DEBORAH HENSON-CONANT
Musical Theater Songs & Other Songs
Long before I picked up the instrument I’m known for, the harp, I was writing musicals and songs. Some of them made it onto my albums, but some have been hidden for decades, or only heard by the people who came to see a particular show.
This page is a collection of songs from all those places, some of which are still just recorded on the fly – no production values – just the scratchy sound of a work tape – and some which I’ve fleshed out and released on albums. As more people start asking to perform my songs – this is the page I’m putting them.
See my featured music theater work, “The Golden Cage”, click here.
ADDITIONAL SONGS
The DHC Songbook
The DHC Songbook is a self-curated collection of some of Deborah’s favorite songs that you can also listen to.
MUSICAL THEATER SONGS
The Golden Cage
The Golden Cage is an award-winning musical about a glorious, mythical cage that’s irresistible from the outside, and inescapable from the inside, This 2-character musical play tells the story of two creatures who meet on either side of its bars. Boris, half-man and half-bird, is stranded on the outside after a lifetime searching for the cage. Alphea, trapped on the inside, is a melodramatic diva, who longs for freedom, yet fears the outside and can’t remember how she got trapped inside. Lyrical musical theater meets operetta meets song-cycle, this poignant new musical comedy reflects the cages in which we trap ourselves and the only way we can unlock them: through connection to each other. Learn more about “The Golden Cage”
MUSICAL THEATER SONGS
The Frog Princess
“The Frog Princess” is a storybook show for orchestra and actor/narrator a little bit like “Peter and the Wolf. except the narrator also gets to sing all the characters. I premiered it with the Buffalo Philharmonic, and then got invited to present it at the Chicago Humanities Festival Children’s Festival and The Kennedy Center.
The story is about Amphibia, daughter of the famous Frog Prince and the girl who kissed him. Amphibia’s father is about to die, and when he does, she’ll wear his crown and rule over Lilypadia – but she’s afraid that when she does, she – like her father before her – will turn into a frog. The story is about embracing all you are, and all you come from – plus intrigue, romance and lots and lots of frogs.
MUSICAL THEATER SONGS
The Zero Club
“The Zero Club” is a darkly comedic musical set in late 1970’s New York City where nuclear anxiety meets theatrical absurdity. When Molly—whose fiance designs luxury fallout shelters — unexpectedly discovers that her childhood hero – former “Space Girl” TV Star Octavia Valentine, now leads an anti-nuclear theater troupe, their worlds collide in a weekend of existential reckoning.
As Molly’s brother Pete—a survivalist—falls for a passionate Zero Club member named Sheila, all the characters must confront their deepest fears about survival, love, and how to live authentically in the face of uncertainty. Through humor, satire, and moments of deep, vulnerability and truth, the show examines each character’s responses to their fear of nuclear annihilation — running from it, profiting from it, or transforming their lives into action.
Based on a real guerrilla theater movement in the early 80’s called “The Ground Zero Club” – whose motto was “If we weren’t serious, we wouldn’t be laughing” – the musical uses comedy to tackle serious themes about finding personal meaning in a world shadowed by existential threats, reconnecting with lost idealism, and choosing how to face – and even embrace – the unthinkable.
Some of the tracks in the songlist are composer demos, and some are archival audio from a 1983 performance.
MUSICAL THEATER SONGS
What the Hell are you Doing in the Waiting Room for Heaven??
“What the Hell Are You Doing in the Waiting Room for Heaven??” is a comedic one-woman musical that takes place in the Waiting Room for Heaven, where a new group of Heavenly Hopefuls – the audience – are greeted byAubrey Giles is a harp-slinging, cowboy-boot wearing Angel-Wannabe tasked with preparing them for the most important contest of their afterlives: auditions for the Heavenly Choir.
It all starts out well, with a Hallelujiah Blues, but the problem is, Aubrey missed a training in Heaven’s new automation technology, and after she nearly sends everyone to Hades by accident, she begins questioning her own fitness to lead her new trainees and starts wondering – for the umpteenth time – why she herself has never dared audition for the choir, despite having successfully coached both Elvis and Liberace to heavenly stardom.
Through audience participation, humor, and poignant musical numbers, Aubrey slowly discovers that waiting in the wings is no substitute for raising your voice and living fully. The show ultimately reveals that heaven might not be a destination, but a state of authentic self-expression achieved by simply singing your own song, imperfectly true to who you are.
“What the Hell …” premiered at the Central Square Theater in Cambridge, MA in 2008.
MUSICAL THEATER SONGS
The Letter
The Letter is a one-woman musical inspired by Schuman’s “Frauenliebe und Leben” – which is nothing like that piece – but everything like it. It can be staged theatrically or performed in concert or as a cabaret song cycle for piano and mezzo-soprano.
The Storyline of "The Letter"
“The Letter” is a one-woman musical journey that unfolds through a series of emotional snapshots, each revealing another layer of a complex relationship. Like a traditional song cycle, it tells a complete narrative arc through interconnected songs, exploring the intoxicating patterns of desire, the clockwork nature of affairs, and ultimately, the courage it takes to break free from destructive romance.
Inspired by Robert Schumann’s “A Woman’s Life and Loves,” it tells the story of love and loss, but while it’s clear in Schumann’s cycle who’s telling the story, “The Letter” can be re-interpreted depending on how it’s directed, without having to change any of the songs – or it can simply be sung song to song with no dialog.
In both versions, the narrative begins with the arrival of a letter, triggering a cascade of memories about an affair between Madeleine, a cabaret singer, and William, a married businessman. As the music progresses through haunting ballads, sardonic reflections, and passionate declarations, we witness the full spectrum of emotions in forbidden relationships.
But the questions is: Who’s telling the story?
In one interpretation, it’s Madeleine who receives a letter from William a year after she’s last heard from him, and after a year in recovery from sex-love addiction. The letter plunges her back into the romance, the hopelessness and the clockwork regularity of their affair – an addictively appealing cocktail – but ultimately her recovery triumphs over addiction, with the final decision to let go, in the final line “Darling, I forget.”
In another interpretation, while we assume that it’s Madeleine who’s received the letter, at the very end we discover it’s William’s wife who’s found it. The story of romance and betrayal she tells is partly wishing she could have such a relationship with her husband, and partly an attempt to understand how another woman could betray herself in this way.
Both interpretations culminate in the same powerful conclusion: the conscious choice to release oneself from patterns that no longer serve, to find strength in letting go, and to reclaim one’s own story and one’s own voice.
“The Letter” speaks to anyone who has ever been caught in the tension between desire and dignity, between romantic idealization and emotional reality. It reminds us that in the complex landscape of human relationships, the most profound love story is to let go of the story and choose to love ourselves.
