Get a Dog and Find Yourself

[caption id="attachment_57203" align="alignright" width="467"] Actors David Perlman and Stefanie Brown (as Roland and Blair). Jeremy Daniel photo[/caption]

By Annette Hinkle

Canine lovers rejoice! Finally, there’s a musical for you — “A Dog Story” which opened Off-Broadway last weekend at the Davenport Theatre in New York City.

The new musical, with a book by Eric H. Weinberger and music and lyrics by Gayla D. Morgan, runs through early March, and if the setting for “A Dog Story” looks and sounds an awful lot like Sag Harbor, well, that’s no accident.

Mr. Weinberger and his husband, Steve, have been East Enders for years. They had a home in Water Mill for nearly two decades before they sold it and relocated to Glover Street in Sag Harbor three years ago.

The couple (and their dog Milo) now divide their time between New York City, Sag Harbor and Key West. While Sag Harbor’s love for its dogs is a firmly entrenched tradition in this village, it’s one Mr. Weinberger only came to understand first hand after moving here.

“Milo loves it when I take the leash off the hook on the wall,” he said in a recent phone interview. “We have wonderful walks together. I’ve been to the dog beach, it’s social and friendly.”

“We’re happy we made the move,” he added.

Though his play is all about a love for dogs, ironically, Sag Harbor wasn’t the specific impetus for “A Dog Story.” In fact, Mr. Weinberger explained that he was inspired to write the script after reading an article in The New York Times a decade or more ago about the number of pets left behind in resort communities once the summer season comes to an end. One of the communities mentioned in the articles was the East End.

“People purchase a dog to look like the perfect family, then they don’t want to take the dog back to the city,” he said. “I was just shocked. I couldn’t believe someone could do that.”

It was a heartbreaking story and one that stuck with Mr. Weinberger. Then, a few years ago while he and Steve were in Key West having dinner, Mr. Weinberger noticed a familiar woman walking by with her small dog. It was Gayla Morgan, a composer and actress who had worked with Mr. Weinberger on his musical “Wanda’s World” in New York and who now lived in Key West.

She and her dog, a Maltese named Aria, joined Mr. Weinberger and Steve for dinner and they soon decided to collaborate on a musical together.

“I presented a number of ideas, including something about a dog in a resort community,” Mr. Weinberger said. “Of the five or six ideas I showed her, she said ‘That’s the one.’”

“That is how it was born,” he added. “I concocted the idea for this story, she was helpful in shaping the script. She’s been instrumental and wrote wonderful music for it.”

Using The New York Times piece as a jumping off point, Mr. Weinberger set his script in the Hamptons and created a story line that tells the tale of Roland (David Perlman), a young lawyer from New York City who is lobbying for a partnership in the law firm where he works. When another lawyer is promoted ahead of him, Roland worries that he’s being passed over because he is single, unlike the other attorneys in the office who are moving up in the firm’s ranks.

“He’s not good with women, but his best friend, Guy [Brian Ray Norris], is a legend in his own mind and the greatest sex machine,” explained Mr. Weinberger. “He tells him, ‘You need to get a dog. It’s the best chick magnet around.’”

With the next partner in the law firm due to retire in October, Guy convinces Roland to get a dog and take it to his rental house in the Hamptons for the month of August, assuring him he’ll find a wife by Labor Day.

“Roland says, ‘I can’t take care of myself, how am I going to take care of a dog?’ His friend says ‘Just get rid of it at the end of summer,’” said Mr. Weinberger. “So he gets it under those conditions. He really wants a wife. The dog is not toilet trained, he buys it not knowing how to train or care for it.”

But Roland is so focused on his marital mission he plunges ahead anyway and soon encounters Blair (Stefanie Brown), the successful senior manager of a hedge fund who is the girl of his dreams (and career goals).

Meanwhile, the dog, appropriately named Cupid, needs to learn some manners, quickly. Enter Miranda (Lindsie VanWinkle), a local dog trainer, who dislikes Roland from the start, mainly because she suspects he is the type of guy who will abandon his dog at season’s end.

Everything else, you’ll just have to wait and see for yourself. In this musical, the dog, by the way, is invisible. Mr. Weinberger notes that was intentional, not only because training a live dog would be difficult, but because he likes the idea of the audience filling in the blanks by mentally picturing their own dog — or the dog of their dreams — in the role.

Of course, this is a musical, so the plot is only half the story. Mr. Weinberger also explained how the music was written for the show.

“I wrote the play scene by scene and Gayla would start getting ideas for songs. A lot of them relate to the action in the play,” explained Mr. Weinberger. “There are a number of ‘I am’ songs about the characters. One beautiful song, ‘Freedom,’ is about Blair who is a different person out in the Hamptons where the sand and the sea gives her freedom. There’s also a beautiful lullaby that the trainer sings to the dog, and this tango, which is unbelievable and one of my favorite numbers.”

“A Dog Story” has already had a successful run — it played for three weeks in spring 2014 at the Waterfront Playhouse in Key West. Ms. Morgan was so buoyed by the reaction that she put on her producing hat, moved back to New York, and set out to raise the money needed to bring the show to a theater there.

She has, and now “A Dog Story” is up and running at the Davenport Theatre.

Mr. Weinberger concedes that making money with an Off-Broadway production is a challenge. He has other plays under his belt, including “Tea For Three: Lady Bird, Pat & Betty,” a show about a trio of famous first ladies, that have been published and picked up by theaters all over the country. He’s hopeful that’s what will happen with “A Dog Story” as well.

In the meantime, if you happen to see Mr. Weinberger and Milo, a mixed breed (Jack Russell, dachshund, terrier), out on a walk one day in Sag Harbor, be sure to say “hello.”

Who knows, maybe one of you will even break out in song.

Tickets for “A Dog Story” at Davenport Theatre, 354 West 45th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues), New York City, are $79.50 with premium seating available. The play runs Thursdays at 7 p.m., Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sundays at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Mondays at 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased by visiting Telecharge at Telecharge.com or calling (212) 239-6200. For more information about the show, go to ADogStoryTheMusical.com.