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Festival Show Update: BEATSVILLE

January 8, 2015

Last month, we caught up with alumni Wendy Wilf and Glenn Slater about the development of their 2008 Festival show, Beatsville, and their upcoming production at NYU-Steinhardt this spring.

Greenwich Village, 1959—Playground of bohemians, beatniks and jazzbos. Tragically square Walter Paisley finds that his clay figures, sculpted nudes and papier-mâché busts bring him the acceptance he desperately yearns for. But what if the world discovers that Walter’s body of work consists of actual bodies? A bebop-inflected black comedy/satire.

Beatsville was very well-received after the 2008 Festival so many people would be shocked to hear that it has taken this long for it to finally be seen in the States. Do you want to talk a bit about why it took a while to get the show off the ground over the last few years?
We were extremely pleased with Beatsville’s reception at NAMT, but as exciting as the response was, we also knew that we had a lot of work to do before we were ready to move to the next step. Then we hit a unexpected roadblock: a number of Glenn’s other projects all moved towards high-profile productions simultaneously. Every time we began to make real progress on our rewrites, another project demanded his time and attention. It took a few long and frustrating years before we were able to regain our momentum as a team, but fortunately I was able to keep moving forward on the music and lyrics, writing several new numbers and reworking some of the old ones. When Glenn’s schedule finally eased up, we were able to hit the ground running.

How has the show grown and changed since being at the Festival?
We loved the version of the show that we brought to NAMT, but as we began our next draft we started running into second-act problems, most of which stemmed from our faithfulness to the source material. We had to take a big step back and reassess which elements of the original property were integral to our story, and which needed to be rethought and, if possible, improved upon. We also wanted to find ways to heighten the stakes—the story is a sort of whodunit, but since the audience already knows who the murderer is, we realized the tension (and hence the comedy) instead needed to revolve around the mystery of who would catch him, and how. Finally, we had always seen our 1959-set piece as having some satirical points to make about today’s culture, but while our first pass worked as a comedy, we felt the satire wasn’t jelling the way we had hoped. To get to where we wanted to be, we spent a long time looking for ways to make Walter, our main character, feel less passive and to give Carla, our female lead, a strong story arc of her own. We’ve drawn the supporting characters with much more sharply-etched motivations, and jettisoned a lot of the original source’s second-half story to give our piece a tighter plot and a broader scope. In the process, we’ve also cut a few songs we loved—but added several new ones that we love even more.

NAMT News

New Work In Progress: DISENCHANTED!

January 8, 2015

This month, we check in with Don Frantz, Producer and General Manager at Town Square Productions, as he tells us about their brand new, Off Broadway musical, Disenchanted!, by Dennis T. Giacino.
Poisoned apples. Glass slippers. Who needs ‘em?! Not Snow White and her posse of disenchanted princesses in the new musical comedy that’s anything but Grimm. Forget the princesses you think you know. After multiple sold-out runs nationwide, these royal renegades toss off their tiaras to bring their hilariously subversive, not-for-the-kiddies musical to New York City—and fairy tales will never be the same!

How did Disenchanted find its way to Town Square Productions?
A great friend and actress, Andrea Canny, called my office in NYC and said, “You have to get to Orlando to see a show. You don’t know the composer or director. It won the Fringe Festival award. Get here now. The last time I told you this was 10 years ago when Menopause started and you didn’t come. This one is even funnier, has original music and I’m in it.” And so I went.

What drew you to this project?
The actors and creators put on an Actors’ Showcase production after the Fringe Festival in winter 2010-11. I saw it and laughed continuously for 90 minutes. Of course, I had worked for Disney and a lot of the humor was directed at the Orlando market, but I felt that it could play outside of the Disney hometown. As the princesses are universal, the show and the humor were universal—I’m not intending to promote another theme park here. I was also thrilled to have discovered this composer whose music was so tuneful, clever and touching and after a career of working the keys deserved a break.There were very, very funny original bits on stage. Everything was low-tech and real. There was a sense of wonderful bravery on stage as the cast was given the allowance to break the fourth wall and respond to the audience and other performers in improvised moments. There was an immediacy in the room; a way to relate to the cast on stage that was so fresh and exciting. The ‘live’ was put back into live theater.

Festival Shows in the News

NAMT News

Festival Show Update: THE SANDMAN

December 4, 2014

Last month, we caught up with alumni Richard Oberacker and Robert Taylor about the development of their 2013 Festival show, The Sandman, with Playing Pretend and their upcoming production in Denmark.

Drawn from the more nightmarish fantasy of E.T.A. Hoffmann, author of The Nutcracker, comes a new and darkly comic musical tale: The Sandman. When Maria, the wife of an ingenious German clockmaker named Albert Strauss engages a new nanny, Fraulein Kaeseschweiss, to care for the two children, Nathaniel and Theresa, a series of bizarre and unnatural events begins to unfold. As Theresa falls mysteriously ill, a flamboyant and unconventional physician, Dr. Copelius, is summoned upon the nanny’s recommendation. The doctor comes with a young ward in tow, Clara Stahlbaum, recently orphaned after her entire family was incinerated in an inexplicable Christmas tree fire. And as the Strauss family is thrust ever deeper into chaos, the sinister and Machiavellian forces at play are gradually revealed—forces from which only the children may be able to save them.

NAMT News

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: The First Rehearsal

October 22, 2014

Stu for Silverton’s Peter Duchan paints us a portrait of an artist as a (rightfully)

neurotic man as he prepares, worries through, and survives his first rehearsal

First Rehearsal – A Neurotic’s Schedule
7:44am. I give up on sleep and climb out of bed. Our first rehearsal for Stu for Silverton is today at 11:00am. I check the clock. Three hours stretch before me. I will do my best fill it with anxiety. But the problem with the first rehearsal is that nothing’s actually happened yet. There’s nothing concrete to be stressed about. I don’t let this deter me; I can invent something.

8:10am. A watched bagel doesn’t toast, so I distract myself with fear fantasies about rehearsal while I wait for breakfast. We’ve created a forty-five minute cut especially for the NAMT Festival, so today will be my first time hearing this version of the script read aloud. It will be the actors’ first time hearing it aloud as well. What if they don’t like it? That’s nonsense, Peter: they wouldn’t have agreed to be in it if they hated the material. But what if
they liked the script when they read it that first time and now—revisiting it, digging in—they realize they don’t actually like it at all? What if I realize I don’t like it?

