One artist who Simpkins mentored was Joe Iconis, who has gone on to win the Jonathan Larson award, the Ed Kleban award and a Bistro award. "Joe was a student in the Music Composition program at NYU as I was joining the faculty," Simpkins remembers. "I'd always heard of Joe, not only from the Composition program, but also he'd played piano for some of the students in the program that I taught. I met him one day, and I asked him if he'd be interested in working together on a production of Godspell that I was directing, and he musical-directed that. So it took all of about 10 minutes to realize that we had sensibilities, about music or theater or humans or the work process."
Those shared sensibilities gave birth to a lasting relationship, and Simpkins has directed several of Iconis' projects since then. "As all good collaborations do, you kind of look for it for years and years and then you find it in about five seconds," he says. "I guess I've watched him--'refine' might be the best word—refine his voice, his stylistic voice more and more."
"I think writers, especially young ones, are sometimes pulled in so many different directions in terms of the people that have the ability to influence the writing of a piece, be that a development director, an artistic director, [or] an agent," he continues. "And Joe, I think, has always had a very unique voice as a writer, and it's been exciting to watch him figure out, through his projects, exactly what the stories are he wants to tell. He writes about normal human stuff. He writes about friendship and suburbia. He writes for characters that don't usually get to be in musicals, if that makes any sense, and I think he writes about them in a contemporary natural way of speaking. And then when that collides with his part-rock-and-roll, part musical theatre affection, as a musician-It's really neat to watch him bring that all together and figure out how that form of storytelling, that style of storytelling can serve what he's wanting to say. And watching him figure out how people speak and sing within that construct has been really fascinating."
Simpkins demurs when asked what influence he feels he has had on Iconis' growth, and success. "The more I work with him, the more I can figure out the right questions to ask him that might continue to stretch us both as we collaborate," he says. "With every new project, I think you have a confidence in collaboration, and a knowledge about the work, so...I come in a little earlier these days to some of the things he writes, and I feel like I'm better prepared to ask him the right dramaturgical questions as he's structuring the piece, because we've got some longevity of collaboration. I just kind of get him: I feel like I know how his characters talk and I can fairly easily and quickly articulate what they want and how I can translate that into my work as a director. Every time a director and writer have that in common, it's very easy-" he stops and corrects himself. "Not easy, but it's very fulfilling to walk into the room together with actors...He's just my favorite person to work with."
As both a teacher and director, Simpkins can watch the next generation of musical theater artists and fans grow and develop. "I think it's going to continue to get very different from what we all would consider to be traditional means of storytelling in musicals," he says of the artform's future. "I think hybrid pieces are going to continue to peek their head up as everybody has to continue to get creative in terms of how to compete for audiences and produce shows that don't cost millions and millions of dollars."
"There are so many young writers that I have the privilege of working with or observing, that I can't wait to see how they impact our future," he continues. "I think they will always do what writers of musicals always have, in terms of leading the way culturally, socially, and politically; but I think the method of storytelling has been so blown wide open that it's just ready to explode into so many different ways of telling stories...I don't know that anybody can predict anything," he acknowledges, "but I do know that the experimentation in the form leaves me very excited about these young writers and their ability to be given a chance for their voices to be heard, and I think that's going to change, just in the way that we tell stories."
To get that change to happen, Simpkins believes that the most important quality people in the industry need to develop is courage. "Courage in people who are producing musicals, courage in people who are developing musicals, to suss out talent, rather than just pick what they believe is a safe choice, based on either somebody's resume, or if it happens to be based on a film or whatever the case may be—I think it always comes down to courage from the top."
Kiss of the Spider Woman runs October 1, 2, 3 & 5 at 8 pm and October 4 at 3 pm at the Frederick Loewe Theatre at 35 West 4th Street. At 6:30 p.m. on Monday, October 5, Composer John Kander and Bookwriter Terrence McNally will be participating in a pre-show discussion about the creation and history of their musical. For more information and to make ticket reservations, call (212) 998-5281 or email steinhardt.boxoffice@nyu.edu
