News

Blog

NAMT News

New Work in Progress- FAR FROM HEAVEN at Playwrights Horizons

An interview with Kent Nicholson, Director of Musical Theatre and Literary Associate at Playwrights Horizons, about their upcoming production of Far From Heaven, with a book by Richard Greenberg, Music by Scott Frankel and Lyrics by Fest alumnus Michael Korie (Blanco– ’89). The show is a recipient of one of NAMT’s National Fund for New Musicals Production Grants.

Cathy Whitaker seems to be the picture-perfect wife and mother in 1957 suburban Connecticut. But roiling beneath the surface, secret longings and forbidden desires cause her world to unravel, with incendiary consequences. With a lush score that is both jazz-inflected and hauntingly lyrical, Far From Heaven is a powerful story of romance, betrayal and intolerance, as a woman grapples with her identity in a society on the verge of upheaval.
Image: Kelli O’Hara in Far From Heaven at Williamstown Theatre Festival

Far From Heaven is a Playwrights Horizons’ commission. What came first: the project or the writers?
The writers came first. It was their idea. Scott Frankel and Michael Korie had talked with Richard Greenberg about working on something together during the run of Grey Gardenson Broadway. In their subsequent discussions, Far From Heaven came up as a project they all admired that they thought could have a new life as a musical. They came to us with the idea and we thought it was a good one.

Why choose to musicalize Far From Heaven and why were Scott, Michael and Richard the right team for the job?
The film is an exploration of the nostalgia we have for “simpler” times. Those times have a dark side, a side that forces people to live in denial of their own prejudices and desires. The film places its main characters on the edge of the ’50s bleeding into the social consciousness of the ’60s. Shot in a melodramatic style, as an homage to Douglas Sirk, it contains all the elements of a great musical: inner emotional lives, strong plotting, a simple character arc. The lushness of the film’s visuals have translated into a lushness in Scott Frankel’s score. In transforming the story from one medium to another, we feel that we have the ability to continue to explore the themes, that the film begins to explore and dig a little deeper into the characters’ emotional lives.

This is your theatre’s second time at bat with Korie and Frankel. What draws Playwrights Horizons to their work and why are they a good match with your audience and mission?
Our focus at Playwrights is always on the writers, and our mission includes composers and lyricists as writers. We focus on writer driven work, which tends to mean that the projects we produce are the ideas and province of the writers’ obsessions with the world. Scott and Michael have brought us many of their projects. Obviously, some of any producing decision is an aesthetic one, meaning we simply like their work. But beyond that we find that artist-driven work tends to move the form forward and explore the boundaries of what the form can be. Grey Gardenscreated a narrative out of documentary source material, and Far From Heaven is almost operatic in its approach to the material. They’re still musicals, but they play with the form in artistically challenging ways.

The show was recently at Williamstown Theatre Festival before coming to Playwrights Horizons. How has the show changed and grown over this process?
The piece went through some significant tweaking during the reading and production process. While the plot is generally a given and hasn’t changed much, how many scenes we keep from the movie, how we elide them together and where we choose to place our focus has shifted a lot, as has the amount of underscoring and music. Some characters have been made significantly smaller than they are in the film. And we learned a great deal from the Williamstown audiences. The opportunity to see the piece in a fully realized production prior to coming into NY, while we still have a chance to make significant changes, not just in the text, but also design and approach, is invaluable.

What will change as the show heads to the Playwrights Horizons stage?
You’ll have to come and see!

Why should people come see Far From Heaven on West 42nd Street?
Our space is unique in that is equipped pretty well for musicals and yet it is small and intimate. This is a grand show in many ways and the opportunity to see something of this size in a house as intimate as ours is rare. It’ll be a special experience.

For more info about Far From Heaven, please visit www.playwrightshorizons.org. 

Read More

Blog

NAMT News

New Work in Progress- OTHELLO: THE REMIX at Chicago Shakes

An interview with Rick Boynton, Creative Producer at Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST), about their upcoming production of Othello: The Remix by the Q Brothers. The show was a past recipient of a NAMT National Fund for New Musicals Writers Residency Grant.
This fresh urban take on Shakespeare’s tragedy is spun out and lyrically rewritten over original beats by The Q Brothers, America’s leading re-interpreters of Shakespeare through hip-hop (Funk It Up About Nothin’, The Bomb-itty of Errors). Whether you’re looking for a rockin’ night of rhythm and rhyme or a new way to think about Shakespeare, Othello: The Remix delivers an intense, high-energy spin like no other.


How did CST meet the Q Brothers? 
We first met several years back when CST produced their show Bombitty of Errors, a hip-hop musical based on The Comedy of Errors. They approached us a few years later to see if we would be interested in developing a show based on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.  We agreed, developed the musical (Funk It Up About Nothin’) and premiered it here in our studio theatre.

Why did you commission them to adapt another Shakespeare play?
The idea for Othello: The Remix really found its way to us.  The Globe in London was organizing a festival of Shakespeare’s work, each performed by different countries around the world, for the cultural Olympiad prior to last summer’s Olympic Games.  They had seen Funkwhen we performed in London, had liked our work, and wanted us to represent the US by creating a hip hop piece based on Othello.  It was an exciting opportunity and, quite honestly, a bit of a daunting yet exciting challenge.  I always find those the most interesting, so we accepted.
What was it like to take a show created in Chicago to international audiences?

We had played Chicago, London, Edinburgh, Australia with Funk and were hoping Othello would have similar opportunities.  After our premiere at the Globe was so well-received, we went to Germany and then spent the summer in Scotland.  It is truly thrilling to watch a show transcend language barriers and/or cultural differences.  As theatre creators, we all strive to move an audience in some way and when it happens, even when they don’t speak the same language, it is incredibly rewarding.
 
What do you hope your audience experience seeing this show in action back in Chicago? 
This is the first time we have developed a show and not premiered it in our own space first.  We are thrilled to share this work with our hometown audience and hope they will enjoy it as much as our international audiences have.

Why should everyone head to Navy Pier to see Othello: The Remix? 
It has an incredibly fresh approach to the art form through a hip-hop lens.  It is a show that is filled with big laughs yet packs a tragic punch.  I am very proud of our work and hope all will come out to see it (besides, we let you drink in the theatre!).

For more information about Othello: The Remix, please visit www.chicagoshakes.com.

Read More

Blog

NAMT News

Insights From NAMT's New Success Survey

As part of NAMT’s 2011 strategic planning process, we evaluated all member services, including the publication formerly known as the Royalties Survey. Members surveyed were more interested in the overall success of the various musicals produced by NAMT’s members than the royalty information, which has become more standardized in recent years.
Thus, the Success Survey was born! Recognizing that success is relative (was the show a risky labor of love that you didn’t expect would make money? was it a hit with the audience but a flop financially? did it meet your financial goals but not your artistic ones?), we asked a variety of new subjective questions to measure how respondents felt each show did. We also asked about marketing and overall production income and expense.
Full results of the survey are only available to organizations that participated in it, but we wanted to share some of the most interesting findings more broadly.
Defining Risk
Theatres’ very definition of risk varied. Classic titles like A Chorus Line and Sweet Charity were ranked as risky by some theatres, perhaps due to expense. As theatres’ missions and audiences vary, some saw the same titles in very different lights. While classic musicals were generally considered not to be risky, that did not necessarily make them successful (though we would have to survey the audiences to understand why).
Audiences appreciate risk…if they attend.
Risky shows seemed to pay off, at least with those who attended. Over half of the shows considered “somewhat risky” or “extremely risky” scored well for audience response, and a third ranked high financially.
Does Safe = Successful?
Meanwhile, about 20% of the shows ranked “not at all risky” by members also received “lower than average” audience response or financial success scores. While that is a much better success rate than shows deemed risky, it still seems high considering the perceived risk factor.
Looking Ahead
We learned a lot from this first round of the Success Survey, and I hope to see it expand over the years (it will be administered every two years, alternating with the Salary & Benefits Survey). I hope this peek inside the survey results will inspire more NAMT members to participate next time! More data will allow us to zero in on trends that can help members plan and manage risk and reward in their seasons.

