It worked for Jersey Boys and with Broadway’s recent taste for pop music encompassing everything from the Twyla Tharp-Billy Joel collaboration Movin’ Out and Abba-driven Mamma Mia to the hair-metal hijinks of Rock of Ages and the current success of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, why not a musical inspired by local boy Eddie Money?
It’s an idea that was inspired by the aforementioned Frankie Valli vehicle and came to fruition when local playwright and Five Towns professor John Blenn went to see Money play Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. There, he was approached by Money’s agent Gordon MacKay, who suggested Blenn get together with the potential musical’s real-life main character. The result was Two Tickets to Paradise—The Musical, which enjoyed a brief run at Five Towns Performing Arts Center. It not only brought the concept to fruition on stage, but launched the career of future Rising Star winner Jesse Kinch, who played the teenage Money in Two Tickets. Six years later, the man born Edward Joseph Mahoney in Brooklyn is taking another crack at his biographical musical.
“When I put the play on five years ago, it was being performed during my [touring] prime time in June, when I’m out there making 30 grand a night. So instead, I’m buying the cast dinner at an Italian restaurant, spending a fortune on the play. But I didn’t give a [damn],” he explained over lunch at the Greenvale Townhouse Restaurant. “Plus the student version of the play was terrible and the other guy who shot it got lost in Boston for three years. So now I’ve got a guy named Michael Jenkins that’s interested in shooting the play. For $1,500, I’ll get a nice five-camera shoot of the play and just make it better.”
The show traces the Island Trees transplant’s path from fronting his high school band, The Grapes of Wrath, through his breakthrough as a hit solo artist—with Money himself narrating throughout. The musical’s book features a mixture of Money hits including “Shakin’” and “Think I’m in Love” and some newer, more theater-friendly fare like “When I Grow Up” and “This Train Don’t Stop Here Anymore.”
And despite the fact that the former police trainee cut his teeth as a die-hard fan of acts like The Rascals, Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix, music of the Great White Way was just as much a part of Money’s childhood.
“When I was growing up, my parents used to go into the city and see Annie Get Your Gun, Oklahoma and West Side Story. They’d come back and me and my two little sisters and brother would act out the play. This is what we did, so I really grew up with a lot of Broadway shows,” Money explained. “So when I saw Jersey Boys, it reminded me of the camaraderie that I had with my band that the Four Seasons had. In the play, Frankie Valli unfortunately lost his daughter to a drug overdose and it reminded me of when I had a drug overdose and lived through to do my biggest record, No Control, which happened after [I OD’ed].
For Blenn, Money’s background as a working-class kid who took a different path than his family and turned his back on joining the police force to pursue his dream made for an intriguing project. And having an impressive song canon to draw from didn’t hurt.
“The thing that really attracted me about it is that Eddie obviously had a story to tell,” said Blenn. “The story is about finding your way and making it. What also very much attracted me to the show was the fact that great musicals have two or three really memorable songs. Eddie’s had 26 songs in the Top 100. The tough part here is, what do you leave out, not how do you find great songs?”
With parties ranging from the Dallas Music Festival to theaters in Poughkeepsie and Rockville, IL, expressing interest in Two Tickets, Money has made a five-figure investment to upgrade the musical. This substantial investment has gone towards building new sets, flying in members of Money’s touring band to lend more authenticity to the songs and getting the word out.
And while raising awareness for this project is paramount, the sexagenarian rocker has also continued his unwavering backing of veterans. A portion of ticket sales will go to the Intrepid
Fallen Heroes Fund, a nonprofit charitable organization that provides support to United States military personnel and their families. (For more info, see “The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.”
“When I realize that a lot of these veterans come back contemplating suicide, it really hits me in the heart,” Money said. “They’re over there in the desert and it’s 114 degrees with an 80-pound pack on their back and they’re not over there because they’re thinking about going to junior college when they come back. They’re not there for the G.I. Bill. They’re over there because they love this country.”
But in the end, Two Tickets to Paradise—The Musical winds up being a theatrical mirror that reflects that age-old dream of leaving your small town and pursuing fame and fortune. The fact that it takes place in our collective backyard only makes it that much more special, a fact Money readily acknowledges.
“This play is just a tribute to everybody on Long Island,” says Money. “It’s just great to be back on Long Island where my roots are and where I learned how to play rock ’n’ roll…Both my sisters live a block away from where our parents raised us. My brother lives on the other side of Levittown on Gardenia Lane. For me, the musical captures that most important time when you’re starting out before you get jaded.”
Two Tickets to Paradise—The Musical will be performed on Jan. 16 & 17 and Jan. 24 & 25 at Molloy College’s Madison Theatre, 1000 Hempstead Ave., Rockville Centre. For more information, please call 516-323-4444 or visit www.madisontheatreny.org.
The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund
The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund is a leader in supporting the men and women of the Armed Forces and their families. Created in 2000 and established as an independent not-for-profit organization in 2003, the fund has provided close to $150 million in support of severely wounded military personnel and the families of veterans lost in service. These efforts are funded entirely with donations from the public and hundreds of thousands of individuals have contributed to the fund. For more information, visit the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund website at www.fallenheroesfund.org.
