PUBLICATION: The Morning Call AUTHOR: John J. Moser DATE: November 29, 2012 In early 2003, Grammy Award-winning singer Harry Connick Jr. was sitting on an airplane, doing what he usually does — "just thinking of stuff." "I don't know where it came from; just the idea of this little elf [who] is really cool, but he's a little bit over the top," Connick says. "A lot over the top." That idea became "The Happy Elf," a song on Connick's platinum 2003 disc "Harry for the Holidays." In 2005, the idea became an NBC-TV animated special in which Eubie the Elf seeks to bring Christmas joy to Bluesville, an entire town of naughty children. On Nov. 30, "The Happy Elf" opens as a theatrical production presented by Pennsylvania Youth Theatre at the Charles A. Brown Ice House in Bethlehem. It's just the fourth time the play has been presented. Since spring, when PYT Executive Director Michael Melcher first connected with Connick's representatives to bring the play to Bethlehem, Connick and his team have worked with PYT to develop the play for its production. Songs and characters have been added and removed. "The Happy Elf" has gone from a single-act to a two-act play. And the cast size has grown from a dozen to 75 —PYT will have two full casts, with a dozen adult roles, that take turns performing — to jibe with its goal of inclusiveness. "This kind of workshop process from my experience has always gone up to, basically, opening night, sometimes a little bit thereafter," Connick says in a recent interview. "There's so many elements to it, with regard to dialogue, set changes, the music, when a song starts, underscoring. I mean, it's just endless. "And there are really, really good people in really key positions [at PYT] that have really smart things to say and really smart questions to ask." Song to screen to stage Connick says that after he released the song, his agent at the time "thought it would be a cool story about this overenthusiastic elf who works at the workshop. And I thought it was a great idea, but being a songwriter, I wasn't the person to sort of flesh that out. So we hired a writer, and he wrote a script just basically based on the song. And that's what turned into the NBC animated special. "And then we said, 'You know, this is kind of a cool idea for a show, a children's Christmas show and it kind of went to there.' " The show debuted in 2007 in Kansas City, then had two other stage productions. Gordon Greenberg, the show's creative consultant for music, says he was brought in by Tamar Haimes, the general manager for Connick's company, in 2010 to direct "The Happy Elf" for a New York production that was to open for Christmas 2011. Greenberg says he had done a show for Haimes in New York called "Jacques Brell Alive and Well," which she felt had a sophisticated musical palette, and he also does work for Disney Television and Disney Entertainment. Greenberg says Haimes thought "The Happy Elf" "sort of married the two." "It brought this great family entertainment full of love and heart and comedy and combined it with the pretty sophisticated, amazing music of Harry Connick," Greenberg says. "It's the unique joy of this one — you get his amazing, kind of Harry Connick jazz and sort of every version of his style of music. And at the same time, you have this amazing, fun, holiday, family show." The New York production fell through, so when Melcher had contacted Connick last April, that became the new plan, Greenberg says. Melcher, a self-described "huge fan" of Connick, says that when he talked to Connick's management, he proposed to "tweak this for a large cast," and was told they been thinking about doing that. Despite that, Melcher says he was intimidated when he met with Connick in New York. Connick has sold more than 16 million albums in the United States and has seven Top 20 albums and 10 No. 1 jazz albums — more than any other artist in chart history. He has won three Grammy Awards and two Emmy Awards for acting, with a recurring role as the husband of the title character on the TV show "Will & Grace" 2002 to 2006. He's also starred in several films. "How do you tell Harry Connick Jr., 'You've got a really good idea, but I think I could make it a little better?' " Melcher says. But "they loved the idea, and everything started falling in place." Connick says he was immediately enthused about working with the PYT. "Immediately, I said, 'Wow, these people are good,'" he says. "So I'm really happy." Bringing the work to Bethlehem Connick first visited Bethlehem at the end of September. Connick says he met with Melcher and PYT Creative Director Bill Mortimer at the Ice House to work on schematics and the script. "It says on paper that you have to have a meeting, but you never really know to what level the specificity is going to get," Connick says. "And they sort of asked me, 'How specific do you want to go?' And I said, 'Let's go; let's write a show.' "We came up with some ideas we hadn't even discussed. I mean, this show's been floating around for a while, and so it's nice to hear some fresh, really good ideas." Mortimer, who is directing the show, says he and Connick "went through the script moment by moment, song