Long before Itamar Moses and Gaby Alter became, respectively, a Tony Award-winning playwright and a composer awarded by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, they were two Jewish kids growing up in Berkeley.
They lived in nearby neighborhoods, attended the same Jewish day school and later attended Berkeley High School. Moses, the younger of the two, recalls in an interview that seeing Alter play his music in a tiny performance space underneath a Berkeley pizza joint filled him with excitement about becoming an artist.
Alter says in a separate interview that Moses back then was “like my little cousin.” They recognized a nearly instant connection and friendship that continued in young adulthood and powers their work as a creative team. Among their joint projects is the musical “Nobody Loves You,” which premiered in 2012 at The Old Globe in San Diego and went on in 2013 to Off-Broadway’s Second Stage.
Through the end of this month, San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) is showing its production of the musical that has as its core a story about a popular reality dating show in which contestants vie for love and seek to become social media darlings.
A.C.T. is also holding special events in partnership with local restaurants that amplify the show’s glittery profile with themed parties, Tinder Disrupt-inspired “pitch-your-availability presentations, tasting events and more (for showtimes and associated event details, visit bit.ly/nlyactsf online).
Pam MacKinnon, A.C.T.’s artistic director, helms the musical and a stellar, versatile cast that includes A.J. Holmes as Jeff, the protagonist and philosophy student who despises reality television.
Seeking to win back the heart of his ex and endeavoring to blow open the show’s pretense, Jeff gains a spot in the competition and instead falls for Jenny (Kuhoo Verma), a show producer. Ultimately asking if two people operating in the world of performative television can form true connection, Moses says the landscape for receiving the musical is totally unlike what it was when it premiered.
“The world has changed in ways that make the show clearer. Audiences in 2012, the majority, didn’t watch reality TV. They thought it was a fad that might be going away. And they weren’t aware of social media. People at the Globe were saying, ‘What’s Twitter? What’s a hashtag?’
“Three years later, we had a president who was a reality TV star who tweeted constantly. On a deeper level, we were actually writing about a society where people perform their lives all the time. Our brains are intoxicated by that, although it’s dangerous because it prevents vulnerability, authenticity and genuine connection.”
No longer able to deny the prevalence of curated online versions of themselves that everyday folks and prominent public figures present as “reality,” Moses says familiarity does not preclude the difficulty of landing the right tone for the musical.
“Setting a musical in the social media and reality television realm helps penetrate to the inner lives people have a hard time expressing, but the show’s protagonist, who’s cynical and considers himself above reality TV? Getting him to sing is harder. Jeff’s whole identity is wrapped up in what he thinks is authentic but is a defense mechanism to avoid embarrassment.”
Moses says in the past, characters in musicals by tradition delivered dramatic, sweeping emotions in songs. Contemporary conventions make maneuvering this protagonist into impassioned desire by page 15 of the script difficult.
“We needed him to sing early on,” Moses says. “It was a character math problem that required the producers of the show to intuit his buried need to be explored, understood, loved.”
Moses and Alter say their artistic voices share sensibilities and styles that include a gentle, comedic slant, common vocabulary, and complementary skills when collaborating on the lyrics.
“Initially, Gaby was more able to cut to the central emotional core and character needs, which is essential,” Moses says. “I was more interested in lyrical pyrotechnics: how many fun, internal rhymes can we get in there?
“He encouraged me to be more naked in my writing. Not necessarily use less words, but to be unafraid to say what you really mean in a way that’s not cloaked or hedged. Working with Gaby helped me grow as an artist.”
Alter describes Moses as “a brilliant writer” whose plays always start with a smart idea before branching into wit, truthfulness and emotion.
“I tend to go to sincere, emotionally plain language. I write songs you’ll like that are about the theme. Itamar sticks to character; he’s hilarious, and he creates absurdist settings for songs. I’m more aware of how words have to land within a song in ways beyond purely being on the page. We look at each other’s lyrics and see how they can be better.”
The back-and-forth process relies on more than easy compatibility and influences from the 1980s and ’90s like their shared love of the Bay Area-based rock band Counting Crows, movies like “Back to the Future” and perhaps Monty Python, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and other “lyrics-first, verbose, literary” writers.
“There’s vulnerability and ambivalence in our writing a Jewish guy can relate to,” explains Alter.
Moses in interviews has said he never feels like a musical or play is done. This means that in “Nobody Loves You” five original songs were cut and replaced with new songs.
“Gaby did the forensic accounting. The macro changes were cutting close to half the shows and replacing them and micro refinements to the story and character arcs.
“Also, hearing the production with cold readings and public open rehearsals we did, you hear if the jokes land. You have instincts, but you need an audience to know if the comedy is working,” Moses says.
Alter believes actors play a major role in shaping a work.
“These actors are like comedic assassins. They fill out their parts, expand them. For example, Molly Hager, who plays Megan, a party girl on the reality show, brings a fearless, outrageous, go-all-the-way power and presence.”
The visual team includes Berkeley-based lighting designer Russel Champa.
“He’s amazing and has created the show’s shiny allure with a simple background and cool, neon colors,” says Alter. “Jason Ardizzone-West has created an evocative TV world where you can see the illusions.”
Excited to be back on hometown turf, both artists expect a future in which their friendship and partnership continue to thrive. “Nobody Loves You” is playing in the Toni Rembe Theater at 415 Geary St. in San Francisco. For details, see the aforementioned link above.
Lou Fancher is a freelance writer. Reach her at lou@johnsonandfancher.com.