10:52am. I arrive at the rehearsal studio. The telltale signs of a first rehearsal. Chairs and music stands arranged by the piano. A stage manager hard at work. Stacks of sheet music laid out for the taking. And, for me, a freshly printed script in a black binder. I love a bindered script. Clean pages, single-sided, great for jotting down thoughts and ideas—which is what I like to do in rehearsal when I don’t know what else to do, just keep my head in my script.

11:00am. Our director, Andrew Russell, greets everybody. He explains how Stu for Silverton came to be. He recalls hearing a radio report about Stu Rasmussen, then contacting and eventually visiting Stu. Andrew talks about inviting Breedlove and me to write the piece. Though we begin the day with seven of our ten actors, we take a moment for introductions. One by one we share our names with the group.

11:08am. A latecomer makes her apology-laden entrance. Now we have eight of our ten actors. One by one we share our names with the group.

12:13pm. I step out of the room to take a phone call just as Meg Zervoulis, our Music Director, begins teaching the cast a rousing group number.

12:22pm. I re-enter the room and am immediately hit by a wall of sound. Eight booming voices, somehow confidently singing notes they’ve just learned. It’s completely energizing hearing Music Supervisor Will Reynolds’ arrangements sung by this cast. And this is just the beginning!

1:00pm. Full Company called. Ten out of ten actors present. One by one we share our names with the group.

1:08pm. Our first read-through of the forty-five minute cut. Immediately illuminating and productive. An actor simply reading a line differently than I’d intended can teach me something about the line. I also realize, in trimming the script, the last beat has lost some clarity. But on the whole, it seems to flow nicely. I’m especially relieved to hear laughter. The cast is having fun. Why on earth was I worried they wouldn’t like it? Of course they love it. They’ve never been more proud to work on anything ever in their entire careers ever.

2:21pm. Sinking into a black hole of self-doubt. In cutting it down to forty-five minutes, I’ve drained our show of all its charm. Who am I kidding, it was barely charming to begin with. What the hell am I doing? Who do I think I’m fooling?!

2:24pm. Andrew gives me half of his energy bar. Sanity restored.

3:10pm. Equity break time. I’m not a huge fan of these official breaks. I always feel vaguely guilty throughout, like I’m breaking the rules if I chat with an actor.
So I try to keep my head in my script. But it’s hard with so many friendly faces in the room. One glance at Annaleigh Ashford and spontaneous smiling ensues. I overhear Nick Wyman telling a story and can’t help but laugh along.

3:37pm. Facetime with Breedlove. He can’t be here for rehearsals because he’s currently on tour, wearing his performer hat, an opening act for Lady Gaga. Thanks to modern technology, he gets to chat with the cast. After the call, we get back to work. Breedlove gets back to gallivanting around Europe. I hope he brings me back a present, ahem.

3:42pm. Actors continue learning music. I try to keep my head in my script but I can’t stop watching these actors work. It’s incredible hearing them sight read the score with impressive accuracy. We’ve got a cast of pros.

4:09pm. Lewis Cleale, our Stu, notes that the four oldest actors in the cast have all hung onto their AOL email addresses. He insists his is ironic.

4:25pm. We work out the timing of a tricky song-and-dialogue section, hitting it over and over, trimming lines to fit the music, finessing tempi to accommodate the spoken words. There’s stuff you can’t do until you’ve gathered all the elements in the room. This is the fun part. Standing at the piano, walking to an actor to deliver a line change, pacing in the back while they try again. I like standing at rehearsal. I feel more creative standing up.

5:00pm. End of rehearsal. That wasn’t so bad. Energizing, in fact. I head home to revise the last few pages of our draft. Grateful to have an assignment. I do better if I have something tangible to worry about.

NAMT News

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: Casting for the Festival

October 21, 2014

As their show “graduates” from Southern California to New York City, Mary Marie bookwriter and lyricist Chana Wise sweetly reflects on how it felt to be greeted by a fresh new group of

actors and singers who will breathe new life into their musical.

So, we’ve made it into the NAMT Festival. We’ve got an amazing director and musical director, we’ve sweated over cutting our piece to the required 45-minutes, and now—casting!
Truth be told, almost from the first moment I put fingertips to keyboard in the creation of Mary Marie I was able to hear the voices of the characters coming from the mouths of specific actors; friends who had agreed to help us develop the show. They got us through the teething, crawling, first steps, dare I say potty training, and eventually the adolescent stage of the show, and we have been so fortunate that these actors stayed with us through the whole development process, which included five or six staged readings. Not only had they become entrenched in the work, but we all
grew to become a sort of Mary Marie family.
Now we couldn’t be more thrilled that Mary Marie would be growing up and taking a trip from Southern California to New York, but it also meant that it would be time for a new set of amazing actors to bring their own unique talents to these roles. To carry the metaphor a little further, it’s a bit as if Mary Marie would be taking a cross-country trip to the prom—to a new cast of five blind dates. Since neither Carl Johnson (composer) nor I have spent much time in New York, we depended a lot on Branden Huldeen (NAMT Festival Producing Director), Michael Cassara, (Casting Director) and Daniella Topol (Director) for their expert advice, input, and contacts to cast the show. We had access to an initial list of actors who have worked for the Festival in previous years, which was helpful, but not knowing or having ever seen them, it was still difficult to tell, from our end, who might be right for the specific characters in our show. Thank goodness for YouTube!
Our first role cast was that of the Male Swing. In the full show (the uncut version) this character plays six different characters and contributes much of the comic element. We were delighted and relieved that Colin Hanlon was available. Our first character was cast! After that, our other cast members Kevin Earley, Mamie Parris, and Ruth Gottschall eventually and fortunately for us, fell into place. We were especially concerned that we find a Mary Marie who was not only close to the right age of the character (13-years-old), but who could learn the music and grasp the complexity of the character in such a short rehearsal period. Fortunately Emerson Steele was free and happy to join us.
We are so excited about starting the next phase of work on this show and to meet the men and women who will help us to grow these characters even more. And hopefully, someday soon, Mary Marie will be ready to take off on its own—and we’ll be empty nesters.

NAMT News

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: Writing my First Musical

October 20, 2014

We kick off Festival week with Sarah Hammond’s delightful reflections on what

inspired her to transition from playwright to bookwriter of this year’s Festival show, String!

