Category Archives: Current Projects

NOTES ON THE WRITING OF A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE

Notes On The Writing of A Gentleman’s Guide To Love And Murder (Applause Books) will be available for purchase online and at select stores. From the publisher’s description: The most frequently asked question about writing musicals is, ‘Which comes first, the music or the lyrics?’ As anyone on Broadway will tell you, the answer is, ‘The book.’ Tony-winning book writer Robert L. Freedman takes you through the process of writing a new musical, including story structure, song placement, dialogue, character development, and more that led to the creation of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, the 2014 Best Musical Tony winner. With candor and insight, Freedman describes the challenging and rewarding growing pains of what the critics called ‘Hilarious!’ and ‘Ingenious!’ and said ‘Ranks among the most inspired and entertaining new musical comedies I’ve seen in years.’

From the back cover: “Robert L. Freedman draws back the curtain on the mysterious process of creating a musical, takes you by the hand, and leads you through it all with clarity and insight. If you’re interested in writing a musical, or just interested in musicals, this guide is for you.” Winnie Holzman, book writer of Wicked.

THE FLAMINGO KID

The Flamingo Kid opened May 24, 2019, at Hartford Stage in Hartford, Connecticut. Book and Lyrics by Robert L. Freedman. Music by Scott Frankel. Directed by Darko Tresnjak. Choreographed by Denis Jones. Based on the screenplay by Neal Marshall and Garry Marshall.

The Plot: In the summer of ’63, against the wishes of his father, Brooklyn teenager Jeffrey Winnick leaves behind his blue-collar roots for an exciting job working as a cabana boy at the colorful El Flamingo — a posh private club on Long Island. There, Jeffrey meets Karla, a forward-thinking young woman from California. The music, the romance, the beach are magical — until tensions grow between father and son when a slick club member takes Jeffrey under his wing.


JAMES AGEE AND WALKER EVANS HBO FILM

Robert is writing a period drama for HBO set in New York and rural Alabama in the summer of 1936, about the relationship between Pulitzer Prize-winning author James Agee and famed photographer Walker Evans (pictured left). At the height of the Great Depression, the two were hired by Fortune magazine’s publisher, the formidable Henry Luce, to go down south and bring back a story about poor sharecroppers. What transpired eventually became the source for the legendary book, Let Us All Praise Famous Men. The film is set to be directed by Robert Redford. From Sundance Productions.

James Agee

A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER – On Broadway!

A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, the Best Musical Tony Winner of 2014, opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre on November 17, 2013.  Book by Robert L. Freedman, Music by Steven Lutvak, Lyrics by Robert L. Freedman & Steven Lutvak. Directed by Darko Tresnjak.  Set in Edwardian London, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder traces the brilliant trajectory of Monty Navarro (played by Bryce Pinkham)—charmer, seducer and avenger—on his quest for recognition and family fortune.  Jefferson Mays plays all eight eccentric members of the wealthy and powerful D’Ysquith family who go on to their great rewards in the course of the story.


THE BEAST OF BROADWAY

Robert L. Freedman and Faye Greenberg have written a new one-man play, The Beast of Broadway: The Life and Times of David Merrick, (pictured at left) about the legendary producer. The play premieres on March 4, 2010, at TheatreZone in Naples Florida, in a production starring David Garrison, directed by Mark Danni, and produced by Danni and Larry Goodsight. For more information click here. To read a newspaper article about the production, click here.


CAMPAIGN OF THE CENTURY

Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak’s musical won the 2006 California Musical Theatre Award from Beverly Hills Theatre Guild and was presented in a staged reading on June 4, 2006, in Beverly Hills. Featured in the cast were John Rubinstein, Kaitlin Hopkins, Josh Radnor, Jean Louisa Kelly, Stan Chandler, Corinne Kason, Michael Kostroff, Ron Orbach, Tregoney Shepherd and Steve Vinovich. Based on the book by Greg Mitchell, Campaign of the Century

centers on the comic chicanery, media manipulation, and outrageous shenanigans surrounding Upton Sinclair’s race for Governor of California in 1934.