A Heart-Warming Musical of Survival
1st draft demos
Piano & Vocal
In 1946, forty-two-year old Lizzie tells us she will share 'snapshots' of her life and that of her father, Pierre. They sing a duet, though he is present only in her imagination.
Pierre, twenty, is a village grocer's son in late-nineteenth-century France who longs for the excitement and opportunities of Paris. He believes he could become famous there somehow.
Lizzie has a recurring nightmare, which she has suffered since she was eight years old. In the dream, she is terrified and confused.
Schoolgirl, Lizzie (here calling herself Lisette) addresses her class about arriving in the US as a refugee five years earlier, linking this to the European war her adopted country is about to join.
Lizzie/Lisette starts work as a telephonist in a New York advertising company. She buys a basic camera and takes us through her photo album.
Lisette becomes engaged and begins calling herself Lizzie. In the streets of New York, she excitedly takes pictures of people. She contemplates turning professional.
Marie falls ill and dies during the Paris floods of 1910. Pierre, whose prayers for her recovery go unanswered, contemplates suicide but the thought of six-year-old Lisette dissuades him.
NOTE: RE-WRITE OF SO FAR FROM HERE, NEW VERSION
"I'M GOING FAR SOMEDAY"
(however maybe there is a merge of the two songs to create a final version of the song as it's not yet fully developed)
Pierre is overjoyed to meet Marie, a customer in his father's shop. They fall in love and decide to marry and move to Paris.
In Paris but having failed to make his way in the arts, Pierre turns to gambling and after initial success loses all his and Marie's money.
Pierre and Marie have a baby daughter, Lisette. Pierre sings her a lullaby, vowing to change his ways and to be a devoted father.
Both Pierre and Lizzie, in different time periods, reflect on their passion for capturing life through art—Pierre through painting, Lizzie through photography. The song explores how they each view the world and seek meaning through their respective crafts.
Lizzie’s husband abandons her and their one-year-old son, Peter. She tells her sleeping boy she will never leave him.
In 1912, Pierre and Lisette are thrilled to be heading to a new life in the United States. In Cherbourg harbour, they wait for the SS Traffic, the tender that will take them to the ship they are to board, the RMS Titanic.