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Casting auditions sought for ‘The Lazy Show’ musical in Fairfield
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD – Fairfield resident Fred Gratzon has spent seven years turning his book “The Lazy Way to Success” into a musical, and now he’s ready to host casting auditions to perform the musical this spring.
The musical is called “The Lazy Show,” and will be performed eight times from April 21 to May 10 at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center. Casting auditions will occur each of the next two Saturdays, on Feb. 1 from 2-5 p.m. and on Feb. 8 from 1-4 p.m., also at the arts center. Gratzon encourages those interested to “bring a song or two” to show off their voice.
The musical director of the show is none other than Fairfield’s own Jim Edgeton, conductor of the Fairfield Municipal Band and 29-year director of the Fairfield High School band. The Lazy Show contains 32 musical numbers, about two-thirds of which were composed by Berklee College of Music alumnus Jake Cassman, and another third were composed by Alejandro Villanueva Medina, a native of Mexico who now resides in Los Angeles. The composer who goes by “Barbershop” John Howard also contributed one number.
A SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR
Gratzon might be an unlikely author of a musical since he has no background in music, but he has a long history of succeeding at any venture he puts his mind to. When Gratzon moved to Fairfield in 1979, he said he was “shocked” there was no good ice cream. He couldn’t bear the thought of living somewhere without good ice cream, so he founded The Great Midwestern Ice Cream Company.
“I started an ice cream company with no money, no experience, and completely no clue how to make ice cream,” he said.
About five years later, Gratzon’s ice cream was named “Best Ice Cream in America” by People Magazine, and was being sold to first-class passengers on United Airlines. The U.S. Olympic basketball team asked for it. Nancy Reagan served it at White House functions. Gratzon and his wife Shelley were even invited to the White House to meet Nancy and President Reagan.
Gratzon’s next business venture was founding a long-distance telephone company called Telegroup. He started out small, working from the spare bedroom in his house, but over the next nine years that company grew to be the largest employer in the county with 1,100 employees and revenue of $338 million at its peak.
After Gratzon retired from the business in the late 1990s, it went bankrupt and its stock price crashed.
“I went from a quarter of a billion dollars to zero in record time,” he said.
Gratzon credits his wife Shelley for saving the couple by “squirreling away” a portion of his salary to be able to survive the ups and downs of the market.
THE LAZY WAY TO SUCCESS
Gratzon went on to help fundraise for Maharishi International University. During one fundraising trip with Craig Pearson, vice president of MIU, Pearson asked him about his work ethic.
“I don’t believe in work. I try to avoid it at all costs,” Gratzon told Pearson.
Pearson couldn’t believe his ears. Gratzon explained that he had even written a book about how to succeed without working, but never got around to finishing it. Pearson was intrigued and asked to read it. Gratzon initially refused, saying he was too embarrassed. Pearson insisted, and eventually Gratzon relented and let him read the book. The next day, Pearson left a message on Gratzon’s answering machine shrieking in laughter, telling Gratzon how much he enjoyed the book. Pearson told Gratzon he just had to finish the book.
Gratzon got Lawrence Sheaff to do the illustrations. Sheaff had been the top designer for Maharishi for 25 years, and was known for doing formal and classical work. But Gratzon wanted funny illustrations, and over the next five months the two had a glorious time cracking each other up with one funny idea after another.
“The Lazy Way to Success” was published in 2003. Its subheadline reads “How to Do Nothing and Accomplish Everything.” The book was widely praised, and was featured in major publications such as the style section of the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Des Moines Register. The book has been published in multiple languages, too.
THE LAZY SHOW MUSICAL
In the years after the book’s publication, Gratzon received emails from fans asking him to turn the book into a musical. He got a chuckle from the suggestion, but didn’t take it seriously. But one day while Gratzon was visiting family in Pennsylvania, he decided to give it a try. It was Thanksgiving of 2012, and he thought he could write the lyrics for one song every week, and have enough songs for a musical by June.
“It flowed right out of me,” Gratzon said about the writing process.
Gratzon said he had no background in theater or music. The Union asked him why he wanted to write a musical with no experience in the field.
“I don’t regard ignorance as an obstacle,” Gratzon joked.
Gratzon said he was able to write songs even faster than his initial goal of one per week. His first draft was done by March 2013.
“I’d be in the shower dancing to the songs,” he said. “I had no idea how the music would go, just the lyrics, and I tried to make up my own music for it.”
Gratzon’s next task was finding composers to put music to his song lyrics. It was tough sledding at first because Gratzon was unknown in the music industry, but after placing a magazine ad seeking a composer, Gratzon got three responses. One composer read Gratzon’s libretto and loved it, telling Gratzon that one of his song’s was “funnier than Mel Brooks,” one where the Israelites are trying to convince David not to fight Goliath. The composer wrote back to Gratzon to tell him he was too old to take on such a big project, but he did give Gratzon great advice on how to improve his songs.
Gratzon, age 78, said he couldn’t find a composer “his own age,” and thus decided to advertise at music and theater schools. He received about 80 resumes from places like The Juilliard School, Carnegie Mellon, Berklee College of Music and other prestigious schools. After an extensive search, Gratzon was able to secure the services of three young composers: Jake Cassman, Alejandro Villanueva Medina and “Barbershop” John Howard. The three helped Gratzon create a six-minute musical short advertising “The Lazy Show,” which can be viewed on Gratzon’s website www.sillycorn.org, where visitors can learn about Gratzon’s production company Sillycorn Valley Theatrics, read biographies of him and these three composers, and offer a donation.
Gratzon said he’s looking forward to hosting the world premier of The Lazy Show in Fairfield, and hopes to record one of the performances so he can share it with people all over the world.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
