The Dramatist

My friendship with Carol began over 40 years ago. We both had shows running at the time and were being interviewed for a radio show. Carol’s musical was the big Broadway smash hit The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas and my show, I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road, after a shaky start was starting to catch fire off-Broadway at the Circle in the Square. The radio show host had thought it was a good idea to have two shows written by “the girls” featured together. His premise going into the interview was that Best Little Whorehouse was anti-feminist and that Getting My Act Together was stridently and obnoxiously. . . feminist. I guess he thought there would be great chemistry between us and that our interview would somehow devolve into a cat fight of some sort. (I do not remember the name of the radio show and I have repressed the name of the host.) Carol and I did not take the bait, and instead rose up to defend each others’ shows. I told the guy that Carol’s show was NOT anti-feminist—it did NOT glorify prostitution—it was about HYPOCRISY and it was FUNNY! And Carol told him that my show wasn’t obnoxious and strident—it was simply. . .TRUE!

So Carol and I bonded the first time we met. Also, we looked a bit alike—brown hair and big teeth—and since we were two girls writing shows it was difficult to tell us apart. And when Carol took my role in Getting My Act Together and I was cast in her musical To Whom It May Concern people were really confused.

Carol’s voice and sensibility came from the earth in Abilene, Texas, and though she lived most of her adult life in New York City she never lost the soft southern cadences of her childhood. Abilene was a country town peopled by ranchers and cowboys and farmers and guys who had pumped gas at a gas station until they hit oil on their land and could afford to send their kids off to get a good education. Carol’s grandparents were pioneers in West Texas and her granddaddy was a cattleman and an oil man. Their daughter, Carol’s mother, became a renowned classical pianist and violinist. Carol’s daddy ran Hall’s Music Store in Abilene. So, Abilene was a fertile mix of down-home country and unusual sophistication. Carol absorbed it all and her writing never strayed far from her roots. There’s something about southern writers—think Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner—that allows their language to be awash in sensuality and lyricism without getting too sweet. Carol had that southern way with words.

She combined grit with grace, and her writing was often deeply personal. Her song “Jenny Rebecca,” for instance, was written for her friends Ileen and William Goldman when their first child, Jenny Rebecca, was born. The song became a big hit, recorded by Mabel Mercer, Barbra Streisand, Frederica von Stada, and many others. Carol loved the fact that Frederica von Stada performed her song in concert for twenty years and even named her daughter Jenny Rebecca.

So even though Carol started writing musicals in college, her early career in New York was as a singer/songwriter. She performed her songs in clubs all over the country: The Bitter End and Max’s Kansas City (NYC), The Cellar Door (Washington D.C.) and The Troubadour (L. A.) She opened for Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings and toured with Don MacLean. She was signed by Elektra Records and her songs started attracting major recording artists: Barbra Streisand, Olivia Newton John, Tony Bennett, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, Barbara Cook, Michael Feinstein, Amanda McBroom, Mabel Mercer, Maureen McGovern, Margaret Whiting, and even Big Bird. (She wrote for Sesame Street for ten years and had three hit songs on Marlo Thomas’ album Free to Be You and Me.) The list of artists doing her work was awesome.

Carol became the darling of the New York Cabaret scene, winning numerous Bistro and Mac Awards. She ultimately was awarded the prestigious Johnny Mercer Award for her contributions to American popular song.

So way before she was tapped to write the score for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Carol was a renowned pop song writer. In the late 70s theatrical scores seldom produced pop hits as they had in the musicals of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. But when Best Little Whorehouse was made into a film starring Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds, Dolly recorded “Hard Candy Christmas” and it topped the country charts. The show ran on Broadway for four years, won a Grammy nomination, won two Drama Desk Awards for the music and lyrics, and toured the country for a year and a half with Ann-Margret.

When the show had first been presented off-Broadway, Carol was not a member of the Dramatists Guild and didn’t really know much about it. She had come from the pop music world, not the theatrical world. But after the show moved to Broadway, she joined the Guild and became one of its fiercest advocates. Her next show, Good Sports (with a book by Susan Rice) opened at the Goodspeed Opera House to great reviews. The move to Broadway was to be the next step. But the producer—who had put Carol and Susan together for the project—did not want to give them a Dramatists Guild contract. Carol insisted, would not accept a substandard contract, and the producer walked away. The show never got a Broadway production. Carol took a personal loss, but she stood her ground and would not back down. Her early resistance helped strengthen the Guild’s position and benefitted all writers. We owe her a debt of gratitude.

Carol was voted onto the Dramatists Guild Council in 1995, a time when women were still very much a minority on Council. She wanted to support young playwrights, so she served as a mentor for the DGF Fellows Program and joined the board of The Young Playwrights Festival. In 2002 she joined the board of the Dramatists Guild Foundation and was elected Vice President. She was still Vice President when I came onto the Foundation board in 2005 and was elected President. At that time the Foundation’s activities were limited to two programs: giving out emergency grants and holding a yearly meeting to give out grants to theatres. That year we began the slow and difficult transition process to turn the private foundation into a public charity so that we would have the ability to raise the funds to broaden our mission by developing programs that would benefit writers at every stage of their careers. When the Foundation finally became a public charity in 2008, its programs and activities started growing exponentially. During this process Carol was my constant support and was part of the dynamic that has yielded the vibrant Dramatists Guild Foundation of today.

