Ed Weissman is a lyricist, librettist

He is also an essayist, political scientist and social statistician

Click on the site logo: “Sunset: Autumn in Vermont” photo to return to the intro page.

Here are four of my musicals written with collaborators: Mary Feinsinger, Stephen Randoy, and David Warrack

SAGA

a musical triptych

Three One Act Musicals. Two Performers.

SAGA 1 “ANNE BROWN CREATES BESS AND FLEES TO NORWAY: An Introduction to Her Life in 9 Headlines and An Epilogue”

SAGA 2  "JOACHIM RØNNEBERG AND HIS SKIERS SAVE THE WORLD” 
SAGA 3: “ON A SUNNY SPRING MORNING IN OSLO, 1925” 
 

SECRETS OF SUCCESS: The J. Edgar Hoover Musical

John Edgar Hoover dreams of being a boy’s own hero. In this musical 6 performers play 44 roles as Edgar becomes the most powerful and ruthless man in the U.S. for half a century. With second-in-command and lover, Clyde Tolson, they uncover secrets and blackmail presidents and others to stay in power. They are not only hiding that they are gay, they are hiding that Edgar had a black great grandmother.

The style of the musical is that of a “great person” musical for students. It is for adults and it is satirical.

SECRETS OF SUCCESS Script

Main Street Musicals WINNER - DIRECTORS’ CHOICE AWARD

Click the link below

Stephen Randoy’s website contains demos of the score as well as a pictorial synopsis of the show. Click on the link below for his website.

Stephen Randoy’s Website - Secrets of Success

 
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She’s No Lady

1720 Anne Bonny arrives on a Caribbean island to marry a rich planter. He’s a sadistic brute. She runs off. She encounters a handsome young man who offers to be her shining knight. She doesn’t need help from a man.

Anne encounters Jack and his band of pirates down on their luck, without a ship, on a beach. She offers a plan to capture a ship and the treasure aboard.

The mysterious young man, Madison Crosby, is a British Royal Navy captain sent to capture pirates.

Anne pretends to be a sea nymph, she bedazzles the crew of a ship. Jack and the pirates capture the ship taking on some new members with the Captain and others walking the plank.

Complications ensue, Anne is captured. A fake treasure hunt is stage, Anne is freed. A battle captures Anne and he pirates. A trial is interrupted and. Madison frees them all and they sail off into history.

She’s No Lady Script

 

 
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VERMONT: The Musical

Ethan Allen and The Green Mountain Boys invent Vermont. Yes, the British were the enemy. But the real threats came from the colony/state of New York and a New Jersey lawyer nicknamed Jersey Slick.

Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys capture Fort Ticonderoga, but are captured when they attempt to capture Montreal. Ethan is sent to England as a prisoner and is exhibited to society. His charm wins over some very powerful people. He is released.

By the time he returns home, the Republic of Vermont has a constitution banning slavery and a full democracy (for all men.) But Jersey Slick Isaac is in power and is conducting witch hunts against supposed tories. Ethan ends them and the battle of Bennington (held in NY) is a turning point in the Revolution.

Ethan is triumphant. The moral of the play “Don’t Jersey Vermont.”