Director Avi Hoffman talks about Harry Chapin
Lies & Legends on stage in Blowing Rock through Nov. 2

By Jeff Eason

When American songwriter Harry Chapin died in 1981 at the age of 38, he left more behind than a handful of tunes. A humanitarian who raised awareness and money to battle world hunger, Chapin was more like a short story writer than a songwriter. His songs were three-minute vignettes that allowed the listener to learn about other people’s lives.

Lies and Legends, the new Blowing Rock Stage Company musical on stage now at the Hayes Performing Arts Center, is the official tribute to the life and songs of Harry Chapin. The show runs until November 2 and tickets are on sale now.

For director Avi Hoffman, it was a sad set of circumstances that brought him to Blowing Rock to helm Lies and Legends.

“Unfortunately, it’s a tragic story,” said Hoffman. “A very dear friend of mine, Amy London, was supposed to direct this show. She was married to another dear friend of mine for 25 years, a Broadway actor named Bruce Adler. And Bruce passed away about two months ago.

“Amy has been dealing with all of the tragic things that have to be dealt with when your spouse passes away. So she called me up and asked me if I could fill in for her. (BRSC directing producer) Ken Kay and I had known each other for many years and we’d been talking about doing different projects.”

Hoffman, who runs the New Vista Theatre Company in Boca Raton, Florida, fortunately had a two-week window of availability before his next show opened down south. He admits, however, that his prior knowledge of Harry Chapin’s life and work was limited.

“I’m almost embarrassed to say that I was not that familiar with him,” said Hoffman. “I remember the big hits like ‘Taxi,’ ‘W.O.L.D.,’ ‘Cat’s in the Cradle’ and ‘Circle’ but that was pretty much it. This was a real discovery for me. The realization that Harry Chapin was a true genius and that he was able to write these incredible tunes—and not just these hits that everybody knows, but so many other songs that take the lives of ordinary Americans from all over the country. All these different characters that he found along his trip of life. These songs take these ordinary people and turn their stories into extraordinary musical journeys.

“Each song is a whole world. So, as the director of this musical journey, what I am doing, with an incredible cast and wonderful team, is to create an entire world around each of these numbers.”

While many musicals based on singers such as Patsy Cline and Rosemary Clooney mix musical interludes with biographical sketches, Lies and Legends is more direct in its approach as it allows Chapin’s songs to speak for themselves.

“There is some dialogue, but generally speaking, it is song after song,” said Hoffman. “But each song is an entire play in itself.”

The play’s characters include two female and three male singers, all of whom play instruments, plus three additional instrumentalists. Through solos, duets, trios and ensemble pieces, the cast presents nearly 20 of Chapin’s greatest songs.

“You get a great picture of Harry Chapin the incredible storyteller and musician,” said Hoffman. “As well as a real snapshot of America, because these are simple folks for the most part. We get to hear their stories in a beautiful way.”

In the history of American songwriting, Chapin helped bridge the gap the New York City folk movement of the 1960s and the singer-songwriter explosion of the early 1970s. After dabbling in filmmaking (his 1968 film Legendary Champions was nominated for a documentary Academy Award), he decided to focus on music and eventually signed a nine-record deal with Elektra that contained a revolutionary provision giving Chapin free studio time. The provision ultimately saved Chapin hundreds of thousands of dollars and allowed him to meticulously create his elaborate musical compositions.

“He became famous at a time when there was a real bubbling creative period that influenced a lot of other songwriters such as Cat Stevens, James Taylor and Jim Croce,” said Hoffman. “All of these people came out of this same basic period and Harry Chapin was the leader of that particular style of taking a life and turning it into a song. That was the genre where you looked at a life and turned it into music and Chapin was one of the greats.”

Chapin’s career was cut short in 1981 when it is believed that he had a heart attack while driving on the Long Island Expressway, causing him to veer into the path of a tractor-trailer.

“It’s just tragic to think of what he could have yet written in the decades to come,” said Hoffman. “So it’s exciting to take this music and not only re-introduce it to the generation that knows it, but also hopefully introduce it to a whole new generation of young people who have no memory of that time.”

Hoffman has added to the original script of Lies and Legends by including recorded snippets of Chapin taped during interviews. The original off-Broadway stage production of Lies and Legends was produced in 1985 and created by a team that included Chapin’s brother, musician Tom Chapin.

“He was a real American everyman and that’s what’s great about him,” said Hoffman.

Tickets and Times

Performances for Lies & Legends: The Musical Stories of Harry Chapin are Oct. 24 at 8 p.m., Oct. 25 at 8 p.m., Oct. 26 at 2 p.m., Oct. 29 at 8 p.m., Oct. 30 at 2 & 8 p.m., Oct. 31 at 8 p.m., Nov. 1 at 8 p.m., Nov. 2 at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $32 for adults, $14 for students and are available now at the Box Office or by calling 828-295-9627. Tickets can also be purchased online at www.HayesCenter.org by credit card. Special group rates are also available. Season and Flex Passes can be purchased and used throughout the entire ’08 season.