The possibilities of midlife dreams

As a lifelong fan of musical theater, and more recently a budding lyricist with Broadway ambitions, my favorite song is "The Impossible Dream (The Quest)," from the classic show "Man of La Mancha."

To me, the song's message is that, regardless of age, it's never too late to keep plugging away to "reach the unreachable star." Like me and many of my friends, Don Quixote was around 50 years old.

In our case, the star we're still reaching for is that best-selling novel, the smash Broadway show, a hit song recorded by someone like Adele or a neighborhood restaurant chain that will bring us fame and fortune.

Take my friend Gary Apple, who grew up in Old Bethpage, and now lives in Manhattan. Gary is charming, witty, talented -- and self-deprecating. On his website garyapple.com (what else?), he describes himself as "a comedy writer who's written for a long list of prime time sitcoms -- all flops." Actually, he spent the 1990s in Hollywood writing sitcom scripts for notables such as Sinbad and the "Get Smart" revival, and wrote a classic episode of "The Simpsons," in which Homer gets a triple-bypass operation. (I've seen it, and it's very funny.)

Gary also writes plays, screenplays and children's television shows. And he produces, in his words, "useless and funny" websites. Despite his measure of success, neither Gary, nor, for that matter, myself or my friends, are household names likely to be called to host the Oscars like Long Island's celeb from Long Beach, Billy Crystal. But Gary has stuck with it, and his persistence may yet land him a spot in entertainment history.

Last year, Gary decided to take an entirely new career tack by penning his first novel -- a 45-day wonder. He wrote "Hell Is for Real," a parody of the bestseller "Heaven Is for Real," a supposedly true tale of a little boy who fell ill, went to heaven, and then returned to talk about it.

In Gary's book, the story is turned upside down and fictionalized. Instead of heaven, the boy is accidentally sent to hell. He returns from the underworld to a satirical version of Long Island, which allowed Gary to take advantage of his knowledge of local landmarks such as the Chuck E. Cheese in Hicksville and the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington.

To Gary's surprise and delight, "Hell Is For Real" has become a sleeper hit at Amazon.com, and, in January, the novel made Amazon's Top 100 Comic Literature list. That's a pretty good feat for a first novel.

Among other longtime friends in their 50s who are working on the dream of greater success and riches is Rob Rosen, a buddy since we were students at Levittown's MacArthur High School in the 1970s. A Seaford native who eventually moved to Dix Hills, Rob owns and operates three Melville-based employee benefits companies. But at 54, he's still an idea man who's recently come up with a business plan for a chain of what he calls "unique fast-casual" restaurants. Rob's dream is currently on hold because of tight financing, but he isn't giving up.

"Now that I'm in my 50s," he says, "I find it easy to follow through because I'm more mature and understand the process."

Long Island boasts many famous baby boomers who grew up here -- Eddie Murphy, Patti LuPone, Billy Joel and Jerry Seinfeld, to name a few. But as Rob points out, "there are many different levels of success." For instance, there's our friend Lon Hoyt, who also grew up in Seaford and now lives in Montclair, N.J.

After winning roles in a number of Broadway shows, Lon hit his stride in his 40s on Broadway when he was the musical director for the entire 61/2-year run of the Tony-winning "Hairspray," as well as a music consultant for the movie starring John Travolta. Recently, he played keyboard and conducted a live stage version of "Hairspray" at the Hollywood Bowl. He was also assistant musical director for the recent "Hair" revival (he was one of the guys onstage with gray hair).

Every time I catch up with Lon, he's working on a musical project, with his heart set on Broadway. I know how he feels. As Lon made himself a name on The Great White Way, I've nursed (and he's encouraged) my own Broadway (or Off-Broadway) ambitions.

To learn the craft, I often volunteered to write parody song lyrics for holiday shows put on by Press Club of Long Island. Then, at Lon's suggestion, three years ago I applied and was accepted into the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, a Manhattan-based "laboratory" where Broadway hits such as "Avenue Q" and "Next to Normal" were developed. In the weekly advanced workshop, we perform new, original works of musical theater we've written. For me, this is my chance to see my name -- if not in lights, at least on sheet music.

My closest friend in the workshop is Gary, who is also a gifted songwriter. Together, we recently wrote a song that we'll present in class soon. And yes, in a field bursting with talented 20-somethings, Gary and I are talking about collaborating on a new musical.

Maybe our own "impossible dream" is not that impossible.