Move aside, Cinderella. Copernicus, the Prince of Sunshine, has another true love to rescue ““ his beloved Prince Helio. Alumnus Brian Pugach wrote a musical about two princes with love in their hearts and sun in their names that sheds new light on storytelling tradition in “The Next Fairy Tale.”
Pugach’s musical started out as a group project among him and his UCLA theater department friends who wanted more musicals to act in and work on. Every month, students would gather to hear Pugach’s next section of the story and to add their input.
Pugach said this miniature theater company, which worked for its own betterment rather than grades, bonded him to his classmates in a creative way.
“UCLA surrounded me with people who wanted to create, and so I was always able to have someone to share my work with and receive feedback,” Pugach said.
While Pugach received feedback from his peers, he wrote the book, music and lyrics of the musical. According to Pugach, the associate producer, his music education came mainly from the fact that his music collection consisted of all musical theater and one Barbra Streisand Christmas album at age 8. Influenced by these albums, Pugach’s music contains upbeat lyrics with a lot of wordplay.
After a reading at UCLA with students in 2008, the musical received UCLA’s Musical Theatre Writing Award, among others, and got a second lease at Celebration Theatre, where artistic director Michael A. Shepperd added his input.
“Theater, like life, is a constantly evolving project,” Shepperd said.
Rachel Genevieve, who plays the lead, Hazel, said that she has enjoyed being in the show for so long and seeing it progress in the family environment of Celebration Theatre.
While the show progresses, elements of UCLA still remain in Pugach’s work ““ theater Professor Gary Gardner’s brutal honesty inspired the character of the Mirror, who only speaks the blunt truth.
It should be noted that the Mirror is a chain-smoker. Pugach adds another offbeat character with Hazel, the failed godmother on probation who eventually succeeds at finding her voice when confronted with presenting her own beliefs.
“I wanted to break the boundaries that fairy tales set up,” Pugach said. “We have gay princes and a fairy godmother who doesn’t know what she’s doing.”
Hazel adds a comedic element to the musical by tripping all over the stage and coming in late, wearing safety-pinned clothes that stand out against the sparkling dresses and perfect hair of the other fairy godmothers. The comedic elements do not take away from the drama, however.
“It is pure musical comedy with a strong dramatic edge to it,” Shepperd said.
Like Genevieve’s journey portraying her character, Hazel becomes more comfortable and confident as the musical progresses.
“She starts out as an insecure, clumsy person, and over the course of the show, she comes into herself and realizes her own power,” Genevieve said. “She isn’t perfect ““ I think people can relate to that.”
Genevieve’s favorite scene is the one in which the cast sings “Cinderella Story,” a song that she says is about writing your own story and building your own future.
She said that Christopher Maikish, who plays Copernicus, sums up the message of the story well: love conquers lore.
“Love conquers tradition is the obvious message in a gay fairy tale, but as I made Hazel more important, it became a show about growing up, figuring out what is right and standing up for it even if it’s not popular,” Pugach said.
In addition to the message, Pugach said he also hopes the audience is entertained by the Disney-style musical.
“I want people to leave humming and skipping because they just saw an exciting story about magic, spells and two princes in love,” Pugach said.