One of the first programs that was added to the Foundation’s expanded mission was the Legacy Project: video-taped discussions with our master dramatists being interviewed by their younger counterparts. Carol produced the first episode: Joe Stein being interviewed by Lin-Manuel Miranda. She then became the interviewer for the Tom Jones/Harvey Schmidt episode produced by Nancy Ford.

When the Dramatists Guild Foundation moved to its larger quarters on 40th Street we knew we wanted to create a space where writers could come to work on their projects. Carol stepped forward and endowed the space, making it possible for dramatists to work there for free. She named it the Music Hall. Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty contributed a baby grand piano and this space has become an oasis of creativity. The Music Hall opened in 2015 and since then has served 8,157 artists and their 14,431 guests with 7,881 hours of free use, saving our writers and composers over a million and a half dollars that they would have had to pay to rent space for their projects!!!

Think of the thousands of writers Carol’s gift will have benefitted! The good news is that even though Carol has left us, Carol’s husband Leonard Majzlin intends to keep Carol’s legacy alive with ongoing support for the Music Hall. Our lives have been touched not only by Carol’s artistry but also by Carol and Leonard’s generosity.

There is a gorgeous song that Carol wrote with composer Stephen Lutvak; a song I wish I had written because her lyrics exactly express what I wish I had been able to say to her, my dear friend. Here’s her song. . .

“I’ll Imagine You a Song”

AND IF I BELIEVED IN HEAVEN,
I’D BELIEVE THAT NOW YOU’RE
SINGING IN THE CHOIR
AND IF I BELIEVED IN ANGELS,
I’D IMAGINE YOU IN WHITE, AND
QUITE THE FLIER
AND IF I BELIEVED IN REASONS,
THEN I WOULDN’T ASK WHY DYING
SEEMS SO WRONG
BUT I JUST BELIEVE IN MUSIC
SO I GUESS THAT I’LL IMAGINE YOU
A SONG

AND IF I’D READ UP ON EINSTEIN,
I WOULD THINK THE WORLD IS RATIONAL
AND RIGHT
AND IF I PUT FAITH IN LOGIC,
I SUPPOSE THAT I MIGHT SOMEDAY
SEE THE LIGHT
YOU ARE GONE NOW, AND I MISS
YOU
PEOPLE TELL ME TIME CAN HEAL,
AND I’LL FEEL STRONG
BUT I JUST BELIEVE IN MUSIC
SO I GUESS THAT I’LL IMAGINE YOU
A SONG

I’LL IMAGINE YOU A SONG
AND IT WILL LEAD ME LIKE A
FRIEND
AND IT WILL REACH INSIDE AND
LINGER IN MY EAR
I’LL IMAGINE YOU A SONG
BECAUSE THE MUSIC HAS NO END
AND WHAT THAT MEANS IS
YOU’LL FOREVER BE RIGHT HERE

AND IF I’D HAD TIME FOR MAGIC
I MIGHT THINK WE ALL GET PUT
HERE IN A SPELL
JUST TO WEAVE THINGS INTO WONDERS
AND TO LIVE, AND LOVE, AND TRY
TO DO IT WELL
AND IF I BELIEVED IN QUESTIONS
THEN MY ANSWERS WOULDN’T
HAVE TO TAKE SO LONG
BUT I JUST BELIEVE IN MUSIC
SO I GUESS THAT I’LL IMAGINE YOU
A SONG

I’LL IMAGINE YOU A SONG
AND IT WILL TAKE ME BY THE HAND
AND IT WILL STAY INSIDE MY SOUL
AND SET ME FREE I’LL IMAGINE YOU
A SONG
UNTIL I FINALLY UNDERSTAND
THAT WHAT THAT MEANS IS YOU
ARE ALWAYS PART OF ME
ALL OUR DAYS ON EARTH ARE MEASURES
ALL WE EVER HAVE IS WHAT WE
LEARN TO GIVE
IF WE’RE WISE WE LOOK FOR TREASURES
EVERY SINGLE BREATHING MOMENT
THAT WE LIVE
AND IF I BELIEVED IN ENDINGS
THEN I NEVER WOULD HAVE LOVED
YOU FOR THIS LONG
BUT I JUST BELIEVE IN MUSIC. . .
I JUST BELIEVE IN MUSIC. . .
SO I GUESS THAT I’LL IMAGINE YOU
A SONG

“I’ll Imagine You a Song” ©1996 by Daniel Music Ltd. & Lutvak Music

Carol Hall (1936-2018) was probably best known as the composer and lyricist of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. She joined the Guild in 1978 and, in addition to becoming a Lifetime Member of the Dramatists Guild Council, was also Vice President of the Dramatists Guild Foundation.