Blog
NAMT News
INSIDE THE 2015 FESTIVAL: First Day of Rehearsal
A guest post from Jeff Talbott and Will Van Dyke, writers of this year’s show Imagine Harry.
NAMT News
Blog
NAMT News
INSIDE THE 2015 FESTIVAL: Being a NAMT Veteran
A guest post from Festival Alumnus Kyle Jarrow, book writer and co-lyricist for this year’s show Noir, written with Duncan Sheik. Kyle was previously part of the NAMT Festival in 2009 with his show Hostage Song written with Clay McLeod Chapman.
Blog
NAMT News
INSIDE THE 2015 FESTIVAL: Preparing for Rehearsals
A guest video post from Jeff Bienstock and Andrea Daly, the writers of this year’s show Legendale.
Blog
NAMT News
This Ain't No Quick Change: New Forms and Opportunity
For Samuel French and HowlRound’s #MusicalsWeek, New Works Director and Festival Producing Director Branden Huldeen has an essay on HowlRound about New Forms of Musical Theatre. How is the art form evolving? Where are those changes coming from? How are we able to make change happen? …Should we?
So what is bringing the best new forms and changes to theatre? The work is slowly starting to reflect life and culture more accurately and respectfully. Theatre is becoming more diverse, and while it is by no means as diverse as society currently is, it is slowly getting better. Just look at my examples above and those shows would likely not have happened twenty years ago.
You also have contemporary writers in the theatre who grew up influenced not only by theatre but by the music of Ben Folds, the cinematic sweep of a great Spielberg film and the comedy of 30 Rock. Because our culture diversified, theatre had to diversify or it would not be true to who we are as people living in 2015. Unfortunately, theatre is slow to change on a macro scale. I always refer to our industry as a gigantic ocean liner; if you want to avoid that iceberg, you need to start turning the wheel many months or years in advance.
Read more at HowlRound.
This is part of a week of panels and writing about musicals, led by our friends at HowlRound and Samuel French. Later today, at 2 pm ET, we’ll be leading a Twitter chat on this same topic of New Forms of Musical Theatre. You can follow along (even if you don’t have a Twitter account) and participate at #HowlRound. (We’ll post a transcript afterwards, in case you can’t join us live.)
The panels are being live-streamed, so you can watch tonight’s (also on this topic, and featuring Branden live and in person) and ask questions through Twitter, and also catch the earlier programs: Promotion and Protection of Musicals, and Diversity and Equality in Musical Theatre. Check out HowlRound TV for these, and more great content from HowlRound.
Thanks to all who’ve participated in this amazing series! NAMT members, don’t forget we have our own conference coming up in just a couple of weeks, so there’s plenty more new musicals talk to come. We’ll be touching on many of these same topics, so register by October 9 to attend, and follow #NAMTFC15 on Twitter.
Blog
NAMT News
New Work in Progress: Indian Joe
This month, we chat with Donna Lynn Hilton from Goodspeed Musicals in Chester, CT about their upcoming premiere of the new musical Indian Joe.
Inspired by true events, this brand-new musical tells the unlikely story of a homeless Native American and a Texas beauty queen who never should have been friends. He’s looking for a fight. She’s looking for a cause. As they stumble toward friendship, both ultimately overcome fear and prejudice to discover that there’s more to family than what you see. From the streets of Waco, Texas to the streets of New York City, it’s a uniquely American story with a progressive Americana beat. You’ll never forget Indian Joe.
How did Indian Joe and Elizabeth A. Davis find their way to Goodspeed?
Elizabeth and Indian Joe were introduced to Goodspeed by Carolyn Rossi Copeland just as we were preparing to launch the inaugural Johnny Mercer Writers Colony. We had worked with Carolyn on the successful developmental production of Amazing Grace at our Norma Terris Theatre, so when she suggested that we might respond to Indian Joe, we bit. We invited Elizabeth to work on Indian Joe at the Mercer Colony in 2013.
