There Was a Boy

This is a campaign to raise money for an Actors Equity Association (AEA) staged reading for There Was a Boy, a Broadway-style musical about the life of Nat King Cole behind the music.

With a diverse cast in both age and ethnic representation, There Was a Boy is a highly researched and historically-based story about Nat King Cole’s life (1919- 1963) from 1945-1963. Twenty-nine songs from Cole's musical legacy weave in and out of a 2-act musical story about the famous crooner's successes and failures as a performer, a husband, a father, and a son.

To date, and my knowledge, this adaptation of Nat’s recording years with Capitol seems to be the only theater piece targeting this part of his life.

I first began researching Nat King Cole (in 1987) largely by accident because, when I walked on stage to sing, people would say, “You remind me of Nat King Cole.” At the time, there wasn’t much published/available information about Nat King Cole. Most of my research then consisted of raiding my parents’ collection of recordings in the basement of the house in which I grew up. Over the next 30 years, what started as youthful curiosity developed into my passion project of researching and writing the script for There Was a Boy.

Nat King Cole was the soundtrack to so many people's lives. He was able to bring harmony among people with his music in the 1940s, 1950s, and the 1960s. Even today he still charts on Billboard (his album "The Christmas Song" landed at No. 7 on December 31, 2018) and his music continues to touch our soul.

The show has been through some successful cycles of development already, including a full-scale production at Morgan State University (Baltimore, MD) in 2016. However, the AEA staged reading that I'm raising money for will, for the first time, allow the show’s realization with a full professional cast and crew. The AEA reading will also provide more opportunity to gauge audience impact and serve as a “preview” in my quest for further development and full-scale commercial production.

As this project develops, the goals will always be to contribute to the development of new musicals; to continue to broaden the scope of musical theater; to create a lasting, timeless theatrical event; and to provide new opportunities, particularly for minorities, in the vast landscape of live theater.