Read More

Blog

NAMT News

Conference Report: TEDxBroadway 2013

For the second year in a row, I got to attend the TEDxBroadway conference last month (it’s also the conference’s second year), and soak up some ideas about the future of theatre and what we might be able to learn from other industries and examine some fresh approaches. This year, the conference organizers said we’d be looking more at Broadway the street, as a neighborhood and a destination, through the lens of its theatres. I wondered briefly if I should go, since this sounded very New Yorky and I wasn’t sure where I’d fit in as a representative of NAMT and its members. But it turned out that the discussion centered largely around theatre and communities, the world around arts institutions, not just in New York and not just commercially. I came away with a lot, and not always from expected sources.

Below you’ll find highlights of speakers and ideas that stood out for me personally (and as a representative of NAMT). Despite the very different backgrounds of these speakers and topics they addressed, there are a few common themes running through this:
It’s all about passion.
It’s all about connection.
It’s all about the audience.

Sure, that’s nothing we haven’t heard before, but as you’ll see as you read on, there are surprisingly diverse ways to approach these ideas.

Producer Daryl Roth spoke about the impact of theatre on audiences’ worldviews and connecting art with activism. Her experiences with plays like Wit and The Normal Heart – great plays that also have something important to say – have helped shape her as a producer and a person, and gave her opportunities to bring audiences into a discussion about the issues in the plays, as well as engage with people who might not be habitual theatre-goers but are drawn in by the topic. “If we share the deep belief that theatre matters…then isn’t that the best Broadway can be for all of us?”

Critic Terry Teachout pointed out that 75% of Broadway shows lose money, so everyone who works on Broadway is gambling. “Why do people gamble? Because it’s fun!” He made it clear that he wasn’t bringing up this harsh reality to crush anyone’s dreams, just to make them “look at them from a different point of view.” He wants people to say to themselves, “I’m going to write the best, most original show I can think of. It’s probably going to lose money anyway, so why not try? …Don’t settle for safe, gamble on great. Make something that makes you proud.” Sound familiar, Festival alumni?

I’ll admit that I was both most excited for and most wary of our next speaker. As a nerd who grew up a huge fan of the original Star Trek, I was thrilled at the chance to meet George Takei. But why was he here? What could he possibly have to say about theatre? A lot, actually. I’d forgotten that he’s written an autobiographical musical about his family’s experience in Japanese internment camps during World War II. When Allegiance premiered at NAMT member theatre The Old Globe in San Diego, it broke records and played to packed houses. Takei will always be famous for Star Trek, but in recent years he’s become an internet personality separate and apart from that, using social media to build a personal brand built on smart humor, science…and cats. He used that to help sell Allegiance, but also asked us why theatres weren’t doing more of it on their own, bringing it back to his science fiction fame and love of technology. “I don’t think Broadway has boldly gone where it needs to,” he said, imploring us to “embrace all of the technological advances of the times.”

I don’t usually do the celebrity thing,
but come on! It’s Sulu!

He also spoke of the power of musical theatre to “tell stories that need to be told.” It has an accessibility that can bring people in, and the music can reach them emotionally. (During this, playwright David Lawson tweeted, “Musicals are incredible at preserving history that might have been forgotten: mid 80s UK miners’ strike, June Rebellion, 1899 newsboy strike. And yes, two of those were not musicals first. But it was setting that history to music that made me hungry to learn of the history.” I couldn’t agree more.) Allegiance is aiming for Broadway this year, and hopefully it will expose audiences to this relatively little-known dark spot on American history. I got a chance to speak with Takei later in the day, and I was struck by what a theatre geek he is (he’s done stage work throughout his career, though when Allegiance (in which he also appears) comes in, it will be his Broadway debut) and how passionate he is about not just his show but about musical theatre in general. It was great to see. And I’ll admit that when he recited the opening lines of Star Trek during his speech, I teared up a little; the man knows his audience.

Christine Jones, a scenic designer and creator of Theatre For One, talked about the experience of making an intimate connection between audience and performance in any size space, creating design that can “respond to the visual acoustics of the moment, sometimes with a moment’s notice.” “I wish we had the same ability to make choices about how the audience is seated as I do with what’s on stage,” she said. As I work out the crick in my neck from seeing an otherwise fabulous show last night, I can’t help thinking that Broadway’s historic theatres and often tight space make this a largely unsolvable problem. But I also think fondly of the many comfortable evenings I’ve spent at NAMT member theatres around the country, and the opportunities those of you building or renovating theatres have to make flexible, comfortable spaces. Jones quoted Jujamcyn Theatres President Jordan Roth as saying “Seats are not born partial, they are made partial.” Here’s to never making a seat – or a patron – partial.

Tom Schumacher, head of Disney Theatrical Group, started off a little surprisingly, telling a story about hating and judging tourists (any New Yorker, however kind-hearted, can relate to this). “I have friends,” he said, “who believe the sippy cup is the end of days…. In the 1600s people thought ‘machine plays’ were a sign of theatrical apocalypse too,” but here we still are. “Times are changing. They are also staying very much the same.” 40% of adults surveyed at The Lion King were seeing a Broadway show for the first time. “Our pretention towards the audience seeing the show for the first time simply stands in the way of growing and sharing our business…. These lovely people had bought a ticket, and here I was judging them.” From a business standpoint, “by the definition of our venues and union contracts, this is not a growth industry,” but there is great potential for growth in the audience. While Broadway has a reputation as a place of aging audiences, it turns out kids are also coming in unprecedented numbers, so let’s embrace them and make magic for them – the same kind of magic Schumacher says he experienced going to the theatre as a child and learning that “a guy in a white turtleneck can be a horse and a white box can be a jungle.” Disney, unsurprisingly, takes its populism very seriously, serving as an important entry point into the world of musical theatre for multiple generations.

Two talks that really made me think of our members were by Susan Salgado, of Union Square Hospitality Group, and Erin Hoover from Sheraton. “To say it’s just about the show is discounting everyone who affects the experience of customers,” Salgado said. “We need to provide a great total experience.” (Considering I was yelled at by an usher last night before I had even taken a full step inside the building, I couldn’t agree more!) Hoover talked about how hotel lobbies have changed over the last few decades from purely transactional to spaces “designed to give the guest a series of branded experiences [where] connectivity is expected.” She suggested that theatre lobbies can be transformed to “a series of touch points to enhance the Broadway brand.” I know from my travels, and from lengthy discussions at last year’s Spring Conference, that this is something many NAMT members are already doing. They strive to make customer service a top priority, and recognize that every point of contact, from box office to usher to bar, affects a patron’s experience. Institutional theatres have brands to uphold and seasons to sell, and building a relationship with a customer is vital. What if Broadway focused on service and design brand-wide, like a not-for-profit theatre (or a hotel chain!) does? Your building and your staff can tell a story and be an experience you share, along with the play.

I was particularly inspired by Seth Pinsky, of the NYC mayor’s office, declaring that “the arts are a critical industry in New York and the ripple effect is a major economic engine… New Yorkers believe arts matter.” (We’ll be looking at how some other cities are supporting their arts communities and how theatres can advocate for themselves at this year’s Spring Conference.)

David Sabel from the National Theatre in London gave a great talk about the NTLive series of movie theatre screenings of plays. He referred to the National’s “spirit of R&D,” which covers both new theatrical work and new ways to get that work to audiences. Digital is considered part of the experience (or one possible experience), not just a marketing platform. Because NT is subsidized by the government (25% of their budget!), they feel a responsibility to give taxpayers access to their art and have “a commitment to openness, wide-ranging engagement and access to everyone” in their mission statement. They’ve never seen NT Live as a replacement for the live event, but a separate and worthy experience in itself. When a performance is filmed, the priority is on making a good film of that theatrical event, and the audience is treated like a studio audience for the film, with cameras going where they need to go. The screenings are limited to a brief window, so it’s still an “ephemeral event.” Perhaps of most interest to American theatres is the way the National worked with unions and artists to create something new. They replaced up-front fees with profit-sharing, giving artists and crews literal ownership over the project. And they’ve found that screenings haven’t hurt sales in the theatre at all. “Tech changes fast,” Sabel concluded. “You have to be flexible, nimble, fast. You have to use both sides of the brain.”

Other speakers talked about turning your passions into your work and achieving your dreams by being “flexible with the outcome” (Zachary Schmahl); making Broadway more diverse by telling diverse stories, embracing the theatre “community of nerds and misfits” and writing and producing shows that “cut so deeply to the heart that they transcend…into the cultural conversation” (Kristoffer Diaz); bringing theatre to schools and schools to the theatre (Vincent Gassetto); predicting the future by inventing it and learning what customers want and need by observing them rather than asking them (Ellen Isaacs); marketing to people who you know will never come to your show to make the arts matter to everyone (Adam Thurman); and finding Broadway’s equivalent of the Kindle to overcome limitations of space and money and connect to a wider audience (Randi Zuckerberg).

