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There’s a new ‘Casey at the Bat’ with Stephen Murray ’s mini-opera
Richard Duckett
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Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
At the end of the poem “Casey at the Bat” by Worcester’s Ernest L. Thayer, there is no joy in Mudville.
Casey, after all, has just struck out at the bottom of the ninth. There were two out, but two on. Mudville has lost 4-2.
Stephen Murray, a prolific Worcester composer, lyricist, playwright, as well as a performing arts educator and baseball fan, isn’t looking to change the result in his new mini-opera, a musical adaptation of “Casey at the Bat.”
However, scoring a hit with it would be nice. And there could be some joy, or at least hope, in Mudville, couldn’t there?
“At the end of the poem you’re left with Casey being humiliated, but I didn’t let the piece end there,” Murray said of his composition, or turn at the bat.
“I have Casey moving forward. There’s always going to be another game, another chance. I snuck in a happy ending in there, at least an optimistic ending. They still lose the game, I can’t change that. But there will be another game.”
Murray added, “Maybe it’ll encourage people to go to Polar Park.”
People haven’t seemed to need too much encouragement in that regard as the Worcester Red Sox, the new Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, can already be designated as a hometown hit at the brand new and already popular Polar Park.
Murray, who lives in Worcester, has already been there.
At the time of writing this story, a song from Murray’s “Casey at the Bat” was scheduled to be sung before the Worcester Red Sox game versus the Rochester Red Wings on June 3, along with a reading of Thayer’s “Casey at the
Stephen Murray — a Worcester composer, lyricist, playwright, educator and baseball fan — has created a musical adaptation of “Casey at the Bat.”
TRACY MARTINO
Bat.” The poem was first published anonymously in The San Francisco Examiner on June 3, 1888, under the pen name “Phin,” based on Thayer’s college nickname, “Phinney”.
June 3, 2021, is also the date Murray hopes to have a rendering of his “Casey at the Bat” up and running on YouTube. Against a backdrop of baseball-related visuals including depictions of the history of baseball in Worcester, “Casey at the Bat” is performed by vocalists Todd Vickstrom, Heidi White, Paul Spanagel, Tracy Martino, Nicole Lian, Peter Arsenault, Alex Irwin and Murray. Artist Marsha Gleason of Northboro has created a painting of Casey to celebrate the project.
The ultimate goal is to have the work performed on stage in front of a live audience, hopefully in the fall, Murray said.
The project is produced with the cooperation of the WCLOC Theater Company and the Worcester Historical Museum.
Murray has written over 30 shows, including the romantic comedy “Making Scents,” which has been performed four times locally dating back to its premiere in 1995 with WCLOC. Among Murray’s other popular shows, some written with a youth audience in mind, are “Kamp Kaos,” “Pom-Pom Zombies” and “Katastrophe Kate.” More recently he’s written “Help! I’m Trapped in a Musical!”, “The Enchanted Bookshop Musical,” and “Greece is the Word: The Zeusical!” Murray is also choral director, music teacher and curriculum leader at Wayland Middle School.
With the arrival of the Worcester Red Sox in mind, Eric Butler of WCLOC had asked Murray if he would be interested in writing an original piece based on “Casey at the Bat.”
There have been other musical adaptations, including the opera “The Mighty Casey” by 20th-century American composer Willian Schuman. However, there was a feeling that Schuman’s work “didn’t really radiate with contemporary audiences,” Murray said.
As for Murray’s work, “It’s an opera in the sense that there’s no (spoken) dialogue. It has a mix of musical styles. It’s not an opera in the traditional sense of the 1800s. It’s contemporary opera,” he said.
Baseball had taken root in America in the mid-to-late 1800s. The Worcester Worcesters were a Major League Baseball team from 1880 to 1882 in the National League.
Thayer (1863-1940) reportedly wrote “Casey at the Bat” in the spring of 1888 at his family’s home at 67 Chatham St. in Worcester.
