Songs of love and science: 4th Wall sets Goddard tale to music

Richard Duckett

Worcester Telegram & Gazette

March 6, 2026Updated March 7, 2026, 11:22 a.m. ET

Worcester's Robert H. Goddard is known as the "Father of Modern Rocketry," but he also had a song in his heart.

Goddard sings several songs in "The Rocket Man: The Robert Goddard Musical," a 4th Wall Stage Company production written and composed by Stephen Murray that has its world premiere running March 27 to April 4 at the Museum of Worcester.

While doing research for the musical, Murray, a Worcester playwright, composer, performer and educator, discovered that Goddard was a choir boy and wrote at least one song himself. The song is in the musical. The rest of the songs are written by Murray.

But at its heart, "The Rocket Man" is a love story. "It's the Robert and Esther story," Murray said of Robert and his wife Esther Goddard.

'A long, long time ...'

Robert Goddard (1882-1945) died uncertain about whether his work would pave the way to the stars or even be recognized. Esther Goddard (1901-82) helped secure his legacy in part by getting over 130 patents in her husband’s name, using notes, sketches and photos she found in the house. She was also a strong advocate for her husband's work as the space age dawned.

The story of Robert Goddard is in the news right now as the centennial of the physicist, engineer, teacher and inventor's  first successful liquid-fueled rocket launch in Auburn on March 16, 1926, will be celebrated with a number of events locally, nationally and internationally.

The Museum of Worcester has an exhibition "Worcester to the Stars: The Goddard Rocket Centennial" opening March 16.

'That rocket thing coming up'

Murray is a prolific writer and composer whose works include "Nellie: The Musical," an adaptation with playwright Robby Steltz  put on in 2024 by 4th Wall at the Museum of Worcester about Nellie Bly — whose undercover reporting on the horrific conditions and abuse of women at the Insane Asylum of New York in 1887 changed the way the world looks at treatment of the mentally ill. Murray's mini-opera "Casey at the Bat," based on Worcester writer Ernest Lawrence Thayer’s famous 1888 poem of the same name, has become an annual event presented by 4th Wall at the Museum of Worcester. He's also written a number of shows for young audiences.

Murray said he was at the Museum of Worcester a couple of years ago when William D. Wallace, who retired recently after nearly 50 years as the museum's executive director, mentioned, " 'You know, we've got that rocket thing coming up.'" Barbra Guertin, managing director of 4th Wall, also gave Murray a gentle nudge in the direction of writing a show about Goddard.

The musical "required a lot of research," Murray said. "What's nice about something historical, you know how it turns out." Even if Robert and Esther didn't quite know what the orbit of their destinies would be.

"The Rocket Man" spans the late 1800s, past Goddard's death, and into the 1960s and the space program.

The show is directed and produced by Guertin and Robbin Joyce. The cast includes Ryan Sullivan, Jeanine Belcastro Went, Chris Bardizbanian, Tracy Martino, Edgardo Lopez, Jim Douglas, and Jerry Bisantz. Many of the cast members play different characters throughout the musical.

Bardizbanian, a student at Burncoat Middle School, plays the young Robert Goddard, while Sullivan, a biology teacher and Science Department Leader at  Millbury Memorial Junior/Senior High school, is the adult Robert Goddard. Belcastro Went plays Esther.

Murray has worked with several of the cast members before, including Bardizbanian in "Casey at the Bat" and Sulllivan from a WCLOC Theater Company production of the musical "Chess."

'A great opportunity'

As a science leader at Millbury High School, "he has an interesting perspective," Murray said of Sullivan. Plus, "He's a wonderful performer."

"It's a great opportunity," said Sullivan. In the era "The Rocket Man" depicts, "scientists were celebrities in a way (they are not now)."

Originally from Ithaca, New York, Sullivan has taught at Millbury public schools for several years and appears in about one show a year locally if possible. He considers himself more of a singer (tenor) than an actor, but if there is a good story, as with "The Rocket Man," that's a bonus, he said. 4th Wall approached him about the show, and he has been given time to grow into the role. Guertin asked him to grow a moustache, to look like Goddard, he said.

Murray's songs for "The Rocket Man" are in a variety of musical styles.

Murray discovered that the young Goddard was a choir boy, so one number is in that vein. Goddard related a story about being a teenager and climbing a stepladder next to a cherry tree and looking up at the sky and having a vision of space travel. Murray's song inspired by that is the hopeful "Ladder to the Sky."

