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"Gibson Fleck"'s composers and lyricists, A. J. Holmes and Carlos Valdes, and book writer Ali Gordon.

Photo by Peter Smith Photography

The idea of going from hatching a basic premise to mounting a full production of an original musical in just eight months would likely give many people pause, but for University of Michigan professor Linda Goodrich and her team of three student writers, it was an exciting opportunity — one that resulted in “Gibson Fleck,” now being staged as a work-in-progress at U-M’s Arthur Miller Theatre.

“It’s like being an entrepreneur in business,” said Goodrich. “When you have that spirit, it sounds crazy, but it drives us all. … Plus, I’m saddened by the state of musical theater in this country. In a tough economy, it’s tough to produce anything new, so you see a lot of the old standards being produced now. But if new work isn’t created, the form dies out.”

In March, Goodrich met with “Fleck” book writer Ali Gordon (who’s now a junior), and composers/lyricists A.J. Holmes and Carlos Valdes (current U-M seniors who’d previously teamed up for last year's Basement Arts hit, “Me and My Dick”) to talk about building a show from scratch. Starting with the show’s basic premise, the foursome met over the course of a month before Goodrich approached U-M’s musical theater department about pursuing a full production in the fall.

“It’s a completely original idea,” Goodrich said of “Fleck”’s story, which focuses on a boy who’s abandoned at birth, and handed off from family to family, until he seeks a place to finally call his own.

Goodrich and the students spent a good chunk of the summer working together on the project. But rather than paring down scenes and songs, Goodrich explained that the development process involved “lots of re-shaping. The premise and the themes stayed the same, but how we chose to express those themes changed. Characters were added or cut, and scenes changed, or locations or relationships. But the basic themes stayed consistent, focusing on finding family. … We found ourselves moving through rather than around obstacles.”

“Fleck” marks U-M’s first full staging of a musical created by current students, but the musical theater department is hardly a stranger to new work. In recent years, it’s staged workshop productions of “Ella Minnow Pea,” “The Pursuit of Persephone,” and “The Water,” among others; and in addition to graduates often participating in readings and workshops of new shows in New York, they’ve also often been the creative force behind new shows. (Jeff Marx won a Tony Award for “Avenue Q”; Andrew Lippa provided music and lyrics for “The Wild Party” and more recently earned a Tony nomination for his work on “The Addams Family”; Nick Blaemire provided music and lyrics for “Glory Days”; songwriting team Benj Pasek and Justin Paul created the oft-performed revue “Edges,” and are writers for the Disney Channel series “Johnny and the Sprites”; etc.)

“Fleck,” with its cast of more than 20, is now finding its footing in the Arthur Miller Theatre’s intimate space, with a new pit for the orchestra. When asked what most excites her about the production, Goodrich said, “So many things. I feel like the score is really sophisticated, and yet it’s commercial, too. So I love the music, and I love the creative energy of the three students. They’ve really done remarkable work. And I like the theme of finding family, and creating your own community. These are universal themes that are relevant to so many of us.”

In the end, though, the process of helping to build an entirely new show from the ground-up is the biggest thrill for Goodrich.

“I can’t stress enough the importance of new work — not only for artists and creators, but for our larger community, and for the relationships between them,” said Goodrich. “I hope that our efforts — theater has become so removed from being a communal effort. It’s become a luxury in our society, and I so badly want it to be ‘of the people.’ I believe in homegrown efforts like this, and I hope the community of Ann Arbor values it, too.”

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.