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Welcome to NewFriendLand
Susan Fairbrook reports on the premiere of Come From Away (Festival 2013) at La Jolla Playhouse:
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Get Paid To Share Your Opinions And Help NAMT Too!
Do you have opinions? Do you want to get paid to share those opinions and help NAMT at the same time? Opinions 4 Good (OP4G) is an online market research company that provides funding for nonprofits across the country by sharing the fees from their clients with us. Here’s how it works: You sign up for OP4G using this link, and designate a percentage of your fees you’d like donated to NAMT. Then, whenever you have a few minutes, take some market research surveys on the site and we both get paid! It’s that simple. And we promise you won’t get any spam. The average survey pays $3.50 for about 10 minutes of your time.
Plus, OP4G will donate to NAMT for each new member who joins their online survey community, so you can help us just by signing up.
OP4G calls this “digital volunteering.” We call it easy and fun. Members of our staff have signed up and taken the surveys — we’d never recommend it to you if we hadn’t tried it!
Join today and donate to NAMT without spending a dime.
Thanks!
Festival Shows in the News
NAMT News
Sierra Boggess Performs "A Little Bit Less Than" from It Shoulda Been You
Sierra Boggess performed “A Little Bit Less Than” from the Broadway production of It Shoulda Been You (Festival 2009) for The New York Times’ In Performance series.
Festival Shows in the News
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Festival Show On The Tony Awards!
Watch Lisa Howard sing “Jenny’s Blues” from It Shoulda Been You (Festival 2009) at last night’s Tony Awards.
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New Work in Progress: OCTOBER SKY
This month, we check in with Aaron Thielen (Fest ’10, The Bowery Boys), Artistic Director of the Marriott Theatre outside Chicago, and his showOctober Sky, that he has written with fellow Fest Alumnus Michael Mahler (Fest ’09, How Can You Run With a Shell on Your Back?), as they prepare for the premiere this August.
The beloved Universal Pictures film October Sky is now a new musical. It was 1957, and Sputnik lights up the October sky over the small Appalachian mining town of Coalwood, West Virginia. Homer Hickam, the teenage son of a coal miner, is determined not to end up like generations before him. Inspired by the world’s race to space, Homer and his buddies begin to light up the starry skies with their homemade rockets and dreams of glory. This rich and emotional story is for anyone who ever dreamed of something better and reached for the stars.
October Sky was highlighted in our Songwriters Showcase at last year’s Festival. What was the response to the show like after the showcase?
There was an immediate attraction to not only Michael’s music, but to the title and project as a whole. The film really resonated with so many people. The era. The basic American dream of reaching for the stars, and making it. Literally!
October Sky is being presented at Marriott in conjunction with Universal Stage Productions. What has the experience been like working with Universal on their property?
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Festival Show Update: STU FOR SILVERTON
This month, we check in with Peter Duchan and Breedlove, the writers of 2014 Festival show Stu For Silverton, as they prepared for a reading of the show at NAMT member Theater Latte Da last month.
Based on the true story of America’s first transgender mayor and the town that elected him, Stu for Silverton celebrates a new American folk hero from Silverton, Oregon. This heartwarming, all-American new musical blends Our Town and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, testing the boundaries of tolerance as a small community adjusts to big changes.
The summer leading up to last year’s Festival you did some major reworking of the book to Stu for Silverton. What were those changes?
We’re quite fortunate that the real story of Stu Rasmussen and Silverton provides a strong emotional climax. Everything we’ve written builds to that beautiful, true moment of counter-protest staged by the community. Our challenge all along has been creating the right set up for it, giving the audience the information they need for the moment to really land effectively–and not giving them information that muddies the storytelling and weakens that emotional impact. Prior to NAMT, we made a number of changes, particularly to the first act: a new song/sequence to open the show, a new song to introduce Stu’s girlfriend Vic, a new sequence we hoped would explore the tug of war Stu feels between his hometown and the exploration of his identity that occurs in Portland. So, lots of new stuff, much of which we performed at the NAMT Festival.
How did the presentation in the Festival help you discover further changes to make to the show?