The young Goddard also did scientific experiments at home, which spawns a concerned neighbors song, "What's Going On?". "One day the house did fill up with smoke," Murray said.

'On such a timeless flight'

Goddard graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1908 and was briefly on the faculty. Goddard composed his own song, "Old Tech," which Murray has put in the musical. The song has a barbershop harmony style. "It's very typical of an early 29th century song," Murray noted.

Goddard went on to get his doctorate at Clark University and taught there for several years. It was there that he met Esther Christine Kisk, a secretary in the Clark president's office. Murray has Robert and Esther singing a duet on meeting. "It's kind of a fun song in the president's office at Clark."

A musical montage of Goddard's first rocket launches culminates in a fire to round out the first act. "That's how we end the first act with a big explosion," Murray said.

People made fun of Goddard after some of his failures, as reflected in Murrays song "Bob the Moon Man."

However, famed aviator Charles Lindbergh believed in him, and visited Goddard in Worcester. Lindbergh convinced the Guggenheim Foundation to support Goddard's work. With assistance of the foundation, Goddard moved to Roswell, New Mexico, where he continued his rocket experiments. 

Murray said that one story revolves around whether or not Esther Goddard served Lindbergh chocolate cake. "I decided she did and she approached it with the same discipline a scientist would," Murray said of his song, "My Chocolate Cake"

In Roswell Esther feels somewhat lonely and sings "High Lonesome," a "little country song," Murray said.

'Organized chaos'

Sullivan said that he was impressed when he saw the lyrics Murray had written for Robert Goddard's song "The Scientific Method." Murray writes "Science is organized chaos." Sullivan thought, "He knows what he's talking about," he said.

Meanwhile, Sullivan said one of the details he's been learning about Robert Goddard is that's "he's not the stereotypical uber-nerd. He was very socially capable. He rubbed elbows with the rich and famous of the time."

Esther Goddard was several years younger than Robert. She photographed many of the famous pictures depicting her husband. That's why you don't see many photographs of her, Murray noted.

Goddard was in poor health throughout his life with bouts of tuberculosis, Murray said. He was also a heavy smoker and died of throat cancer in 1945 at the age of 62. J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory, was also a heavy smoker who died of throat cancer at 62.

When he's diagnosed with cancer in he show, Goddard tells Esther, "So that's the end of my story," Sullivan said. But "Esther says 'That's not the end.' She carries his legacy."

"It's definitely a story of resilience," said Murray. From both Robert and Esther Goddard.

Esther Goddard and the Guggenheim Foundation later sued the U.S. government for $1 million for infringement of Robert Goddard's patents. According to inventionandtech.com, NASA eventually announced a $1 million settlement for rights to more than two hundred Goddard patents. Congress also posthumously awarded Goddard the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation’s highest civilian honor. In 1961 NASA dedicated the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. 

Buzz Aldrin, the second astronaut to step foot on the moon and whose father had been taught by Goddard at Clark University, gave Esther a miniature biography of Goddard that he had taken to the moon, Murray said.

'It was for me really satisfying'

"The Rocket Man" ends on a happy note for Robert and Esther. "I have them coming back together. They did it together," Murray said. "Esther finished the job Robert started. That's your happy ending. You've got to have your happy ending."

Many of the cast and crew of "The Rocket Man" recently visited the Robert and Esther Goddard House (Goddard's birthplace) on Tallawanda Drive in Worcester near Webster Square, which is now a museum and education center. They met with Charles Slatkin, founder of The Wonder Mission and owner of the house. The Wonder Mission is helping oversee Goddard rocket launch centennial activities at firstlaunchcentennial.org.

"It was really wonderful that Charles Slatkin let us come there. It was for me really satisfying," Murray said.

"As Charles Slatkin was talking I said, 'Yes, I got my facts right.' He mentioned chocolate cake. (I thought) 'Yes, I told you there was chocolate cake.'"

As for if there's a future in the stars for "The Rocket Man," Murray said "I hope so. Charles Slatkin and I have a similar vision. We want the story to be told. I would love my way of telling the story to go forward."

Sullivan isn't going to push the show on his students, but would be happy to see some of them in the audience at the Museum of Worcester. "My whole job is getting students excited about science," he said.