Women have Created and Written many things for which men received the public credit. The game Monopoly, for instance, contrary to the tale written on a paper long included with every new game, was created as a cautionary tale by Elizabeth Magie, a staunch anti-capitalist. Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, is believed by some to have written works attributed to William Shakespeare. And Homer’s “The Odyssey?” Some scholars suggest that the tale of Odysseus, king of the Greek city Ithaca, and his decade-long journey home from the 10 yearlong Trojan War, was not written by the poet Homer, to which it has been traditionally credited, but rather by Odysseus’s queen, Penelope.

Hung on the thread of this thin historical possibility, as noted in the program, a delightful new musical, titled “Penelope: Or How the Odyssey Was Really Written,” has been created by Peter Kellogg (book and lyrics) and Stephen Weiner (music). Produced by The York Theater Company, it is playing its world premiere at the Theater at St. James on the Upper East Side.

It tells the story primarily from Penelope’s perspective. Beset by five men known collectively as her suitors, Penelope must contend with their eating and drinking her … Continue reading..