I Wanna Go Back

(From Left) Eddie Money and John Blenn

As the old saying goes, you can take the boy out of Long Island, but you can’t take Long Island out of the boy. You don’t have to explain that one to Eddie Money. Despite having lit out for California more than 30 years ago and finding success as a multi-platinum rocker, Money is back on the Island working on a new musical based on his life. Two Tickets to Paradise—The Musical, which opens on June 4 at the Dix Hills Performing Arts Center, traces Money’s path from when he fronted his high school band through his breakthrough as a hit solo artist—with Money himself narrating throughout.

And narrating has never been a problem for Eddie Money.

Indeed, today at T.G.I. Friday’s in Manhasset, the budding playwright is excitedly jabbering away and jumping from topic to topic, while the show’s director and current Five Towns College Professor John Blenn is bemusedly looking on and sipping his coffee.

“This play is just a tribute to everybody on Long Island,” says Money. “It’s just great to be back on Long Island where my roots are and where I learned how to play rock ’n’ roll… Both my sisters live a block away from where our parents raised us. My brother lives on the other side of Levittown on Gardenia Lane. For me, the musical captures that most important time when you’re starting out before you get jaded.”

The seeds for this collaboration were sown last year when Blenn went to see his future theatrical partner play Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. As a prominent local playwright with 60 plays under his belt, Blenn was approached by Money’s agent Gordon MacKay, who mentioned this nascent project and suggested the two get together.

“The thing that really attracted me about it is that Eddie obviously had a story to tell,” says Blenn. “The story is about finding your way and making it. Some of the actors fit into that and understood it completely. That’s how Eddie and I settled on all the guys we’re using.”

First and foremost in the cast is 15-year-old Jesse Kinch, who currently attends Money’s Island Trees alma mater and has been singing in the local bar scene since he was 8. Because of this résumé, Kinch was a natural fit to play Money in the musical.

“He’s my protégé,” Money says. “He’s a rock god from Island Trees just like I was. And just like when I was his age and everyone was trying to get me to cut my hair, I can’t get him to do the same. It’s all come full circle.”

As for the musical itself, the main inspiration is Jersey Boys. While that show features the hits of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, it also follows the group’s road to success and includes enough tragedy in it to make it more than just a jukebox musical. And just as the drug overdose of Valli’s daughter is addressed in Jersey Boys, Two Tickets has its share of dark moments, ranging from how Money’s older brother Dan went missing in Vietnam for two weeks to Eddie’s own near-tragic early-’80s barbiturate overdose from Phenetol. In addition to nearly killing him, the OD destroyed the sciatic nerve in Money’s leg, gave him kidney failure and made him unable to walk for an entire year. Remarkably enough, Money’s biggest album, No Control, came out the year after his near-death experience. Not surprisingly, hits like “Shakin’” and “Think I’m in Love” are part of the musical’s book, a factor Blenn gladly incorporated.

“What also very much attracted me to the show was the fact that great musicals have two or three really memorable songs,” says Blenn. “Eddie’s got 26 songs in the Top 100. The tough part here is what do you leave out, not how do you find great songs?”

One of Two Tickets’ most distinguishing characteristics is how deep the Long Island roots run—far beyond Money and his story. Not only is most of the 23-plus cast made up of local community theater actors, but Blenn is a native, as are former New York Dragons cheerleader and choreographer Karen Von Eron who owns Massapequa’s K&J Studios. Same goes for Musical Director Steven Ronson, who owns A Room Studios and plays with local band Quick Draw. Money wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I don’t think I’ll get in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame until I’m in an urn on my wife’s fireplace,” he says. “But I don’t give a shit because I’m from Long Island and am in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame where I’m from. I have a varsity letter from Island Trees High School for playing second-string soccer and it’s not the Olympics, but it’s my letter from where I went to high school.”

Two Tickets to Paradise—The Musical opens at Dix Hills Performing Arts Center on June 4, 2009 and runs through June 7 and from June 11 – June 24. For tickets and more information, please call 631-656-2148 or visit www.dhpac.org.