The Story
The Only Man in Town
“You reached for the stars, for the moon and Mars, but you forgot to keep your feet on the ground.” The Only Man in Town, a true story of success, failure, and redemption brought to new life in an old-fashioned musical. 2400 people attended its first three performances, showing that an original, but traditional, musical can out-compete Netflix for a community’s attention.
Set in 1893, in a rural community in the Midwest, my musical brings back to life Frank Glazier, a big man in a small town who succeeds in saving Chelsea from decay, but at a terrible cost to himself and his family.
Starting as a pharmacist, he brings electricity, running water, automobiles, and the largest stove company in the world to his town.
Like Dr. Doolittle with his Pushme-Pullyou, Frank stuns and delights the townsfolk with the appearance, from New York, of a 16 ton double toggle drawing press that revolutionizes stove manufacturing, singing: “This double-toggle drawing press, my present to the town. This double toggle drawing press, with this we’ll gain renown.” In ads, Frank claims to be “the Only Man in Town” and the residents agree, making him president of the school board and the bank, and mayor of Chelsea.
But as his power grows, he loses his bearings and becomes domineering and reckless. It’s as though George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life” turned into Mr. Potter. The result for Frank is bankruptcy and a 15 year sentence in the state penitentiary.
Although Frank’s wife, Henrietta, begins her marriage content to be a homemaker painting flowers on plates, she comes to realize that, with Frank in jail, she must confront the world outside the home. Only Henrietta’s constant love and her brave efforts in confronting Wall Street bankers, rescuing her granddaughter from the West Coast, encouraging their son to come back home, and persuading the governor to release Frank early, saves Frank and their family
As few as six men and seven women, plus three adorable children, can perform the show, but the cast is expandable to more than thirty. The music is scored for a traditional fourteen-piece pit orchestra, but the songs are also arranged for just a piano.
“Romeo and Juliet” is not just a play about Verona and “The Only Man in Town” portrays not just one town’s struggles or one person’s ambitions and failures, but the universal tension between individuals and their communities and the complex interactions of life-long loving partners
Like the two thousand four hundred ticket-buyers at the play’s premiere, your audience will laugh, they will cry, and they will leave the theatre singing: THERE’S ONLY ONE HEAD IN A CROWN, — THERE’S ONLY ONE BELL IN A BELFRY, ONE MAIN STREET IN THIS WHOLE TOWN, THERE’S ONLY ONE MAN IN CHELSEA, YES ONLY ONE MAN, THAT’S ME!