by song, talking about what was the story that he wanted to tell and figuring out how we wanted to work the story that he had, keep the story going, and the music to go with it. So we kind of worked through the whole piece." After that, Mortimer says, the PYT and Connick's team worked remotely. "Harry went off to do rewrites of the music," he says. "They took the script things and they sent them to the writers. They worked on some of the stuff that we wanted to push out, and then we brought it into rehearsal. We were working on the piece that they had written — to extend it and to get the music and the story fleshed out." "We've worked with them straight through," Mortimer says. "They work on the music, we work on what they send us. And then they come and look at it and go, 'Oh, this is working, this isn't working.' And we kind of work it. So it's a very collaborative effort." For example, he says, the main character was made someone who loves music. "That became a big part of his character," Greenberg says. "I felt like that certainly encouraged people to think about why music is a part of this show, and it kind of made sense of it all." Connick was scheduled to return to Bethlehem for rehearsals and workshops Oct. 29-30, but Hurricane Sandy intervened. He wasn't able to return until Nov. 16-18. One final visit For his final visit before the show opening, Connick brought with him Greenberg and his saxophonist and music copyist, Geoff Burke. "There were certain things that we had questions about and … that were big changes that he wanted to come back and see," Mortimer says. One scene that has elves saving Eubie from "gingerbread house arrest" at the North Pole to return to Bluesville, includes a song that Connick was going to cut. "He wrote this one last version, and he wanted to see that scene with the song. And he really liked what we had done with it — what we had done with what he had created. By all of us working together, we've created this moment that was really nice." Intensive work continued less than two weeks before the show. For example, Mortimer says a song Connick had written —"Leaders of the Pole," about who helps Santa lead the pole and who's in charge — was "kind of bringing down and not working with the flow of the scene." So it was changed into more of a rock song, with boy "elves" singing. "It kind of really rocks out now with them, and Santa playing on the guitar," Mortimer says. "You see the camaraderie of Santa and his snow board, working forward." Another tune, the "Wow Song," was rewritten to be "swingy, it's very big band, very fun. It's got a lot of people and dancing and confetti and things. So it was fleshing those moments out to make them bigger with the story that he wanted to tell. And so the arc keeps going." "There's like a million decisions along the way that have to be made," Connick says. "You have to write a lot more songs, and that's really at the heart of what I do. So when the director says to me, or the writer says to me, 'We need a song here,' I love to sort of write responsively like that. Like, 'Here's a situation, write a song. I feel very comfortable writing like that in that world. The more specifics I can get, the better." Burke says that everything with the PYT production of "The Happy Elf" has been "larger than life" compared with the other productions. Since "the initial production in Kansas City in 2007, it's kind of grown," Burke says "It's a larger scale cast. The show has been extended, there's more musical numbers, there's more choreography. And I think it's more exciting. There's more life to it." That growth included now having a pit orchestra play the score. It will be made up of students pursuing music degrees at Moravian College in Bethlehem. Connick and the play's writers, composers and arrangers met with them on his most recent visit. Burke says Connick "made some major changes … while the cast was rehearsing." On a recent Friday night, the three and others sit at a table in the back of the Ice House, watching rehearsals. Connick, in a baseball cap and sweat shirt over a shirt, has drink bottles and an open bag of pretzels in front of him. He smiles as he watches the children, and points and comments to his crew. Melcher says more than 200 children auditioned for the show, and PYT chose two full casts that will alternate shows. After the rehearsal of the first cast, Connick stands to address the youth. "Nobody talks, walks or sings like you," Connick tells them. "You're all great. You're all gifts. When people come in, you'll see how inspiring you are. "I'll be back, so keep up the good work," says Connick, who is scheduled to attend the show's opening. And then he plays some boogie woogie piano for them. Asked what he has seen during his time in Bethlehem, Greenberg says, "Hundreds of kids, and a lot of people who take this very seriously and are passionate about it, and disciplined and focused and thoughtful. And very talented." And what has he seen from Connick? "That he deeply cares about this project and is incredibly generous and good-spirited, and loves connecting with the kids working here and cares deeply about what he puts into the world."