The Woman In Question
Book and Lyrics by Cheryl Coons
Score by Peter Eldridge
Peter composed the score for the musical The Woman in Question,
co-written with playwright/lyricist Cheryl Coons, which unravels
the mystery behind The Kiss, a sensual painting by Gustav Klimt.
www.
Synopsis of this new musical: 1943, Nazi-occupied Vienna. Summoned by a Nazi museum director, retired couture designer Emilie Flöge comes to the Exhibition Hall to authenticate a sketch by her brother-in-law Gustav Klimt. As she waits in the gallery, Emilie sees dozens of stolen portraits of Jewish women by Klimt, many of them her friends and former clients. One painting in particular disturbs her… the golden portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer, a woman with a deformed hand who was Emilie’s greatest rival for Klimt’s affection. As she stares at Adele, Emilie transforms to her younger self and relives the drama of the love triangle, finally learning the secret of Klimt’s sensual masterpiece, The Kiss.
Cheryl is an award-winning librettist and lyricist who has co-written more than a dozen musicals, including River’s End (ASCAP Foundation Harold Arlen Musical Theatre Award, Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards for Original Script and Score, Theatre for the American Musical Award, NAMT and NYMF), At Wit’s End (Carbonell Award for Best New Work), Sylvia’s Read Good Advice (Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work), Female Problems (After Dark Award for Best Music and Lyrics) and Phantom of the Country Opera, published by Music Theatre International. She contributed lyrics to Chicago Shakespeare Theatre’s productions of Merry Wives of Windsor and Measure for Measure. Her musicals have been developed and showcased at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center’s National Music Theatre Conference, and the National Alliance of Musical Theater’s Festival of New Works, and the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF). Projects she’s written have twice been selected for the ASCAP Workshops in Los Angeles and Chicago. Cheryl has appeared at Carnegie Hall, performing her original material in an evening sponsored by ASCAP and hosted by Michael Feinstein. She serves on the National Council of the Dramatists Guild, the professional trade association for playwrights, composers, lyricists and librettists.
Two women on the brink of independence, and the notorious artist driven to capture them both.
1943, Vienna. Summoned by a Nazi museum director, retired couture designer Emilie Flöge comes to the Exhibition Hall to authenticate a sketch by her soul-mate, the controversial painter of women, Gustav Klimt. As she waits in the gallery, Emilie sees dozens of sensuous portraits of women by Klimt, looted by the Nazis. One painting in particular disturbs her... Woman in Gold, the iconic portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer, a socialite with a deformed hand who was Emilie’s greatest rival for Klimt’s affection. As she stares at Adele, Emilie transforms to her younger self and relives the drama of the love triangle, finally learning the secret of the identity of the woman in Klimt’s sensual masterpiece, The Kiss.
Emilie and Adele are women pursuing a legacy: Emilie’s extraordinary uncorseted designs could transform women’s relationships with their bodies- if only the conservative women of Vienna would buy them. Adele believes her weekly salon with great artists and thinkers will give her influence over the political climate of Vienna. Painter Gustav Klimt captures each of them at a time when women were beginning to be seen in a new light…as figures of power in addition to beauty.
INFO/CONTACT
The Woman In Question
Book and Lyrics by Cheryl Coons | Music by Peter Eldridge
Cast: 10 (6 female/4 male)
For production information please contact
www.