Emily Saliers used to be a musical theater skeptic.
“I thought it was funny that people would break into song,” said the singer-songwriter, who along with Amy Ray makes up the folk-rock duo Indigo Girls. “I was like, ‘That’s kinda weird.’”
But now, the musical theater convert has teamed with Tony-nominated actress Beth Malone and her writing partner Mary Ann Stratton on the musical Starstruck, which is making its world premiere at the Bucks County Playhouse.
The trio, who Saliers said is now “like family,” spoke via Zoom from the house they’re sharing in New Hope through the run of the play this month.
Starstruck is a smart, funny rom-com inspired by Cyrano de Bergerac. While Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano is about a soldier secretly in love with his cousin, Starstruck is a lesbian love story with a podcaster and a park ranger intent on attaining Dark Sky Reserve status for her small mountain town of Sawtooth, Idaho.
Malone, who wrote the book with Stratton, plays ranger-astronomer Cyd DeBerg alongside Krysta Rodriguez as podcaster Roxanne Cooley. Sam Gravitte is the third point in the love triangle as a bumbling park ranger. Saliers wrote all the music and lyrics.
Retelling the timeless story — made into movies starring Jose Ferrer, Gerard Depardieu, and Peter Dinklage as well as the 2000 teen romance Whatever It Takes — as a same-sex love story with Cyd composing texts for verbally challenged Chris appealed to Malone as a chance to address “underrepresentation in any medium,” she said.
“I have some librettist book-writer friends who were looking at ‘80s rom-coms to adapt into a musical for me,” said Malone. “And when I looked at those movies, it was the men I wanted to play. Like, I don’t want to be Shelley Duvall [in Roxanne]. I want to be Steve Martin.”
Starstruck, Stratton said, “is about that sense of awe, and allowing yourself to be surprised by something in your own life. And it also happens in the theater, where you turn off the lights, and experience awe for a couple of hours.”
The cowriters went down “several deep rabbit holes about physics and astrophysics,” said Malone, to make sure they got the science right as Starstruck explores mysteries of the universe and the human heart.
Malone and Stratton “are small-town Colorado girls,” said Stratton, and also longtime Indigo Girls fans. After Malone met Saliers, and the trio had Zoom meetings, “we took our phones out to surreptitiously take pictures of the screen,” Stratton said.
“Sometimes I would videotape a little bit of the Zoom so I could watch it later,” Malone admits, “just to make myself believe that it had happened.”
Saliers laughs, and blushes.
“I was in before they even asked,” she said.
The singer and guitarist, who will play Concerts Under the Stars in King of Prussia with the Indigo Girls on June 12, changed her mind about musical theater thanks to Jennifer Nettles of the country band Sugarland. Nettles gave her a musical theater tutorial, and Saliers had a Broadway conversion experience in 2019 at Dear Evan Hansen, the Tony-winning musical cowritten by Ardmore native Benj Pasek.
“I bawled my eyes out. I was like, ‘Oh my God, musical theater can transform you.’” Saliers said.
Saliers and Nettles planned to write a musical about women working in a Gibson guitar factory in Kalamazoo, Mich., during World War II. But that was put on hold as Nettles worked on Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo, which is set to premier off-Broadway in New York in June.
When Malone approached Saliers, who lives in Atlanta, she was “all in.”
“I didn’t know what the hell I was doing,” she said.
“Along the way I learned a lot because it’s not just about writing songs. I can write a song any old time, but when you have to speak for a character or have to work out dialogue timing within the context of a song, that was all new to me.”
The more than 20 Saliers songs in Starstruck include Indigo Girls tunes, like “Galileo” and “Closer To Fine.” Saliers had to be persuaded to use older songs — some like “Run” with new lyrics — in the new play.
“I resisted ‘Galileo’ and ‘Closer To Fine’ because they weren’t written for the show. I didn’t want it to be a shoehorning process. Jukebox musicals are not my favorite, to put it lightly. I just thought it was going to be more interesting to dive deep into new material,” like Starstruck originals “Hologram” and the finale “What Lies Between.”
Starstruck found a home in New Hope when producers Alexander Fraser and Robyn Goodman gave the green light for the show last year, Saliers said.
Starstruck director and choreographer Lorin Latarro also choreographed the Bucks County Playhouse’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company in 2015 and is on their Artists Council.
“The theater itself is this beautiful gem,” said Malone of the 430-capacity showplace alongside the Delaware River, which opened in 1939 with Springtime for Henry starring Edward Everett Horton.
“It’s such a warm hug of a building. It’s solid, it’s deep, it’s got history. You can feel it.”
The goal is to take the show to Broadway, with the backing of podcaster and queer activist Glennon Doyle, comedian Tig Notaro, and soccer star Abby Wambach, who all came on as executive producers in November.
New Hope’s proximity to New York is a plus.
“It feels great being here,” said Malone. “And you can also live in your apartment in Manhattan and rehearse with Broadway-caliber actors. This is our spot. We all felt it. It’s just the perfect scenario for us.”
Saliers, in a follow-up email, shared her enthusiasm. “We feel fortunate to have landed here for our first full production,” she said. “We’ve had excellent food and coffee at the Ferry Market, Stella, Nektar, and Odette’s. New Hope is charming!”
“We just love being here in this gorgeous little town,” added Stratton. “With the Pennsylvania woods and the Main Street, and then having all of our friends and families fly into Philly, which is so close and so easy. It’s all been a dream.”
“Starstruck” runs through March 21. Bucks County Playhouse, 70 S. Main St., New Hope, Pa., bcptheater.org