When the lavish new film musical Cyrano starring Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage opens in late December, few moviegoers will realize that it all began in a small theater in Connecticut.

In 2018, a musical version of Edmund Rostand’s 1897 epic play of swordsmanship, poetry, and unrequited love received a workshop production at Goodspeed Musical’s’ second, smaller venue — the 200-seat Norma Terris Theatre in Chester.

Also in that Connecticut audience for many performances of that run was film director Joe Wright — best known for romantic period films such as Pride and Prejudice, Anna Karenina, and Atonement. His partner was Haley Bennett, who was playing the role of Roxanne, the musical’s female lead— and who would also star in Wright’s film.

The idea of a stripped-down version of the show actually began quite a few years earlier, after director-writer Erica Schmidt staged a 2006 production of Carnival at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse, where Michael Gennaro was president and chief executive. Gennaro was impressed by Schmidt’s artistic vision and planned to work with her again, discussing other ideas she had, including her re-imaging of Cyrano. But later that year, Gennaro moved on to become executive director of Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, R.I.

Flash forward to 2015 when Gennaro was named executive director at Goodspeed Musicals. “One of the first calls I made was to Erica,” says Gennaro.

Foremost in their minds was the Cyrano project, which at that time was at its earliest stages of script development. Gennaro commissioned the work and invited Schmidt to Goodspeed’s Mercer Grove, the winter retreat where musical theatre artists work on new projects.

Schmidt left the Mercer with a substantial body of work — but there was still no music.

“I remember we were sitting at a restaurant,” says Gennaro, “and we were talking about various [musical theatre] composers for the show. Then for whatever reason I said to her, ‘Have you ever thought of using a [rock or pop] band?’ She thought…|CONTINUED|