I came to New York as a playwright, but I’m like most theater kids from the farflung suburbs of America: I grew up on musicals. At 9, I was choreographing dances for “If Momma Was Married” to be performed on roller skates at the bottom of our cul de sac. I grew up singing Aladdin in the carpool, playing munchkins in The Wizard of Oz, and from 5th through 8th grade, cast myself as Little Red for school talent shows, in which I sang in a dress my grandma made. What a geek! I had an aquablue tie-dye JC Superstar tee-shirt, in the bible-thumping South, and I remember insisting earnestly, “it’s not a church shirt, it’s a theater shirt, it is a show, a musical, and it is by Andrew Lloyd Weber.” Geek.
Then in college, I discovered Falsettos and Hello Again, and while I wrote plays in South Carolina and then Iowa, I secretly loved these great ruthless musicals created by faraway people. In shows like these, singing’s like breathing. Like there’s no other way to exist except in music. It’s tumultuous and it’s funny and it’s the best thing there is. But I loved all that in secret. I never knew any musical theatre writers till I got to New York in 2006, and when I got here, one of the first people I met was Adam Gwon, which turned out to be a pretty lucky break. Adam loves playwrights, and I love musicals, so… crazily, we decided to
go down the rabbit hole together. We took a dreamy one-act I’d written for fun, and we turned it into String. Early in the collaboration, at a retreat, Adam said to me, “You know, it’s easy to find song moments for these characters. It really sings.” Good news. Happily, it turns out that my dreamy odd characters were supposed to be singing all along.

But the playwright-to-librettist transition was not seamless. Figuring out bookwriting took a while. Every week, I’d be at the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center studying my butt off—watching old videos in the archives, journal and stopwatch in hand, clocking the scenes, dissecting my favorite shows. Like frogs. What is the book? What makes a good book? Simply, it’s invention and arrangement. It’s plotting artfully, building story, imagining characters, slinging jokes so we can all breathe between songs, setting up plateaus for different types of music, conceiving a world that requires music in the first place—and the scenes, yes, the scenes that you see in the final product, of course it’s that. But for my money, the bookwriter’s most important work is invisible. It happens in conversations with the songwriter. Lots of time in a room with each other. It happens over years and through workshops. You put in the time, you imagine things together, till nobody remembers who thought what first. Best moment along the way: after we finished our first draft, a producer told us that the show felt like “one voice,” and that might be my favorite compliment ever.
Writing a first musical is like this: we talk, we write, we rewrite, we edit each other, we talk, we despair, we cut, someone gets inspired, we talk, we write, we rewrite, rinse repeat. “Talk forever,” John Weidman says. That’s how you get to one voice. We’re just playing pretend. Part of me’s always gonna be that kid in roller skates at the bottom of the cul de sac, but now the songs are new. Let me write ten more. I’m hooked! I love this difficult work we do.

NAMT News

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: Returning to the Festival

October 17, 2014

With less than a week until the Festival, How to Break bookwriter/lyricist and Festival Alum Aaron Jafferis reminisces about his successes and memories (albeit sporadic)

since the 2007 Festival, and why returning to the Festival proves to be an important step in the development of his latest project.

Along with Rebecca Hart and Yako 440, I’m one of the authors of How to Break, a hip-hop musical about being ill, that will be showcased at this year’s Festival.

I’m pretty sure my and Ian Williams’ show Kingdom was in the NAMT festival 2007. Though I have no memory of the year 2007, I have evidence that it worked out well, since many of the contacts in my “theatre industry” Excel spreadsheet say “NAMT 07.” I also know that it was at the NAMT festival where folks from The Old Globe first got interested in Kingdom, which is what led to our first production, first agent, first improper liaison with a cast member, etc.
(Note: that last “first” is in dispute, thanks to differing definitions of words like “improper” and
“member.” And “first.”)
I can only assume the main difference in terms of process between then and now is that in 2007, Ian and I were sitting on our asses picking our toes (each our own asses and toes, thank you very much – please see reference in paragraph one to “cast.”) waiting for the next email from NAMT telling us what to do; whereas in 2014 my collaborators and I are so incredibly successful, juggling so many projects, that we have been delinquent in serious tasks like blog-writing and less serious tasks like finding a director and cast.
That said, we feel confident that when we (the How to Break team) get it together, NAMT will be able to tell us what to do with it. Unlike in my imaginary memory of 2007, NAMT now has fancy GoogleDrive spreadsheets for casting, fancy logos for all the shows, audio samples on the website, electronic clones of Branden Huldeen, etc.
Meanwhile, my collaborators and I are making up for the technological improvements made by NAMT since 2007 by regressing not only to a pre-digital age but to a pre-paper age.
(When was paper invented? Were the 10 Commandments written in stone because there was no paper, or because stone is an easier material with which to hit people upside the head?)
Kingdom presented difficulties in the NAMT 2007 festival process because Ian scored everything by hand, and the raps were very loosely scored. How to Break is attempting to make up for what it lacks in musical complexity (basically, one person sings all the songs and the other three rap) with an innovative aural score. Meaning we haven’t written any of the music down. (Shh, don’t tell Branden.)
All obnoxious ribbing aside, the support and detail-oriented guidance coming from NAMT throughout this process have been just what we need to get us all on the same page (a metaphorical page given that the score doesn’t exist, but a page nonetheless), and stands in stark contrast to my recent attempt to organize a tour of How to Break with my own theatre company, which crumbled due to the fact that I am not NAMT.

NAMT News

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: Creating a 45-minute Cut of our Show

October 9, 2014

The 2014 NAMT Festival is just TWO WEEKS AWAY, and today we have Cubamor bookwriter and lyricist James Sasser giving us a special video blog capturing, in “real” time, his process of creating a 45-minute version of his musical to showcase at New World Stages.

NAMT News

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: Preparing Orchestrations and Arrangements

October 1, 2014

As we get closer to the Festival, Mary Marie composer Carl Johnson reflects on the daunting task of preparing musical arrangements for his Festival presentation, as

well as the challenges and great rewards of live performance.

I’ve been working on orchestrating the music for our show Mary Marie for the Festival, and have been pondering the differences between writing for live theater and writing for film and television. It seems almost as if it’s the difference between planning for a worst-case or a best-case scenario!

In studio recording you plan for a best-case scenario in terms of the performance you get out of the musicians. The recording studio is temperature-controlled, the lighting is optimized for reading, there are a variety of microphones set up around the instruments so that every nuance of their playing can be captured without the musician having to overplay or hold back. Even the catering and bathroom-break schedule is designed to put the players in the best frame of mind to play perfectly.

