Transcript edited for length and clarity.
Clay Wallace, WUKY
Cavan Hendron's Borden: A New Musical focuses on the life of the infamous Lizzie Borden and her older sister, Emma. Lizzie Borden was a woman who was arrested, tried, and acquitted for the murders of her father and stepmother in 1892. She's been the subject of historical and speculative films, TV series, books, and is the subject of the rhyme, "Lizzie Borden took an axe."
What about the Borden story made you think, 'Oh, there's a musical in there'?
Cavan Hendron, Playwright of Borden: A New Musical
That's the question we get asked all the time. For me, it was this documentary I came across when I was very young here in Kentucky. When I found out she was acquitted in the documentary, it was one of those things where you go, 'Oh, wait, but in every story I've heard of her, she did it.'
It really put into perspective that history has really been unkind to her. Even though she had this acquittal, we remember her over 130 years later as the person that did it.
My brain immediately went to wanting to know why is that the case. What about us and true crime causes us to sensationalize these stories the way that we do? And so I started doing research. Along the way, I discovered the most interesting part of the case was the family - the relationship between Lizzie and Emma, Lizzie and her parents, her stepmother.
That's the musical. The musical is about this family and their struggles and their highs and everything in between.
Karyn Czar, WUKY
And this is really Emma's story.
Cavan
Yes.
Karyn
Why did you choose to do that pivot?
Cavan
I think that whenever you look at cases and stories like this, everything is always from Lizzie's point of view. As a storyteller, I'm always interested in the part of the story that is not told.
For this case, we really don't know anything about Emma. She was a very private person in real life, so we don't really know that much about her. We get to look at the situations and scenarios that they were put in and put our thinking caps on and look at the story from that lens of 1892. What would Emma have done during this time?
From the moment her birth mother passed away, she promised to look after Lizzie 'forever and always.' Her life was dedicated to that promise.
With our show, we track this sister who has been placed in a motherly role after the death of their birth mother when they were young through the trial and how, when you have a promise, what are the lengths you're willing to take that promise, even in such a horrible situation?
Karyn
Cavan, you and I met at Lexington Children's Theater when you were but a wee lad, and you were writing back then. You would write little plays and little movies for your friends throughout the years.
Cavan
Yeah. During Shrek, when we first met, I had started writing little clips of what Borden could be. At the time, I just knew I wanted to write a play about Lizzie Borden. I thought, you know, I don't know if I want to be a writer yet, but let's just write some stuff down.
I had about three or four pages on a Word doc that got lost. Then, when I was in college, I took a solo performance class and I had to write a solo piece on a historical figure. The person I chose was Lizzie Borden because I remembered the little pages that I started writing during Shrek when we met.
Karyn
Did I ever tell you this? My senior project at the University of Kentucky for my BFA was on Lizzie Borden.
Cavan
No way! Oh my gosh!
Karyn
Yes! Speaking of kismet, let's talk about the cast. There are so many people that you've been working with since you were so young. Talk about the artists involved.
Cavan
When we were given the opportunity to bring BORDEN back for this workshop presentation, it was really special because, you know, I got to know so many great artists that Kentucky has.
There's no community like Kentuckians. You know, we're an all-Kentucky writing team, coincidentally. That's just how it broke down.
We have Reilly Richardson playing Emma. Reilly is somebody that I have admired for so long, and getting to work with her in this capacity on a new work has been just truly amazing. And we have a bunch of other great local artists as well.
Karyn
You mentioned Reilly. We have a clip from her from rehearsal just last night.
[Music. Voice and piano]
Reilly Richardson as Emma Borden
I can sit and watch the tide. I even sat and sketched for hours without a worry deep inside.
There's no footsteps on the stair; no door about to close; just the sound of the water and the wind that comes and goes.
I didn't know that it could be like this.
I didn't know that mornings could exist without the wait, without the call, I didn't know. I didn't know at all.
Clay
What's happening when we hear this song?
Cavan
That song was written by our incredible composer, Matthew Nassida. Matthew's music brings an extra layer of emotion and storytelling to the show, and we're so grateful to have him.
At this moment, this is Emma's first taste of freedom.
So, Emma never really left the Borden house when she was living there with her family. Coincidentally, two weeks before August 4th, when the crimes were committed at the Borden house, Emma was away visiting her friend Helen Brownell in Fairhaven.