He came from a prominent and wealthy family of mill owners, and at Harvard University was a classmate and friend of William Randolph Hearst, who hired him as a humor columnist for the San Francisco Examiner (then called The Daily Examiner). “Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic, Sung in the Year 1888” (to give the poem its full title) was apparently Thayer’s last piece for The Examiner. Thayer may have been a
Casey
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one-poem-wonder, but it was a home run. The Baseball Almanac has called it “the single most famous baseball poem ever written.” The poem got an assist to its popularity by vaudeville performances, as the piece lends itself naturally to an easy rhymed dramatic (and comic) recitation. Thayer’s “Casey at the Bat” is 52 lines long, and divided into stanzas of four lines each, rhymed AA BB. The narrator relates how things look bleak for Mudville, down 4-2. The last hope with two out at the bottom of the ninth is Casey, but the fans fervently believe he is the right man in the right place: “Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt;/ Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt.” Casey has a defiant look, but based on the way things turn out, we could call it unduly arrogant. He deliberately takes the first two pitches for strikes, and then swings (”And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey’s blow.) … and misses. Murray said his “Casey at the Bat” opens with a narrator and music that’s close to ragtime. He’s also added his own lyrics to the narrative, and created characters for the story. “When the lyrics go away from the original poem, the music is more modern” he said. There’s a four-part chorus in addition to the individual performers. The work is scored for piano, violin, bass, flute and drums, and all being well, those instruments will be heard in future live performances. For the YouTube recording that can be heard now Murray used his computer for the instrumentals. Also for YouTube, the visuals are “a lesson in the history of Worcester baseball as the piece is sung .. I’m still an educator,” he said. While the musical score is new, the score in the game remains the same. Murray wrote additional operatic text and music for “Casey at the Bat” to “round out the story a bit more and extend the story of what happens after Casey strikes out,” he said. “In my version, Casey is a happily married man.” He hasn’t seen his wife, Dora Mae, in a while because he’s been on the road. However, Dora Mae is “totally a creation of my imagination. There’s no mention of Dora Mae in the poem. But what the heck?” Murray said. Similarly, he’s added a child, a Little Leaguer who idolizes Casey. The umpire in Murray’s opera is based on a historical character. The wonderfully nicknamed Foghorn Bailey called the first perfect game in Major League history baseball — thrown by pitcher Lee Richmond of the Worcester Worcesters, no less, on June 12, 1880. Murray said he came across Foghorn while doing research for “Casey at the Bat.” “He was legendary for how loud he was,” Murray said. According to one story, Foghorn and an opera singer were engaged in a competition at a Boston restaurant to determine who was louder. Foghorn won. Spanagel sings the part of Foghorn; Vickstrom sings Casey; White is Dora Mae; and the child fan is sung by Alex Irwin, one of Murray’s students at Wayland Middle School. Spanagel was scheduled to sing “The Umpire’s Song” June 3 at Polar Park. Irwin recorded his part at his home, and sent it along to Murray, who mixed it at his home studio in Worcester. For the adult singing parts, all the singers had been vaccinated against the coronavirus so they were able to come to Murray’s studio and sing together in person. “That was very nice,” Murray said. “People have been desperate to express themselves in theater.” Indeed, “I’m hopeful to find a way where this can be presented live. That’s exciting to see live theater happening again, so I think by early fall we’ll be able to get this in front of people.” “Casey at the Bat” is about 30 minutes in length, and Murray said he’s thinking of a future presentation where he adds some other adaptations of Massachusetts poems. Meanwhile, “I am a baseball fan. I remember when the Worcester Tornadoes were in town. I’m really excited that the Woo Sox are in Worcester,” he said. Plus, we have the Worcester Bravehearts as well. Murray went to see the second home game in the history of the Worcester Red Sox May 12, when they played the Syracuse Mets. “It’s a beautiful park,” Murray said. But as the game entered the bottom of the ninth, Murray might have had a sense of deja vu (all over again, as Yogi Berra might have put it). The Woo Sox were down 4-2, and that’s the way the score remained. “It’s exactly what happened in ‘Casey at the Bat,’” Murray said.
“Casey” by Marsha Gleason; 20” x 16” oil painting.
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‘Heavy Metal Parking Lot’ to take over Ralph’s Rock Diner
Robert Duguay Special to Worcester Magazine | USA TODAY NETWORK
The grand return of live music to its fullest in Worcester is hopefully still a few months away, but that doesn’t mean a crowd of metalheads can’t have some fun in the meantime. h Other than the music, another thing that metal has over a lot of other styles is the art that comes with it. Characters such as Eddie on the cover of Iron Maiden albums, the crosses on the cover of Metallica’s Master Of Puppets and countless other examples are emblazoned in fans’ minds to the point that it’s symbolic.