Blog
NAMT News
Festival Show Update: Ace
This month, we checked in with Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker about a new version of their 2005 Festival show Ace, which recently had a staged concert production at The Nevada Conservatory Theatre after a few years of revisions. We also chatted with Ace director David H. Bell (below writers’ interview).
Set in 1964, ACE follows the journey of twenty-one-year-old Danny Lucas returning home to discover the truth about his mother’s hidden past. The unexpected appearance of a grandmother he never knew existed leads to an emotional battle over the legacy of Danny’s real father. Uncovering a saga spanning three generations of Ace fighter pilots through two World Wars, this original musical explores the trials and triumphs of a family in search of true heroism.
Ace had quite the extraordinary trajectory right after the 2005 Festival with a handful of full productions starting in 2006 leading up to a production at The Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA. But this was a unique situation where you went in to rehearsals for a full production without ever really having done a reading or a workshop. What did you learn about the show as you worked your way through the multiple productions?
We learned that the core story of the three generations of this American family and the score they sang resonated deeply with audiences. We also learned that the central character was entirely passive with no control over his destiny and without true stakes or even an identifiable antagonist. And we learned that the majority of the first act was expositional and that the stories of the past didn’t arise organically from the present. Perhaps the most striking thing we discovered was that by deciding to have a lead character who was a child, it demanded there be a host of other ancillary characters to provide the realistic infrastructure for a child’s needs which naturally confused and diffused our central story.
We’re thrilled to announce additional directors and casting for the 27th Annual Festival of New Musicals, taking place on Thursday, October 15 and Friday, October 16 at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues).
Costs of Living
Book, music & lyrics by Timothy Huang
Director: Marlo Hunter (Callaway Award-winner for Unlock’d)
Cast: Jenni Barber (Broadway: The Nance), Kiet Cao, Daniel J. Edwards (Broadway: Anything Goes), Ali Ewoldt (Broadway: Les Misérables), Raymond Lee (Broadway: Anything Goes, Honeymoon in Vegas), and Kelvin Moon Loh (Broadway: The King and I)
Based on a true story, COSTS OF LIVING chronicles the lives of two immigrant cab drivers who come to New York for the American dream but instead find a nightmare scenario. Set to a rock and pop theatre score, featuring a predominantly Asian-American ensemble.
Imagine Harry
Music & lyrics by Will Van Dyke, book & lyrics by Jeff Talbott
Director: Brandon Ivie (Off Broadway: Jasper in Deadland)
Music Director: Ian Weinberger (TV: “The Sound of Music Live”)
Cast: Brad Oscar (Broadway: Something Rotten, The Producers), William Parry (Broadway: Passion, Gypsy), Preston Sadleir (National Tour: Next to Normal), Myra Lucretia Taylor (Broadway: Nine), Taylor Trensch (Broadway: Wicked; Off Broadway: Little Miss Sunshine)
The Last Queen of Canaan
Book by Harrison David Rivers, lyrics by Rebekah Greer Melocik, music by Jacob Yandura.
Director: Peter Rothstein (Power Balladz, Artistic Director of Minneapolis’ Theater Latté Da)
Music Director: Matt Gallagher (Broadway: Doctor Zhivago, Hands on a Hard Body)
Cast: Chasten Harmon (Broadway: Hair), Kecia Lewis (Broadway: Leap of Faith, The Drowsy Chaperone), Kenita Miller (Broadway: The Color Purple), Jon-Michael Reese (National tour: The Book of Mormon), Margo Seibert (Broadway: Rocky), Q. Smith (Broadway: Mary Poppins)
Legendale
Music by Andrea Daly, book & lyrics by Jeff Bienstock, story by Bienstock & Daly.
Director: John Simpkins (Off Broadway: Bloodsong of Love at Ars Nova).