This year’s conference had some great examples of what we can learn from each other and from other industries. There was a great buzz in the room and online as people discussed ideas and how we might implement them, and old friends were introduced to new ones. Just like at NAMT conferences! (Oh come on, I had to.)

Thanks to the conference organizers, speakers, and especially everyone who was tweeting and blogging along. See you next year!

(For some other people’s observations about TEDxBroadway, I recommend Howard Sherman’s selection of quotes and write-up for the LA Times, and Ken Davenport’s takeaways.)

Updated 3/4/13: Now with videos! For all the videos from last year and this year, just search for TEDxBroadway on YouTube.

Read More

Blog

NAMT News

New Work In Progress: TRAILS at The Village Theatre

An interview with Steve Tomkins, Artistic Director of The Village Theatre in Issaquah, WA, about their upcoming production of Trails by Kristy Hall, Jordan Mann and Jeff Thomson.

After twelve years of silence, two childhood friends, Seth and Mike, find themselves face to face.  Unexpectedly, Mike reminds Seth of an old promise to hike the Appalachian Trail together from beginning to end.  Desperate to escape his stifling hometown and the recent death of his mother, Seth agrees to fulfill that promise.  As the challenges of the trail become increasingly difficult, long-kept secrets begin to surface, and their friendship is put to the ultimate test.
How long has the Village been producing new musicals and what is the goal of the Village Originals program? 
Village Theatre has been committed to the development of new musicals since its inception in 1979, and has produced and developed over 90 new musicals. Many of these have gone on to stages around the world, including the Tony Award-winning Next To Normal and Million Dollar Quartet.
 How did Trails find its way out west to Issaquah?
Authors Christy Hall, Jordan Mann and Jeff Thomson were friends with an actor who had been in several shows on the Village Theatre stage.  He recommended Trails to our Village Originals program.  Upon receiving the script, both Robb Hunt and I were enchanted by this innovative new musical, and we started Trails in our new works program, culminating in the 2011 reading at our Festival of New Musicals.

Why was Trails the right show to take from the reading at your Festival last year to your main stage this year?
Our audience’s response to Trails was immediate and overwhelming.  We both felt that significant progress has been made in the development of the script to give it the production values needed for our Mainstage.  This resulted in two more readings and endless discussions readying the script for our 2013 production.

Why is Trails a great show for your theatre and your audience?  
Although Trails is set in the Appalachian Mountains on the East Coast, this remarkable new musical still captures the vitality and energy of the Pacific Northwest.  Because of the unparalleled beauty of the Puget Sound, it is home to many hikers, trailblazers and adventurers. During the last few years, walking the Pacific Crest Trail (the West Coast version of the Appalachian Trail) has become a rite of passage for many young people. Trails encompasses the spirit and essence of our community.

Why should people fill up their hiking backpack and head west to Washington to see Trails this spring? 
They have the opportunity to experience the first major production of an outstanding new musical, written by three talented new writers.  Christy Hall, Jordan Mann and Jeff Thomson are at the beginning of what I feel will be a remarkable career.

For more info about Trails, please visit www.villagetheatre.org.

Read More

Blog

Festival Shows in the News

NAMT News

Festival Show Update: THE MEMORY SHOW

An interview with Sara Cooper and Zach Redler, writers of The Memory Show from our 2009 Festival, about the life of the show and its upcoming Off Broadway production.
The Memory Show is a two-person comic tragedy about the troubled relationship of a woman who has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and her estranged daughter who moves back home to take care of her.
What has happened with The Memory Show (other than a shorter title) since the Festival in 2009?
We had a reading and then a production at Barrington Stage Company, which was an excellent experience. The Memory Show was also translated into Korean and produced in Korea this fall season. We got to go out there and see it, and it was awesome!
What was it like having the production up at Barrington and seeing the show on its feet? 
We were so fortunate to have Bill [Finn] and Julie [Boyd] supporting us and believing in our work, and to have such an amazing director and MD and actors and designers. It was a really smooth process. We were so happy with how it turned out.
What has changed in the show since your NAMT Festival reading and what has changed since Barrington?We did some rewriting after NAMT, and then Joe [Calarco, director] and Vadim [Feichtner, music director] were really helpful in figuring out what to cut at Barrington. Basically, the piece has just gotten tighter.How did The Transport Group production come about? 
Barrington produced a closed reading in New York, and Jack and Lori from Transport came to see it. We love them. We can’t wait for the production.What is most exciting about finally having your show Off Broadway? 
Because the piece is so personal, we are just really excited to share it. The piece takes place in Brooklyn and so the tone is very New Yorky. We feel like it’s just coming home.
Why should people come check out The Memory Show? 
It’s a wonderful cast and creative team (truly!!!) and they have really brought our little two-person musical to life. We poured a lot of ourselves (and our parents, and our grandparents) into this piece, and we think it says something very truthful about parent-child relationships. We hope this is a show that is universal because it’s so real to us.
For more information about The Memory Show, please visit www.transportgroup.org.

Read More

Blog

Festival Shows in the News

NAMT News

The Circus In Winter: A New Musical on a Unique Journey

But the catalogue of American musicals is far broader than the dozen or so holding down residence on Broadway marquees, and often the development of new musicals travels a much more winding path than that from the movie house to the playhouse. Instead, they are created by emerging artists with an excitement for the creative process and the hope for a wider audience.
Every year a handful of these organic musicals arrive in New York at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Annual Festival of New Musicals for a short staged reading and showcase in the hopes of support, funding, and most of all a path down which they may continue the journey of their creative process. One such show at this year’s festival, THE CIRCUS IN WINTER, is on a most unique journey. Its creation began not in a movie theater or as a time-tested show, but in an undergraduate classroom at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana where fourteen students and one theater professor spent a semester together writing a musical.

Read More

NAMT in the News

NAMT News

NAMT Festival of New Musicals: A Bridge between New Works and Producers

But this is not the only characteristic of NAMT that sets it apart from other new-work festivals. First of all, NAMT does not sell tickets to the festival. Huldeen described NAMT as a platform, a network mutually beneficial for artists and industry people that does not reap profits from the connections it facilitates.
The backgrounds of the audience also contributes to NAMT’s uniqueness. “Around seventy-five percent of the audience is tri-state area theatre workers, twenty percent from all over the country as well as Canada, and five percent or so are international members,” Huldeen said.

Read More

Blog

NAMT News

From the New Works Director: More Festival Fun!

The cast of THE CIRCUS IN WINTER

Miss out on the Festival or just want more? We’ve got you covered! This year we have some new ways you can catch all of what happened at the Festival (and two of them are for members only!).
Festival Jukebox
In the Members-only section* of namt.org, you can find all of this year’s Festival demos streaming in jukeboxes. This is a great way to hear this year’s demos without having to track down the CD you picked up. Tell your fellow staff members to check them out and share the great music from this year’s Festival with your entire organization.
“Other Shows You Should Know” Jukebox 
For years, we have been handing out a CD to every conference attendee filled with 7-9 shows from our selection process that the Festival Committee wants the membership to know about. The CDs are gone and have been replaced by an online jukebox in the members-only section* of the website. There are 2 streaming tracks from each of over a dozen shows along with contact info and show info. These are great shows that are worth your attention and because they are online, we are able to share a lot more fantastic shows with you.
Photos! Photos! Photos! 
Now that you have the sounds of the Festival, how about some sights? Every year, we hire the great photographer Ric Kallaher to take shots of the Festival from rehearsals through the party. You can see ALL of the photos he took on his site. There are great shots of many members and writers in the mix! Even my new photo above is from our closing party! If you would like a hi-res copy of any of the photos, just let me know.
I hope you all will take a moment to check out the two jukeboxes and take a stroll down (recent) memory lane. It was a great event and I, for one, had an amazing time!
*In order to access the members-only section of the website, you will need your log-in and password which carly@namt.org can give you if you have lost it.

Read More

Blog

NAMT News

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: The NAMT Festival Experience

A guest blog entry from Arthur Lafrentz Bacon about his experience at our Festival with his show Bleeding Love.   
 