In a live situation, you never know what the players are going to encounter! Even the best-
planned productions have to account for Murphy’s Law.

In a studio recording the music is carefully planned, and usually recorded with the musicians listening to a pre-recorded click track. Every tempo is set ahead of time, and the musicians wear headphones so that they can play exactly together, whatever the conductor is doing. In live performance, the tempo of the music can change drastically from performance to performance depending on how the performer or conductor feels. It is much more spur-of-the-moment, which gives the music a much more emotional, organic feel. This requires that the musicians be much more aware of what everyone else is doing and that they pay attention to the conductor or music director.

In terms of difficulty, you can write anything for a recording musician and consider that they only have to play it perfectly once, when the red “recording” light is on. For live performance, there are additional concerns, like: “Can they play that consistently? Will it be too physically taxing? Will it come across if the sound system is down?”

There’s also the unknown. In a studio situation, you’ve pretty much taken out all possibility for surprises, but in a live situation, you never know if a singer is going to skip a verse, or the audience is going to laugh, or the trumpet player is going to start playing too early. I’ve found that in my arrangements I’ve been trying to account for as many “what ifs” as I can imagine, but I’m sure there are many more that will be complete surprises.

So, while the process of studio recording is designed to be predictable and perfect, the experience of live performance is inherently unpredictable. Studio recordings are meticulously preplanned but live performances live and breathe in the moment. While studio recordings can be scrubbed and polished to reveal the orchestration, live performance requires more pragmatism. Where studio performance eliminates variables, live performance allows for spontaneity and surprises and emotion.

Now that I think about it, I’m not sure which is the best-case scenario after all!

NAMT News

New Work in Progress: IRVING BERLIN'S HOLIDAY INN

September 24, 2014

This month, we check in with Donna Lynn Hilton, Line Producer at Goodspeed Musicals, as they start rehearsals for the world premiere of Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn, based on the classic movie!

Happy holidays! Check into the tuneful world-premiere musical about a Connecticut farmhouse transformed into a jubilant nightspot—but only on holidays. From Valentine’s Day to the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving to Christmas, expect a cornucopia of hit songs by Irving Berlin in a dance-dizzy romance based on the classic film that first starred Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby. Raise a glass of cheer to “Happy Holiday,” “Easter Parade,” “Be Careful, It’s My Heart” and more of the world’s greatest show tunes.Who had the initial idea to turn Holiday Inn into a stage show and what was that impulse?
Universal Stage Productions launched the initial process of turning the beloved film “Holiday Inn” into the stage musical Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn. Universal has a thriving development arm led by Chris Herzberger. Chris came out of the regional theatre in Chicago and values our place in the development of new work. Under Chris’s leadership, Universal is working with partners across the country on developing their catalogue and Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn will be one of the first to make it to full production.
What is Goodspeed’s relationship with Universal pictures through this process?
Universal and Chris Herzberger have been truly wonderful partners and colleagues throughout this process. Universal brought writers Gordon Greenberg and Chad Hodge on board to begin developing the adaptation of “Holiday Inn” in 2012. Goodspeed has developed several projects with Gordon as either bookwriter or director (or both!) and he suggested to Chris that Goodspeed was a natural fit as the first home of Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn. From our very first conversation at the NAMT conference in the fall of 2012, it was clear that Chris and I shared a love of this film and a vision for bringing it to life on the stage. Universal led the charge in the early stages of development working closely with the Irving Berlin Music Company, but Goodspeed’s early commitment to producing the show on the Opera House stage in the fall of 2014 was a critical piece of the plan from Universal’s perspective. Once the major players committed to the project, work moved very quickly. Chris and I have worked for about a year with Gordon and Chad to bring the script to the point where we are excited to begin rehearsal this week—in fact, I am writing this in the afterglow of the read-through on our first day of rehearsal. Goodspeed suggested Sam Davis as vocal and dance arranger for the project and that has proven to be a brilliant choice—if we say so ourselves! And we worked together with Universal to identify the remainder of the creative team. Honestly, Goodspeed and Universal have been on the same page about this project at every turn.
Why does Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn fit well with Goodspeed and the Opera House audience?

Anyone who has attended a performance at the Goodspeed Opera House understands that we are a perfect fit for Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn. Our creative staff and our audiences have a love and appreciation for musical comedy loaded with dance. It’s what we cut our teeth on, so committing to this project was truly a “no-brainer” for us. And our audiences responded immediately to tell us we’d made a choice of which they approved (translation: get your tickets soon!)
You have a produced a couple readings of the piece prior to presenting it. What has changed as the show has evolved from the screenplay to the stage musical?
Although many elements of the film remain, we’ve taken liberties to enhance the experience of seeing the show live onstage. The goal was to amplify everything we loved about the movie. To do that we’ve interpolated songs and turned a few songs from the movie into big production numbers. We’ve made narrative adjustments, looking at characters and their humanity through a contemporary lens, while keeping it all firmly rooted in the period in which the film was created. I think the result is something quite special.
Why should everyone come see Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn this fall?
As Gordon Greenberg said in his “Director’s vision” for our playbill, “Holiday Inn is a sparkly new musical with all the great Irving Berlin songs from the film—and many more Berlin songs that audiences will recognize and love. It has big dance numbers, big ideas and most of all, a big heart. It’s all about the beauty of being true to yourself; living simply and honestly and finding rewards in doing what you love on your own terms.” Isn’t that reason enough for a visit to East Haddam?
And the best time to see Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn will be at the NAMT New Works Summit on November 13!
For more information about the show, please visit www.goodspeed.org

Festival Shows in the News

NAMT News

Festival Show Update: MY HEART IS THE DRUM

September 24, 2014

This month, we check in on 2013 Festival show My Heart is The Drum and its authors Stacey Luftig, Phillip Palmer and Jennie Redling on their recent reading at NAMT Member The Village Theatre in Issaquah, WA and their upcoming production at NAMT Member Kent State University.

