Long Story Short

Time: The next ninety minutes, or a period of fifty years; it’s unclear. Place: Los Angeles, CA. The bedroom of a series of small and large apartments and homes, or just one studio apartment; it’s unclear. This musical romance follows what happens when Charles, a nerdy young Jewish guy, falls in love (on a blind date) with Hope, a young Asian-American woman from Los Angeles. Through hip, funny dialogue, clever lyrics and indelible melodies, we fast-forward from the couple’s first white-hot shining moments, through the ups and downs of decades, to a surprising finale. Long Story Short rejoices in the fragile nature of love and the indelible bond that history creates between two people.

Characters:

CHARLES, a 25-year old slightly nebbishy Jewish white guy from the East Coast. The actor who plays him should be able to convincingly play somebody older (in our experience, casting somebody in their 30’s is probably the right call).

HOPE, a worldly and slightly jaded 27-year old born and raised in LA. She has grown up in an upper-middle class family, and has a taste for the slightly finer things. She’s probably a bit out of CHARLES’s league. She has been roped into a blind date with CHARLES and is none too happy about it. In Schulner’s original play, HOPE was either Chinese or a Chinese-Filipino mix. We’re leaving her race open — she could be Asian, Latino, African-American — but there must be an obvious difference in racial heritage between her and CHARLES; a crucial argument hinges on it. If HOPE is not conceivably of Chinese heritage, a few lyrics will have to change, marked in the script with an asterisk (*). See the appendix for some alternates.

4 Musicians

Piano/Conductor (Keyboard 1)

Violin

Cello

Drums/Percussion (Drum set, Soft Shaker, Brushes, Hot Rods, Djembe, China Cymbal, Splash Cymbal, Triangle, Finger Cymbals, Spooky “Ting”, Suspended Cymbal, Mallets, Tambourine, Toys, Bells, Blocks, Cabasa, Shaker)