In the first episode of this series, we heard about the creation of a new musical called Three Summers of Lincoln, as in Abraham Lincoln.

The show is set during the Civil War and it centers around Lincoln's relationship with the abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

The producers, Alan Shore and Richard Winkler commissioned

the playwright Joe DiPietro to write the script. He brought along Daniel Watts as his co-liacist

and then the composer, Crystal Monet Hall. After three years of development, the Lincoln team

held some workshop performances in New York that persuaded them

they were ready to give the show its world premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego,

or at least almost ready. I just felt the narrative at the beginning wasn't as sharp as the rest

of the show. That's DiPietro. The challenge in a musical like this is you're telling an epic story.

I mean, how many different versions of the Civil War could you write?

There needs to be a spine to it.

How can we have the spine as clear as quickly as possible?

We felt, for instance, that the character of Mary Lincoln,

she wasn't in the score as much, especially given the actress who is going to play that role.

That actress is Carmen Cusack, who has twice been nominated for Tony Award on Broadway.

And so DiPietro had Daniel Watson, Crystal Monet Hall come to his apartment on the Upper West Side to work on a new song for

Mary Lincoln, a duet with Abraham. Hall played a demo she'd made on her own, a song called

Twelve Rooms in Springfield.

Alive in Twelve Rooms. Alive in Twelve Roos Alive in 12 rooms.

The song has the Lincoln's thinking about going back home to Illinois if Abraham

loses re-election for the presidency, which, considering how badly the war is going, seems

likely.

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