The Festival experience was definitely helpful and energized us to make further revisions. We were lucky to have smart, engaged actors in the room, a number of whom graciously offered us their honest reactions during the process. (Annaleigh Ashford, in particular, is a friend of ours, and a smart budding director in her own right, and she gave us some great, generous notes, a number of which we’ve incorporated.) We also met with producers and other theatermakers, gathering reactions and ideas quite helpful to our revisions. The result: we’ve made a number of changes, including writing ANOTHER new song to introduce Vic, as well as reworking the support group sequence, among other things. We learned a ton.
What was the response to the show like after the Festival?
We were thrilled with the response! We worked really hard to shape an abridged, 45-minute Festival draft that would give the audience a fun taste of the show and, hopefully, leave them wanting more. We got a lot of positive reaction from NAMT members. When Theatre Latte Da offered us this workshop, we jumped at the chance to work on the show out of town, out of sight.
You are now preparing for readings of the full script at NAMT member Theater Latte Da in Minneapolis this week. How has it been working on the show again and hearing the full version?
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Come From Away Gives Wing To Hope
Come From Away (Festival 2013) is currently receiving its world premiere production at member theatre La Jolla Playhouse. In The San Diego Union-Tribune, writers Irene Sankoff and David Hein talk about the genesis of the show:
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2015-2016 National Fund for New Musicals Grants Announced
We are thrilled to announce nine awards granted from the National Fund for New Musicals, a major funding program to support NAMT member not-for-profit theatres in their collaborations with writers to create, develop and produce new musicals. Now in its seventh year, the Fund will provide grants totaling $46,000 to ten organizations across the country.
NAMT Executive Director Betsy King Militello stated:
“We are honored and excited to support our member theatres as they work with this inspiring group of writers to develop these innovative and provocative new musicals. With these grants, we have now awarded 77 grants totaling $315,500. These projects will join a growing list of important new musicals added to the canon with support from our National Fund for New Musicals.”
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NAMT News
Anthony Drewe Talks About NAMT In The Stage
In an editorial advocating for more development opportunities for home-grown musicals in Britain by Mark Shenton in The Stage, Festival alumnus Anthony Drewe (Honk!, Festival 1999; The Three Little Pigs, Festival 2013) shared some nice words about NAMT and his experience (with partner George Stiles) being in the Festival.
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Congrats To Our Members and Alumni Nominated for NYC Theatre Awards
The incredibly busy New York awards season is underway, and the hard work of many NAMT members and alumni has been recognized in this full season of musical theatre. Congratulations to all!
Members in the News
NAMT News
Muny makes year-round plans for a new century
NAMT member The MUNY, well known as a summer theatre, is aiming to become a year-round presence in St. Louis.
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Music Theatre Wichita Offers The Public A Peek Into Its Warehouse
NAMT member Music Theatre Wichita is offering tours of its extensive set and costume collection to the public for a chance to explore some musical theatre history and fantasy.
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Two Productions From Perfect Pitch Available Online
DigitalTheatre.com, which works in partnership with Britain’s leading theatre companies to capture live performance authentically onscreen, has released two productions created and filmed live by NAMT member Perfect Pitch, as part of a new partnership between the two companies.
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New Work in Progress: EVER AFTER
This month, we check in with Mark S. Hoebee, Producing Artistic Director at Paper Mill Playhouse, as he tells us about their upcoming production of Ever After.
The world premiere of a brilliant new musical based on the 1998 film starring Drew Barrymore and Anjelica Huston. This is no fairy tale. Ever After sets the record straight on the fable of Cinderella. It was never about fairy godmothers, talking mice, or magic pumpkins. Her name was Danielle and it was always about her wit, her smarts, her strength, and her good friend Leonardo da Vinci. She makes her own dreams come true. Warm and romantic, funny and smart, this is the musical you’ve been waiting for.
How did Ever After find its way to the Playhouse?
Ever After had been on our radar for several years. I saw an early reading of the show and loved the material. I had a meeting with Scott Landis and Philip Morgaman to discuss the show, but Paper Mill wasn’t at a place to take on the project at that time. Then about two years ago, we were working with Kevin McCollum on The Other Josh Cohen and he had joined the producing team on Ever After. Kevin encouraged me to come see another more full presentation of the piece that they were doing, so I went with Todd Schmidt, our Managing Director. Kathleen Marshall, the director/choreographer had assembled a wonderful cast and there was a 9-piece band and it was just wonderful. So we grabbed the opportunity to give the show its first full production.
