A Playwright’s Well-Traveled Valentine to Broadway
In May 2008, a benefit concert version, featuring Donna Murphy, Christian Borle, and a host of guest stars, sold out Town Hall. Interest in the piece was rekindled. Mr. Zippel submitted it to the National Alliance for Musical Theater for a showing in its industry-only festival of new musicals.
“The festival committee reviews blind,” explained Branden Huldeen, the alliance’s director for new works. “Someone very smart said of this show: ‘This script is so funny. I love the score, it’s like an old-fashioned Cy Coleman musical written for kids.’ When we told him at the meeting, he was floored.”
Lila Coogan and Donna Murphy performing in a benefit concert version of “Pamela’s First Musical” in 2008.CreditJay Brady
“Pamela’s First Musical” got its shot in the October 2008 festival. The dimensions of the show became clearer: Fourteen performers were onstage, not as many as a full production would require. And the sets and costumes needed for the musical within a musical Pamela attends with her aunt seemed daunting.
“It was a hard sell in 2008,” Mr. Huldeen said. “People weren’t buying big musicals.”