Samuel Warren Joseph

Creating the stage musical Campaign was a labor of love born out of my lifelong interest and passion for politics and my songwriting collaboration with my close friend Jon Detherage. When I was young man, I was active in campaigns (including working for George McGovern in 1972 in New Hampshire) and I thought I would have a career in that field. Ultimately, that was not the direction my life took but as a self-described “political junkie,” I consider myself pretty well informed.

Jon and I met in the early 1980s when he was my next-door neighbor in a crummy Hollywood apartment building. We started writing songs together. By 1995, I had been making an on and off living writing TV and movies. Jon and I discussed writing a musical about politics. (Jon was really the musician between us having played professionally with heavyweights like Jefferson Starship and Van Morrison.)

Jon Detherage

I wanted to create an entertaining story that was hopeful yet cynical because that is how I feel about politics. I am hopeful and believe that political activism can really produce great social change and justice. Who is elected does matter. At the same time, too many politicians of both parties are opportunistic and narcissistic. What one has to do to get elected is frequently sleazy or at the very least vacuous.

Jon and I were prescient about all of the various political sex scandals that have occurred since the mid 1990s. So ironically, our story is extremely topical, 15 years after we created it. Having said that, I think the nature of these kinds of scandals is never ending which hopefully makes Campaign timeless.

I created the characters first, doing a short biography for each one. I then did a rough outline of the story. Jon and I started writing the songs and at the same time I was writing the book. We would discuss what we wanted in terms of how the song affected the story and illuminated the characters’ feelings. I would sit at my computer and bang out some lyrics while Jon would be working out some ideas on the piano. Sometimes I also had an idea for a melody and would sing the song into a tape recorder. Jon then would take what I started and finish the song on the piano.

In a few cases, Jon would do very little but arrange the song. In other cases, Jon would use most if not all of my lyrics and come up with the music. And in other cases, Jon would rewrite most of the lyrics and also write the music. This is why we decided we would share the music and lyrics credit since so much of what we did overlapped. However, Jon did all of the arrangements on the initial tapes in his home studio.

Max Middleton, Travis Dixon, Josie Adams, and Jase Lindgren

Some of the songs are distinctly political and directly relate to the story. For instance, “Family Values” is a fun, satirical song about how politicians use all sorts of code words to try and sway voters. “Money Talks” deals with the importance of wealth in our culture and in modern campaigns. “Better Days” satirizes the promises politicians make that they never intend to keep. “What Does It All Mean?” dramatically deals with why people would want to devote themselves to make the world better and how frustrating that can be.

We also wrote some ballads I think are really lovely, that work both in the show and as stand-alone pop songs. “If You Only Knew Me” is a duet that focuses on couples’ misunderstandings. “Fool for Love” deals with the risks a person has to take to allow him or her to love again. We also have a kick ass country rock song, “You’re Not Man Enough to be My Man.” We purposely wanted to have a wide variety of musical styles, a real sense of Americana since this piece is about American politics.

I am not quite sure why it has taken so long to get the play produced other than to note getting anything actualized in either film or theatre is usually very difficult. About six months ago, I had a staged reading/performance of the play at the Actors Studio Playwrights/Directors Unit that was very well received. Paul Koslo runs the Met Theatre and he is a friend and fellow member of the Unit. Paul had almost produced Campaign years earlier and we discussed that it would be perfect timing for this fall’s election season. We worked out a deal and I brought in T.J. Castronovo and Mike Carazza who are directing and producing another play of mine, and it all came together. Perhaps it took so long because now is truly the perfect time for its premiere.

Feature image: Julianna Zanville, Jean Altadel, Brian Byers, Barbara Keegan and Jase Lindgren. Production photos by Alberto Roberto.

Campaign, presented by The MET Theatre and CRC Entertainment, opens Oct. 1; plays Thur.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 2 pm; through Nov. 7. Tickets: $20-$25. Main Stage, 1089 N. Oxford Ave., Hollywood; 323.960.761 or plays411.com/campaign.