Being at NAMT was an awesome, once in a lifetime (hopefully not just once!) experience.
Everyone knows about NAMT, and it’s a big deal. A big deal because hundreds of theater companies and producers come to see the 8 shows that are chosen each year. Where else does this happen? Nowhere. A huge, golden  opportunity for any writer, courtesy of the amazingly talented, hard working staff at NAMT. 

For me as the composer, I knew that getting the score together for the singers and musicians was my first priority. With help from my friend Harris (lyricist of Bleeding Love) and his expertise with Finale software, we got it done just in time, although I was still tweaking the guitar parts minutes before each show. Speaking of guitar, in true rock star fashion, our guitarist was late to the 2nd show, popping out of the curtain just before he had to play…. the reason?… a stalled subway car!

If you’ve never done NAMT before, nothing can really prepare you for the moment you walk into New World Stages and see the hundreds of people that are there, waiting in lines to see the shows. It was almost overwhelming for me until I started to talk with some of the people, and get comfortable with it all. (I played in The Caroline Rhea Show band on NBC for a year, and I didn’t think I’d be phased by the crowds and hoopla, but I was!)  I also think our Bleeding Love team may have had some extra nerves going on, because we never had had even a reading of the piece before this. But with our stellar cast, and terrific director, music director and musicians, they pulled it together in a wonderful way. Before I knew it, there was Sarah Stiles, Nancy Opel and the rest bringing the piece to life in front of a packed audience. All of the songs that I heard in my head for the last couple years, sounded even more terrific when the singers gave them a voice. I was so happy to be able to hear Harris’s
captivating lyrics, Jason’s witty and wry dialogue and see the story unfold. A beautiful thing to be realized and shared with each other.

By the second show, everyone had found their groove, and was killing it (after 25 hours of rehearsal!). I was so proud of them all, and so thankful to be given an opportunity like this. After the second show, I had the pleasure of speaking with many theater companies and producers, all of which were very positive and encouraging. Being told by producers that they loved my melodies made my heart smile the most, for that is my life…melody. A big thank you to Branden, the NAMT staff, the staff at New World Stages and to everyone who came to the festival!

Read More

Blog

NAMT News

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: First time at the Festival

Our guest blogger, Dan Collins (writer of Southern Comfort), talks about what he learned from his first time presenting at our Festival.  

This is my first blog post.  Ever. 

As monumental as the occasion may be, I can say (type?) with confidence, and relief, that this is far from the top of my ‘take away’ over the course of my experience as a writer at this year’s NAMT Festival;  which – like this blog –  was also my first.  Ever.   And, similarly, I was only familiar with NAMT from the outside looking in and based on the experiences of others.  I knew the basics, but what I didn’t know could fill books (blogs?) – however, in the interest of being short and (hopefully) sweet, there are two “big thoughts” I’ve walked away with as a NAMT first-timer:

1   The 45 minute cut is NOT a throwaway.  My cynical assumption was that I would do a lot of work to create a disposable, condensed version of the show.  And while it’s true that our 44 page draft of an abridged/re-organized Act 1 is not going to be replacing the full libretto; I was astounded by what I learned from the process.  By forcing myself to scrutinize, in a very real way, how each moment connected to the next, and what occurred if a moment was removed, I discovered things about the story and characters that were brand new (or, if not, things of which I had  only been aware on a ‘subconscious plane’).  Beyond that, the cut also forced me to be  less “precious” about the scenes – knowing in the back of my mind that I was “only doing this for the 45 minute version” allowed me to make edits in which I otherwise might not have recognized the value or had the courage to make; edits that – in some cases – may remain and result in a more streamlined version of the full libretto.  But aside from being simply informative, it was actually just fun to get back into the writing of the musical; to “get to know it again” – like an old friend who’d been all business lately, and then we rediscovered the good old days!     

2   Theater is huge!  It’s easy to get wrapped up in the New York City theater scene – but it’s also just a small part of the theater world/community.  This certainly isn’t a revelation to anyone by
any means, I know.  A Chicago transplant myself, I’ve always been aware that theater is happening from black boxes tucked away in the backrooms of hardware stores to the main stage of Steppenwolf and everyplace (and space) between.  But a cerebral understanding is no match for seeing it face to face (to face to face to face!).   Meeting the numerous individuals from theaters all across the country was not only a lot of fun – but incredibly inspiring.  It was a reminder that I first became compelled by (i.e. ‘obsessed with’) theater while watching a production of The Wiz at the Marriott Lincolnshire Theater in Illinois.  These are the experiences and places that keep theater relevant, vibrant and immortal – like missionaries of a faith, spreading the “good word” far and wide.  Because the pulse of the living theater relies on so much more than a handful of commercial productions in any one city, state or country; and I can’t imagine anyplace where that truth is more evident, and more celebrated, than NAMT. 

Admittedly, I am only a few days removed from the festival and therefore still “within the experience”  (seeing as how a large part of NAMT is the result of the presentation).  However, the new discoveries and re-discoveries made as a result are already well worth the effort.  And whether that’s just the tip of the iceberg or the whole thing, I can still say, with total certainly, that this was my best first NAMT.  Ever.

Read More

Blog

NAMT News

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: Making the most of rehearsals

A guest blog entry from Itamar Moses, one of the writers of Nobody Loves You, about the secret blessings of only have 25 hours to put together your show for the Festival. 

There’s a possibly apocryphal story that I’m too lazy to verify right now about a Russian director who was asked how long he wanted to rehearse a production of Chekhov. He said, “Two years.” When he was told that that was impossible he said, “In that case, two days.”

Actors will often tell you that their best performance in rehearsal is at the first read-through and that they spend the remainder of the rehearsal process gradually working their way back there, hopefully arriving by opening night.

All this came to mind when I sat down to write a blog post on the subject of presenting a musical with only a few days to rehearse, which is what you have to do when your lucky enough to have your musical in NAMT. Because having only twenty-some-odd hours of rehearsal is, in a way, not as big a burden as one might imagine. There’s a spontaneity, an instinctive tendency towards surprising and daring choices, to which performers often have access early in a process that actually becomes more difficult (for a while) as those initial impulses are gradually complicated by the questions and alternatives that inevitably arise when you start to live with material for weeks or months instead of days. And while all of that exploration leads (ideally) to deeper and more nuanced performances on the other side, there’s a long slog through the desert of murky confusion in between in the midst of which it’s probably best not to make an audience sit through what you’ve got. That’s why the (possibly fictional) Russian director’s second choice after having all the time in the world was to have almost no time at all.

All of which is to say that there’s something clarifying, simplifying, even useful, about having just enough time to learn the songs, run the scenes, and make a few very basic decisions about how best to tell a story, before you put it in front of an audience. You may not have enough time to plumb your piece to its deepest depths but you also don’t have enough time to get in your way. Put another way: unless the middle of your process is going to be long enough, you might be better off having a process with only a beginning and an end.

In the case of our show Nobody Loves You in particular we’re in a slightly different situation in that five of the eight members of our cast have played these roles before, in the musical’s world premiere at The Old Globe in San Diego. But even in a case like this the principle applies. Our three new cast members are having to dive right in with nothing but the few hours of rehearsal we’ve got and, in turn, our returning cast members have only these few hours of rehearsal to incorporate and respond to the new energy this adds to the piece.

So as you watch all the great musicals at NAMT this year and you want to think to yourself, “This acting and singing is amazing! I can’t believe they had only a few days to rehearse!” instead think to yourself, “This acting and singing is amazing! They’re so lucky they didn’t have more time to rehearse!”

It’s like that Malcolm Gladwell book BLINK. Which I didn’t read but which when I think about it for a second think I have a pretty good what it says.

Read More

Blog

NAMT News

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: Day(s) away...

A guest entry from Valerie Vigoda, Lyricist of Sleeping Beauty Wakes, about final preparations for the Festival.  
 
Okay, technically it’s one day away – but that’s because the whole process of NAMT is such a whirlwind; time seems to go faster than usual, and it feels like we have just started rehearsal.
We’ve got one more two-hour runthrough-plus-notes session today, with the full cast + Brad Haak on piano + our wonderful Gene Lewin on drums  – and then that’s it! Performance Thursday morning (we kick off the festival at 10:30 AM)…and after yesterday’s terrific rehearsal, I feel really good about the whole thing. I can’t wait!

