“Lizzie,” the rock musical inspired by the legend of Lizzie Borden, is coming to S.F.
Looks like “Lizzie,” the rock musical inspired by the legend of Lizzie Borden, is finally getting a whack at the big time. And San Francisco’s Ray of Light Theatre is part of the mayhem.
Fifteen years ago, Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer and Tim Maner premiered a four-song mash-up of an experimental theater and rock show in a New York festival called American Living Room. Both men were big fans of the 1975 made-for-TV movie “The Legend of Lizzie Borden,” starring “Bewitched’s” Elizabeth Montgomery.
“Both Tim and I were involved in queer and feminist politics, so the story seemed the perfect vehicle for a rock musical,” Cheslik-DeMeyer says on the phone from New
York. “It just seemed so rock ’n’ roll that this woman would throw off the strictures of family and society with this incredibly violent act. That appealed to us.”
Never mind that Borden was acquitted of the ax murders of her father, Andrew Borden, and stepmother, Abby Borden, in 1892. The rhyme that defines the legend — “Lizzie Borden took an ax, and gave her father 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her mother 41.” — has her committing the crime, and that’s what everyone remembers.
Enthusiastic response
Response to CheslikDeMeyer and Maner’s “Lizzie” songs was enthusiastic, so the two art rockers expanded “Lizzie” and performed it four years later at the Here Arts Center in Manhattan. Once again, audiences responded wildly to the show, which was essentially four women, a rock band and a bloody crime.
But being artists in the fickle downtown scene, the creators of “Lizzie” moved on to other bands and projects. Jump forward 13 years. Lawyer and producer Hillary McCabe had seen that ’94 production, remembered it well and wanted to invest in its resurrection.
“We were thrilled, because we loved the show,” Cheslik-DeMeyer says. “I think we had matured as artists and had a million ideas about what could be done with the show, so we dove in.”
They added a third member to their core creative team, musical director-arranger Alan Stevens Hewitt. The revised “Lizzie” debuted in 2009 and has since appeared around the country and internationally.
The Bay Area premiere of the show, which, for its many versions, remains a presentational rock-theater hybrid of four women fronting a six-piece band, comes from Ray of Light. Oddly, this is the latest in a string of shows for the company involving women and murder, following musical versions of “Carrie” and “Heathers.”
Eliza Leoni, an actor with Ray of Light who ascended to the position of associate artistic director, is directing “Lizzie.”
“I don’t know why we do so many shows with murder in them. It’s not in our mission statement,” Leoni says. “But when we heard ‘Lizzie,’ it blew us away. It’s got these insane rock vocals and a murder/true-crime thriller angle to it — like it was written for us. We saw an opportunity for rock fans to come and say, ‘That was an amazing concert!’ and musical theater fans to come and say, ‘That was an incredible show!’ ”
Composer-lyricist Cheslik-DeMeyer says he and Maner originally wanted to explore the mythical story of Lizzie rather than follow a historically accurate path.
Treated respectfully
“Officially, Lizzie Borden is innocent, and the crime was never solved, but when you say her name, people think ‘ax murderer,’ ” CheslikDeMeyer says. “We wanted to deal with that legend, but at the same time we developed an affection for her, so we want to be respectful of the actual story. Our source material is the thousands of pages of court documents, and our characters are four women in the Borden house. We hear about the parents but never meet them.”
One element of Borden’s life they highlight involves rumors of her affairs with women. “We heard lots of stories about Lizzie being a lesbian, and we liked the notion of another layer of secrets and concealment,” Cheslik-DeMeyer says. “Tim and I are interested in the queering of American stories.”
Leoni says one of the aspects of the show that appealed to her was its punk attitude toward women. “Lizzie was sort of the O.J. Simpson of her day,” she says. “The idea of women in the 19th century was obedience and submission, domesticity and piety. The thought of a woman murderer was so badass. It just blew the roof off what people expected of women.”
Given all the time he has spent thinking about the Borden case, CheslikDeMeyer has some definite thoughts about the murder. “Tim and I have grown to disagree,” he says. “I don’t think she did it. I don’t think there’s a compelling case. The timeline is too tight. She was seen by witnesses minutes after the murders.”
Director Leoni hasn’t made up her mind. “The fact is they did a bad job of collecting evidence,” she says. “Neighbors were able to just walk through the crime scene. I would not have been comfortable of accusing Lizzie or being on her jury. That said, it’s hard to conceive of a situation where she did not do it.”
Show’s future
The renewed interest in “Lizzie” has CheslikDeMeyer and his collaborators thinking about the show’s future.
“We still have in our heads that we’d like the show to come back to New York,” he says. “Broadway is changing enough that it could accommodate ‘Lizzie.’ It’s all a matter of timing, money and attracting the right producers.”