Pretty Woman, the Musical,
which came from Pretty Woman, the RomCom,
was begat by “$3,000,” the screenplay,
which was neither a musical
nor a RomCom
but a down and dirty diatribe
against the prostitution industry
and the city of sin,
or the city of skin,
Los Angeles.

“$3,000” the script
was a very different beast
from Pretty Woman
the adorable fairytale
where the hooker with a heart of gold
finds her Prince Charming
and all ends right with the world
(or so I’m told;
I’ve only read that text
up to page eight).
The director, like Pygmalion,
found a sculpture in the marble of the script
and fashioned the creation he fancied.

It was very little like
what the writer had hoped to make breathe.
The director actually tricked everyone
into making a love story
out of the brutal tale
he’s been told to tell.

The words the writer sold
the thing he had created
had designed and built
line by researched line
had been taken from him
and made into something he had never imagined.
His “$3,000” became worth millions
but it wasn’t his idea anymore.
It was the director’s
and it’s the directors vision that lives on
in the musical
and maybe the eventual space derby.

This is what happens
when you take the money on the dresser
in the city of skin.