"I'm doing a musical about Quanah Parker, the last Comanche chief," he said. "I composed the music and the lyrics — plus I get credit for the story, which anybody from Texas is familiar with, but the book for the musical is by Anthony Dodge. His wife, Marcia Milgrom Dodge, who directed and choreographed the recent Ragtime, dramaturged the piece while Tony and I were rewriting it."

Quanah tracks the musical journey of the legendary Comanche chief who led his people from the prairie to The White Man's Road. His singularly unique place in American history rests on the fact that he never lost a battle to the white man.

The show, as reported on Playbill.com, comes to life now through Jan. 24 in an all-student world-premiere staged reading in Pace University's Schaeberle Studio (41 Park Row, 10th Floor) in Manhattan. The Tuesday through Saturday run plays nightly at 8, with matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 2 PM.

Gatlin said, "Amy Rogers, who directs the musical theatre program at Pace, is staging the piece, and she has done a terrific job in ten days of putting those 18- and 19-year-old students up there on that stage and singing my music. It's fabulous. I'm so proud of what she has done for the show."

— Harry Haun