays tribute to some of the borough’s most prominent musicians and singers such as Tony Bennett, Ethel Merman and Louis Armstrong.
But, the play doesn’t just look back.
It also tackles present-day community and political activism in the borough by including one character based upon the life of Queens Council Member Daniel Dromm, one of two openly gay council members in the borough.
Dromm’s character in the show talks about what it was like growing up as a gay teenager in Queens.
In addition, Lord said that the show will also have Queens’ memorabilia on display before and after performances for audience to peruse.
Performances will take place at the Free Synagogue of Flushing, at 41-60 Kissena Blvd. on May 4 and May 11 at 8pm and May 5 and May 12 at 3pm. Tickets are $17 and $15 for seniors over 60 and kids 12 and under.
For reservations or more information, call 718.428.8681 or visit www.fsfctg.org.