On June 5 at Ralph’s Rock Diner on 148 Grove St., Worcester, an event called “Heavy Metal Parking Lot” will be happening outside as a flea market pop-up. It starts at 1 p.m. and a bunch of bands and labels are going to be selling original merchandise, with DJ Style Buresh spinning music all afternoon into the early evening.
One of the labels taking part in the event is Atomic Action Records, based out of Providence. Owner and operator Brian Simmons will be having his son Alex from the Newport hardcore punk act Bullet Proof Backpack man the operations.
“It’s been a long stretch without interacting with any of our friends,” Alex said. “This will be a great opportunity to catch up with our buddies and hang out with all of our friends. I will be stepping in as Atomic Action for the day alongside my own label, Youth Distribute. We’ll have some mail order exclusive records and tapes from each label at our table, with some fresh releases. If you can, stop by and hang out with us for the day.”
Worcester hometown metal heroes High Command will also be part of the event. They’re excited about the whole thing and they’re looking forward to experiencing the pop-up in its entirety.
“It’ll be a great opportunity to stop by and catch up with some of the best bands, labels and artists New England has to offer and pick up some exclusive limited edition merchandise,” guitarist Ryan McArdle said. “Tables will be set up by vendors all throughout the Ralph’s parking lot, and food and ice-cold libations will be served at the bar. A dunk tank will be set up and give patrons the opportunity to dunk some of the worst people Worcester has to offer and raise money for the Worcester County Food Bank. It’s a win/win.”
Local speed metal shredders Seax will also be involved in the festivities. They plan on having a plethora of merch and records for sale with a wide range to choose from.
“First of all, we’re really ex-
Hope
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“The Day of Hope addresses not only physical needs, like food, clothing, and shoes, we have all of those,” said Hayward, “but also relational and spiritual needs.” The goal, Hayward says, is to address immediate concerns but also have an effect going beyond a single day. This can mean matching community members with valuable resources such as addiction recovery centers or providing a sense of belonging like finding a new church family.
“It’s 122% about relationships,” said Shanel Soucy, assistant coordinator. “Not just one day but creating support systems that can work with people over time.” To this end, the organization engages with leaders in businesses, churches and other local organizations to focus on individuals with specific circumstances. Addiction recovery emerged as a major issue, so HfW raised money both for recovery programs and to sponsor those who joined them.
Another of their year-round initiatives that was launched during the pandemic last year was “Bags of Hope.” These care packages contain basic personal hygiene products, socks, slippers and sweatshirts, and were delivered to recovery centers across the city. “People don’t pack a bag before they go into detox centers,” said Hayward, who first proposed the idea when someone she knew called from recovery to ask if she could bring a pair of slippers. The idea was soon adapted for those quarantined in COVID recovery as well, adding in things like books and puzzles and delivered to places such as Community Health Link. Over 1,250 Bags of Hope were delivered.
Fortunately, the Day of Hope event last year was not paused due to the pandemic — in fact, it was held in two locations simultaneously. Soucy explained that as the event was going to be smaller due to COVID safety restrictions, the organizers asked themselves — why not use those resources to hold two smaller ones rather than one big one. “People wanted the event in more areas and it was a lot easier to reach the people that we wanted to reach,” she said. For this year’s Day of Hope, that will be doubled with four locations. From there, Soucy hopes it will multiply to eight, then 10 and so on.
The four locations are the Living Word Church, Belmont AME Zion Church, The Journey Community Church, all in Worcester, and the House of Destiny Church in Southbridge.
The formal gala will include a live auction, bake sales and live band. The first hour will be a cocktail reception with Sam Bowen and All Nighters playing smooth jazz. The auction will include both items and services, such as a wine tasting for a party of 20 donated by Total Wine and WooSox tickets that have been sold out to the public. All money will go to fund the Day of Hope and outreach initiatives like Walking Out of the Darkness, to raise money for suicide prevention. Tickets to the event include food and refreshments.
Stuart Rideout, a board member, emphasized that the organization wants to make it fun and get the word out so people have a chance to dress up and go out.
Rideout also defined the mission of HfW as all encompassing. “We want to break the cycle for people who are disenfranchised, those who cannot finish high school or college, those who face uphill recoveries from addiction — help the next generation come into their own.”
The Hope for Worcester fundraiser will be held 6 to 9:30 p.m. on Friday, June 11, at Union Station. Tickets are $20 and can be ordered online at www.hopeforworcester.org.
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