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We Think You're Marrying the Wrong Guy: Inside The Creation Of It Shoulda Been You
“I went to three weddings in a very short period of time that spring,” Anselmi says, recalling 2003, when she was scrambling for show ideas to present in the second year of The BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. “I was taken back to what happened at one of the weddings: a friend of mine hooked up with somebody in the bathroom, and the guy on my right side at the table, I wished that he had married the bride.”
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Festival Show Update: THE SANDMAN and BLEEDING LOVE
This month, we catch up with Søren Møller, Artistic and Managing Director at Fredericia Theater and New Works Development Center Uterus in Denmark, about their current production of 2013 Festival show, The Sandman, by Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker, and their upcoming production of 2012 Festival show, Bleeding Love by Jason Schafer, Harris Doran and Arthur Lafrentz Bacon. Both shows will be performed in rep as part of Fredericia Theater’s season.
THE SANDMAN:
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.
BLEEDING LOVE:
It’s always night, it’s always cold and nothing ever grows. A cloistered teen cellist must find a live rose in order to thaw the frozen heart of the rebel punk next door. An eclectic score, ranging from Broadway to classical to rock, beats within this wickedly demented, post-apocalyptic musical comedy.
You are preparing something that is almost never heard of: two world premieres of two new musicals in rep, which happen to both be past NAMT Festival shows. How did you come to the idea of doing the shows in rep?
Getting people to see new material is not always easy, and being situated 100 minutes out of Copenhagen, I think it is attractive for more people to take a trip here to see two new shows in a day. Also—having specialized in digital set design, we can shift the setup for the shows much faster than with a more traditional setup. And seeing almost the same cast performing two very different new musicals in one day is a real treat. Also—how often do you get to hear two brand new Bruce Coughlin orchestrations in a day?
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Festival Show Update: TRIANGLE
This month, we check in with alumni Curtis Moore and Thomas Mizer, as they tell us about the upcoming production of 2012 Festival show, Triangle, at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley.
Two love stories, set in the same New York City building but a hundred years apart, weave together across the century as long buried secrets are uncovered and ghosts of the past begin to influence the future.
Last time we checked in with Triangle, you were preparing for your first on-its-feet production at Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma City. How was that experience, working with the team in OKC?
The workshop production at Lyric was a dream come true. Truly. Their technical facilities are first-rate, and the staff and actors were passionate advocates for the piece. It was the theater’s first experience working on a new musical so we were all learning and growing together. They, and the city as whole, embraced the show with a dedication that was inspiring. Even walking into a local store, people would find out why we were in town and they’d know about the show and be excited and proud that OKC was creating something. Some people would say they were coming again and bringing friends because they loved it so much. How special is that to feel like an entire community wants to collaborate on a new musical! (And believe us, the clerk at the OKC wine store definitely had an important role in the development of the show.)
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Lake Dillon Theatre Co. to move to $6 million new complex in Silverthorne
The city of Silverthorne and Lake Dillon Theatre Company (LDTC) announced a new partnership this week that will bring the 21-year-old performing arts organization from its long-standing home in the town of Lake Dillon to Silverthorne, a few miles up the road in Summit County.
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Observations From The Success Survey
We recently completed our second bi-annual Success Survey, and while the full results are only available to NAMT members who participated in the survey, we wanted to share a few interesting findings with you here.
The survey is designed to give members a sense of how various shows have done for other member theatres in the last two years, as well as identify trends such as popular titles for production and theatres’ willingness to take risks. Because “success” in art is a relative term, and our members have wildly varying missions, we ask not just for financial information, but also how audiences responded to the shows (maybe the houses were smaller than hoped for, but those who came were overjoyed, leading to good word of mouth for the next production) and if they met the theatre’s expectations (some companies program riskier work expecting to take a loss because they feel it’s important to share this work with their audiences). We also ask if the show is considered risky for this theatre – again, a relative assessment – and if marketing was beefed up to account for any such risk.
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Lisa Howard on "It Shoulda Been You"
In 2009, Lisa Howard played Jenny in It Shoulda Been You for the first time at NAMT’s 21st Annual Festival of New Musicals. She spoke with The New York Times about the role as It Shoulda Been You began previews on Broadway this week.
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THE MEMORY SHOW Cast Album Released
A cast recording of the Off-Broadway production of The Memory Show (Festival of New Musicals 2009) at member theatre Transport Group has been released digitally and is coming to CD soon.
