Photo courtesy of La Jolla Playhouse

After years of discussion and rumors, sporadic Phish performances of a couple of its songs, and a well-recieved debut run on the West Coast, the Hands on a Hardbody musical is now on its feet and in previews on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. So it seems a great time to share some reporting on the show. Before the show's initial run at the La Jolla Playhouse last spring, I sat down with collaborators Trey Anastasio, Doug Wright and Amanda Green in New York City to talk about the creative process behind the show, for an article in American Theatre that ran in the May 2012 issue. The discussion was in "roundtable" format, with me asking leading questions meant to get the three artists to run with it. Below is an excerpt, or you can click through to the full piece here.

As we count down to Hands on a Hardbody's official Opening Night on March 21 (for theatre neophytes who don't mind seeing the show before it reaches its final-final form, the difference really is just that preview tickets are a bit cheaper, and the press isn't allowed to review yet), I'll share some of the many unpublished excerpts from that inteview here on the Phish.net blog, including some off-topic material like a Trey riff about the process behind creating Phish Food ice cream.

Excerpt from Trey Anastasio, Amanda Green & Doug Wright: Hands On

Originally published in American Theatre, May 2012

JEREMY GOODWIN: In strict résumé terms, Trey seems the odd man out in this trio.

TREY ANASTASIO: But I grew up around a lot of musical theatre. My grandmother was a single mother and she raised my mom in the ’40s and ’50s, and they went to every show, and it became sort of a family tradition. So when I was growing up in New Jersey, my mom used to take my sister and me to shows almost weekly. She was editor at Sesame Street Magazine and knew a lot of creative New York people. As I grew up, I used to hear around the dinner table that the ultimate dream of creativity is to be on a team working on a Broadway show. So to be asked to be part of this team was such a thrill.

As a matter of fact, I used to get made fun of in the early years of Phish—people would say some of the music sounded kind of “Broadway.” I grew up sitting around my record player listening to West Side Story and South Pacific and Hair.

DOUG WRIGHT: When I first met Trey, he gave one of the most thrilling and insightful treatises on the overture to Gypsy that I think I’d ever heard!

ANASTASIO: That was on perma- loop in my house, growing up. Musical theatre is the one place where you can find all the great elements of American music history. If you think about someone like Leonard Bernstein, and what he brought to his scores—it was popular music, but also serious composition, and development, and all those beautiful things.

AMANDA GREEN: Trey and I were working together [on songs for Phish] at the same time Doug and I were working on Hands on a Hardbody. Doug and I had looked for about a year for a composer partner, and there was nothing that was a fit. And one day Trey and I were writing and I had this lyric from the show with me, and, ha!—I just wanted to slide it over. As I got to know him and his enthusiasm for the musical world, I realized this might be the perfect fit.

This man just dives in headlong—there’s no testing the waters. We got into a room, I said, “Here’s the opening number. Boom—go!” And he just took off. This music came flying out of Trey.

ANASTASIO: I went through the process of making full-band demos of every song—sort of imitating Jesus Christ Superstar, which had an album before it became a show. There’s so much discovery I’m used to making in the studio or in the band practice room, so as a way of orchestrating, I decided to go through that extra, extra exercise. We went up to the Barn, my studio in Vermont, and had a bunch of very talented friends come in.

WRIGHT: For me, as the non-musical member of the triumvirate, it was so cool! Trey and Amanda were up there making these huge decisions about the music. They had the most amazing people, like guitarist Larry Campbell [who has played with Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Cindi Lauper and Emmylou Harris, to name a few]. I just watched these two pound through the score; I watched these amazing musicians improvise; and they were able to orchestrate the score in the most thrilling and dynamic way.

Full interview

Head over to Phan Art to check out an interview by Chris Stowell (@chris_22) with Christopher Pike, known to forum users as @CaptainPookie. Among his many artistic endeavors, the Captain creates paintings for fans based upon their favorite shows, such as this one based on Bethel 2011:

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After a week off, the Mystery Jam returnes, tanned, rested and ready to notch its eigth victory... in just 132 tries. Sigh. As usual we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Wednesday Answer: Congrats to NickSalv for being the first to get the 6/19/97 "Caspian." The Blog will be back on Monday with another Mystery Jam...

There's more information on "Hands on a Hardbody" at their official website. As the opening nears, we hope to have more features and interviews on Phish.net about Trey and Amanda's collaboration in writing this musical.

Tickets are available at Ticketmaster at this link. We're pleased to announce that the producers are making a special discount code available at deeply discounted prices, ranging from $79 in the Orchestra and Front Mezzanine to $65 in the Rear Mezzanine (this being a small Broadway theatre, we're told there's not a bad seat in the house).

To get the special fan discount offer (valid until April 6th), select the date you want to see the show on from the Ticketmaster main event page here, enter the discount code "FAN1HH" in the offer code box (as shown below), and then choose open seats from the interactive seat map.

Welcome to the 131st running of the Mystery Jam here at Phish.net. As usual we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Wednesday Answer: Conrats to davarama for being the first to call the 6/24/95 "Bowie." The Blog will be back on Monday with another Mystery Jam for your listening pleasure.