My Heart Is the Drum is a big musical set in West Africa with a driving, African-influenced score. It is about Efua Kuti, a 16-year-old girl who aches to leave behind her stifling, poverty-struck village to become a teacher, and Edward Adu, a traditional farmhand who is in love with her. Inspired by the spirit of her grandmother, Efua runs away to the city of Accra to attend the university, but on arrival gets abducted into prostitution. Edward sets out to find her. Efua has always been able to draw on her cunning to solve her problems, but will she escape these most desperate circumstances? And if Edward finds her, will he still love her now that she has been “disgraced?” At its core, the musical is about finding the inner strength to achieve your goals and create social change.
What was feedback like for your show after you presented in our Festival?
Mainly, people told us they wanted to know what will happen to Efua, our heroine, in Act II. We took that as a good sign.
You had the opportunity to bring the show to Goodspeed’s Johnny Mercer Writers Colony this winter. What did you work on during that time in snowy Connecticut?
First, we went through the script and pinpointed the scenes, lyrics and music that we had always labelled “good enough for now” and that we’d fix “later.” Our time at Goodspeed was our “later.”
We also focused on two pivotal moments for Efua, one in Act I, one in Act II. We all feel very passionately about her, and it took several passes—including one serious crash and burn—before we found the monologue in Act I, and the completely unexpected song in Act II, that we all felt to be “effortlessly” right.
This month at Village Theatre, you had your first ever reading of the full show. What was it like to finally hear the whole show aloud in front of a public audience?
Thrilling and gratifying. After so many years since its start at the BMI workshop, we could see that we had a full, working show and one that moved people. The audience also responded strongly to the script’s humor. For the songs, they not only clapped, but cheered for most of them and scene moments also drew applause.

When a member of the audience approached us afterwards to point out how moved she was by one of those key moments for Efua we’d labored over—the spot where a song had crashed and burned at Goodspeed, and which we’d gone on to reconceive completely—well, that was a proud moment.
What did you learn from that reading and what changes are you looking to make now?
As the reading at Village Theatre was only a week ago (and we’re still basking in the afterglow), we’re just now figuring out what changes need to be made. We’re also looking forward to receiving and reading the comment sheets from their audience members for additional feedback. But we do know we’d like to trim and sharpen Act II, to create even more tension and a greater acceleration toward the end of the show.
Next season, you are heading to Kent State University, near Cleveland, for a full production! What are you excited about working on when you finally get the show on its feet?
Everything! But “on its feet” are key words. Dance is completely integrated with music in West African cultures and we can’t wait to adjust the show, as needed, as we finally discover how dance helps bring the show to life.
Also, it is an extremely visual show, with images that are unfamiliar to most of our audience. Daily village life and work, urban street hawkers, the clash of African traditions and poverty with modernity and rich businessmen—we think that these visuals will add many layers to the story.
Why should people plan to come to Kent State to catch My Heart Is the Drum?
We believe that My Heart Is the Drum is something rare today: an original story that is transporting and dramatic, told with warmth, humor and hope. It has a driving, African-influenced score that is deeply theatrical. And while the themes are universal, many of the timely details are particular to the hardships of those in West Africa, particularly of girls who struggle for an education, and who make great sacrifices as they strive for a better life.
For details about the Kent State production, please visit www.kent.edu/theatre_new/my-heart-drum.
For more about the show, please visit www.myheartisthedrum.com or like My Heart Is The Drum on Facebook.

NAMT News

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: Cutting Down Your Show

August 21, 2014

We kick off this year’s Festival season with our first Festival Countdown Blog! In this entry, Duane Poole, bookwriter of Beautiful Poison, gives us insight on how to prepare the 45-minute cut of the show for the Festival.

So we get the news that we made the cut. (By “we” I mean composer Brendan Milburn, lyricist Valerie Vigoda, and bookwriter me.) Our “Beautiful Poison” is in this year’s NAMT Festival! The thrill of the announcement is still fresh when we realize we have yet another cut to make — bringing our two-hour musical down to a strict forty-five minutes for the presentation.
Okay, this shouldn’t be a problem. As both a writer and producer, I’ve done this sort of thing countless times over the years. But there seems to be extra pressure on this particular cut. Perhaps it’s knowing who might be in our audiences this October. What can we show these theatre insiders in that abbreviated time that will truly represent the variety of music, the twists of plot, and the richness of character we three have worked so hard to create?

NAMT News

New Work in Progress: PLAY IT BY HEART

June 9, 2014

An interview with Kevin Moore, Producing Artistic Director of The Human Race Theatre Company, about their upcoming production of Play It By Heart with a book by Brian Yorkey (Making Tracks, NAMT Fest ’01), music by David Spangler and Jerry Taylor, and lyrics by Spangler, Taylor and R.T. Robinson.

As a teenager, she became the breakout star of the Jasper Family Singers. Now, Jeannine Jasper is the “Queen of County Music,” but she has hopes of getting off the road and having a life. After a concert, a long lost love appears and they discover the spark is still there. But their “history” could be her undoing. Her record label has been purchased by a Dubai businessman who has his own plans for her career, and her rebel, younger sister is always in the news for all the wrong reasons. Family secrets are revealed to the sweet sounds of old and new country in this quintessential story of a family.

Play It By Heart was originally produced out at The Village Theatre. How did it find its way to Dayton, Ohio?
It actually came to us from one of the writers, David Spangler. After their production at the Village Theatre in 2005, the writers all went off to work on other projects. Brian Yorkey had this little show brewing called Next to Normal. In 2006, we workshopped the musical Nefertiti by David Spangler and Rick Gore. We stayed great friends and in 2009 he told me about Play It By Heart, and that the writers all wanted to get back to it. I read it, listened and was hooked. I offered them a residency – brought them in and gave them a space to live, work and gave them actors to play with. That was Fall, 2009. In the summer of 2010, we did a full workshop. Our audience loved it. Over and over I heard, “I’m usually not a country music fan, but I really liked this music and this show.”

You presented a reading of the show last year in your Festival and clearly must have gone over very well. What work have the writers put in on the show since then?
Based upon our workshop experience that incorporated new material and plot ideas, the writers and I identified certain story lines that needed to be clarified, songs that needed to be replaced, and development of some of the new ideas that didn’t have enough time to fully ferment during our workshop. Brian, David and Jerry have been working on both the book and the score and are working to deliver our starting materials. We have engaged a music director/arranger who will refresh the old score and make it more “actor friendly,” as well as prepare the new material and orchestrations.

Why is the show a good fit for your season and your audience?
I, and my audience, love to see shows move from workshop to full production. Our audience is already invested in the work. What I have found in Play It By Heart is a musical that speaks volumes about family and about forgiveness – surrounded by a changing world. Everyone can relate to this family, this situation. The universality of it intrigues me and makes me want to tell this story. This is a story that my audience wants to experience.