Gene, Brad, Nicholas, Olli, Mary Jo
and Katrina at sound check,
photo by Vigoda for NAMT

These actors, some of whom came in at the very, very last minute (for instance, Christy Altomare, who is starring as “Rose”, came in to save our butts two days AFTER rehearsals had begun!) – they are ALL AMAZING and doing something truly heroic, which is learning these roles in 25 hours of rehearsal – actually even less, in most cases -and then portraying them as if they’d been in production for months. 
 
Yesterday felt like a turning point – where the nervousness seemed to vanish and the whole cast started relishing and enjoying what they were doing, really sinking in to their parts…and the energy in the room truly started to pop. Brad the music director smiled more and more, and so did Marcy the stage manager. Always a good sign.

There are some pretty tricky close harmonies for our four patients – and I’ve never seen singers learn their parts so fast and so accurately. There’s a wall of energized, perfectly in tune,
GORGEOUS sound coming at us from Nick Cohn as “Murray” the snorer, Olli Haaskivi as “Leon” the insomniac, Mary Jo Mecca as “Hadara” the restless legs sufferer, and Katrina Rose Dideriksen as “Cheryl” the night terrors patient…and Brendan and I are ECSTATIC listening to them.
 

Nicholas, Olli, Bryce, Christy, Peter, Tonya, Mary Jo and
Katrina at sound check, photo by Vigoda for NAMT

Tonya Pinkins as the “Doctor/Bad Fairy” is tearing up the place with her sizzling, beguiling, volcanic wickedness…Peter Friedman is absolutely breaking all our hearts as Rose’s father the “King”…Christy Altomare is finding unbelievable edge and depth in our non-princessy princess…and Bryce Ryness, our only returning cast member, continues to outdo himself with his brilliant characterization of our narcoleptic/cataplectic clinic orderly, the unlikeliest of princes.

Our new opening number IS WORKING!!! This is the first time we’re seeing what we have recently wrought – and I think we have finally cracked it. We made a few trims to songs later in the first act to make sure we don’t go over our 45 minutes…and I feel like we’re in really good shape. 

Read More

Blog

NAMT News

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: On The Road To NAMT Fest-- 3 Writers talk about the NAMT experience

“On The Road To NAMT” will be a special sub-series of the Festival Countdown featuring blogs from Tom Mizer (Book & Lyrics of TRIANGLE) that will also be featured as part of his blog The Broadway Blog.  This is Tom’s second entry in the series. 
 

William Ryall, Robin de Jesus, Sarah Stiles, Damon Daunno, Nancy Opel & Nicolette Hart rehearsing “Bleeding Love”. Photo by Jason Schafer.

Writing musicals can be a lonely business. Most of the time it’s just you and a collaborator in a room together. So when I was presented with the chance to talk with a few of my fellow writers presenting shows at NAMT this year, I jumped at the chance. If nothing else, it would be like group therapy. But rhymed.
Just over a week ago, I sat down with two amazing writers: Gaby Alter, composer and co-lyricist of the recent Old Globe hit Nobody Loves You; and Harris Doran, lyricist for the post-apocalyptic fairy taleBleeding Love. With presentation preparations hitting high gear, we took a brief moment to breathe, talk about our inspirations and discuss the best part of writing versus acting in a musical (hint: booze).

Gaby Alter. Photo by Stephen Mallon.

When did you get the bug to write music theater because…how old are you?
GABY: Old.
(laughter)
HARRIS: I’m younger.
GABY: Usually people are younger than me.
HARRIS: You look younger.
GABY: Well, thank you.
And I’m the oldest one in the room so shut up.
(laughter)
HARRIS: But you look younger than me.
That’s staying in the final interview.
(laughter)
My point is that when I look back and think about when I was in high school and college, music theater was not popular. There’s a renaissance right now…
HARRIS: Is there? Because of Glee?
When I talk to an 18 year-old or a 22 year-old, within a certain segment, they think music theater is cool.
HARRIS: True. There are musical movies now and Glee and something else…
And Smash. There are certainly now people wanting to get into the field. An excitement. And that wasn’t so much the case when I was that age. So how did you start?
GABY: It was sort of an accidental thing, a convergence of stuff that I did. It was after high school and I had a friend who wrote plays. He was like, “Want to write a musical?” It was over the summer. Neither of us were musical fans. It’s not like I hated musicals, I just knew very little about them except what I knew as kid. I knew the Rogers and Hammerstein stuff. He said, “Do you want to write a rock musical?” And I said, “Yeah, sure.” But I thought it was a ridiculous idea.
(laughter)
GABY: I also didn’t think we were going to do it. Especially when you’re 17 or 18, you say so but…actually he had a whole plan and he was very organized. He came over the next day and had some lyrics.
HARRIS: Oh wow.
GABY: So we ended up doing it over that summer. And it was the high of doing it. “Let’s get our friends who were actors in high school and involve everybody.” And you invite your family and you feel really cool because you’re all of a sudden on stage. I hadn’t had that experience except in a band. But it was easier for me to write stuff in that format. I was writing with him. “You do this and I’ll do that.” There are clear guidelines. Like fun homework. I really responded to collaborating and working as a group… Later I came to appreciate musicals and how difficult writing the really good ones is.
(laughter)

We can all second that.
HARRIS: I had no idea.
(laughter)
GABY: What about you guys?

Harris Doran. Photo by Chris Pereira.

HARRIS: I’m an actor. I’ve done musicals over the course of my career. But mostly I’ve done plays and more recently films. I’ve always written, even as a little kid, I wrote poetry. It was recommended to me that I go to BMI (Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop) and I was like, “I don’t know.” I ended up having the interview for BMI and still hadn’t written anything so I spent the night before writing some stuff…
(laughter)
HARRIS: I went in there with my lyrics and I acted them out for them and I got accepted. I thought, “OK, I guess I’ll do that.” I didn’t take it seriously. Got some good feedback but still couldn’t care less and then I was assigned to Arthur, who is still my writing partner, and we were paired up to write an assignment on It’s a Wonderful Life. We wrote this rock song. I went through and thought, “This movie is so boring.”
(laughter)
HARRIS: But there was this one tertiary character who’s got this idea, “You’ve got to have plastic.” And he comes back all rich at the end so we wrote this song called “Plastic is Fantastic” which was killer and I thought, “Maybe I can do this.” And I kept going.
You saw you could come at musicals from a different angle.
HARRIS: Exactly.
Same thing for you, Gaby, coming at it from a rock/pop angle.
HARRIS: Over time, it has given me something else to put my energy into. If I’m not acting, I’m writing. And I usually forget that I do the other while I’m doing the one. I say I’m an actor and I feel like I’m a liar. Then I’m writing and I feel like a liar because I’m an actor.
(laughter)
Didn’t you find that, because I was at a similar fork in the road, that writing is something I can do wherever, whenever I want. No one has to hire me as a writer. And I loved that I could go home and be creative.
HARRIS: Sure.
I mean, I could go home and do my monologues but the roommates don’t really want to hear you doing that Brighton Beach Memoirs monologue again.
(laughter)
HARRIS: (in perfect Simon accent) “Two up, bases are loaded…”
(laughter)

Harris Doran in “Brighton Beach Memoirs”. Image via the Pioneer Theatre Company.

I played a lot of young Jewish boys. Look at me. How that happened I have no idea. But in the Midwest…
HARRIS: …this is as close as it gets.
Gaby, you spoke of R&H. Is there some show of theirs that you are able to look at now, with experience, and you do see it as a goal?
GABY: I went to Tisch; the graduate musical theater program there is really good. It got me thinking about the classic musicals and why are they classic. And then I saw South Pacific at Lincoln Center and I remember thinking I was very skeptical about it. I know their stuff is good but…it seems a little bit schmaltzy and dated. But it wasn’t those things. It was a romantic musical but it wasn’t cheesy. It looks at racism and it looks at death. And they were great songwriters… I wouldn’t write like them now but you can see the things that were at stake.
HARRIS: Did you see that Carousel revival? Lincoln Center years ago?
GABY: It was good?

Lincoln Center revival of “Carousel”. Photo by Joan Marcus.