Since we here at Phish.net dropped the ball in pulling together a NYE recap, I thought I’d make up for it (just one month later) by giving you one fan’s opinion on the best moments of 2012. These are not the opinions of Phish.net, just my own thoughts. If you agree or disagree, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Best Jam: 9/1/12 "Light." The last seven or so minutes of this jam aren't just best-of-2012 good, they rank among Phish's finest improvisational passages. To those who would criticize the first few minutes of this jam I'd point out that not every note of even the 12/29/94 "Bowie" is pure gold either and, more importantly, ask how you even remember that by the time this is over. You'd think a show with the best jam of the year, an "Antelope" opener, a first set "Tweezer," a 13-minute "Golden Age," a jammed out "Caspian" and a set closing "Mike's" > "No Quarter" > "Weekapaug" sequence would be a contender for best show of 2012, but it turns out it's not even the best show of the Dick's '12 run. In fact, it's not even close...

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It’s Super Bowl Sunday, which, as a football fan, is exciting and, as an Eagles fan, mildly depressing. Football, so they say, is a game of inches. A broken tackle, errant pass or missed field goal often is the difference between winning and losing a game. If Eli Manning doesn’t make two of the greatest/luckiest plays in Super Bowl history, Tom Brady has five Lombardi trophies. The flip side of that is that if Adam Vinatieri was never a Patriot maybe Mr. Bündchen has none.

So, what does this all have to do with Phish? Well, not terribly much, if I’m honest. But I was thinking this morning how most sports fans view football teams by how many championships they’ve won... who came through the most often in the big game. What if we viewed Phish songs that way?

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Welcome to the 130th installment of the Mystery Jam here at Phish.net. As usual we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Wednesday Answer: Congrats to docgonzo for being the "first" to get the 12/28/12 "Tweezer" with his first guess. It may be winning on a technicality, but it's winning just the same. The Blog will be back on Monday with another (most difficult) Mystery Jam...

The Lawn Boys, a New York City based Phish tribute band, will be playing Sulivan Hall at 214 Sullivan St., NYC tomorrow, January 25. More information on their Facebook page here. The Lawn Boys generously staged a benefit performance last November for the Mockingbird Foundation, raising almost $1,200 through door receipts and a table staffed by volunteers Katherine Weatherly and Kelly Lawson.

Above: The Lawn Boys at the Canal Room benefit for the Mockingbird Foundation. Pictured in their lineup for this benefit are musicians Darren Rodney (Guitar and Vocals), Brad Weiger (Bass and Vocals), Shoheen Owhady (Keyboards and Vocals), Andrew Mega (Drums and Vocals) and Indofunk Satish (Special Guest - Trumpet).

Photo courtesy The Lawn Boys and Mantner Photography.

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Welcome to the MLK MJ here at Phish.net, another prime time edition. As usual we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Tuesday Night Answer: Congrats to slaphappy for being the first to call the 9/18/00 "Halley's." See you all next week with MJ130.

Phish has released another gem from the archives, 5/3/93 New Brunswick, NJ as a benefit for victims of Hurricane Sandy. Download the mp3, FLAC, or ALAC version of the show here. Recorded by Paul Languedoc and remastered by Fred Kevorkian, this show is from the last days of a very strong spring tour by Phish, and includes a stellar 2nd set.

Phish has released high definition videos of all four band member's rig tours, as seen on recent webcasts. You can check them out on their official Vimeo site or as a playlist on their Youtube channel.

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Welcome to the 128th running of the Mystery Jam here at Phish.net. As usual we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Friday Answer: Friday already? Things kind of got away from the Blog this week. In any event, congrats to McGrupp81 for being the first to ID the 8/26/93 "Melt." The Blog will be back on Monday with a new Mystery Jam...

On January 7th, a friend of the entire Phish community was taken from this world much too early. Robert Eckhart (known by many as Barefoot Bob) found a small spot on his tongue. Sadly, it turned out to be cancer. He went through painful surgeries to have part of his tongue and the lymph nodes in his neck removed. This was followed by numerous, difficult radiation treatments. On Monday, January 7th, he lost his courageous battle and leaves a wife and two children. He was only 37.

Trey was on WXPN this afternoon, on the same day as Bob's services, extolling the virtues of Phish fans and proclaiming them the best fans anywhere.

Let's really prove this point as we have many times in the past and band together as a community and help Bob's family. It makes no difference if you knew him from Phish.net, from Twitter, from tour experiences together, a fleeting hello at one show, just knew his name or never heard of him at all. He is one of us. A fan. A husband, father, brother, son, and friend.

Many artists, Phish and gracious fans and friends have donated a few dozen fantastic items including posters and artwork. Please visit http://barefootbobmemorial.com/ for details on how you can participate. And remember- the most important thing is helping the family so make those donations and dig deep.

Share your thoughts and rememberances of Barefoot Bob in THIS thread.

We are lucky to be part of such a great community. Thank you for reading and contributing.

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