Early on a Saturday morning,

under the darkened Chrysler Hall, cast, crew and ensemble gather for rehearsal. Carrying cups of coffee, wearing jeans, cut-offs, and flip-flops, some are dancing, others joking and running lines.  Every few minutes, someone bursts into song. The talent and energy in the Generic Theater are palpable. Just a few weeks remain until Trophy Wife: A New Musical will open.

Matt Downey and Caroline Whitehead rehearse for the show.

Seven years ago, I’d attended a play reading at author Shari Graber’s house. We got to talking, and, hearing I was a writer, she’d asked me to look over an early draft of Trophy Wife. I loved it. The humor reminded me of Mel Brooks. But reading a musical comedy script is a long way from seeing and hearing it on stage. So this June, when invited to sit in on a rehearsal, and see it in 3D, with music, I jumped at the chance.

Before the run-through, director Chris Hogan splits the cast into groups to rehearse the songs in Act One. Hogan, who is also the show’s choreographer, recently assistant directed Mornings at Seven at Little Theater of Virginia Beach and choreographed Smokey Joe’s Cafe in Newport News. This is his debut at the Generic.

Squeezing into a tiny dressing room, six men rehearse the title song, “Trophy Wife,” in which leading man, Barry (Jack Dixon) and friends fantasize about what they want in a woman:

I want a trophy wife
To complicate my life
I want her tall and thin
And with a smile to win
Does not have to be bright
My charming trophy wife…

In an upstairs hall, Bette Thomas and Doris Clark, who play “the Jewish Moms,” have set up a CD player and are working on their Gilbert and Sullivan-style duet, “We Just Want the Best for Our Girls.” Shari helps with the timing.

On stage, the women work on the opening number, “I Need a Man.” Leads Caroline Whitehead (Susan) and Katie Brunberg (Rachel) explain why they want a husband:

I need a man so my mother will leave me be-

To put the seat down so I can pee-

When I’m locked out he can fetch my keys-

I need a man!

Shari Graber, playwright, composer and lyricist.

Then, Hogan brings the cast together. I sit in the audience with Shari, waiting. “Tuesdays with Morrie” is still running; its stage is the one they will keep for “Trophy Wife.”

“The stage couldn’t be more perfect,” says Shari. Long curly hair clipped up on top, she is elegant even in khaki capris and a long black sweater.

As Hogan directs, the actors begin to take the play off the page and onto the stage. Shari holds an open script and pen, making changes as the show rehearses. She crosses out a line of dialogue, writes a note in the margin.

“I’m not an actor. I’m not a singer,” she tells me. “I’m not a dancer.  I told the actors, and the director, don’t do exactly what I said in the script. I want you to take your own vision, and see what you can do.”

It’s rare to find an author who does all three tasks: play writing, composing, and lyrics. Shari is uniquely qualified to do this: she has been writing, in one form or another, since childhood, and is a lifelong music student (flute, oboe, and sax, and composing.) Music in Trophy Wife ranges from calypso to straight Broadway to Adiya Johnson’s big, bluesy rendition of “When You Cast Your Net on the Internet.”

Shari comes by the music naturally. The Grabers are musical family: father, Stanley, sang in college; mother, Selma, also a singer, was one of the patrons involved in bringing The Virginia Opera to Norfolk. Sister Alyssa is a music teacher, and brothers Jay and Mark play drums and guitar, respectively. They grew up attending symphony, opera, and ballet, with frequent trips to Broadway.

Graber characterizes Trophy Wife as “Sex in the City meets Fiddler on the Roof.” It fits. Contemporary men and women are still looking for love in all the wrong places. Their mothers still meddle and match-make.

Trophy Wife: A New Musical premiering at the Generic Theater

Singles in the new millennium search for a mate in bars, kickboxing classes, and, in one scene, on the Internet. Rachel (“Username: CharmAndWit. Password: This-sucks.”) makes a date online with Gordon (Matt Gilbert) (“Username: HonestGuy.  Password: Liar.”)

“I tend to see the humor in bad situations, rather than get mad,” Graber says. “Everything is fodder.”

“Thirty-ish single professionals,” I wonder. “Shari, how much of this show has actually happened to you?”

“About half the play is about things that really happened–mostly to other people,” she says. “Not to me. But most of the single girls I know totally relate.”

As the rehearsal comes to a close, costumes and set are still in production. So is the choreography, which promises to vary from cha-cha to tap to tango. Even so, I have laughed enough that my cheeks hurt.

Graber is gathering her notes. I ask her what she thinks. “It’s exciting to watch them take the show and run with it!”

I agree. This is an irreverent, funny play about dating in the 21st century. Don’t miss it.

Trophy Wife runs July 2-11 at the Generic Theater.