'Run Bambi Run' banner
By the time Lawrencia Bembenek’s story was splashed across headlines, Gordon Gano’s focus was on the early touring days with the group he became best known for. “That was around the time I was getting in a van and going around the country and trying to get this thing called Violent Femmes going,” the songwriter recalls.
Bembenek, the Milwaukee Police Officer turned-Playboy Club waitress-turned-murder suspect, became a cause célèbre. Eventually escaping prison, she took it on the lam with the Mounties catching up with her in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Winning the right to a new trial, she pleaded no contest and was set free.
The new musical based on her case, Run Bambi Run, runs Sept. 13–Oct. 22 at Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Quadracci Powerhouse. Mark Clements directs from the book by Eric Simonson with music and lyrics by Gano.
A phone call out of the blue from a former Femmes associate connected with The Rep positioned Gano to write for Run Bambi Run. Gano began by writing three songs to give The Rep an idea of what he’d propose to do. They remain in the production.
Photo courtesy Milwaukee Repertory Theater
Gordon Gano and Eric Simonson 'Run Bambi Run'
Gordon Gano and Eric Simonson working on 'Run Bambi Run'
“From the very first phone call until now is probably 10 years. It has been a long, well-thought-out process with rewrites, drafts and shifts,” Gano says. “But there has always been forward movement.”
Gano recalls that Simonson offered suggestions for places where songs would work to “musicalize the text.” Simonson wrote additional lyrics by taking parts of dialogue and making them into songs. Their collaboration seems pretty fluid.
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“From my perspective it’s fascinating in that there has been so much collaboration,” Gano says. “I’m used to writing something and, if I like it, that’s it. It’s been really interesting to watch while being a participant.” He adds that Simonson’s experience directing modern opera was a big plus. “I guess I like his taste in music,” Gano laughs, “because he first thought of me.”
Gano’s history, albeit tenuous, to the Milwaukee Rep goes back to when he was 15 years old. Both of his parents were actors and his father’s connection with the Rep led to Gano landing a personal audition with Robert Redford for the film Ordinary People. “My abilities as an actor?” he laughs, “that was my peak.” Timothy Hutton got the part.
Protagonist’s Perspective
As a storyteller, Gano’s best work has long put the listener inside the head of the protagonist. While the angst-ridden tunes from the Femmes’ debut album continue to strike a nerve, “Country Death Song” from their second album, Hallowed Ground, takes three chords and a simple melody into a harrowing space, conjuring Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner. Not bad for the son of a Baptist reverend from Oak Creek.
Photo courtesy Milwaukee Repertory Theater
Eric Simonson (book), Gordon Gano (music), and Mark Clements (director) of 'Run Bambi Run'
Eric Simonson (book), Gordon Gano (music), and Mark Clements (director) of 'Run Bambi Run'
Because so much was reported in the Bembenek case, there was never a question of taking license. “But there is a matter of selecting and choosing and how things are presented … certainly, the people in the real events didn’t break out into a song, so in that sense it’s not realistic,” Gano explains. “But it is true to the facts journalistically, we are not making up anything. We are just drawing from those sources and making selectins how to tell the story.”
Years before Run Bambi Run, the lore of Bembenek’s story had been connected to music. When she was in the news, Bob Dylan was backstage at a Milwaukee concert and asked a local musician, “Do you think she did it?” Upon her release Bembenek’s celebrity status even put her on stage at the 1993 WAMI Awards where she presented the trophy for best new act.
“There is still a question. There are strongly held differing opinions,” Gano says about the story that inspired the production. Some of the people who were in the story are still alive.
Asked if he has an opinion about Bembenek’s guilt or innocence, “the simple answer is no,” Gano says. “But there is so much there that raises more than an eyebrow and problems related to a system and themes that are still with us today. I’ll stick with Dylan on this one.
“I get the feeling that a lot of people have their mind made up (about Bembenek’s guilt or innocence), or that this would make a good musical, or they think it is a terrible idea,” he continues.
There is a lot of humor, comedy, tragedy, sorrow, violence and anger in the work and the story is a “crazy wild ride,” he says. “I’d would like people to actually see it and hear it. I think that it allows for some different points of view, and it is asking the audience, ‘What do think?’”
Gordon Gano will also be in Milwaukee for the Violent Femmes concert with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Oct. 3 at the Bradley Symphony Center.
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