The Rural We: David Kamp
When a writer in Lakeville, Connecticut contacts you and says he's a lyricist for a “really fun, funny show and this is a chance to catch it in CT before it transfers to Broadway,” what can you do but follow up? David Kamp, longtime contributor to Vanity Fair and author of Sunny Days (a history of the Seasame-Street-Mister Rogers era of children’s television), The United States of Arugula, and “Snob’s Dictionary,” a series of humor books, has entered the world of musical theater. He co-wrote the songs for the new John Leguizamo musical “Kiss My Aztec!” which has mounted its third production at Hartford Stage, running through June 26.
We’ve been in Lakeville part time since 1997. My wife and I found it as young adults. A lot of people we admired had an ideal dual residency, living in New York City and lovely places in Northwest Connecticut or the southern Berkshires. We bought a ramshackle 1815 farmhouse that we lovingly cared for. Since the pandemic, we’ve been spending way more time in Lakeville than we used to, but it’s always been a writing haven for me.
John Leguizamo has been a friend for a long time. He has a house in Ulster County, and our families would get together, often at Lia’s Mountain View Restaurant in Pine Plains, and enjoy raucous dinners while our kids ran around in the back lawn. In one of our conversations, I told John I wished I’d come up in the era where Ira Gershwin was lyricist to George Gershwin’s music.
John had been writing a script called “Pain in the Aztec” that he wanted to be a screenplay, but then decided to adapt it into a musical, which he co-wrote with Tony Taccone. He remembered my comment about the Gershwins, and paired me with Benjamin Velez, who was writing the music for “Kiss My Aztec!.” It was kind of an arranged marriage that’s worked out splendidly.
I’ve published a lot of humor, which is similar to writing lyrics. You don’t want to fill up too much space; every word has to count. I took to it naturally. The show is a high-spirited comedy set in the Aztec empire at the time of Spanish conquest, but the humor is all contemporary, akin to Monty Python’s “Spamalot.” The Aztecs emerge victorious, which is counterfactual. But in our show, they muster the will to overcome the Spanish. It gives us the platform to talk about contemporary things. It’s a musical comedy packed with laughs and really good songs. The talent level is off the charts. The cast of 15 consists entirely of Latinx, Black, and AAPI actors, which is a rarity in American theater, even in 2022. Most gratifying to me is how welcoming the theater people have been.
Our next step is Broadway; we’re hoping to roll it in the next year or so. I’m so fortunate to be part of it, and in my 50s to have a second career as a writer for musical comedy.
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