Music Director: Vadim Feichtner (Broadway: …Spelling Bee)
Cast: James Monroe Iglehart (Broadway: Tony Award-winner for Aladdin), Lauren Marcus (Hello, Dolly at Papermill Playhouse), George Salazar (Broadway: Godspell), Ryan Vona (Broadway: Once), Jason SweetTooth Williams
lift
Book & lyrics by Daryl Lisa Fazio, music by Aaron McAllister
Director: Schele Williams (PBS’s Broadway or Bust)
Music Director: Madeline Smith (Off Broadway: Futurity, An Octoroon)
Cast: Joél Perez (Broadway: Fun Home), Lauren Worsham (Broadway: A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Tony Nom)
Noir
Music & lyrics by Duncan Sheik, book & lyrics by Kyle Jarrow
Director: Chloe Treat (Off Broadway: TheaterworkUSA’s The Lightning Thief) with Rachel Chavkin (The Great Comet, Prelude)
Music Director: Jason Hart (Regional: Because of Winn Dixie; Whisper House)
Cast: Lilli Cooper (Broadway: Spring Awakening), Daniel Everidge (Broadway: Grease), Kevin Mambo (Broadway: Fela!), John Schiappa (Broadway: Rocky), Emily Skeggs (Broadway: Fun Home, Tony Nom.), Theo Stockman (Broadway: Hair, American Idiot), Adrienne Warren (Broadway: Bring It On), with Foley Artist Jeremy Bloom (Off Broadway: The Mysteries)
On The Eve
Music & lyrics by Shawn Magill & Seth Magill, book by Michael Federico, story by Michael Federico, Shawn Magill & Seth Magill
Director: Sam Buntrock (West End & Broadway: Sunday in the Park with George, Olivier Award and Tony Award noms)
Cast: Will Connolly (Broadway: Once)
Othello: The Remix
Book, music & lyrics by The Q Brothers (GQ and JQ), developed with Rick Boynton
Director: Brian Hill (Goodspeed Musicals’ The Theory of Relativity)
Cast: GQ (The Bomb-itty of Errors), JQ (The Bomb-itty of Errors), Postell Pringle (Broadway: A Free Man of Color), Jackson Doran (A Q Brothers’ Christmas Carol, Chicago Shakespeare’s Funk It Up About Nothin’)
Registration for the Festival is open to theatre industry professionals and major donors to NAMT through October 9. For more more information on registration (including walk-up), plus details on all eight Festival shows, the Songwriters Showcase and the Songwriters Cabarets, visit the Festival web page now, or email festival@namt.org.
NAMT thanks the following foundations, government agencies and organizations for their ongoing support of our programs: ABE Charitable Foundation, The Alhadeff Family Charitable Foundation, The Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York Creative Space Grant, ASCAP Foundation Irving Caesar Fund, BMI Foundation, The Dramatists Guild Fund, Friars Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, The Noël Coward Foundation, The Purple Plume Foundation, The Rodgers and Hammerstein Foundation, Stacey Mindich Productions and The Shubert Foundation.
A guest post from Daryl Lisa Fazio, lyricist and librettist of this year’s show lift, written with Aaron McAllister.
Festival Alumni in the News
NAMT News
Festival Alumni to be Featured in New 54 Below Concert Series
54 Below‘s Jennifer Ashley Tepper announced in an interview with Playbill.com that “Broadway’s Living Room” will be launching a new series next year called New Musicals at 54: A Showcase of Our Own. “The idea is to present ten new musicals that haven’t been produced in New York, yet that are things you might have seen an out-of-town tryout of or a workshop of,” said Tepper. No word yet on what shows will be featured, but the initial list of writers announced includes several Festival alumni: Kirsten Childs (The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds her Chameleon Skin, Festival 1998), Adam Gwon (Ordinary Days, Festival 2008), Joe Iconis (Bloodsong of Love, Festival 2011), and Georgia Stitt (Big Red Sun, Festival 2010).
We can’t wait to see what Jen and our talented alumni have to show us!
Watch video from our own shows at 54 Below in our concerts archive.
