Development in public

Ba-da-ba, ba-da-ba-doo!

Welcome to the underwater musical world of HEY DOWN THERE! I just wanted to jot down some information about me and what led me to work on this musical.

I began working backstage on musicals in 1980 at the San Bernardino Civic Light Opera. My first show was Li’l Abner, starring Joe Namath. I knew the moment I walked out onto that stage for the first time that it was where I was meant to be, even if I was just working backstage. In 1983, I met the love of my life, Jeff Rizzo, while working there on the Southern California premiere of Annie. We spent the next 39 years together, working in theater and writing songs and musicals.

In the early 2000s, on a whim, we watched the movie Hello Down There, starring Tony Randall, Janet Leigh, Charlotte Rae, and a very young Kay Cole. In Charlotte’s later years, Jeff was the musical director for her nightclub act and worked with Kay a number of times. We both immediately thought it could make a great musical.

We dove into researching the copyright issues, found some of the descendants of the authors, who were no longer alive, and wrote back and forth many times. Then the communication just dried up, so we gave up on it. But we never really stopped wanting to write it.

We talked a number of times about simply using the premise of an underwater house and changing it enough that we would not have to deal with the original rights and copyrights. But, as is often the case, life slipped through our fingers, and Jeff passed away in 2023.

At that point, I thought I would never write again. I was the lyrics; he was the music.

Then, just recently, I discovered AI music-writing tools and have been hooked ever since. Yeah, they’re not perfect, but they’re pretty darned good. While many users simply enter an idea, suggest a style, and let the program produce a completed song, I write the lyrics myself and painstakingly create prompts to produce the music I hear in my head. It sometimes takes me weeks and hundreds of attempts before I get it right. Even then, I go back and use the tools to fine-tune individual lines and verses.

When I started coming up with a number of songs and the plot of the musical began formulating in my head, I kept asking myself how I was going to sell this. I knew it was going to be difficult, especially when it came to copyright and the AI aspect of it. On top of that, AI cannot yet produce usable written sheet music, so I knew I would eventually have to find a musical director, arranger, and orchestrator, and I wondered how much that would cost.

It didn’t matter. At this point in my life, I’m sure I couldn’t afford it.

But I was undaunted and came up with the idea of trying a concept album first. I mean, it worked for Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Chess, and Jekyll & Hyde, so why not?

My next step was to use AI to create a really cool, interactive website, which you’re on right now, and then upload the songs to a service to debut the concept album.

And, well, here we are.

I invite you to have a listen and let me know what you think. If you like it—or if you don’t, but think it has potential—I hope you’ll share the link with everyone you know who might enjoy it or might be able to help get it to Broadway.

There’s a forum on the website where everyone can chat about the musical and share ideas. I will selfishly keep them for myself, with no credit, if I like them! LOL.

Who knows? With your help, maybe we’ll all see the cast of HEY DOWN THERE! performing at the Tonys sometime in the near future.

Hope you enjoy it!

Eric Andrist