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NAMT News
Greg Hildreth, Ciara Renee & More Set for NAMT Songwriter Spotlight at 54 Below, 3/30
NAMT will turn the spotlight on four of its songwriting alumni, Adam Gwon (Ordinary Days, Bernice Bobs Her Hair, String, Ebb, Kleban, Loewe and Rodgers Awards), Michael Koomanand Chris Dimond (Dani Girl, The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes, Fred Ebb Award) and Alan Schmuckler (How Can You Run With a Shell On Your Back?). They will share songs from their NAMT Festival shows and new projects that are currently being worked on, sung by some of Broadway’s brightest stars. Scheduled to appear are Greg Hildreth (Cinderella, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson), Raymond J. Lee (Honeymoon in Vegas, Anything Goes), Kevin Massey (Memphis, Gentleman’s Guide), Ciara Renée (Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pippin), Kate Wetherhead (“Submissions Only”, Legally Blonde) and more to be announced!
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New Work in Progress: SENSE AND SENSIBILITY
This month, we check in with Rick Boynton, Creative Producer at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, as he tells us about their upcoming production of Sense and Sensibility, by Paul Gordon (Fest ’13-Analog & Vinyl; Fest ’06-Jane Austen’s Emma).
Sense and Sensibility traces the lives of Elinor & Marianne Dashwood—two sisters whose fortunes change following their father’s untimely death. One cool and deliberate, the other consumed by youthful passion, Elinor and Marianne journey to make life anew while testing the bonds of sisterhood and the power of love.
How did Chicago Shakespeare meet Paul Gordon and why was he an artist you wanted to work with?
I first was introduced to Paul when I was serving on the Festival committee and read his Emma in 2006. I loved the adaptation. Paul is such a gifted composer, lyricist and book writer. Not only is his music beautiful, but he brings classical text to life with a great sense of wonder, passion and humor. I knew we had to work with him.
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Festival Show Update: FACTORY GIRLS
Last month, we caught up with alumni Creighton Irons and Sean Mahoney about the development of their 2009 Festival show, Factory Girls, and their upcoming reading and concert in NYC.
In 1843 in the new industrial city of Lowell, Massachusetts, best friends Sarah Bagley and Harriet Farley are using their published writing to prove to the world that “factory girls” are virtuous and intelligent and have accepted their positions as laborers voluntarily. But when a fellow spinner is worked to death, Sarah decides to use her pen to lash out against the corporation, jeopardizing their friendship and shaping the fate of the American worker.
Factory Girls was very well-received at the Festival but it was at a very early stage of development. What did you learn about the show from being in the Festival?
We loved being a part of the Festival in 2009. The show itself was still being written by just the two of us (Sean and Creighton), and while we had a wonderful experience working with [director] Vicky Bussert and an amazing cast, we knew the songs were much stronger than the book at that time. Our NAMT consultants have been such incredible supporters of us and of the show as we’ve sought to improve the book in various workshops since then.
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New Work in Progress: STAGGER LEE
This month, we check in with Lee Trull, Director of New Play Development at Dallas Theater Center, as he tells us about their upcoming production of Stagger Lee, by Will Power and Justin Ellington, which was a previous recipient of the NAMT National Fund for New Musicals Project Development Grant.
A highlight this season is the world premiere of Stagger Lee, a musical that takes its title from the century-old folk song that became a Number One R&B hit for Lloyd Price in 1959. The story spans the 20th Century, tracing mythical characters in their quest to achieve the American Dream. The deep-seated themes of racism and the raw power of human will are sure to give you chills. And the music—from Joplin-inspired tunes to R&B and hip-hop—will definitely get your feet moving.
How did the development of Stagger Lee come about for Dallas Theater Center?
Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts gives out an award called the Meadows Prize. It’s a commission to an artist in the middle of his or her career for a new piece to be produced at an arts institution in Dallas. Meadows approached us about six years ago to see if there was a writer we would be interested in developing a piece with. The obvious choice was Will Power. The way his plays examine social justice and American history/mythology in highly theatrical ways fits perfectly with DTC’s mission. Since then, Will joined our staff through a Mellon Foundation Grant as Playwright-In-Residence and joined SMU’s faculty as Artist-In-Residence. Stagger Lee grew out of that early commission. It started as a play and grew into a big musical.