Terry Shaw’s new musical ‘House of Mirth’ questions how far women really have come

“House of Mirth,” an original musical by composer, conductor and Timberline High School football coach Terry Shaw, opens Saturday.

Like the 1905 Edith Wharton novel on which it’s based, “Mirth” is anything but mirthful. (The title refers to a Bible verse: “The heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”) The novel and musical center on Lily Bart (played by Jennifer Shaw, Terry Shaw’s wife), a poor though well-born woman who at age 29 is looking for love and marriage as she reaches the end of what was considered to be marriageable age.

“It’s easier to create music out of emotional content,” said Shaw, who also wrote 2016’s “Tents,” based on the lives of people living in tent communities. “When someone is in pain, everybody feels that pain.”

Shaw wrote Mirth’s last song, “The Moment Is Gone,” back in 2000, when Shawn Riley, then the drama teacher at Capital High School, suggested collaborating on a musical version. That project never came to fruition, but the story and the song stuck with Shaw, and in 2018, he began developing the full musical, condensing the novel into two acts made up mostly of songs.

“I’ve always had it sort of in the back of my mind,” he told The Olympian. “I really liked the story. The two themes that jumped out at me were ‘what is love?’ and ‘what is the role of a woman in our society?’ Over 100 years after the book was written, our society is still questioning the role of women.

“We should be able to look at this 100 years later and say, ‘Oh, my gosh, we’ve come so far,’ and that’s not what I said when I read the book. This could be happening today.”

On a lighter note, Lily’s attempts to navigate New York City high society remind Shaw of reality TV.

“This could almost be called ‘The Original Housewives of New York,’ ” he said. “It’s very much like those shows.”

Lily’s search for love is timeless, too, he said. “It’s something I think everyone in the audience is going to be able to identify with. One of the most important things that draws in an audience is ‘Can you identify with a character, or multiple characters?’ This show has that.”

Troy Arnold Fisher, the longtime music director for the now-defunct Capital Playhouse, is the show’s director. He calls it a love story.

“It’s every person’s story. … The show is about the games that people play. And we all play them. … We think that there will always be another chance for love. The truth is that opportunities for love are not lengthy visitors. They don’t hang around forever.

“As a lyricist, Terry gets right to the heart of the human experience,” he said. “And he has a real gift for melody.”

Fisher, who played one of the lead roles in Shaw’s “Tents,” has been involved with “House of Mirth” throughout its development.

“What a rare experience this is,” he said. “It’s a work in progress, and every day, something gets added and something gets cut. It’s been a great creative process.”

It’s a much larger scale show than “Tents,” involving 20 actors and a 17-piece orchestra, including Shaw on piano.

“Terry has been the rehearsal accompanist and the music director,” Fisher said. “It’s a rare luxury to have the composer in the room while you’re working.”

House of Mirth

• What: Timberline High School choir teacher and football coach Terry Shaw wrote this musical based on Edith Wharton’s celebrated novel of the Gilded Age, and his own company, Virtuoso Arts, is producing it this weekend and next. Troy Arnold Fisher is the director.
  
  
• When: 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, March 4 and 5, and 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 10 and 11.
• Where: Timberline High School Theatre, 6120 Mullen Road SE, Lacey
• Tickets: $5-$22
• More information: https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/70154