New Work In Progress: Creep

Creep is an original musical with book, music and lyrics by local writer/actor Donald Fowler. It is a musical mystery/thriller set during the time of the mythic Jack the Ripper murders. While completely fictional, the story line weaves in some of the factual things known about the famous murders. The narrative follows a mother, her beautiful young daughter and the mysterious man who suddenly comes into their lives. When savage and puzzling murders begin to take place in and around the Whitehall section of London, anyone and everyone seems capable of murder. With a cast of 18 and an orchestra of 10, the show will be one of the largest WTT had produced in its history.

The writer Donald Fowler, has been well known to WTT audiences as an actor on our stages almost since our beginning. In 2010, the first draft of the show was presented as a reading at our annual Out of the Loop Fringe Festival. I directed that reading, and it was well-received and generated quite a bit of buzz locally. Based on feedback from that reading, the writer continued to work on Creepand Uptown Players (another local company) did a full staged workshop in 2013. I saw that workshop and began talks with Mr. Fowler about a full realized production at WTT. In order to take it to the next level, in November 2014, I hired Kate Galvin to direct the production and to work with Fowler on refining and reshaping some key elements. Kate has great experience with new musical development and her insight and guidance has been invaluable over the last few months as we move toward the opening of Creep.
What attracted you to the piece and its writer? 
I was attracted to the piece initially because the story was not one I had heard before. Even considering that it was based in some ways  on an historical account that would seemingly be overly familiar, the plot is in no way formulaic. These were new and compelling characters in situations full of conflict which made for interesting drama. Plus it was a new musical!  And finally, I was really intrigued by the fact that the book, music and lyrics were coming from one person. 

Why is Creep a good fit for your audience? 
Thrillers have always played well with our audience, as have musicals of course.  We have had huge success with shows likeSweeney Todd, Drood and Woman in Black.  In some ways there are similarities but most importantly, we have a long history of producing new work, several of those world premiere musicals, by local writers.  Our audience has always been supportive and excited about new work, so it seemed a continuation of that history.

 

How does the show fit in to the bigger mission of WaterTower? 
WaterTower’s first show was a world premiere (Free Fall starring Sandy Duncan, written by Duncan and Marc Alan Zagoren) and our mission has always been, at least in part, to continue the tradition of finding and developing new work and new voices. Also, WTT has always been highly committed to local artists of all disciplines.

 

Why should everyone head down to the Dallas-Fort Worth area this fall and catch Creep?
It’s not often you see a new musical with lyrics, music and book by the same writer and we have put together an amazing cast and production team all under the leadership of Kate Galvin.  Donald is a new voice in musical theatre and one we feel has great promise. We feel the project has great potential beyond its Dallas premiere this fall.  WaterTower is proud to present Creep which we feel certain will be one of the most exciting projects on local stages this fall.

 

For more information, visit WaterTower’s website.