In talking about dreaming up his new musical “Ask for the Moon,” Darko Tresnjak said this:

“I just wanted to do a show about two badass women who get away with it."

Let’s back up.

Tresnjak, the Tony-winning director who led Hartford Stage from 2011 to 2019, started contemplating writing this musical — which is now playing at Goodspeed’s Terris Theatre in Chester — during the early days of the pandemic.

“I just had this realization that I needed cheering up and probably a lot of other people did and maybe I could work on something smart and funny,” he said.

He reached out to his writing partner, composer Oran Eldor.

“We have a pretty similar sense of humor, sensibility, and that is something that happens or it doesn’t. He’s a joy to work with,” Tresnjak said.

In devising the story, Tresnjak knew that he wanted it to be driven by a couple of women.

“I realized that there's this whole genre of musical comedy that traditionally rewards male ambition. Men can be very naughty, but if they have a plan, they can get away with it. I was like, why is that? I grew up around very, very funny and I would say outrageous women, and so I wanted to put women not in the passenger seat but in the driver’s seat,” Tresnjak said.

In addition, he had been talking with some friends who said that, recently, funny female performers in musical theater have been lucky to get any role at all. It all led him to a story propelled by strong, humorous female characters.

The plot for “Ask for the Moon” is wholly original, which is pretty rare in musical theater, Tresnjak noted.

The basics: A wealthy widow named Helene (played by Luba Mason) learns she was not the first wife but actually was the second wife to her late husband. She worries that she might lose her fortune. Some murderous intentions might be involved.

Her husband left a small bequest to his nurse, Charlotte (played by Ali Ewoldt). That makes the widow wonder if there was something inappropriate going on between them, but there wasn’t. The nurse happens to aspire to be an opera singer.

“I wanted to toy with the expectations of quote, unquote catfight and then completely subvert them, and actually there’s a burgeoning friendship between these two,” Tresnjak said.

“Ask for the Moon” has intentional moments where audience members will think a romantic or sexual relationship is brewing between one of the women and the men they meet, but then it turns out, that isn’t the case at all. In fact, one of the women isn’t interested in men. Tresnjak didn’t want the romantic aspect to be the focus of the story.

‘Great British’ influence

Tresnjak took a little inspiration from another source as well: “The Great British Bake Off.” He was taken with a contestant on the show named Jurgen who had an accent that reminded Tresnjak of his German relatives when he was a kid. (Tresnjak is one-quarter German and three-quarters Slav.)

“Something about him triggered all these childhood memories. So I was off to the races, I guess,” Tresnjak said.

Consequently, among the male characters in “Ask for the Moon” are one who is German and two others — they are squabbling twins — from the fictional country of Carpathia.

Small but mighty

The cast for “Ask for the Moon” consists of just three actors and a puppeteer.

In addition to the actresses who play Helene and Charlotte, in the Goodspeed production, Jamison Stern fills four different roles.

Puppeteer Alex Dreschke provides some characters in puppet form, including a hungry baby piranha.

One of the driving forces for the decision for the small cast was this: A decade ago, Tresnjak directed “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” for which he won the Tony award for best director. It was a $7 million show. He’s currently working on another musical that he hopes to bring to Broadway that’s exactly the same size as “Gentleman’s Guide.” But now, the cost would be $17 million.

“What that does to creativity and the collaborative process, and who you have to listen to — I can handle it up to a point, but I cannot have my whole life be about that,” Tresnjak said. “So the desire to write something really intimate in musical theater form, which is very, very rare — I don’t know, I hope the show has a future, you never know, but it's just a desire to do something where I feel free as opposed to the chokehold of millions and millions of dollars.”

He added, “Some of it, I suppose, also has to do with the fact I'm going to be 60 years old next year. You go from being an emerging artist one day, then you're a survivor, and working on something smaller is pleasurable at this stage in my life.”

‘Moon’ music

As for the music in “Ask for the Moon,” Tresnjak said it is very melodic. Ewoldt, who played Christine for several years in “Phantom of the Opera,” “has one of the most resplendent sopranos I've ever heard. It’s gorgeous,” Tresnjak said. Since her character in “Ask for the Moon” longs to be an opera singer, her songs riff on Verdi, Rossini and Mozart.

The character of Helene is a society figure, but it turns out that her origins are working class, and behind the glamor, she’s down to earth. Consequently, her numbers are a little “belty,” with Tresnjak and Eldor thinking of recordings by the likes of Peggy Lee. Mason, who plays Helene, is a very accomplished jazz singer, so one song serves as a tribute to her voice.

Stern’s characters, meanwhile, tend toward patter numbers.

Each verse advances the action. Aside from one number performed by the pianist on the cruise ship where the characters are passengers, “all of the other songs, each verse takes you to the next place in the story,” Tresnjak said.

Composer Eldor, by the way, has a long list of credits and was nominated for best composer for his work on “Mythic” for both The Stage Debut Awards in London and the META Awards in Montreal.

A return to Goodspeed

Tresnjak has worked quite a bit over the years at Goodspeed, which is led by Donna Lynn Cooper Hilton. (She became Goodspeed’s artistic director in 2020 after 32 years in various jobs at the East Haddam-based theater.)

At the Goodspeed Opera House, Tresnjak directed “A Little Night Music” in 2001, “Carnival!” in 2010 and “City of Angels” in 2011. He also helmed “Amour” at the Terris Theatre in 2005.

Tresnjak, who lives in Connecticut, was scheduled to direct the musical “Candide” at the Goodspeed Opera House in 2020, but then the pandemic shut down all productions that year.

The run at the developmental Terris Theatre gives the creators of “Ask for the Moon” a chance to rewrite and rework the piece.

“I love Goodspeed and their expertise with musicals, and I am just so excited about Donna Lynn Cooper Hilton’s vision for Goodspeed,” Tresnjak said.

k.dorsey@theday.com

If you go

What: “Ask for the Moon”

Where: Terris Theatre, 33 North Main St., Chester

When: Through Aug. 11; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Wed. and Thurs., 8 p.m. Fri., 3 and 8 p.m. Sat., and 2 p.m. Sun.

Tickets: Start at $20; all prices subject to change based on availability

Contact: (860) 873-8668, goodspeed.org.