FYI this one’s primarily for all the Hall-Mills fanatics on my list. If that’s not you, if you’re sick of hearing about it, feel free to close tab. I won’t be offended! Otherwise, do read on…
Last month, I went down to New Brunswick to film an interview for my pals at Thinkery & Verse, creators of THOU SHALT NOT, the immersive stage play about the murders which enjoyed a rollicking run at New Brunswick’s St. John the Evangelist this past fall. T&V is putting the finishing touches on a documentary exploring elements of the Hall-Mills saga. They plan to release a few standalone clips from the film in the coming months, so keep an eye out for those. (I’ll be the first to let you know when they’re live.) We did my interview on the roof of 7 Livingston Avenue, which let me tell you has some views, as you can see from the photo above. Squint hard and you can almost make out the Hall mansion, and St. John’s, and other key sites from BLOOD & INK, which, by the way, will be going to paperback this fall—I actually just signed off on the modified cover—hopefully with some new material in an expanded epilogue 🤞. But I digress…
After filming the interview, T&V’s Johnny Meyer and I walked down to the State Theater for the first public concert reading of A HEALTHY MARRIAGE, a three-hour musical about the Hall-Mills murders. I’d met composer/playwright David Seamon at one of my book events a few months back. What I didn’t realize until we later corresponded via email was that he’s the grandson of former New Brunswick chief of detectives George Seamon, who re-opened the Hall-Mills case in 1970. (BLOOD & INK Chapter 25.)
The debut was sold out and I’m pleased to report that the audience ate it up. Lest you think you’ve had enough Hall-Mills material between my book and the play and the older books and whatever else is out there, I can assure you that this latest entrant in the canon has its own distinct framing, “squarely focused on the courtship of Edward and Eleanor,” as David told me, “the lies they told themselves that led them to each other, and the lies they told their spouses to stay together. It's a darkly comic and sensitive story of four people who reached for something that they never had a chance at finding in their own homes.” David and his collaborator say they’re already working on a new draft and “plotting the next iteration,” so if A HEALTHY MARRIAGE sounds like it’s up your alley, stay tuned.
That’s all for now. More soon…