was hope for the future. He introduced me to a world of young writers that I did not know.”
Finn’ s The Royal Family of Broadway was the last production he premiered at Barrington Stage Company in 2018. Afterwards, he sold his home in Pittsfield and bought the former home of his Williams College professor in Williamstown, where he lived the last six years of his life with his longtime partner, Arthur Salvadore. Within two weeks after being named Artistic Director of Barrington Stage, Paul was invited to dinner at Finn’ s home. He was very intimidated, but Paul had it in his mind that he wanted to do a show of Finn’ s that first season at Barrington Stage. Whatever Finn wanted, he would do.
“ I said,‘ It would be an honor to do a show of yours in my first season. I think it ' s important for the theater.’ And he didn ' t respond, and I thought he hadn ' t heard me, so I asked him again, and he totally ignored that and just moved the conversation along. I thought that maybe I ' d done something to upset him. I didn ' t really understand, because I was so excited about it. And then later on, as I was leaving, out of the blue, he said,‘ Alan, I want you to do A New Brain.’
“ It’ s poignant that his last fully staged musical production was done at Barrington Stage— and it was something that Finn chose. It was autobiographical. It ' s about a writer ' s journey from death … to life … to writer ' s block … and it asks,‘ Does what you write live on beyond you?’ It brought him home.” BSC’ s commitment to new musicals continues with fuzzy, with music and lyrics by Will Van Dyke, book and lyrics by Jeff Talbott, and direction by Ellie Heyman. It runs from July 8 – 27. Told through the context of puppets, it’ s the story of a furry little creature( named Fuzzy) who has come home to take care of their ailing mother( named Muzzy). Van Dyke wanted to use that device, because it allowed him the distance to write something that’ s actually quite deep and emotional to him.
“ Fuzzy isn’ t the kind of musical that other theaters would do, but it is something that Barrington would,” says Paul.“ Bill’ s DNA is all over the place.” n
Thanks to Charlie Siedenburg, Berkshire Press Director at Barrington Stage Company, for his immeasurable help in this article.
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Holiday August July 2025 2023 BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE // 55