Why are you excited about presenting this new musical this season?I believe the global popularity of country music makes it essential that America – originator of the musical form – deliver a country musical to the masses. I am honored to follow in the big footsteps of the Village Theatre to help make Play It by Heart the “poster child.” Personally, I never understood why my father watched The Grand Ole Opry and The Porter Wagoner Show every week. I just couldn’t, and it was a likely reason for my escaping to musical theatre. It is somewhat ironic that my current passion is for a musical about the country music industry. My own personal apology to my Dad.

Why should people catch Play It By Heart this summer?
Whether you are a small regional theatre (we are 212 seats, 3/4 thrust) or a larger proscenium house, this is a show that has the potential to bring in new audiences while delighting your traditional subscribers. It’s a great story and “radio-worthy” songs. It has been a long time since musical theatre songs have crossed over. This could be the next. Besides, “summer in Ohio” is much more than the song would leave you to believe. Come find your country roots.
For more information about the show, please visit www.humanracetheatre.org.

Festival Shows in the News

NAMT News

Festival Show Update: ELMER GANTRY

June 9, 2014

This month, we check in on Elmer Gantry from our 1993 Festival of New Musicals as it prepares for its upcoming revised production at Virginia’s Signature Theatre. Composer Mel Marvin has been hard at work preparing the show for this next step.

Elmer Gantry is a musical with a country-pop-gospel score, set in the Depression-era Midwest. The title character is a down-on-his-luck former minister whose life as a traveling salesman takes an unexpected turn when he walks into the tent of Sister Sharon Falconer, a beautiful and charismatic woman evangelist. Joining her troupe, he’s soon preaching again and using his entrepreneurial instincts to make the troupe so successful, it’s invited to play Zenith, the biggest city in the Midwest. He also becomes Sharon’s lover. Their success in Zenith leads to opportunity, intrigue, tragedy and reaffirmation of Americans’ ability to deal with their circumstances and get on with their lives. The musical is adapted from the novel by Nobel Prize-winner Sinclair Lewis.
The original version of the show appeared in our 1993 Festival, having been originally commissioned by Ford’s Theatre and presented there in 1988. What was your Festival experience like back in 1993 and what kind of response did you get from your presentation of your show?
There was a second production of the show in 1991, before we did it at NAMT, at La Jolla Theatre, directed by Des McAnuff. In 1993, we had a wonderful time at NAMT, and we felt the presentation was very successful. Several theaters showed interest. Frankie Hewitt, the producer of the show at Ford’s Theater in 1988, decided to revive the show at Ford’s in 1995 in a production directed by Michael Maggio. After that production, there was a New York City workshop in 1997, directed by James Lapine, and an outstanding production in 1998 at the Marriott Lincolnshire Theater in Chicago, directed by Eric Schaeffer.

It is rare for a show to be rediscovered so many years after it was first presented. Where did the idea for a new production come from?
Eric Schaeffer, who has been a friend and promoter of Elmer Gantry since he directed it in 1998, always wanted to do another production of the show, and he called us to say he would like to make it part of the 25th Anniversary Season at the Signature Theatre in Arlington.

How much rewriting/reworking will there be of the script?
Part of the renewed interest in Elmer Gantryis that there IS a rewrite. There are a substantial number of changes in Act 2, both in the book and in the songs. We believe this is the best version we’ve ever done, and we can’t wait to see it onstage. Several numbers have been reworked, and there are two entirely new songs. It has now been 15 years since the last production, and the new version has been waiting in the wings. Work is still going on and will be, from now through the rehearsal period. What could be better?

What are your hopes for this new production?
We feel incredibly lucky to get to revisit this musical, which has been one of the most important works in all of our lives. We’ve all been around the block too many times to think beyond doing the best work we can to make this a great theatrical experience for the audience. That’s our best hope.

Why should people come down to Virginia to catch this exciting new production of Elmer Gantry?
What makes Elmer Gantry so theatrical and exciting as a project is not only the richness and relevance of its source material but, over the course of four regional productions, a New York workshop and many years in the lives of its creators, the way the show has evolved. The Signature production is the culmination of a long and unusual journey. We hope that the result will provide audiences with the depth and satisfaction of a passionately felt, entertaining American musical.

For more information about Elmer Gantry, please visit www.signature-theatre.org.

Festival Shows in the News

NAMT News

Festival Show Update: ANALOG AND VINYL

May 14, 2014

Festival 2013 show Analog and Vinyl is jumping up to Vermont’s Weston Playhouse this summer for its world premiere. This month we check in with the show’s writer Paul Gordon about preparing for the musical’s first production.
Harrison is obsessed with LPs from the sixties and the superior quality of analog. Rodeo Girl, a quirky Silver Lake hipster, is obsessed with Harrison but he barely notices. With his vintage record store about to go under, Harrison and Rodeo Girl are visited by a mysterious customer who makes them a devilish offer they can’t refuse.
What did you learn about Analog and Vinyl while preparing it for the Festival?
Preparing for the Festival wasn’t as much a learning experience as it was an “inspiring” experience. Once you know your show is going to be seen by an industry audience, it does strange things to the creative process. You start looking at the material with more fluid eyes. You start questioning and examining the material (all while trying to create a 45-minute presentation), and suddenly you begin asking yourself the serious dramaturgical questions of theme and character (that you had previously avoided) that are vital to the developmental process. One of the great gifts that came out of my preparation for the Festival was that I felt incentivized to write a new song for the lead character that helped to transform the show.
Your show only had readings leading up to the Festival and now is preparing for a world premiere this summer at Weston Playhouse. What has it been like to jump from reading to production without a workshop in between?
Heaven. I love workshops and readings but there’s nothing like preparing for a production. In our day and age some have been critical that shows have “too many readings” and “too many workshops” in the developmental stage. To me that is pure nonsense. I have never done a reading where I didn’t gain some primary understanding about my show (even if that understanding was, “hey, this is crap…”). With that said, after several readings and the Festival, I’m delighted to actually have, for the first time, a proper rehearsal period to really further develop the work with cast, crew, designers and director.
What have you been working on since the Festival?
Michael Berresse, the director of Analog and Vinyl, has wonderful dramaturgical skills. Since the Festival we have had several extensive note sessions and I have written two new drafts of the show and three new songs. We are still hard at work: tightening, refining, raising stakes and trying out some new ideas. The “essence” of the show remains unchanged, but improvements are on the way.
In the Festival, we mixed things up a bit and made “The Stranger” a woman (played by the wonderful Harriet Harris) when it had always been a man in previous readings. Have you settled on a preference of genders for “The Stranger”?
The idea of The Stranger being a woman was so well received at the Festival that we have decided that, at least for now, we’d like to continue with the character being female. It works either way, but there were some new discoveries we made when Harriet did the part that we’d like to keep intact in the script.
What are you hoping for next after Weston Playhouse?
Ideally we’d like to take the show into New York. We feel the themes of Analog and Vinyl are universal and contemporary. We hope the show’s esoteric humor and its indie rock score will appeal to a wide range of theater-goers. And we hope to offend EVERYONE with our irreverent take on spiritual themes often unexplored in rock musicals.
Why should people head up to beautiful scenic Vermont this June and July to see Analog and Vinyl?
Because this show, above all else, is FUN. If you learn anything from this show or if the show gives you insight or deeper understanding about how the universe works— that is purely accidental. We simply want you to see this show because we think you will have an amazingly good time. And you will laugh. And you might come home with a song or two stuck in your head and then illegally download songs from my website. And that would be fine.
For more information about Analog and Vinyl, please visit www.westonplayhouse.org.

