Patricia Watson: ASCAP's Hawaiian Soulmate

Can dreams in today's tough music business still come true? Songwriter Patricia Watson says, "Of course. You just have to see the dream clearly and want it bad enough." Patricia watched this dream come true on her home island of Maui. Watson wrote, produced and starred in her rock musical, Soulmates, with Rod McKuen, Mary Jo Catlett and an all-star Hawaiian cast at Maui's Castle Theater last year.

Thanks to ASCAP's John Alexander who connected her to Michael Kerker (ASCAP Musical Theatre), Canadian born Watson (veteran international entertainer, EMI/Electrola Germany), met director David Galligan (David Foster's Scream) and then legendary ASCAP writer, poet and entertainer Rod McKuen who played the role of the priest. McKuen, who has more that 65 million books and 200 million records to his credit, loved the script and the music. Rod says about Patricia, "Her style is unique and manages to meld with mine in such a way that I feel I have finally found another co-writer who understands words & music in the same way I do." Mary Jo Catlett (Diff'rent Strokes, The Champ, Serial Mom) joined the cast playing a Nun.

This original, spiritual, romantic, retro, rock biz musical is about two rock stars in the late 80's who have to find their own souls before they can find their soulmates.

Ed Terry (Carlito's Way, Season of the Hunted, Lisa Loeb), a New York producer/actor/singer and ASCAP writer, read about Soulmates in the June Playback magazine and contacted Watson in Hawaii. In December, Terry performed the lead with Watson in the concert version.

Now, Patricia Watson and her dream are going to Las Vegas with McKuen, Catlett and Terry. Las Vegas Director/Designer Barbara Brennan will direct. "It was really important to have a great Vegas director and now that Barbara is on board with Rod, Mary Jo, Ed and I, we are looking for name rock stars and a name comedian to make Soulmates rock, Vegas-style," Watson tells Playback magazine.