An army wife with horrible nightmares. Her husband serving his first tour of duty in Iraq. A marriage counselor unable to practice what he preaches. His flight attendant wife who flies away from her troubles with him. And a newly-single father and a newly-single mother and the question of what might start between them as each of their first marriages ends. And snow. All of them stuck in some other-worldly snow together.

rightnextto me concerns itself with the distance between people and the space love leaves behind when it goes. It's a series of monologues, vignettes and scenes that connect themselves around the idea of disconnection. In turns tragic, comic and romantic these six characters explore the feelings that linger, the loss of connection and the rebirth of hope.

Workshop Productions
Unicorn Theatre, Kansas City MO (closed 12/30/07)
B Street Theatre, Sacramento CA (closed 2/24/08)

Listen to the Music
RIGHTNEXTTO ME (sung by Edward Watts)
The Mailman, out on his delivery route, sings out to his son about their sledding hill and how much he misses him.

I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE GONE (sung by Melissa Dye)
The Army Wife gets the news that her husband has been killed in Iraq. She sings her disbelief to his ghost.

Reviews

“… a sophisticated, small-scale musical…remarkable sensitivity…a standout…even though this is only January, I’m tabbing this as one of the best productions we’ll see all year in Sacramento.”

“ Wonderfully inventive…witty songs and graceful characterizations …Coffin is an irresistibly emotional writer who avoids sentimentality …a beautifully moving piece that is absolutely worth experiencing.”

“Beautifully-shaped…a quiet testament to love’s lingering hold over all of us…simple on the outside, complex on the inside…ruminative and bound for glory…musically illuminating matters of the heart.”

“ Brought smiles and tears…the songs range from heartbreakingly impassioned to witty and amusing…”

“ Coffin is a talented man. His melodies have an agreeable pop sensibility, and he’s a clever lyricist. Beyond that, he’s a serious dramatist with something on his mind…a series of vignettes which dramatize just how difficult it is to maintain human relationships in a problem-filled world…”

“ Both scene and music are presented with deft emotional circumspection…Coffin's best songs are lyrically chatty and chattily lyrical…Ultimately, rightnextto me reveals — in rhythm and melody, in voice and action — the space between people, whether that space is the size of a planet or a fingernail.”