NAMT News

New Work in Progress: CHASING THE SONG

April 15, 2014

An interview with Dana Harrel, Associate Producer, and Grabriel Greene, Director of New Play Development, at La Jolla Playhouse, about their upcoming production of Chasing a Song, by Joe DiPietro and David Bryan, directed by Chris Ashley.

Elegant Edie’s team of ambitious hitmakers are upended by the arrival of the newest aspiring songwriter — Edie’s daughter Ginny. As Ginny strives to earn her place in the male-dominated world of the early 1960s music scene, American rock and roll finds itself under siege from the incoming British invasion.

Chasing The Song is a reunion of the Memphis team (director, writers, producers) and La Jolla Playhouse. Why was La Jolla Playhouse excited to work onChasing the Song?

Chasing the Song continues Memphis’s exploration into the history of American rock and roll, and the way that it shaped – and was shaped by – social movements. Memphis tracked how music was a bridge during the turbulent racial conflicts of the 1950’s and 60’s. Chasing the Song carries the story forward, and focuses on a completely different part of our social history: the attempts of women to break into and succeed in male-dominated fields.

La Jolla Playhouse has been working on the show for a while now. What has changed, shifted and grown with the show over the last year?

We started working on Chasing the Song as part of our DNA New Play Series in 2013. The work we were able to do during that workshop process was invaluable in discovering that the central arc of the musical was a mother-daughter story. This happened right as we were about to give our first concert reading. It was a wonderful and nerve-wracking moment. A lot of the work over the last year was making this piece as much about strengthening the relationships between characters as it is about the music industry in the 1960’s.

Why do you think Chasing the Song will sing to your audience and be a good fit for this season?

La Jolla Playhouse audiences love being on the ground floor for a brand new piece and being part of the process. Many have also been following the show since last year’s DNA workshop, so they already feel an attachment to the project. At the core, it’s a great rock and roll musical with a strong story and terrific music – people will enjoy it, just like they loved Memphis.

What are you hoping to discover as the show gets up on its feet for the first time?
We still have a lot of work to do on the show, and we really won’t know exactly what that work is until we get on our feet. That’s the great thing about the Page To Stage program here at the Playhouse: we have the time to make the discoveries that make the show better. Our Page To Stage workshop productions never officially open to the press, and are designed to give creative teams the freedom to continue working on a show throughout the entire performance run. Our audiences help us a great deal in that process. We learn things based on their reactions during the show, and we also hold nightly talkbacks where they get to share their feedback.

What are the plans for the show after La Jolla?

There are currently no plans after La Jolla. Of course we hope more audiences get to see this production, but right now we are focused on putting up the best show we possibly can for La Jolla Playhouse audiences.

Why should people swing by La Jolla to catchChasing the Song?

The reason people should catch it – beyond the simple fact that it’s a tremendously fun show – is because they get to be part of the ongoing development of an exciting new musical as it comes to life on stage for the first time.

For more information about the show, please visitwww.lajollaplayhouse.org

Festival Shows in the News

NAMT News

Festival Show Update: BLEEDING LOVE

April 15, 2014

This month, we check in on Bleeding Love from our 2012 Festival of New Musicals as it prepares for productions in Connecticut and Denmark. The show’s writers, Harris Doran, Jason Schafer and Arthur Lafrentz Bacon have been hard at work during the past year to prepare the show for its next steps.

Bleeding Love is a post-apocalyptic musical comedy about a sixteen year old cellist who has never left her building, who risks going out into the dangerous world in order to get her one chance at love.
When you presented Bleeding Love at the Festival, it was the premiere of the musical for any audience. What did you learn about the show from finally seeing it in front of an audience?
Yes, NAMT was our very first reading! We learned a great deal about how specific the tone was, because it rides the line between bleakness and comedy, and honest emotion and farce, so we had to make sure we were making that balance clear to the audience.
You were up at Goodspeed Musicals last winter for the Mercer Writers’ Retreat. What was the focus of that devoted time away?
That was an incredible experience. More productive than we ever could have imagined. The three of us, who do not all live in the same city, got to be together for a week straight and just write. We ended up writing an entirely new opening number, completing a very complicated multi-scene song and brainstorming what the end of the musical would be. An unbelievable amount of productivity in such a short period of time.
The show will have a premiere production this season at The Spirit of Broadway Theater in Connecticut. What work are you doing on the show to prepare for its first production?
We are tightening the show to make sure it is production-ready as well as getting our first orchestrations together. We are very excited.
What are you hoping to discover and sort out when the show finally gets on its feet in a production?
We are excited to finally get the chance to see what the show is as a whole without the rhythm being impeded
by stage directions or mimed props. The show takes place in different areas of an apartment building, so a lot of the storytelling is dependent on the shift from location to location, the life that exists within those locations, and visual props and phenomena (snow, growing flowers, etc.) much more so than most other musicals. So we are excited to see the piece fully realized.
The show will also head to Denmark next season for a premiere there. Are there any anticipated changes for its European premiere?
Well, the biggest change is that it will be in Danish! We are going to see what we learn from the Spirit of Broadway production and are lucky to be able to make those changes and see them implemented in the Denmark production.
What are the long range hopes for the show after Connecticut and Denmark?
We hope to bring it to a commercial audience in NY. The show is in the vein of other comically dark pieces likeLittle Shop, Urinetown or Sweeney Todd, so we hope for it to find its NY audience.
Why should people swing by Connecticut (or Denmark) to check out Bleeding Love?
Because Bleeding Love is a unique, well-made musical. It has an original voice, fun characters and exceedingly melodic music. The show itself uses magical theatrical conventions that can only be seen in full production. The readings we have done have gotten people excited, laughing, and moved and we believe you will be, too.

