A Playwright Who Gets the Job Done
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The new musical version of “High Fidelity” is set in a “remote neighborhood in Brooklyn,” rather than the London of Nick Hornby’s novel or the Chicago of John Cusack’s movie. “We don’t explicitly say, because the neighborhoods keep changing,” the writer of the musical’s book, David Lindsay-Abaire, said. “It would have been Williamsburg 10 years ago. Now, is it Red Hook?” Probably –– “but in eight months, it will be Sunnyside, Queens.”
Picturing the neighborhood was important in creating the character, Mr. Lindsay-Abaire said in a recent interview at 37 Arts, where “High Fidelity” was rehearsing before starting previews at the Imperial Theatre tonight. “You understand that he has a store that nobody really goes into, and it’s a neighborhood that nobody really seeks. There’s no reason to stop there.”
For “High Fidelity,” Mr. Lindsay-Abaire drew on his own experience as a Brooklynite. When he and his wife moved to Carroll Gardens in 1992, he recalled, “There wasn’t a lot there. Smith Street was just a row of bodegas and these sort of very mysterious Italian clubs.” Laughing, he added: “It’s like the West Village over there now. But when we moved in, it was kind of sketchy, and there was no real reason to go there.”
Otherwise, Mr. Lindsay-Abaire has almost nothing in common with Rob, the floundering hero of “High Fidelity.” Rob is a commitment-phobe who owns a struggling record store. Mr. Lindsay-Abaire, who will turn 37 next week, has been happily married for 12 years –– his name is a combination of his and his wife’s names –– and, professionally, is enjoying a remarkable degree of success.
His most recent play, “Rabbit Hole,” earned a Tony nomination, and Nicole Kidman has optioned the film rights. Another of his plays, “Kimberly Akimbo,” is in development with Dream-Works. A big-budget children’s movie he adapted –– “Inkheart,” starring Helen Mirren, Brendan Fraser, and Paul Bettany –– has just started filming in Italy. On top of all this, and “High Fidelity,” Mr. Lindsay-Abaire is also writing the book and lyrics for “Shrek: The Musical,” set to reach Broadway next season.
Mr. Lindsay-Abaire likes challenges, and doesn’t like being pigeonholed. After making his name with antic black comedies, he wrote “Rabbit Hole”–– a naturalistic drama about a couple who has lost a young child –– partly to show that he could do something totally different. “I saw my name cropping up in other people’s reviews as an adjective,” he said.
Asked how writing a musical is different from writing a play –– and writing a naturalistic drama different from writing a surreal comedy –– Mr. Lindsay-Abaire said that there are more similarities than differences.
“The playwright asks himself the same questions –– at least I do,”he said. “‘What is this play about? What’s at stake? What does your protagonist want?’ And then, from scene to scene: ‘What are the through-lines of the scenes? What’s the dramatic event that ends the scene and propels the character into the next scene?’ It’s about house-building, honestly.”
In “High Fidelity,” of course, he was adapting the work of a writer he greatly admires, and he wanted to stay true to its tone. “I didn’t want ‘High Fidelity’ to turn into a David Lindsay-Abaire show,” he said. In order to make the show work, he said, he and his creative partners, the composer Tom Kitt and the lyricist Amanda Green (the daughter of the late lyricist Adolph Green) had to make Rob more engaged, and less emotionally paralyzed, than he is in the novel and movie. So the writers brought out the love story: The musical Rob is devastated when his girlfriend, Laura, breaks up with him, and the subsequent plot is driven by his desperate efforts to win her back.
All of Mr. Lindsay-Abaire’s protagonists “find themselves in upside-down worlds, and they have to figure out they fit into that world, and how to make sense of these broken pieces,” he explained. “In ‘Fuddy Meers,’ it happens to be this woman wakes up with no memory and has no idea who anyone is, and she has to figure out her history. In ‘Rabbit Hole,’ this woman wakes up and her son has died.” When Rob gets dumped, his world is similarly shattered, he said. “And that was my way into it. I thought, ‘Okay, I can do this job.'”
Mr. Lindsay-Abaire got the job for “Inkheart,” based on a popular children’s book by the German author Cornelia Funke, by going to what was essentially a writer’s audition: “Every once in a while there’s an open writing job, so they come to New York and see dozens of writers,” he said. “I pitched them what I loved about the book and how I would turn it into a movie, and the author was there, and we just hit it off, so they hired me.” Mr. Lindsay-Abaire has already been asked to adapt the sequel, “Inkspell.”
Still, he said, “I do look forward to the day when I can just sit down by myself, with nobody looking over my shoulder, so I can write a new play.” He has two going in his head now, and he’s optimistic that, when his schedule opens up, they’ll just pour out.
For the next few weeks, though, it’s all “High Fidelity.” The creative team made lots of changes after their tryout in Boston last month and may make more during previews, based on audience response. Mr. Lindsay-Abaire seems completely engaged in the process, yet regardless of the show’s ultimate success –– as of 10 days ago, it had sold only $600,000 worth of tickets, according to the New York Post –– Mr. Lindsay-Abaire’s career isn’t riding on it. He has had early critical success, and right now, he’s experimenting with new forms and stretching his craft. The results, when he does return to playwriting, should be exciting to see.