HARRIS: Oh yeah! There might be a video at Lincoln Center library. If you liked that South Pacific revival, thatCarousel was unbelievable.
What blew me away was…you think of all those songs that you’ve heard, but the way they are woven through scenes is so modern. They don’t stop to just sing one of those pretty songs; they flow through the scenes. I hadn’t realized…
HARRIS: And those shows were written very quickly. Now we spend years and years writing and developing with everyone’s opinions. We actually wrote this musical [Bleeding Love] in less than a year. We talked a lot about The King and I, which I guess they had the entire structure worked out but started rehearsals without a second act and they wrote the second act while they were rehearsing. If you take the time to focus on the structure before you write a word then you save yourself a lot of rewrites later…
That sounds like heaven.
(laughter)
HARRIS: If you write a show without everything figured out ahead of time, you write a song and you’re like, “Wait, that song is 5 degrees off.” It’s not like it’s the wrong song. It’s almost…but you’re f*cked…oh…
You can say f*cked, it’s fine.
(laughter)
HARRIS: If that little wrong is the core of the song, then you’re screwed.
GABY: It’s true. Figuring out structure is smart… But sometimes it’s a matter of knowing what it is. The last few musicals I’ve worked on we didn’t know. It’s sort of developing its own tone and world as you write. The one I’m working on now with Itamar, he’s very good at structure, but structure also changes or in this case changed as we did it.
Harris, would you ever want to act in your own stuff?
HARRIS: (beat) I don’t really want to do musicals.
(laughter)
And why is that?
HARRIS: You can’t drink.
(laughter)
HARRIS: It’s a lot of worrying about your voice. It’s a lot of work.
They work hard.
HARRIS: They work hard.
(laughter)
HARRIS: I don’t love doing musicals. I love the idea of musicals. I love watching them.
Which music theater performers do you look at — do you think have the acting chops and the musical talent to pull it off?
HARRIS: Vicki Clark. I thought that Alice Ripley was amazing in Next to Normal. Tanya Pinkins inCaroline or Change… I like a performer that is risky. I like the cast that we’ve got [for Bleeding Love]. They’re a bunch of quirky, interesting performers. It took us a while to find these people because we were like, “No, much quirkier, much weirder.”
(laughter)
HARRIS: We wanted people who would jump at it and bring it to life… You guys have had workshops and productions?

Adam Kantor and Old Globe Cast of “Nobody Loves You”. Photo by Henry DiRocco.

GABY: We had a production in May in San Diego.
HARRIS: And you applied to NAMT?
GABY: We applied because we didn’t know what was going to happen after the production. These days, unless you have a producer signed on, as I’m sure you know, it’s up to you to find the next thing. Depending on how it works out, we wanted other people to see it and we didn’t know if they’d come out to the West Coast. We found out we got in [to NAMT] during the production and we thought, “Well, good!” How about you, guys?
Our [journey] is harder to describe. Triangle is at an earlier stage because we haven’t had a production yet. Basically, the show existed for a while [with drafts in 2005 and 2006] then it went on a shelf because of a bookwriter issue. [After a number of years], the show became ours to work on again and we did a reading of it at Northwestern last year, testing a completely new half of the story. The modern half of the story we totally rewrote. We thought, “this can work,” so we started applying for stuff to do this year. We applied to NAMT and got into TheatreWorks at the same time. We did a two-week workshop at TheatreWorks [in August]; you do a reading, rewrite for a few days, do a reading, rewrite and reading. It’s sort of a natural progression to be here now…
HARRIS: We’ve never even had a reading of our musical, other than me and the bookwriter. We were pretty good, though.
(laughter)
GABY: Awesome.
That first presentation is going to be so exciting.
HARRIS: Monday [the first rehearsal] is going to be exciting when we have actors.
You’ve never had actors read it?
HARRIS: No one. The only actor that’s ever read it is me. It’s going to be so exciting to have an amazing cast do the first reading.
What’s your favorite part of the process when you’re writing, from the moment the idea comes up to presenting to an audience?
HARRIS: When it’s being performed.
You like that? I find it maddening.
(laughter)
HARRIS: Really, why? Because you feel like it’s not being interpreted how you intended?
No. No. Because I want to be involved — maybe because I was an actor at one point – and that’s the part I have to sit back and twiddle my thumbs. I get so nervous.
HARRIS: I’m really excited about what an actor can bring.
Oh, I totally get that.
HARRIS: I get a feeling of pride, not in my work, but in them. Look at them shine. I really like that.
Gaby, what’s your favorite step?
GABY: God, I don’t know. The cocaine.
(laughter)
The party after.
HARRIS: The money.
(sustained laughter)
GABY: No. It sort of depends. I had done a production with Band Geeks but somehow with Nobody Loves You it felt more…no they were both momentous. Make or break. I was terrified. I was sh*tting myself. We’ve worked on this for five years… you’ve crawled over broken glass to get there and actually this might go wrong… I don’t think that part is fun. You know, it might be when you are in rehearsal and everyone’s all in to it and you stage a number for the first time and you’re like, “Oh my god, that’s so much better than I would have imagined.” And the actors are like, “Yeah, that’s awesome!” And there’s no audience there to say, “What is this sh*t?”
(laughter)
We’ll find out how those presentations go, harrowing or triumphant, this Thursday and Friday in New York City. 

Read More

Blog

NAMT News

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: Giving THE CIRCUS IN WINTER a voice

A guest blog entry from Ben Clark, composer/lyricist for The Circus in Winter, about getting ready for the Festival. 
 
In this week of rehearsals, we have seen our production grow up right before our eyes. The Circus in Winter has had nine staged readings in various forms over its three years in existence and one fully staged production, all at Ball State University, where the concept to bring the novel to life on stage was born. 

But this is New York City, and we have the privilege of casting actors for the first time in our show’s young life. Not only age-appropriate, but also Equity members with Broadway credentials. You just can’t argue with a deal like that. 

The Circus in Winter in rehearsal,
photo by Ben Clark for NAMT

For myself personally, it is a new territory in that I have always played the guitar and led most rehearsals for the previous readings and production. Thanks to Music Director Matthew Webb and guitarist Eli Zoller, I won’t be required for those roles at NAMT. It was a fearful, uncomfortable beginning in my head as I approached our rehearsal space on West 18th Street, but I was quickly reassured by Matt’s careful interpretation of my pieces. He, as well as the rest of our production team and the NAMT festival coordinators, all have a presence in rehearsal that suggests a nurturing of new work. They all want your material to be the best it can be, and that pulls practicality and honesty out of these professionals. 

Each added experience tops the rest. Victoria Bussert joined
our team as director after three rehearsals, and used practical blocking to turn a bare stage into something that resembled the midwest of the late 1800’s. And when it was my turn to step away from the guitar, it went more smoothly than I could have imagined. Eli took in the unique style and process of captaining the show on acoustic, and my mind at this point is very much at ease thanks to his commitment.

And the cast. Wow. They take in notes and work so quickly, none of the process with any of them is close to being called a challenge. They have adopted the energy and groove essential to establishing what this show is about, its appeal to the masses, which in my opinion, is good, fun, driving, powerful music. I can indicate only so much through notes written in a score; it takes our whole team to specify exactly how it’s done. And no matter how big the role, whether its two-time Tony winner Sutton Foster making moments come to brilliant life, or her understudy Shannon O’Boyle, who stepped in on her fair share of rehearsals without thinking twice, the quality of work being done is nothing short of tremendous. 

Corey Mach and Steel Burkhardt,
photo by Ben Clark for NAMT

We have men, too. The unquestionable presence of Steel Burkhardt in our leading role paired with Cory Mach and his powerful tenor strength brings vocal range that is always available. Good solid walls of sound come out of this ensemble, making this larger-than-life musical explode into the audience. 

Life beyond music rehearsals is looking good. There’s nothing more satisfying to a writer than feeling like you could open your material to an audience early if you wanted, due to the commitment of your production team. Whether the show has a long life, or this is the beginning of a number of other experiences, I will forever keep with me the things I was a part of here at NAMT. For a musical composer, there is simply no other festival that accommodates new work like these artists do. 

Read More

Blog

NAMT News

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: First Rehearsal...

A special entry from Harris Doran, lyricist of Bleeding Love, about their first (ever) rehearsal for their Festival show.  

After months of watching hundreds upon hundreds of youtube videos, our six person Broadway dream cast —Damon Daunno, Robin de Jesus, Nicolette Hart, Nancy Opel, William Ryall, Sarah Stiles— stepped out of youtube, walked through the door, and were casually chatting and snacking on the honey wheat pretzels I had bought for them. 

Unreal.