Festival Shows in the News

NAMT News

Festival Show Update: THE TROUBLE WITH DOUG

March 11, 2014

An interview with the writers of The Trouble with Doug, Daniel Maté and Will Aronson, about the developments on their 2010 Festival show as it prepares for a production at NAMT member theatre Arts Garage down in Florida this spring.
A contemporary re-imagining of Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” The Trouble With Doug is a hilarious and moving new musical about a healthy young man who transforms inexplicably into a giant talking slug. Thrust together awkwardly under the same roof, Doug, his family, and his fiancée all struggle to understand and respond to this strangest of crises.
Last time we checked in with you, Doug was heading to Palo Alto, CA for TheatreWorks’ festival. How was that process for you and the show?
We had a great time in Palo Alto. TheatreWorks provides a unique workshopping opportunity – a chance to perform the show in front of an audience, rewrite, re-tech, perform again, and then repeat that process three times. You can really take the show into the laboratory and experiment. (There’s really no better way to see what works and what doesn’t than to watch the show in front of actual people a few times!)
What changes did you make to the show while in California?
After watching the show, we felt that our titular character was under-developed — so we added several new musical moments for Doug throughout the first act to clarify his arc and round him out a bit more. We also tried out a number of new scenes for Doug’s family, and also ended up with a slightly gentler ending.

You are currently rewriting the show for a production down at Arts Garage in Florida. What are your goals with this rewrite?
We’ve both been busy with several different projects, so this is a great opportunity to get back into Doug world and implement the changes we’ve long discussed. Aside from continuing to flesh out the rewrites we began in Palo Alto, we’re excited to upgrade the score so that each song moment is as dynamic and memorable as possible! In addition, true to that old musical adage that openings often come last, we’re writing an entirely new opening— replacing a song we’ve had for a long time with what we hope will be a new and more energetic start to the show.
What are your desired next steps for the show after Florida?
It might sound strange to say when a show is about a giant talking slug and his crazy family, but we’ve felt, especially since TheatreWorks, that we have the basis here for a really accessible, crowd-pleasing show, one that could connect with a lot of different audiences and fans of new musical theatre. We’d love to get more theaters interested in the piece, and hopefully license it. A New York production would also be fabulous of course!

Why should people head down to Florida to check out The Trouble with Doug this spring?
We’ve got a great local director (Margaret Ledford), a terrific cast, and a band that features some fun low woodwinds and a cello. Come check it out! It’ll be slugular, we promise.
For more information about the show, please visit www.artsgarage.org

NAMT News

New Work in Progress: JUDGE JACKIE JUSTICE

March 11, 2014

NAMT member theatre Pittsburgh CLO recently opened the world premiere of Judge Jackie Justice, a new musical by Michael Kooman and Chris Dimond (both, NAMT Fest ’11-Dani Girl). The show runs through April 27 at their cabaret space. We took a moment to chat with Pittsburgh CLO’s Executive Producer Van Kaplan, who also directed the show and came up with its concept, about bringing some Justice to Pittsburgh.
You’ve been summoned for a brand new musical comedy: it’s CourtTV meets Springer! The musical courtroom of Judge Jackie Justice is now in session at the CLO Cabaret. Behold “real” cases involving zombies, spaceships, furries and more! TV’s hottest Judge relishes in ruling on the personal affairs of people just like you, but what happens when the tables are turned? You won’t “object” to this brand new musical comedy!
Judge Jackie Justice (JJJ) is a commission from Pittsburgh CLO. What was the motivation behind commissioning a show for your cabaret space?
Creating new works is part of the mission of the CLO and we are always looking for fresh material, especially for the Cabaret. Finding new and exciting small-scale musicals for our year-round programming has been a challenge for us.
You had the original idea for JJJ. What was the inspiration for a musical about TV court shows?
After I saw Jerry Springer the Opera (which I thought was a hoot) in London I thought of creating a show along the same vein but also with some audience participation. The super-sized personalities and live and reactive audiences of Court TV shows seemed like good material to mine for musical comedy.
Why did you go with the team of Kooman and Dimond to create the show and what has that process been like?
I saw a reading of Dani Girlat the NAMT Festival and then had an opportunity to listen to Howard Barnes and was sold. They are imaginative writers and because I wanted humor that skewed a little younger for my show, they seemed right for the job. The process of creating the show was like others I have been a part of, highs and lows, agreements and disagreements, and striving to reach the best place possible. A commissioned work poses unique challenges because it is an inherently collaborative writing process. Because Judge Jackie was my idea, I knew what I wanted and was specific with the writers.
Why do think it is important for your theatre to create new musicals for your audience?
We’ve been involved in a number of new shows both at the Cabaret and for our main stage. As a producing regional theatre, it is important for us to contribute where we can to the expanding canon of musicals that in the years ahead will be produced here and around the world. Our subscribers are savvy theater goers who are devoted to classic musical theater and they get excited by new musicals too.
I had the pleasure of being there for the second performance and the audience was having a blast. How has the feedback been from the audience so far?
Our audiences appear to be having a good time and we are selling tickets. In addition to enjoying the zany humor I’ve had people tell me that the show has “heart” and very catchy songs.
What is your hope for the future of the show?
Most importantly we want our audience to enjoy this musical, which, incidentally, has lots of local references built in which can be adapted to suit any city’s humorous idiosyncrasies and could be a lot of fun performed regionally.
What are your long term hopes for new musicals at the Cabaret?
We hope that any show we create at the CLO Cabaret will appeal to our audiences and find a life outside of Pittsburgh. This show is right for almost any theatre. We’ll see where “the Judge” takes us!
Why should people swing out to Pittsburgh for some Justice?
The show skews to a slightly younger audience than our shows normally do but it’s a pretty standard book musical format that will satisfy purists. It could work well on main stages or at smaller venues trying to attract new audiences. By the way, with a younger audience in mind we built into the start of the show some fun social media opportunities (see #judgejackie).
For more information about the show, please visit www.pittsburghclo.org