Blog
NAMT News
INSIDE THE 2015 FESTIVAL: The Right Forty-Five
Blog
NAMT News
Video Series: Measure What Matters
Our friends at TRG Arts have launched a video series called Measure What Matters: 6 Metrics Arts Leaders Should Track. Every Tuesday from now through October 20, they’ll be posting a brief video explaining different ways your organization can use data you probably already have “to assess [your] current situation, stabilize [your] business model, and start generating working capital.”
Blog
NAMT News
2015 Festival Update
Do you want to know more about the shows in the 27th Annual Festival of New Musicals? See the Five Things each show’s writing team wants you to know before you come to the Festival!
Five Things You Should Know About Costs of Living
1. Costs of Living was inspired by, though not based upon, a 2009 New York Times article by Corey Kilgannon called Night and Day about two immigrant cab drivers whose partnership began with promise and ended in tragedy. Mr. Kilgannon liked it so much he wrote a follow-up article about the musical itself.
2. Costs of Living is very much a musical that behaves like a play. In fact, Playwright David Henry Hwang recommended it to the American Playwriting Foundation’s Relentless Award (the Philip Seymour Hoffman one), despite a very clear guideline barring musicals of any kind.
3. You might not think it from the description, but parts of Costs of Living are kind of hilarious.
4. With the proliferation of Asian-American stories in the mainstream, Costs of Living represents the next step in that evolutionary chain: a “Third Generation” story that isn’t about acclimation or immigration, but the impact of those things on the American tapestry.
5. Costs of Living has been in development for a few years with many readings and workshops. We are looking for a staged workshop and/or production of the show, and are also open to seeking involvement from commercial producers. Our hope is to get the show out there to as wide an audience as possible wherever possible.
Five Things You Should Know About Imagine Harry
1. Imagine Harry is about Tucker and Harry. It’s about that moment in your life when you reconcile your need to be an adult with your desire to remain a child, and the musical comes at that moment through two lenses: a 25 year-old who can’t seem to leave home and a 35 year-old who isn’t sure he’s ready to be a father.
2. Imagine Harry can be done at any scale. Because the musical deals with imagination, it was written to sustain both a small theatre-out-of-a-trunk approach as well as an all-the-bells-and-whistles-and-possibly-laser-beams approach. We want it to be a director’s playground, and are eager to take the first steps with a director and producer/theatre to explore ALL the possibilities for this magical world.
3. Imagine Harry is a musical for grown-ups. Although it has childhood as a central theme, the ultimate destination is an exploration of how to become a grown-up and deal with your aging parents, your fears about becoming a parent yourself and your place in the often overwhelming adult world. Think of it as a grown-up movie with a PG-13 rating, and you’ve got the target audience.
4. Imagine Harry has the beat of a pop song. This musical was written by two guys who love pop music. And musical theatre. So if Ben Folds, Taylor Swift and A Great Big World had a jam session with Kander & Ebb, Ahrens & Flaherty and Jason Robert Brown, this score might have come from that session.
5. Imagine Harry has a big heart. We are two guys who wear our hearts pretty much not only on our sleeves but with a neon sign pointing directly to them. And we wanted to write a show that reflected that sensibility. We don’t mind tears. And we don’t mind laughing at the same time. So we wrote a show that let us do both. And hopefully, you, too.
A guest post from Rebekah Greer Melocik, lyricist for this year’s show The Last Queen of Canaan, written with Jacob Yandura and Harrison David Rivers. In April,The Last Queen of Canaan was awarded a NFNM Writer’s Residency Grant at Theater Latté Da.
NAMT in the News
NAMT News
Brad Oscar, Emily Skeggs, Lilli Cooper, Margo Seibert and More Set for Festival of New Musicals
Initial casting and directors have been announced for the 27th Annual Festival of New Musicals, taking place on October 15 and 16 at New World Stages. Playbill.com reports:
Blog
NAMT News
INSIDE THE 2015 FESTIVAL: Why We Applied to the Festival
A guest post from Kyle Jarrow, book writer and co-lyricist for this year’s show Noir, written with Duncan Sheik. Kyle was previously part of the NAMT Festival in 2009 with his show Hostage Song written with Clay McLeod Chapman.
