Pavement Studios

Todd Almond is a prolific singer/songwriter/composer/actor living in the East Village. Todd asked if I would take publicity photos for his 2001 performance of "Girlfriend," a 2-man musical he wrote based on music from the 1991 Matthew Sweet album "Girlfriend." To match the rural midwestern setting of the story while still shooting in New York City, we drove out to the abandoned runways of Floyd Bennett Field near Coney Island to the abandoned runways and shot a series of scenes with co-star Dominic Bogart.

Todd and I also took cover photos for his album 'Try To Hear, Try To Say,' shooting a variety of portraits in his apartment which at the time was under renovation, and took to the subway system for some 'urban' shots.

In 2004, Todd released 'Deep North Woods,' his second album of original music, and was a guest composer at the Sundance Theater Lab with New York's Theater Mitu. Other recording credits include 'a wind has blown the rain away' with Ellen Mandel and 'This is the Day with Ruby Vileos.'

Girlfriend, the 1991 album by Matthew Sweet, is considered by many people to be one of the most memorable pop records of the past decade: a simple, earnest, yet occasionally gorgeous collection of hook-laden songs about over-the-moon love and bittersweet heartache. Also known for its photograph of fur-wrapped Tuesday Weld on its cover, Girlfriend was the pretty record that everyone played when they were pretending to be listening to Nirvana-and its success immediately made Mr. Sweet, an apple-cheeked Nebraskan, a most unlikely rock star.

New York playwright Todd Almond was one of the many angst-ridden teens and twentysomethings bowled over by Girlfriend. "I've been obsessed with that album for about 10 years now," Mr. Almond, 24, said recently. "I was in high school when it came out, and I listened to it over and over and kind of constructed a narrative in my head around it. It occurred to me that it would be a good challenge to make a musical out of it."

And that was precisely what Mr. Almond did, taking some minor artistic liberties. He joined up with director Patrick Trettenero, an old friend from summer stock, and together the two men fleshed out a storyline. They contacted Mr. Sweet's management company and received permission to use his songs. They assembled a band and a cast, and hung up flyers downtown. And then, on the first Monday of last month, in the Duplex, a 70-seat cabaret room in the West Village, Girlfriend made its New York theatrical debut-as a coming-of-age gay musical.

In Mr. Almond and Mr. Trettenero's production, Girlfriend serves as the melodic backdrop for a budding romance between Mike and Will, two teenage boys living in the Nebraska plains (Mr. Almond, who is, like Mr. Sweet, from the Cornhusker State, plays Will). While the musical puts a clever new spin on the object of Mr. Sweet's affections-the chorus to Girlfriend's title track, "I need to get back in the arms of a girlfriend," gets a nice twist, for example-the emotional spirit of the original album is faithfully maintained.

"It was quite charming," said Julie Stepanek, one of the many fans of Mr. Sweet's who was in the audience at the Duplex last month. Ms. Stepanek said that she had fallen for Girlfriend after an old boyfriend gave her the record years ago, and she felt a little flutter when she saw an ad on the street for Mr. Almond and Mr. Trettenero's musical. "That flyer kind of took me back," she said.

Reached in Los Angeles, where he lives, Mr. Sweet said he hadn't seen Girlfriend: A New Musical, but he sounded thrilled about its existence. "If people ever do anything relating to stuff I've done, I'm flattered and amazed that anyone cares that much," he said. "I'm really curious to see it, because somebody took it and made something very creative of their own out of it."

Mr. Sweet had, in fact, planned to come see the show one night in early March, when the production coincided with a concert he was performing at Bowery Ballroom. "He actually phoned and said he was going to come," Mr. Almond recalled. Understandably, a bit of Waiting for Guffman--like frenzy ensued among the cast and crew-but alas, Mr. Sweet did not show up. "It was the night of that big storm," Mr. Almond explained. "But he did call and apologize for not making it."

There was a second chance, at the close of Girlfriend's run at the end of March, when Mr. Sweet had to return to New York for a tribute to one of his idols, former Beach Boy Brian Wilson. A few days before the tribute concert, Mr. Sweet was unsure but hopeful-"I'll probably be in rehearsals pretty late, but you never know," he said. He speculated that if he could make it to the Duplex, he'd probably just show up and pay the $12 cover with a two-drink minimum. "I might end up singing along," he said.

Alas, it was not meant to be-Girlfriend' s West Village run ended without an appearance by its inspiration. But hope was on the horizon: A theater in Nebraska had contacted Mr. Almond and asked if he would be interested in taking his show back to his home state. Suddenly anything felt possible again, like it did in those days when you bounced around your bedroom in headphones, listening to Matthew Sweet.

-Pauline O'Connor