We didn’t know what to expect, because BLEEDING LOVE has the great fortune of being chosen for NAMT after never even having a table read, so the first time the cast was reading the script was the first time we had ever heard the script read out loud other than the one day we spent recording songs for our demo—or that time Jason and I read though the script in a rehearsal studio. We were decent.

I’m sweating, couldn’t sleep the night before, nervously eating the organic black licorice bits I had also bought for the actors. We had worked very hard to get a cast that was as bold and unique as the piece. Each of them a shining star all in one room, and I had lost my sunglasses earlier in the day, so I happily accepted the glare. Back to the sweating… the script is cracked open and John Michael Crotty, our fantastic stage manager (highly recommend), is reading the stage directions. So casual. Having no idea how he’s the first one to read our stage directions, which of course would have no significance to anyone else in the world but us. And our mothers. And we’re off.

One by one watching these actors feel as if they had walked off of the page and were suddenly sitting in chairs around the table.
Arthur Bacon, our composer, and Jason Schafer, our bookwriter, laughing, crying, and sharing shocked faces and thumbs up as each of the actors opened their mouths and gave life to the characters for the first time. Our piece has a tricky tone because it’s both dark and light at the same time. Like a Tim Burton movie. It has to be both very real and very big at the same time, very funny and yet very emotional, and although I knew the actors we had gotten were capable of doing it, I didn’t expect them to nail the tone in that first read thru. Nailed it, they did. Jumping through the script like an obstacle course, fearless, funny, moving. Needless to say, we got to the end, and if I had the skills, I would have done a one-legged triple axel back flip for each of them.

We had met with Stephen Brackett, our smart, smart, smart and warm director a few times beforehand. It was very important to us that we found someone who was a real actor’s director and Stephen is just that. But still, as with everything, you never know. When the day was done, and he had commanded the room with such egoless ease, we stayed after and he gave us some notes. The exact right notes. Jason Wetzel, our musical director, who we’d never worked with, but heard was wonderful (and the rumors were true) played the score effortlessly and taught the music with confidence and efficiency.
Boom.

It’s a funny thing, expectations. And balancing them. You never know on the first day what you’re going to get when you’ve never worked with people before. But what I do know is there are extraordinary, talented people out there, who shine if you just let them. It is a miracle to us that such incredible people have all come together in order to make BLEEDING LOVE happen. We feel tremendously lucky.

And that was just day one.

Read More

Blog

NAMT News

FROM THE ROAD: A Coast to Coast Summer

One of my favorite parts of my job is getting the chance to visit our members around the country.  There is no better way to take the pulse of the industry and help discover new ways for us to serve our members than to meet them on their home turf, see their shows and meet their staffs.  Summer is the busiest travel time for the NAMT staff because it is when the number of shows skyrocket in our member theatres.  My summer was filled with 10 productions (7 of them premieres),  2 workshops and 6 readings from New York to California, from Vermont to Tennessee.  We a few Festival shows and National Fund for New Musicals (NFNM) grant recipients along the way.

Here is the quick rundown (NAMT member theatres and Festival shows are bolded blue):

MAY

Los Angeles, CA- World premiere of Los Otros at Center Theatre Group 
San Diego, CA- World premiere of Nobody Loves You (NAMT Fest ’12, past NFNM Project Development Grant) and Scottsboro Boys at The Old Globe, world premiere of Hands on a Hardbody at La Jolla Playhouse, and the chance to sit in on a rehearsal for Harmony, Kansas (NFNM Production Grant, past Writers Residency Grant) at Diversionary Theatre.
New York, NY- World premiere of February House (past NFNM Project Development Grant) at The Public Theater, reading of Suprema (NFNM Writers Residency Grant) at Ars Nova and Speargrove Presents (NFNM Writers Residency Grant) at New York Theatre Barn

JUNE
Connecticut- Readings of When We Met and String at The O’Neill Theatre Center, production of Mame at Goodspeed Musicals

JULY
New York, NY- Production of Triassic Parq (by Festival alumnus Marshall Pailet) produced by Amas Musical Theatre and New Musical Development Foundation at SoHo Rep  
East Haddam, CT- Final dress of Carousel at Goodspeed Musicals
Poughkeepsie, NY- Workshop of Murder Ballad (by Fest alumna Julia Jordan) at Vassar Powerhouse

AUGUST
Rhinebeck, NY- Reception for Beatsville (NAMT Fest ’08) at Rhinebeck Writers Retreat
Palo Alto, CA- TheatreWorks Festival of New Works with readings of Being Earnest and Triangle (NAMT Fest ’12) and a developmental production of The Trouble With Doug (NAMT Fest ’10)

SEPTEMBER

New York, NY- Reading of notes to MariAnne (NAMT Fest ’11) at New York Theatre Workshop
Weston, VT- World premiere of Pregnancy Pact (NAMT Fest ’11) at Weston Playhouse Theatre Co.  
Crossville, TN- Regional premiere of Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge (NAMT Fest ’11) at Cumberland County Playhouse
New York, NY- Broadway Bound concert at Merkin Hall featuring songs from Watt?!? and The Dogs of Pripyat, both from the 2011 Festival 

And I am pretty sure I am missing a few.

I got a lot more out of these trips than a wallet full of receipts and slight confusion as to my time zone.  I was fortified in my belief that our members and alumni are creating, producing and exploring the best musical theatre in the country.  They are continually engaging, challenging and building audiences through their great work.  They are not resting on their laurels but pushing forward.

It is very hard to find a show today that does not have the NAMT stamp somewhere on it…and that makes me very proud to be just a small part of any show that adds to the crazy tapestry of musicals across the country.  The great work continues all over the country, and I’m the lucky one who gets to take in at least a fraction of it.

Branden Huldeen
New Works Director

Read More

Blog

NAMT News

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: Recording the demo

A guest entry from Julianne Wick Davis, composer of Southern Comfort. 

Years ago, a friend showed me a YouTube video of a local cable talent show from the early 80’s.  One of the acts was a woman with a thick cockney accent who had a two-sided conversation with herself about demos. “What’s a demo, you say?”  And then answering herself, “Well, Libby, it’s a recordin’ of me singin’ voice.”  I appreciate this woman’s ability to boil it down to the essence, but geez, if only demos were that simple!  The demo is the calling card for your show, and since the score of your show doesn’t come to life unless someone plays it and sings it, demos are obviously the most important piece of representation musicals have.

Recently my collaborator, Dan Collins and I thought it was best to expand upon an earlier version of our demo for SOUTHERN COMFORT as part of our preparation for the NAMT Festival of New Musicals.  We recorded 8 songs several years ago, but since then the show had grown and changed and some of the recordings weren’t even relevant anymore. Our goal was to record as many songs from the show as possible, keeping several of the recordings from the earlier demo.  This kind of goal involves a lot of people and the merging of many schedules, but it is worth every hurdle to get it right. 

Once the list of songs was made, the negotiating of the schedules began.  Since our show uses all acoustic instruments, we decided it was best to record everyone live together as opposed to laying down different tracks.  I had a window of about 7 hours one day where I could gather David Lutken, Joel Waggoner, Lizzie Hagstedt, and Jeffrey D. Smith.  Because I had such an amazing team of musicians, we ended up recording the instrumental tracks for 11 songs in under 5 hours.  Having everyone play together doesn’t leave you a lot of room for fixing any errors.  If one person screws up, you have to start over.  The guitar player’s best take might be the bass player’s worst take, but we took our chances—it was too important to us to have that feeling of a live performance on the demo. 

Which brings up the question:  “To orchestrate or not orchestrate?”  Dan and I decided a long time ago when we did the first round of demo recordings for SOUTHERN COMFORT that the orchestration was important in understanding the story and tone of the show.  Early in our writing careers I remember hearing people say that it’s not important to have orchestration on your demos, after all, they’re demos.  Our experience has shown us otherwise.  Orchestration on your demo helps the producer/artistic director/new works director understand the aesthetic quality of your musical. 

Orchestration was not a question for us; however, one element of our recording that lead to a lot of discussion was whether or not to include any dialogue in songs that contained scenes.  Does it make no sense otherwise?  Will it sound like a bad radio play?  Is it the best idea for this particular show? We decided that even though we had an amazing production at Cap21 in 2011, we could not call it our definitive production because we have made changes since then and probably will continue to make changes as we seek development.  We didn’t want to be left with songs on a demo that suffer from “older-draftitis,” so we decided to leave out the dialogue.

