EINSTEIN’S BEGONIA: Shown is one of many begonia cuttings that have made their way to gardens and windowsills in the Princeton area and beyond. Composer Rebecca Pronsky and bookwriter Alexis Roblan bring their musical theater piece “Einstein’s Begonia,” told from the plant’s point of view, to the Princeton Public Library on September 7. (Photo by Andrew Wilkinson)

By Wendy Greenberg

When composer Rebecca Pronsky lost her father in 2021, she visited his 90-year-old cousin in Cranford, who showed her “Einstein’s begonia,” as they strolled in his garden. Pronsky was told how it got to the garden — gifted by acquaintances — and thought, “I love that for a title.”

As she learned more about the plant cared for by celebrated scientist Albert Einstein, Pronsky found more to love as she realized the plant had lost her own “parent,” and how the begonia’s cuttings have made their way to gardens and windowsills in Princeton and elsewhere.

Four years later Einstein’s Begonia is not only the title of a musical theater piece, with a book by Alexis Roblan, but it will have its premiere in Princeton, where Einstein worked and died, at the Princeton Public Library on Sunday, September 7 at 3 p.m. The show is sold out, but a waitlist is available at princetonlibrary.libnet.info.

The story is told from the unusual point of view of the plant, Beggy, the begonia, a female character that is experiencing loss and searching for her identity through songs like “Only a Plant,” “Famous in New Jersey,” “Relativity,” and “Hybrid.”

The show begins just after Einstein dies, explained the writers, and Beggy, who has been in his care her whole life, and doesn’t know anything about her origins so embarks on an identity search. (The begonia plant is a hybrid developed by crossing a Brazilian plant and a Swiss plant, according to published research.)

The song “Hybrid” is the finale of the show, according to the Einstein’s Begonia website (Einsteinsbegoniamusical.com). In the song, the begonia, “who has searched for her true origins throughout the story, realizes she isn’t wild or far from home. In fact, she learns she is a hybrid plant and was created by a person. She is home right where she is. Hybrids are strong, resilient, and most of all … intentional,” notes the website.

The story, said bookwriter Roblan, is “about grief, found family, and identity. When someone else is the center of your world, what does their loss mean for your own sense of self?” The other characters are based on Helen Dukas, Einstein’s secretary, and his stepdaughter Margot, who were living with him when he died.

While Pronsky started writing songs in 2022, the piece was more of a song cycle until Roblan got involved a year later. She was suggested as a collaborator by a mutual contact. “I’ve written many plays, but this is only the second musical I’ve worked on,” said Roblan. “It’s been exciting to bring my voice to a world that already had such a strong point of view through Rebecca’s songwriting.”

The two took an approach that was not typically musical theater, but was inspired by pop, rock, blues, bossa nova, and the 1970s sounds of musical theater composer Stephen Schwartz’s Godspell and Pippin.

“Eclectic” is how they both described the vibe.

Neither came from a musical theater background. Brooklyn, N.Y., native composer, and lyricist Pronsky spent a dozen years recording and touring as a singer-songwriter. Her albums, released by the Austin, Texas, label Nine Mile Records, include Only Daughter (Top 10 Country Album of the Year, The Telegraph UK), Departures & Arrivals (Critics’ List Best of the Year, Philadelphia City Paper), and Viewfinder (Song of the Day, NPR Music). Following the 2016 election, she produced and performed “Witness: Hillary’s Song Cycle,” a one-woman cabaret piece “exploring the inner world of Hillary Clinton just after her devastating election loss.”

Meanwhile, bookwriter Roblan, originally from the rural Oregon coast, is a playwright whose plays include Red Emma & The Mad Monk (a New York Times Critic’s Pick), Daughter of Lot (which played the Edinburgh Fringe Festival), You Feel so Far Away Right Now (Finalist, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference), THE ANDREW PLAY (Thomas Barbour Playwrights Award), And It Spins Twice (FringeNYC),  and Ours (Finalist, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference), among others.

Last summer the writers visited with another Pronsky cousin, a graduate student at Princeton University (coincidentally in quantum physics), and visited Einstein’s house and other locations he frequented, and toured the quantum lab and spoke to students about Einstein’s work.

They wrote on Instagram (@einsteinsbegonia) that “There really couldn’t be a better location to perform this music, because Princeton, N.J., is where Einstein’s Begonia takes place! Einstein lived in Princeton at 112 Mercer Street at the end of his life, and the show opens in his house on Mercer Street just after his death. The songs and script make many references to both the town and the University, and poke fun at the Ivy League and New Jersey.”

Since Pronsky and Roblan began developing the show, it has been named a semifinalist for the 2025 O’Neill National Musical Theatre Conference.

During their research, naturalist Steven Hiltner, board member of Friends of Herrontown Woods, provided background information. “What I find wonderful and possibly unique about (Einstein’s Begonia) is that it is a highly engaging musical with a plant as the main character,” said Hiltner. “Speaking as a longtime professional musician, I can attest that Rebecca’s music and lyrics are compelling and witty.”

Four years ago, he said, he received a query asking if he could track down a cutting of the begonia. “Never having heard of them, I did some internet research which led to tracking down not only a descendant of Einstein’s begonia, but also the origin story of how this special plant spread from home to home in Princeton and beyond.” Documenting this information on his VeblenHouse.org blog, Pronsky contacted him and they continued to do research on the plant.

As a sort of prelude to Einstein’s Begonia, Hiltner and historian Cindy Srnka will present some new research about Einstein acquaintance Oswald Veblen at Princeton Public Library on Thursday, September 4 at 7 p.m. The two programs are co-presented by Princeton Public Library and Friends of Herrontown Woods.

What he likes about the combination of the two programs, he said, are that while he and Srnka “are recovering important Einstein-related stories largely lost from history, particularly Veblen’s role in bringing Einstein to Princeton,” the Einstein’s Begonia writers have “created a new story about Einstein’s living legacy.”