Forever Begins Now

SYNOPSIS – ACT ONE

It is New Years Eve, 1999 at Madison Square Garden. Dorian, a rock legend, sings his first hit for his “Millennium” Tour (“Rock ’n’ Roll Forever”). Dorian, at fifty-nine, looks like a man in his twenties. As he’s interviewed backstage, we flash back to a Greenwich Village coffeehouse in March, 1965.

Dorian (formerly Stanley Gray) sings “Eye of the Storm.” In the audience are his friend, Bessie Hallward, a photographer, and her friend Henry Wotton, a record executive. Henry is impressed and tries to convince Stanley to record some demos, but to him, finishing law school makes more sense. After Henry leaves, Bessie grabs her camera and takes a photograph of Stanley. In that moment, she realizes her feelings for him (“I Fell in Love With You Tonight”).

A few days later, we are in Selma, Alabama at the march across the Edmund Pettus bridge. Dorian is there, as well as Reverend Arthur Vane and his two children, eighteen-year-old Sybil and nineteen-year-old James, as they start to lead their group across the bridge (“Crossin’ Over”), they are held back by police. Dorian sees Sybil and is instantly infatuated with her.

A few days later, Sybil and Dorian are in a field kissing passionately. She can’t tell her father about their secret love because Stanley is white and their relationship would be dangerous. Undaunted, Dorian declares his love and sings a song he wrote for her. (“True North”).

Back in New York, Bessie and Henry are in Dorian’s apartment. Henry listens to Stanley’s songs on a tape recorder and is impressed. A large portrait-sized version of the photograph Bessie took in the coffeehouse is on an easel. Reading Bessie’s heartfelt inscription, Henry realizes that Bessie wants more than a friendship. However, Dorian enters with the news that he plans to marry Sybil and put any dreams of a music career on hold. Henry reminds him that a rock star has ten years at most in the limelight (“Time”). Stanley agrees to give it a shot. Henry re-christens Stanley Gray with a single name — Dorian — and Bessie shows him the photograph. When Henry says, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could look like that for the rest of your life?” Dorian makes a wish that he stay young forever while the image of him ages — “For that, I would give my soul.” (“The Wish”).

Dorian’s first single rockets up the charts. Meanwhile in Alabama, James has returned from boot camp and hears Sybil playing “True North” on the piano. When he learns that Sybil is five months pregnant, she is unwilling to reveal the name of the father. Reverend Vane overhears the conversation and insists that she must give up the baby for adoption. When she refuses, the Reverend disowns her. Sybil gets on a bus for New York, eager to get to Dorian and start her new life (“When I Find My Man”).

A couple of days later, Dorian and Bessie are in Henry’s office awaiting a press conference for his first album release. Henry tells Dorian that his career is at stake if he marries a black girl (“Don’t Throw It Away”). In the middle of the press conference, Sybil enters and rushes to embrace Dorian. When a reporter yells out, “Who is the Negro girl?” Dorian, trapped, answers that she is his maid’s daughter. Sybil runs out. Dorian, realizing what he’s done, runs after her. Moments later, Sybil steps in front of a subway train.

Meanwhile, Dorian is on the phone trying to find Sybil when Bessie and Henry enter with the tragic news. After they leave, Dorian’s attention is drawn to the photograph now on the wall of his living room (“The Change”). The years fly past for Dorian, the ageless star, ending in 1999 (“Down, Down, Down”). During this musical montage, Dorian’s behavior becomes more extreme, Bessie becomes a single mother from her English boyfriend, and Dorian’s relationship with Henry becomes strained. At the end of the song,  Dorian looks at the photograph, now hidden in his basement recording studio. It is hideous almost beyond recognition.

As Dorian looks at Bessie’s inscription on the photograph, the phone rings and she is revealed on the other side of the stage (“Things I Never Said”). But when she arrives at Dorian’s townhouse, she raises the subject of the photograph. When she sees it, Dorian explains about his wish (“Look At That Face”). Bessie, truly frightened, thinks Dorian is insane. She tries to leave, but Dorian won’t let her… she knows too much.

ACT TWO

The next evening, Henry is celebrating his 70th birthday. A small group of friends are gathered, but Bessie is not among them (“Where’s Bessie?”). Bessie’s daughter, Annie, now a professor at Oxford, returns to New York to follow the investigation.

Meanwhile, James is getting out of prison and still seeks vengeance against the unknown “white boy” who destroyed his sister. Reverend Vane continues to grieve in his own way (“It Hurts Too Much to Cry”).

A few days later, Dorian enters the rehearsal studio with a new song for his upcoming concert tour (“Millennium”), but in the middle of the song, Annie enters. She looks exactly like the younger Bessie. Dorian thinks he’s seen a ghost. Annie, wanting to find comfort with someone who knew her mother, reaches out to Dorian who tries to keep his distance.

Weeks later in Henry’s office, Annie confides to him her growing feelings for Dorian and her worst fears about her mother’s disappearance. Henry tries to console her with humor (“It Gets Old”).

On Christmas Eve, James joins a small group of veterans and their families at the Vietnam War Memorial and lights a candle for the still-living veterans whose names are not on the wall (“Forgotten Men”). As the ceremony wraps up, James hears a young street singer singing “True North,” a song he immediately recognizes as the song that Sybil was playing on the piano. The street singer reveals that the song was written by Dorian and James vows revenge (“Justice”).

At Dorian’s townhouse the next morning, Annie shows up and complains about his refusal to have a romantic relationship with her. He replies that he’s done terrible things and she would be better off without him, but Annie refuses to take “no” for an answer (“Second Chance”). Confronted by the ghosts of his past, Dorian vows to change his life (“Second Chance, part 2”).

The scene shifts back to Madison Square Garden, New Year’s Eve, 1999. Henry and the security guard open the doors to allow the VIP fans to enter. One of those people is James. As Dorian enters, James steps out from the crowd, pulls out a gun and fires point blank at the superstar. James is immediately gunned down, but Dorian and Annie are unhurt. Dorian, seeing one more death at his hand, simply says, “I need to end this now.”

Entering his house, followed by Annie, he heads to the recording studio where the picture has been hidden, and pulls back the curtain. The face in the picture now has blood dripping from its mouth and there are three bullet holes in its chest. Dorian tells Annie about the wish and the curse that it caused (“Confession”). He finally takes responsibility for the choices he has made and confesses that he killed her mother. He then stabs the photograph and immediately crumples to the ground as we watch the picture return to its original pristine form.

The next day Henry announces the sad death of Dorian, from “natural causes.” His fans say their last goodbyes. The tortured life of Dorian has ended — but for them, his shining legend lives on (“A Legend Never Dies”).