At the height of the Covid quarantine, playwright-composer Alex Bechtel was separated from his partner.  She was in Boston; he was in Philadelphia. The isolation, the longing, and the waiting weighed heavily on them both.

From that longing rose the musical “Penelope,” a one-woman show, inspired by Homer’s epic Greek poem, “The Odyssey.” As the poet told the story, Odysseus has left Ithaca and his wife, Penelope, to fight in the Trojan War.  He did that for a decade. Then he took another decade to return to her.   

In Bechtel’s modern re-telling, the one-eyed Cyclops, the Sirens, and the witch-goddess Circe are cast aside as the long-suffering wife moves from the margins into the spotlight.  She’s going to tell her own story.  And you better listen. 

The devoted but cunning lady has been running Ithaca, fighting off suitors, raising her son, and building a commanding presence all her own.  At the same time, the more personal side of her story harbors heartache and loneliness. She knows the power of both steadfast love and temptation as she searches for resolve.   

As Betchel wrote in an essay detailing his Covid journey, “I never expected to create a musical adaptation of “The Odyssey” . . .  Before this, I couldn’t have told you the last time I’d thought about Homer’s epic tale . . . Holed up in a house in South Philly, I sat at the piano every day – and these songs began showing up . . . Some had words, some didn’t. All were from Penelope’s point of view -- the woman left behind as Odysseus sailed off to war, waiting twenty years for his return.”

“Penelope” is playing at Lyric Stage Company of Boston from this Friday(Feb. 6 to March 1) and stars the award-winning Boston favorite, Aimee Doherty.   Music, lyrics, and arrangements are by Alex Bechtel, with a book by Bechtel, Grace McLean, and Eva Steinmetz.  The production is directed by Courtney O’Connor, Lyric’s Producing Artistic Director.

•••

Aimee Doherty was born in North Hampton and raised in Bellingham.  Despite first taking to the stage for a high school production of “Grease,” she actually came to her professional life as an actress somewhat later than most.

Although she grew up attending shows with her grandparents and listening to her mother’s collection of cast albums, the theater remained an enjoyable activity, not a career choice.  It was only after she’d been out of college for four years that she thought about getting involved in community theatre as a way to express herself artistically and get to know people. That’s when she auditioned for “Wonderful Town” at the Walpole Foot-lighters.

She has since captured audiences in everything from “Into The Woods” to “One Man, Two Guvnors,” “On the Town,” “Grey Gardens,” “Follies,” “Hot Mikado,” “Rent,” “tick, tick...BOOM!,” “Wild Party,” “Nine,” “Speed The Plow” and “Hello, Dolly!,” among many others.

Knowing the range of Aimee’s artistic talents, audiences may be surprised to learn that she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Chemistry at UMass Amherst and has worked as a freelance environmental consultant.

Although the show is inspired by what can only be termed a massive tale, “Penelope” offers a surprisingly intimate experience for audiences.

“This is basically a conversation,” Aimee said before a recent rehearsal, “which you wouldn’t think something based on “The Odyssey” would be.”  Penelope envisions the audience members as “close friends, and she’s sharing her fears and her frustrations and her triumphs with them.”

Blending passion and sharp humor with a pop score ranging from jazz to folk to indie rock, Penelope is ready to spill the tea.  With a generous glass of bourbon in her hand and a five-piece band by her side, she looks the audience straight in the eye as if to say, “So let me tell you what’s been going on with me."

When Courtney O’Connor was laying out her season of shows at Lyric, she still had one open slot on the calendar when “Penelope” was suggested to her by the theater’s licensing firm.  

They had just acquired the title and Courtney was subsequently able to watch a recording of a cabaret performance of the show staged at Joe’s Pub in New York.  She said she “was hooked before the first song was finished . . . this piece is heart-forward.”  

As for casting Aimee in the lead, Courtney said, “I adore Aimee Doherty onstage in everything she does. (And even more offstage.) She brings a mix of incredible strength and vulnerability at the same time – which is Penelope, too, especially in this moment. You see her mind thinking, her heart beating, and her body pulsing. You feel for and with her.”  

Despite a wide-ranging list of credits, “Penelope” marks Aimee’s first one-woman show, and it couldn’t be happening at a more appropriate venue than Lyric Stage. 

 “I was just looking back,” she said. “19 years ago, almost to the day, was my first show at the Lyric, and it’s been an artistic home.  From a young actor that didn’t really know what they were doing (laughs) and so shocked to be on stage with Bobbie Steinbach and Maryann Zschau and Nancy Carroll, and all of these formidable actors in Boston . . . The Lyric put me in the room with these people.  That was my college, I didn’t study acting, but I did study acting (with them) . . . and to get the chance to do it and get paid for it!”

She continued, “Spiro Veloudos (Lyric’s late producing artistic director) was a big champion of mine and he gave me the opportunity to move from the ingenue to some [major] roles like the Witch in “Into The Woods.”  Formidable roles. And that has just continued under Courtney O’Connor. Lyric feels like home.”

In the end, Bechtel summarized his work on “Penelope” – “Here’s what I have: A few years ago, during a difficult time, I reached out for comfort -- and Penelope was there. That’s what the classics are for. The only hope for immortality in art is for the work to keep sailing the seas of the human condition. We don’t read Homer because it’s historic; we read it because it still shakes our souls. Shakespeare isn’t performed because it’s a relic; we perform it because we still see ourselves in his plays.” 

He said, “’Penelope’ is a musical love letter to all those who wait – for someone they love, for something to believe in, and for the hope that the waiting will end well.”

And so, Penelope waits.  But who, or what, will she find?

“Penelope,” Feb. 6 – March 1; Lyric Stage of Boston, lyricstage.com, 617-585-5678