Emma was gone for two weeks. In that two weeks, we got to think and explore this idea that this was the first time Emma must have felt freedom, and not having to belong to this promise to take care of Lizzie and all of the inner turmoil and maybe guilt, but also relief that she was feeling in that moment.
In this song, Emma's standing with the windows open and the breeze coming in on her looking out at this bay. And, you know, I get goosebumps every time I think about it. But thinking that that was maybe the first time Emma ever saw a horizon, like an endless horizon of the ocean, and those ideas of endless possibilities. But, yet, she's confined to this promise.
Karyn
And you've been to the actual house.
Cavan
Yes, I've been quite a few times in the last couple of years. I think it's been a total of 15 or 16 times in the last two years.
Karyn
How did that change your perspective of telling this story?
Cavan
It was a sobering feeling walking into the house the first time.
I think it's easy with stories like this where we have such distance from them that they can feel like characters rather than real people, but when you're walking into the space that had actually happened and seeing the sofa in the area that Andrew was on, you just remember that these are real people that something horrible happened to - not only for the victims, but for Lizzie and Emma, their lives were turned upside down for the rest of their life.
For us, it's been really interesting to think about the only character that's left living is the house and the walls and the doors that are still there. That were those walls and doors on that day. You know the cliche saying "If walls could tell the stories of what they've seen"? That's a house where that is so true, because we don't know who did it. The only person that knows is that house.
Being able to go back and and live in there and see everything has just been really incredible. And, thankfully, we've developed a great relationship with the people that own the Lizzie Borden house.
Clay
Is this project at a point where you're looking at like set choices and how you can incorporate the feeling of that house?
Cavan
Oh, absolutely. Our amazing director, Neeta Thadani - their pitch about their direction for the show is what sold us. They really saw the house as a character - not literally, but the idea of the soundscape of the house.
In that house, the walls are so thin, and there are no hallways. Each room leads into the other. So, you think about this house where there were such high tensions, you know, no secrets. You could hear things from one wall to the next.
We've been playing with that in the show in how, you know, maybe someone's musical melody that happens in private ends up in someone else's song later in the show. These themes can intertwine because in that house, everybody knows everything.
Karyn
And, Cavan, I remember you telling me this during your last visit here - It's not a play about proving guilt or innocence.
Cavan
No.
Karyn
What do you think audiences will walk away with about the case?
Cavan
This show is about family. It's about sisterhood.
Something that was important to us when we started developing this is, if you want the show that focuses on the murders that happened on August 4th, you have plenty of media to choose from. But for us, it's a story about family. I think that is a much more universal thing that people can connect with when they're listening to this story - and, I think, an unexpected one. I think that people, when they come to this, they're going to expect one thing and they're going to leave, hopefully, with this idea of what "forever and always" means to them and the lengths we will go for family.
Karyn
Cavan, thanks again so much for being with us. We appreciate you taking time out for us this morning.
Cavan
Oh, my gosh. Thank you for having me.
Karyn
Cavan is from Kentucky, but he is now based in New York City. Cavan is the creator and book writer of BORDEN: A New Musical about the life and legacy of Lizzie Borden. And you can see it now! It is not a full-blown production at this point. It's what's called a workshop presentation. What does that mean, exactly?
Cavan
So when we were given this opportunity to come back to Kentucky, the biggest thing for me was, you know, growing up here in Lexington, it's really rare that new musicals from New York come down to do workshops where you're able to take a peep into the process of making a show.
Basically, what it means for the workshop presentation is you're going to get the full script and story of the show. However, you're going to only hear select songs throughout the show. We've been very selective with which moments you will hear musically and the rest you will hear the idea of the song. So the stage directions will be read. You'll hear, "This song is about X, Y, and Z."
For audiences, we hope that really lets them see the amount of time that it takes to put on and make a musical, but also this experience that really hasn't been brought back to central Kentucky before.
Karyn
We talked about you coming up with the musical when you were very, very young, 12, 13 years old, but you actually began the process as an adult to where it became a continuous work about seven years ago.
Cavan
Yeah, seven years ago.
Karyn
What was that morning like when you said "Today's the day"?
Cavan
As a writer, you know your work is never really done. When you go from one project to the next, you always have to be thinking about what you want to do. At the time, another show I had been working on had hit its hiatus, and I was thinking, well, what do I want my next thing to be?
I remembered those pages that I had developed at Shrek. I remembered the solo show I had written in college. And I wondered if there's a story beyond what I have already done.
