Musical theater has always been a draw to me. I despised housework but when I was young my Grandmother got me to dust her apartment every Saturday morning with the promise of two dollars and an hour of show tunes. When I began high school I was too shy to join the drama club. I spent many afternoons with my cat, sitting alone playing records. Musicals of course but also R & B, rock, and then the “singer songwriters.” After my Woodstock experience I picked up a guitar and began gigging with bands and later as a solo act. Fast forward to the early ’80’s. I met David Elliott, now a successful young people’s author. He wrote a musical titled “Beauty” based on Beauty and the Beast (way before Disney.) He asked me to write the music and I was thrilled. We had a great time, numerous productions, and then both moved on to pursue solo careers.

The “musical whisper” never left me. In 2009 I went to see a show by fellow folk musician Eddie Dillon. He mixed childhood stories with songs from those days. I loved the weaving and emotional tones of his theater piece. Inspired by Eddie’s work I wrote PAWS (originally titled PURR.) I set out to write about the cats in my life but what unfolded was the discovery that they were all reflections of the multifaceted aspects of me and my fellow trudgers on the road of recovery…seeking contentment in one’s own coat.

PURR had two successful self-produced runs at the Marion Music Hall, Marion, MA in 2010/11 where I workshopped it and prepared it for reshaping. After rewrites and additional songs I am happy to present PAWS.