Industrial Musicals Subject Of Eldredge Library Program

CHATHAM – Steve Young has written for “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “The Simpsons,” and the Annie Award-winning Christmas special “Olive the Other Reindeer.” He has composed original music, taught at New York University, and starred in several short films that have run the festival circuit. But the biggest emotional resonance in his life came from a discovery he made while researching a comedy bit for Letterman: the art of the industrial musical.

 If you’re not aware of the concept of industrial musicals, you’re not alone. 

“They are shows that bear a strong resemblance to Broadway musicals,” Young said, “but they’re created only for private audiences of corporate insiders like dealers, salesmen, and distributors, and they were performed at private company sales meetings and conventions. So, you get a show all about the triumphs and tragedies of being a B.F. Goodrich tire dealer, and the audience is composed entirely of B.F. Goodrich tire dealers.”

Industrial musicals are front and center to Young’s touring show, which will be presented as part of the Eldredge Public Library Learning series at the library on Oct. 28 at 10:30 a.m.

Young, originally from Pepperell but a longtime Manhattan resident, had no idea of their existence until he was doing research for a Letterman bit called “Dave’s Record Collection,” in which David Letterman would spotlight and joke about real, unintentionally funny record albums.

“I was going out looking for weird records that we could make fun of, and I started coming back with some of these rare private pressing souvenir records from, for example, the Continental Insurance sales meeting of 1968 or Detroit Diesel convention from 1966.”

The records appealed to Young’s self-labeled “twisted sense of humor. I thought that they were funnier than any comedy I’d ever found because they were so elaborate. But they’re real! And I assumed they must have been awful — and some of them definitely aren’t great — but I found that there was an upper level where the people involved were so brilliant that they could make songs about selling and servicing diesel engines sound just as rapturous as Broadway soundtracks, and you feel the goosebumps on your arm. You have no idea what they’re talking about, but you believe it and you want to hear the song again.”

In his presentation, Young showcases some of the records and film recordings of various industrial musicals he’s discovered over the years, as well as performing a song himself. 

“I just got entranced by the improbability of the whole genre, and on top of that, the craftsmanship and artistry that was poured into the least promising topics that anyone has ever written musical theater about. I grew up knowing nothing about real Broadway, so this was all a revelation to me,” he said.

The following day, on Oct. 29 at 10 a.m., Young will screen Dava Whisenant’s award-winning documentary “Bathtubs Over Broadway,” an in-depth dive into the world of industrial musicals, at the Chatham Orpheum Theater, as a companion piece to the program.

“The show and the documentary complement and balance each other,” said Young. “There’s only a little overlap, but you can enjoy one without attending the other. And as rare as the records are, it’s even crazier that film exists of any of this stuff, so it was a wonderful thing to have brief samples in the documentary…but as wonderful as the documentary is, Dava had to make a lot of choices about what to keep and what to leave out. The clips of the musicals that were included can stand on their own without my tour guide intros and affectionately snarky remarks about what we’re seeing. And that’s where my show comes in — it’s a wonderful bonus to go deep and see a bunch of things that didn’t make the cut.”

Despite his myriad work, Young still considers his discovery of the industrial musicals to be the best thing that has happened to his career. 

“I feel very lucky to have stumbled upon that path, because my own arc of going from cynical young comedy writer to someone who becomes curious, pays attention, starts asking questions, and gains respect for a secret art form is really unique,” he said. “For these composers and performers, it was hard to explain to the outside world what they did with their careers, and Broadway people used to look down on the concept of these industrial musicals. If you wrote one, you were not going to get any professional respect from your peers. I wanted to tell these folks I tracked down that I not only knew about what they did, but I love it. These people, [some of them] in their 80s or even 90s, got this validation late in their lives. At last someone told them that what they worked on wasn’t garbage, and it was not something to throw into a black hole to disappear forever. It was hugely meaningful to them, and meaningful for me to make that connection with them.

“Gatekeepers tell you what’s cool and what’s not cool. Can we get past that and meet someone and find out what they really did? I was lucky to be able to get past the sort of young, snarky comedy writer put-down mode and just meet people and find out about them. Can something be a work of art if it was commissioned by a toilet manufacturer? All these ridiculous, and yet sometimes profound questions were coming into play.”

Find more information about Steve Young and his journey at www.steveyoungworld.com. More information about “Bathtubs Over Broadway” can be found at www.bathtubsoverbroadway.com.