I started getting to work on what could be a script. In 2024, we did our industry presentation in New York City. What was meant to only be for a crowd of about 40 or 50 had over 150 people show up. That included celebrity people in the theater industry, industry heads, all coming together to witness what we had made.
It was a chance for me to see as a playwright: Is this material good? Is it worth it? Or, you know, do we need to pivot?
Karyn
What about this musical makes it a good fit for the 2026 Voices Amplified: Voices HEaRd Women's Theatre Festival?
Cavan
This Voices HEaRd Festival is all about the idea of reclamation and taking back stories and ownership of stories. When Vanessa talked to me about bringing BORDEN back, it kind of was a perfect fit because this story that has been, you know, as we mentioned earlier in this in this interview, solidified in rhyme with "Lizzie Borden took an axe" and all that - it's reclaiming that story and that narrative at a point of where people don't really expect with this side of the story from Emma.
We're able to give Emma a voice, finally. After 133 years, she gets to have part of her story told for the first time.
Karyn
What's the next step? I know the dream, of course, is Broadway, and I was thinking of you while I was watching the Tonys because there's so many shows - Titanic being one - where they're like "Hey, we're in our basement, we came up with this show and now we're on Broadway nominated for a Tony."
Dreams happen every day in New York City.
Cavan
Yeah, I mean, the biggest dream that's really happened was the documentary that I had mentioned watching when I was really young had this woman named Cara Robertson in it, who is the world's leading scholar on the Lizzie Borden case.
Now, we get to call Cara a collaborator. She's actually here in Lexington right now for us for this festival to do some talkbacks.
She wrote a bestselling book, The Trial of Lizzie Borden, that was published by Simon & Schuster.
Karyn
She's a historian, correct?
Cavan
She's a historian and was also a clerk for the Supreme Court for several years. She has this extensive law background. She's just a wealth of knowledge from both sides of this story.
Getting to have her has really been a dream come true. I'm pinching myself that this woman I watched in the documentary when I was a kid is now on the team caring about this show too.
And a fun fact for the listeners: we are the only Lizzie Borden piece of entertainment, whether it be a movie, TV show, or an existing theatrical production, that has ever consulted Cara. We are the first ones to loop Cara into the project and actually have her be a part of it, which is so exciting for us.
Yeah, dreams do happen and we're excited for what's next! We really have felt that this show has found its audience.
Karyn
What needs to happen financially? What help do you need? It's not a cheap journey.
Cavan
No, it's not. Musicals take a village, and a big part of that village are the investors and producers and all the other pieces that come into the moving wheel of it.
If people wish to be generous and help out, we have ways that they can contact us through our website. Because, you know, it takes a community.
We're here in our Kentucky family right now, and we've had such a red carpet rolled out for us in terms of the generosity and kindness. So we look forward to growing our Borden family.
Karyn
What is one thing that you learned about the Borden family that you didn't know going into this process?
Cavan
Oh, gosh, I would have to say how much they loved each other. It's so easy to focus on, yes, there were high tensions, but that's in every family. It's easy to overlook that they really did love each other at the core.
Karyn
When are you going to get back on stage?
Cavan
Hopefully soon. It's been really interesting. I've taken a big break from performing to do this writing. But, you know, my heart is always on the stage. It's where I feel the most at home. Getting to step behind the table has been really nice, and I also feel at home there, too. But, hopefully in the near future, I'll be bringing a solo show that I wrote back here to Lexington.
Karyn
What's your favorite memory growing up in Lexington's theatre community?
Cavan
The support. There's really no support like this community here, especially in the theatre industry. Every building that I have crossed paths into, I have met people that still support me to this day. Between you and countless other people, I would not be sitting in this chair. I would not be in New York City had it not been for my Lexington theatre family.
Karyn
Well, we are so incredibly proud of you. It has been an incredible honor to watch your journey unfold. I cannot wait to see you accept that Tony Award one day for this show.
Kentucky native, New York City based Cavan Hendren has been with us today, the creator and book writer of BORDEN: A New Musical.
The workshop production of BORDEN: A New Musical are being presented by Voices Amplified: Voices HEaRd Women's Theatre Festival this weekend at the Pam Miller Downtown Arts Center.
Thursday, June 11 at 7:30
Friday, June 12 at 7:30
Saturday, June 13 at 2:00
