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AUTHOR’S NOTES REGARDING BLUE DOVE...
I began to hear the music for Blue Dove over twenty years ago. Since
I had no musical training and didn’t play an instrument, I received
the gift at first with disbelief. But I couldn’t ignore the
melodies; they possessed me day and night, passing through me seemingly
beyond my control and bringing with them deep emotions. The melodies
of “Somewhere” and “Heaven’s Door” haunted
me for years before I wrote the lyrics and came out as a songwriter.
But still I had no idea that I was going to write a musical.
When
Saint-Subber, the Broadway Producer, suggested I write a musical
based on the life of Krishnamurti, I thought he was joking. I had
spent many hours with Saint in his Little River home and had told
him the story of how Krishnamurti as a boy had been discovered on
a beach in the south of India by British mystics, and designated
the coming World Teacher, and how after many years of preparation
he had renounced his Messianic role. Certainly a great story, but
a musical?
Saint had produced over fifty shows on Broadway, including “Kiss
Me Kate”, but I was skeptical.
While I admired the clarity of Krishnamurti’s thinking and
had vivid memories of meeting him in Delhi in 1969, the reputedly
celibate Indian philosopher seemed to be an implausible and unromantic
subject for a musical entertainment. Where was the love interest?
Don’t musicals have to be sexy and fun?
Saint convinced me that I should at least explore the idea and do
some research. So I read a few biographies and then when I was in
London in 1988 I visited the Theosophical Library.
The librarian was shocked but very amused when I told her that I
was working on a musical about Krishnamurti; and when I asked if
she knew anything about his love life she took me down into the
basement to dig through stacks of old newspapers from the 1920’s.
There I found an article with a picture of the handsome young Krishnamurti
with a girl, and she was looking at him with love and longing. The
girl’s name was Rosalind. I knew I was onto something.
I returned to California and outlined a first act in which the celibate
World Teacher falls in love with a girl called Rosalind. Saint was
encouraging but said more was needed and that I should visit Ojai
where Krishnamurti had lived for many years.
So I drove down to Ojai and enquired at the Krishnamurti Foundation
and then at the schools he had founded. I got nowhere, in fact,
the very idea that I was working on a musical was met with scorn,
and then, when I asked questions about his personal life, I was
shown the door.
Finally at a small bookstore I noticed an autobiography by Beatrice
Wood. An artist friend had urged me to visit Beatrice Wood’s
studio while in Ojai, that she was an outrageous and delightful
artist in her nineties who welcomed visitors. I opened the book
and there was a picture of Beatrice with Krishnamurti! I sped to
her studio and was greeted by a tiny old lady in a sari who was
delighted to have a victim for her mischievous sense of humor. After
an amazing discussion about her life in Paris after the first World
War, I popped the question:
“I’m writing a musical about Krishnamurti. Can you tell
me anything about his sex life?” She thought this was hilarious
and I had to wait for her to stop laughing.
“Well, I know nothing first hand,” she said. “But
I think I can help you.” She whispered to her secretary who
left the room and soon returned with another very old lady.
“This young man is doing a musical about Krishnamurti. He
wants to ask you a few questions.” And then she said: “This
is Rosalind.”
It was a great moment but Rosalind wouldn’t answer any of
my questions. She said she had promised her daughter Radha that
she wouldn’t talk to anyone about Krishnamurti and that first
I had to talk to Radha. I told her that she was the love interest
in my show, and that Krishna falls in love with her. The old ladies
giggled but I left without the facts of Rosalind’s relationship
with Krishnamurti.
I
drove back to Mendocino where a message from Radha Sloss awaited
me. It was imperative that she meet with me immediately. She arrived
the next day and wanted to know how I had uncovered their secret.
Rosalind and Krishnamurti had quietly lived together in Ojai for
about twenty years and Radha’s book “Lives in the Shadow
of Krishnamurti” would tell the story. I spent many fascinating
hours with Rosalind and Radha and then with Saint who helped me
outline the show before he died in 1995.
“Blue Dove” is a coming of age musical about personal
freedom based on the early life of Krishnamurti.
The characters and the story have been created from my imagination
and are not intended to be factual.
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