'Light' of His Life?

Hat trick: Stars Whitney Bashor (left) and Matthew Scott in PTC's latest show.

One of the best and brightest of American musical-theater composers has a dream project in the works, and it involves you and sundry other characters put to pen by writer Washington Irving.

Who better than Adam Guettel, whose "Light in the Piazza" served as a nine-pin thunderclap of Tony Award-winning power earlier this decade, to tackle Irving's Americana?

But, uh, no, headless horsemen need not apply; put a hat on it. That story has been done already quite a bit, says Guettel. The project he's pursuing is "the most complex, upbeat and comedic I've ever written," talking a motley mix of Irving's short stories and going beyond the villagers of Sleepy Hollow for his dream project.

And that says quite a bit, because Guettel's work -- such as his "Myths and Hymns" -- is notable for its complex core. Of course, comedic and upbeat may come as a surprise to those who recall his first major success: "Floyd Collins," which he scored to Tina Landau's book, based on the story of "the greatest cave explorer ever known," whose destiny was to die trapped in a cave-in.

The sands of our times: Guettel returns to his early triumph -- the show was premiered by the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia 15 years ago -- as he prepares for the opening of "Piazza," performed by the Philadelphia Theatre Company, running from Nov. 13 to Dec. 6.

Composer Adam Guettel

We are family -- no Sister Sledge, he, but a true believer in the familial pull of Philadelphia.

"It was a great time," recalls Guettel of those roaring '90s, "a time of my life when I realized what I really wanted to do. Now, when I think or feel Philly, I feel family."

Not that his own isn't filled with illustrious reminders of a life well-lived. The grandson/scion of iconic composer Richard Rodgers, son to composer Mary Rodgers, Adam can compose a family suite that marches to its own drummer.

Quite literally; as a rebel during earlier years, Guettel got it on in the rock world. But he soon recoiled, rather than rolled.

Life was not such a rolling stone as it was a chip off a different block. "Isn't It Rich?" could have been his theme had it not already been good friend Stephen Sondheim's.

"I patently am from the wrong side of the tracks," says Guettel of the fiscal, not sound, variety. "I didn't feel comfortable with the program, of trying to forge something I was not."

It's only rock 'n' roll, and he liked it -- but that wasn't enough. "I have no capacity for that artifice" -- of passing himself of as a rocker when he's more a Rodgers.

"I grew up in great privilege; I was given a great" heritage, says the alum of Phillips Exeter Academy and Yale University. "And I write out of fundamental values" that connect with Jewishness and the stage.

What would zayde have said about this?

"If I had had the chance, there are thousands of questions I had wanted to ask him. I would have loved to have known his thoughts," says the grandson.

But the window of opportunity wasn't that wide open; Rogers, incapacitated in the latter years of his life, died when his grandson was 14.

Although there is the story, concedes Guettel -- whose father, Henry, was in charge of the Theater Development Fund -- of his grandfather hearing one of Adam's works before his death and complimenting him on it. But this "wall of sound" worked against it: "He was literally on his deathbed on the other side of the living-room wall."

Certainly, those sounds of music were never destined to be sounds of Muzak: Guettel's gift is a distinctive one, as evidenced in the lush and lovely score for "Light," highlighted with classical/operatic leitmotifs.

He knows his do-re-mi's, but does them differently. After all, this is not his grandfather's old motif; Guettel's "Light" is as mainstream as he has attempted yet his upcoming Irving ode will be sung-through, using more opera elements than not.

Not all Guettel's projects have come to full light: His collaboration with William Goldman on a musical version of "The Princess Bride" gave up its throne when, reports have it, Goldman sought outlandish and disproportionate fees for his input.

One day, his "Princess" will come? For now, she's already here: On the day we speak, Guettel and his wife Amanda are moving into new quarters, and he muses on the music he may have produced differently had he been smitten at the time he wrote "Piazza."

"I was looking for love when I wrote it," he recalls of the story based on a novella by Elizabeth Spencer, which follows a young American caught up in the passion plays that are Italy's distinctive playground, and the mother who tries to protect her from getting hurt.

And had he had Amanda by his side at that time? The "Light" may have been less electric; after all, the "energy [of pursuit] is there if the problem is not solved."

He likes the way things have turned out: Leave "Piazza" to the players, he says; he is light-years happier with the love of his life as they settle in.