Michael James Heartly
Playwright / Author
A dreamy-eyed High School graduate of the Class of 1968 is convinced by a mysterious stranger to move from her broken home in Allentown, Pennsylvania and pursue her stardom on Broadway.
Virginia finds herself living in Greenwich Village above Captain Jack's bar where she falls into the rabbit hole of the 60's drug and Hippy culture. Her brother is killed in Vietnam sending her spiraling into a near suicide episode when her friends help pull her from the brink.
Uptown Girl. Music and Lyrics by Billy Joel.
Book Conceived and written by Michael J. Heartly.
Synopsis
It is 1968 and graduation night in the “one horse’ Allentown for VIRGINIA Sullivan. Her hot-headed drug using brother MAX is home on leave from Vietnam. The local greaser teen BUDDY who is hot to trot for the Catholic Ingénue, complains that Only the Good Die Young. Virginia ignores his pleas and heads to the CYO Dance with her new friend HENRY Worthington IV, of an old Steel family. After the dance, Max beats up Buddy and is arrested and sent back to Nahm.
BILLY, a mysterious stranger appears and convinces Virginia to seek her fortune on Broadway. Declaring it is My Life; she says goodbye to Henry and her widowed mother and goes to hitchhike. She is given a ride by a trucker and ends up across the river in Hoboken where a BAG LADY who is in a New York State of Mind assists her in reaching the West Village.
The next morning, Virginia is confronted by the street smart CLEO and her girlfriend JUDY. They both live above Captain Jack’s Bar where Billy is the Piano Man. After a week of enormous Pressure, Virginia finally lands a job in a Park Avenue Salon and moves in with Cleo and Judy. She meets a WALL STREET DUDE who proclaims he is an Innocent Man as he wines her and date rapes her.
The next day, Virginia loses her job and is told by a fortune teller that her brother is in trouble. To brighten her day, Judy and Cleo have arranged an audition with an off, off, off Broadway company. She gets a part. But the entire cast must perform naked. Henry is persuaded by Mrs. Sullivan to get the message to Virginia about her missing-in-action brother. Henry finally confronts Virginia, but she meditates into her State of Grace. Shunned, Henry delivers a telegram that says her brother was killed-in-action.
This sends Virginia off the deep end. On a bad LSD trip, Goodnight Saigon conjures a horrific carnation of her brother being dead on a battle field. She mistakes Judy for a Vietnamese and beats her up. Confused and depressed, she worries that Tomorrow is Today and ends up at the east river. She rips her gold crucifix off and tosses it. Once back in her closet, she is handed pills to help her sleep. She takes the entire bottle.
In the hospital, Henry, Judy, and Buddy express their love, because she is Always a Women to them. Buddy is shoving off, having just joined the Navy. Henry is talked into telling Virginia how much he loves and to never Leave a Tender Moment Alone.
Virginia recovers and agrees to head to Pittsburg with Henry who has decided to try a new-fangled gizmo called a computer. They celebrate and metaphorically get their Second Wind and dance Across the River to live happily ever after.
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This screenplay and characters are fictitious. Certain long-standing institutions, agencies, and public offices are mentioned. All the names, characters, events and incidents in this screenplay are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Content warning – Uptown Girl includes cursing and incidents of violence and death, including graphic descriptions, sexual encounters including date rape, and LGBTQ+ situations.
This is to verify that this author in no way endorses or uses Artificial Intelligence in any way to create this.