Festival Alumni in the News
NAMT News
Choose Your Own Musical Adventure!
Here’s some fun for your holiday weekend: Alan Schmuckler (How Can You Run With A Shell On Your Back?, Festival 2009) and Dave Holstein have written a musical short film, My Little Red/Green Coat, about a young woman trying to make her way from Harlem to Brooklyn late at night (no easy task!) to reconnect with an ex.
Festival Shows in the News
NAMT News
ACE is Reborn in Las Vegas
A new version of Ace (Festival 2005) is being workshopped at the Nevada Conservatory Theatre at UNLV. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports:
NAMT in the News
NAMT News
Zombies On Broadway, The Theory Of Relativity and More at Songwriters Showcase and Cabaret
The 27th Annual Festival of New Musicals, which will take place Oct. 15 and 16 at New World Stages in New York, has announced the lineup for two additional special programs: a Songwriters Showcase and a Songwriter’s Cabaret.
Blog
NAMT News
New Work In Progress: Creep
This month, we chat with Terry Martin from WaterTower Theatre (WTT) in Addison, TX about their upcoming premiere of the new musical, 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.
How did Creep find its way to WaterTower?
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.
Blog
NAMT News
Festival Show Update: Bernice Bobs Her Hair
This month, we check in with Adam Gwon and Julia Jordan as they prepare their 2011 Festival Show Bernice Bobs Her Hair for its premiere production at Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma this Fall.
In this new delightful dancing musical, small town socially awkward Bernice visits her popular cousin in the big city and finds herself making changes to fit in with her cousin and the popular crowd. Testing the limits of society, free-spirited Bernice bobs her hair, becoming a social revolutionary in the roaring 20’s.
It has been four years since we presented Bernice Bobs Her Hair in the Festival, but do you remember what the reception for the show was like at the Festival?
We remember a great reception, and how much Kate Wetherhead made everyone laugh! We got several offers immediately after the festival, and for a variety of reasons we can’t even remember, none of them worked out at the time. A lot of colleges were interested, but we felt strongly that we wanted to solidify the show with a professional production before releasing it out into the world. So we waited patiently for the right opportunity to come along.
Both of you have been quite busy with other projects over the past few years. What work have you done on Bernice?
When we found out that Lyric Theatre would be doing the premiere, it’d been awhile since we’d revisited the script, and at almost the exact same moment, we got an email from Bruce Goodrich at CSU Fullerton, who’d seen the show at NAMT and was checking in to see if Bernice had become available. It was perfect timing, so we did a reading with them and identified all the rewrites we wanted to do before going into rehearsal for the production. We also have a new 11 o’clock number for Bernice, which we wrote in two airport hotel bars after getting stuck on our way home from auditions in Oklahoma City!
Members in the News
NAMT News
Members in the News: Baldwin Wallace Grad Makes Broadway History
Kyle Jean-Baptiste, a recent graduate of NAMT academic member Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music, made history July 23 when he went on in the role of Jean Valjean in the Broadway production of Les Misérables, becoming both the youngest actor and the first African American to play the role on Broadway, according to Playbill.com.
Festival Shows in the News
NAMT News
Watch Rehearsal of Triangle
Check out video of the sitzprobe for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s world premiere production of Triangle (Festival 2012).
Festival Shows in the News
NAMT News
Festival Show in the News: Watch Young Performers Rehearse Jr. Version of Children of Eden
Go behind the scenes with Playbill.com‘s video of the new “Junior” version of Children of Eden (Festival 1996), adapted by college sophomore Lindsay Maron (with the permission of writer Stephen Schwartz).
Members in the News
NAMT News
Member in the News: Segal Centre Records Cast Album
Playbill reports that NAMT member Segal Centre for Performing Arts recorded their production of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, with a little-known score by Alan Menken (Festival 2003, The Ballad of Little Pinks).
Festival Shows in the News
NAMT News
Homegrown musical may be on the eve of greatness
Dallas’ theatre community is abuzz about one of this year’s Festival selections, On The Eve.