SYNOPSIS
Wood opens as Herman navigates another ordinary day in his hometown of Normal, Anywhere. We are introduced to his mother Judy (who has successfully petitioned to have the seedy woods on the edge of town demolished…tomorrow!), George (his father), Diana (his Color Guard enthusiast of a best friend…who wants to be more), and Chad (the timid Born Again Christian who is as smitten with Diana as Diana is with Herman). The routine is shattered, however, when Herman returns home from school and is confronted by Judy, who has found some evidence (in the form of a cross stitching) that suggests Herman has been enjoying the pleasure of his own company a bit too much (Laundry Day). Grounded to his room, Herman sings a duet with his boyfriend Luke via instant messenger (R U There?) in which Luke encourages Herman to meet him in the wood. Torn between his mother (and the morality dictated by his community) and Luke (as well as his own desire) Herman agonizes before sneaking out of his bedroom window to meet Luke in the wood (I’m Out).
We are welcomed to the wood by The Fairies, three men who occupy the public restroom stalls and who fancy themselves part Greek Chorus and part Destiny’s Child (Come In). The Fairies observe Diana and Chad who appear on the wood’s threshold in search of Herman (Oh Lord, I Pray). After Diana abandons the clingy Chad to search on her own, The Fairies move us deeper into the wood where we are introduced to Big Top and Big Bottom; two married men (The Cop who patrols the wood and Herman’s father respectively) who have been having a secret affair within the shadowy confines. Big Bottom is Waiting for Big Top who is held up when he runs into Diana, from whom he learns that Herman - his lover’s son - is in the wood that very night. Big Top, wanting to get Herman out of the wood, takes down his description (including a note about his blue baseball cap) and dismisses Diana. A moment later Big Bottom enters and - seeing the note referring to Herman’s description - assumes that Big Top is having an affair with a mysterious young man in a blue baseball cap. They have a quarrel of musical Diva proportions (You Blew It).
The Fairies reveal Herman, lost and intoxicated by the shadows of the Wood where he runs into (and is turned on by) Chad at the same moment that Diana (in another spot in the wood) stumbles across Luke. As Diana performs her color guard routine for Luke (Into the Equation) Herman convinces Chad to strip under the guise of posing him for a cross stitching (putting his blue cap on Chad’s head to help him feel less ‘naked’). Big Top breaks up the scene, sending the teens (and the blue baseball cap) scattering. He continues to patrol the wood (Keep It Down) and in the process nearly arrests Judy, who has arrived on the threshold of the wood in search of Herman. Big Top tells her to go home, stating that he won’t be so lenient if he recognizes her again. But Judy, desperate to find her son, disguises herself with Chad’s discarded clothing (including the blue cap) and enters the wood (Act One Finale).
As Act Two opens, the mayhem grows more and more out of control. Herman and Big Bottom (his father) have a close encounter of the awkward kind through a glory hole (Glory); Diana attempts to live out her fantasy with Herman but fails even in the wood (The Fag Hag Drag); Judy has a shockingly erotic encounter with Big Bottom, who recognizes her not as his wife but as the young, ball-cap-clad man with whom he assumes Big Top is having an affair (When the Wood Gets Into You); and Chad’s prayers are finally answered when Diana recognizes him for the man that he is. The mayhem reaches a Climax when Herman and Luke at last find one another among the shadows. In the Afterglow of the bedlam Judy reflects on her experience and her marriage before she is arrested by Big Top. The two stumble upon the rest of the sleeping, post-coital convoy and Big Top convinces everyone (via gospel song) that all they’ve experienced in the wood was only a Wet Dream.
The sun rises and Herman is roused by the routine cry of his mother. As the community revels in the joy of Demolition Day, Herman grows increasingly uncertain about his choice to perceive the events of the previous night as a dream. Just as Judy is poised to cut the ribbon and usher in the wood-demolishing bulldozers, Herman takes a stand… (I Still Got the Wood/Normal Anywhere – reprise.)
ABOUT THE SHOW
Wood was created at the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
It then received a workshop production in December 2007 by the Students for the Collaborative Arts at NYU (SCAN).
Which was followed by a staged reading in 2008 by New York Theatre Barn.
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