{"id":106451,"date":"2023-03-08T19:20:03","date_gmt":"2023-03-09T03:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=106451"},"modified":"2023-03-08T19:45:56","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T03:45:56","slug":"1970s-mill-valley-songwriters-latest-project-is-pride-prejudice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/1970s-mill-valley-songwriters-latest-project-is-pride-prejudice\/","title":{"rendered":"1970\u2019s \u2018Mill Valley\u2019 songwriter\u2019s latest project is \u2018Pride & Prejudice\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>At a rehearsal of <\/em>Pride & Prejudice – The Musical in Ross are, from left, songwriter Rita Abrams and actors Carrie Fisher-Coppola, Landers Markwick and Pennell Chapin. (Photo by Jack Prendergast<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

Rita Abrams can be a mega-inspiration \u2014 for older folks who think their creative lives may be over or for those whose 15 minutes of fame dissipated many years ago.<\/p>\n

Abrams, at 79, is deep in rehearsal with the Ross Valley Players for \u201cPride & Prejudice \u2013 The Musical,\u201d for which she created music and super-sweet lyrics. The ex-hippie says it\u2019s going well, particularly due to director Phoebe Moyer\u2019s ability to draw extra humor from the show\u2019s pun- and alliterative-laden tunes by suggesting actors change the tiniest gesture or turn of the head.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From left, Heren Patel, Justin Hernandez and Rita Abrams work on a song from <\/em>Pride & Prejudice \u2013 The Musical. \u00a0(Photo by Heather Shepardson)<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The musical opens March 17 at The Barn in Ross and runs through April 16.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a short geographic distance but a far cry from 1970, when the songwriter\u2019s \u201cMill Valley\u201d became a pop chartbuster while she was in her mid-20s and a teacher in that city. Abrams and her third-grade class at the Strawberry Point School sang her tune on a Warner Bros.\/Reprise vinyl.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a sudden thing, overnight, they put a rush-release on it, and we were getting calls from all over the world,\u201d she recalls in a recent phone interview. \u201cAt first the fame was very exciting, but then I got off-balance. It felt strange to me \u2014 the song was my whole life, and it was dizzying. It was hard to handle. If it were now, in the age of social media, I\u2019m guessing I might have been mercilessly ridiculed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Rita Abrams (at keyboard) and third graders sing \u201cMill Valley.\u201d (Photo by Annie Leibovitz, with permission by Rita Abrams)\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

After Abrams and her small charges generated a follow-up album, the hit song catapulted her into a lifelong music career. She worked on kids\u2019 records and films, pop and novelty songs, commercials, greeting cards, books and musical theater productions such as the well-received \u201cFor Whom the Bridge Tolls\u201d and \u201cAftershocks.\u201d<\/p>\n

She has written songs for \u201cSesame Street,\u201d collaborated with Elmo (Shropshire), who performed the holiday song \u201cGrandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer,\u201d and worked with John Gray to mount a show based on his best-seller, \u201cMen Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus.\u201d\u00a0London in 2012, presented by the Ruislip Operatic Society.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had nothing to do with the production, and we were barred from it,\u201d she remembers. \u201cThey didn\u2019t want the writers anywhere near it because they were afraid that we might change what they wanted. Later, when I watched a video of it, I saw so many things I\u2019d have changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, she says, \u201cEmotionally, I really like to sit back and let other people do it. For me, the joy is in the writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Francisco\u2019s IAM Theatre, now inactive, produced another version, and there was a high school incarnation in Peoria, Illinois, last year. A company in Hong Kong is working on doing a production sometime this year, possibly in the fall.<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s passion for the tale jumpstarted the project, and she convinced Abrams to do the music. Brown isn\u2019t on site for the Ross Valley Players\u2019 rendition, \u201cbut she\u2019s accessible by phone or computer\u201d if needed, Abrams says.<\/p>\n

\u201cPride & Prejudice,\u201d of course, is the story of the emotionally repressed 19th century English family, the Bennets. Mother wants to marry off her five daughters and father just wants to be left alone. Enter the iconic love interest Mr. Darcy, and we\u2019re off to the chapel (ultimately).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ex-Strawberry Point School third graders gathered outside Throckmorton<\/em><\/strong>
Theatre on the 45th anniversary of the song \u201cMill Valley\u201d include, from left, Marisa Tomasi, Kathleen Trudell, Jaina Delmas, Greg Berman, Kelly Martin, Caroline Van Buuren, Cindi Koehn, Scott Garbutt, and Scott Victor. (Photo by Rita Abrams)<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

Abrams\u2019 favorite song in the show is \u201c\u2018What Is a Man to Do?\u201d which she calls \u201ca parody that says everything\u2019s a woman\u2019s fault. I like that it has a lot of catchy rhymes and it\u2019s like a tango.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently in a relationship with bandleader-bass player Jack Prendergast, Abrams long ago was married for eight years to a documentarian, and has a daughter, Mia, who was an actor for film and TV in Hollywood but now, at 41, is shifting into a food industry setting.<\/p>\n

A few years back, Abrams had to leave the town she helped make famous because she could no longer afford to stay. She says she has no regrets about it: \u201cI love living in a lovely, affordable mobile home park in Novato. And I\u2019m still an honorary citizen of Mill Valley.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for what\u2019s next in her future, she says, \u201cI\u2019ve come to the age where the reality is, unless you don\u2019t care if anyone likes it or not, the average time of getting a show from stage to page is seven years, and that\u2019s too hard to deal with. Instead, I want to nurture the shows I\u2019ve already written.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
Ross Valley Players\u2019 \u201cPride and Prejudice-The Musical\u201d runs March 17-April 16 at The Barn, Marin Art and Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross. Tickets are $15 (youth) -$35 (general). Call 415-456-9555 or visit <\/strong>www.rossvalleyplayers.com<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n
This story was first published on LocalNewsMatters.org<\/a>, a nonprofit site supported by Bay City News\u00a0Foundation http:\/\/www.baycitynews.org\/contact\/<\/a><\/figure>\n
To reach Woody Weingarten, a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, email <\/em>voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/em><\/a> or visit <\/em>https:\/\/woodyweingarten.com<\/em><\/a> or vitalitypress.com<\/a><\/em>.<\/strong><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At a rehearsal of Pride & Prejudice – The Musical in Ross are, from left, songwriter Rita Abrams and actors Carrie Fisher-Coppola, Landers Markwick and Pennell Chapin. (Photo by Jack…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-106451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"