Every Time a Bells Rings...

I've been working on The Story of My Life for about six weeks, and I've been listening to the cast recording, now and then, for about ten years. And yet, every night I watch our production, I see and understand something new. Driving home in my car after performances, I'm often hit with a revelation about something in the show that had just then coalesced in my head.

Jeff (who's playing Tom) and Chris (who's playing Alvin) have these surprising revelations as well. Just a few days before opening, Jeff noticed something so small, yet so meaningful. When Alvin is coming to the Big City to see Tom, Tom makes all the travel arrangements -- including booking a hotel for Alvin. In other words, Tom doesn't want Alvin, his lifelong best friend, staying with him in his home, during Alvin's first ever trip outside his small town.

This morning, a random thought occurred to me. When we did Head Over Heels, I looked up the origins of the characters' names, and found some really wonderful stuff. The same thing happened with Next to Normal, and those character names. So this morning, I thought why not look up these names too? Sure enough, like the other shows, these names are far too meaningful to be accidental.

Alvin means old or wise friend. The name originated in the Middle Ages, adapted from Old English family names. Thomas is an Aramaic name from the Middle Ages, meaning twins. And of course, the most famous Thomas is the apostle, "Doubting Thomas," who refused to believe in the resurrection till he could see Jesus with his own eyes. There's no way this wasn't on purpose. Tom's role throughout the first part of the story is that of skeptic. He questions everything wondrous that Alvin believes in. Tom soon learns that he and Alvin just aren't on the same path -- their roads diverge irreversibly in the song tellingly called "Normal."

No, Tom and Alvin aren't twins. But the whole show takes place inside Tom's head. So Tom and the Alvin inside Tom's head, maybe they are closer to being twins.

Alvin's not exactly a ghost. We're not led to believe there's anything supernatural going on here. He is Tom's mental construction of Alvin, his memories of him, his impression of him (exactly like Dot in Act II of Sunday in the Park with George). And that special role Alvin has in our story gives him a lot of freedom and a lot of power. (In other words, it gives Tom a lot of power.) And it also gives Alvin a kind of Zen detachment, when he's not inside the flashbacks.

That also sets up the parallel to Clarence the Angel in It's a Wonderful Life, who is arguably also inside George Bailey's head. And Alvin certainly takes the role of Clarence in Tom's life and now in his head. But significantly, inside his own story, Alvin isn't a Clarence figure, the Wise Wizard; he's George Bailey, but without an angel. For this George Bailey, there is no Clarence.

I love the way Neil Bartram and Brian Hill constructed this show. There are so many connections within the show, and to iconic cultural touchstones outside the show, but all of those connections are complicated, backwards, in opposition.

Alvin can't give Tom the answers he wants about what happened. Why? Because Tom wasn't there, and this Alvin is inside Tom's head; he's Alvin-Tom. He only knows what Tom knows. At the same time, Bartram and Hill are slyly telling us that storytelling isn't always about Answers, especially when those answers are not simple; it's about exploration. Storytelling helps us get through our lives, but storytelling doesn't do the work for us; it's just a roadmap. More than anything storytelling is about connection and communion.

Tom may not get the answers he seeks, but instead he learns several important lessons that he needs to understand by the end of the story -- because those lessons will bring him redemption. Alvin spends the show (and their lives?) steering Tom toward the lessons he needs, but Tom often doesn't learn because he's walled himself off. Significantly, Tom doesn't find what he's looking for until he stops looking for it ("I'm through with stories.")

Tom finally understands that Alvin's death isn't what defines him; his Life is, the Joy he found in the tiny moments (the Butterfly Effect moments) of everyday life, which he then passed on to the world, even when the world wasn't interested. Tom learns that no single big statement can define a life; only the tiny individual incidents. That's why Tom's chosen quote about God's Great Library is a mistake.

When Alvin berates Tom for merely choosing a famous quote for Alvin's father's eulogy, after Alvin had asked professional, award-winning writer Tom to write the eulogy. Tom lashes back by telling Alvin that his father's life of living in a small town selling books isn't exactly the stuff of epic poetry. Of course that stings Alvin -- that's now Alvin's life too. But Tom's right, isn't he?

A small town bookseller isn't worth epic and grand language -- he's worth stories. Gordon Kelby wasn't famous or overly consequential. But he was a butterfly. Over his life as a bookseller, how many thousands of books did he deliver into the hands of readers, at least some of whose lives were forever changed.

It's only in the last line of the show that we really understand -- this show we've just watched, The Story of My Life, is the eulogy Tom has been trying to write about Alvin. Early in the show, Alvin says to Tom:

That's all a eulogy is, Tom. You tell a bunch of stories, save the tear-jerker for the end, and there you have it. My eulogy. The story of my life.

This show is the thing it's about. Like Passing Strange and Chicago. And in one last brilliant twist, we finally register the full meaning of the title, The Story of MY Life. Tom set out to write Alvin's story but wrote his own instead. On the surface, the show is the story of Alvin's life, and underneath, in the shadows, it's the story of Tom's life. And in many respects, it's the story of each of our lives.

And it's a beautiful, smart, funny, amazing piece of musical theatre. We run till Oct. 23.

Long Live the Musical!
Scott

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