Oh, I should mention that we did not go into a fancy studio.  We had a tiny budget.  We asked friends who had played/sung the score before, many from our Cap21 cast last year.  Instrumentals were done in a classroom at the NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.  Vocals were done in the small recording studio in the department, although at one point they were going to be done in my living room in Inwood. 

What this demo experience has taught me is that all you really need is a decent room, a quality microphone, and people who are well-rehearsed.  Now, THAT is boiling it down to the essence, Libby…

Read More

Blog

NAMT News

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: Initial Casting and Songwriters Showcase announced!

We are so happy with all of the amazing actors, directors and music directors who have signed on to join the Festival this year!  The Festival employs over 100 artists every year and it takes considerable manhours to find the right actors, directors and music directors for each piece.
We have some of our regulars back (Chris Hoch, Kenita Miller, Marie-France Arcilla), we reunite faces we have not seen at the Festival in a few years (Robin de Jesus, Sarah Stiles, Kate Rockwell) and we welcome new faces to our Festival (Annette O’Toole, Bryce Ryness, Demond Green).  I am always humbled by all of the talented artists who decide to come work with us for two weeks to help give these eight new musicals the best reading possible!  You can read about our initial casting announcement on playbill.com.
Additionally, we announced last week our line-up for the Songwriters Showcase and our hosts, Nancy Opel and Joe DiPietro.  Joe and Nancy have known each other for years and I know that they will be great hosts for the audience and writers, alike.  This year, the Showcase is filled with shows that have been developed by NAMT member theatres.  Many of the shows have been developed by multiple NAMT members which shows the strength of our membership to help push shows forward, together.  It will be a wonderful display of the great work being done around the country to further the field.  You can read the full line-up and history of this year’s showcase shows at Broadwayworld.com.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg.  We still have about 2 dozen roles to cast and announce, plus the line-up of singers for the Showcase.   The Festival promises to be another stellar two days of musical theatre heaven, and it would not be possible without all of our extraordinary artists!
 

Read More

Blog

NAMT News

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: On The Road To NAMT Fest--Musical Theatre Bytes

“On The Road To NAMT” will be a special sub-series of the Festival Countdown featuring blogs from Tom Mizer (Book & Lyrics of TRIANGLE) that will also be featured as part of his blog The Broadway Blog.  
If anyone asked me what to look for in a great composing partner, I’d tell them to seek out many of the qualities of my own long-time collaborator Curtis Moore. Find someone who is talented (clearly), fun to be around (long hours together in small rooms), committed (to the theater, not a mental institution) – and, most importantly, someone who has a degree in electrical engineering. Seriously, skip Juilliard and start trolling MIT.

Kooman & Dimond prep 2011 NAMT Festival’s “Dani Girl”. Image via namt.org.

As we dive into preparations for our NAMT Festival presentation, I have realized that this is a highly technical operation. Just gathering our team for a prep meeting is like tasking a bunch of liberal arts students with landing the Rover on Mars. I’m in Brooklyn; Curtis is music directing a show in Kansas City; our music director was in Pittsfield, MA; our festival consultants (NAMT members assigned to shepherd us through the process) are based in Chicago and Princeton; and our fearless director was in transit somewhere in the American Southwest (though, at times, even she wasn’t sure exactly where).
We have to use scheduling programs to find overlapping minutes across time zones and rehearsals. We must turn to web chat, skype and conference call technology to simulate round table discussions.
To cast the show, we don’t need a casting director; we need an I.T. expert. Headshots are emailed. Song files are downloaded. YouTube videos are shared. (A free bit of advice to any actors reading this; type your name into YouTube and clean house. This is how you “audition” now. If there is a seemingly drunk karaoke version of “Love is a Battlefield” anywhere near the top of your page, remove it…unless you are interested in being seen for Rock of Ages.) In fact, we will likely have not met nor even seen in person some of our actors until the first day of rehearsal.
Even the act of writing is a tech game. The NAMT presentations are 45-minute cuttings so we are currently trying out different versions of a script that will give a flavor of the show and still feel like a coherent event. This requires a lot of trial and error. We use online drop boxes and “versioning” software to keep track of and give everyone on the team access to different drafts. (Do I sound like I know what I mean in the last sentence? I don’t. Ask Curtis.) We are also prepping some new song demos which Curtis will capture and mix remotely on a laptop recording studio far from a sound proof booth and an orchestra.
And I haven’t even touched on the need for publicity through social networking, reminding the industry to come, and so much more. It’s a brave new world. To be in music theatre today, the genius bar you need to reach is less Sondheim and more Apple Store.

Read More

Blog

NAMT News

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: Making the Cut

A guest entry from Justin Levine, writer of BONFIRE NIGHT

“Kill your darlings.” – William Faulkner
Cutting down a script is like tending a garden. You plant your seeds and in just days you have a plethora of sprouts all trying to squeeze in and get their sunlight. It’s exciting, it’s alive, it’s bursting with seemingly unlimited potential. The truth is, if you let every seedling that sprouts grow into a full plant, you will end up with a garden bed full of weak, undernourished and crowded plants. When the plants first sprout, you are supposed to pull all but one seedling per plant. That way, the remaining seedlings will have more space, get more nutrients and grow to their fullest potential. In the same way, if you cram your play with ideas, you run the risk of having your piece filled with weaker, unfinished story lines and arcs. Sometimes, it seems that none of your ideas can be sacrificed. It’s daunting. 

For the NAMT festival, the writers are charged with creating a 45-minute cut of their show,either a section of the piece or a 45-minute “trailer” version. Both have their challenges. If you show a section, while you lose the ability to complete character arcs and storylines, you have the opportunity to leave the audience wanting more. With a 45-minute version of the show, you have to cut down your show by at least 50% and still manage to convey the most essential ideas, without sacrificing the pace and style. I chose to do a section of the show. It wasn’t an easy decision, as there are clear pros and cons to both options. My first instinct was to cut most of the book and make a concert version of Bonfire Night. It seemed the simplest and most entertaining option. The problem, however, was that I didn’t write an opera, and much of the storytelling is in the book. My biggest fear was that without the ending of my show, my presentation would lack the payoff of the story’s closure. Ultimately, it became clear that Bonfire Night is best served by giving the first half of the show the room it needs to set the tone and pace, without sacrificing story.

I’ve learned that with both options, you are working on a “trailer” of your piece and whether you tell your whole story or part of it, the job is the same. In 45 minutes you have to give audiences a taste of what’s in store. It’s an opportunity not only to show people what you’ve already created, but also to demonstrate the potential for growth in your piece. What initially felt like a sacrifice caused me to focus on fewer ideas, giving room to those that are more essential to the storytelling.  

To read more about BONFIRE NIGHT and the other shows in this year’s Festival, go to www.namt.org/festival. 

Read More

Blog

NAMT News

It's Almost Conference Time!

It’s been a very busy and productive summer in the NAMT office. We’ve been all over the country visiting members, and attending conferences and festivals, yet somehow we’ve managed to get a lot of projects done here in the office, planning for the months ahead and working on ways to serve you better. But now it’s my favorite time of year. We’re starting to get a break from the NYC summer heat, and better yet, the Fall Conference and Festival of New Musicals are right around the corner!
I often say that NAMT’s best member benefit is its members, and the Fall Conference is when you all prove me right. This will be my 5th one (!), and every year I’m inspired by your insight, passion and warmth.
This year, we’re in a brand new venue with spectacular views of Times Square (above) and Central Park, and we’ll be taking a new dual-track approach to the rewards and challenges of producing new musicals from the perspective of both artistic and managerial leaders. I can’t wait to see what comes out of these smaller group discussions, and what happens when everyone comes together for full group sessions and, of course, cocktails!
To whet your appetite, check out video highlights of past conferences at https://namt.org/conference-video.aspx (member login required). We’ve recently updated this page with clips from 2011 and 2012, including last year’s popular Hal Prince keynote address. For details on this year’s conference and to register (for the Festival, too!) go to https://namt.org/conference. Rates will increase on September 17, so don’t wait too long!
I can’t wait to see you next month!

Read More

Blog

NAMT News

New Work In Progress: GIRLS VS BOYS

An interview with Henry Fonte, Chair of the University of Miami’s Department of Theatre Arts, about their upcoming production of Girls vs Boys, written by Nathan Allen, Chris Mathews, Jake Minton & Kevin O’Donnell, this November 1-11.

Girls vs Boys explores the complicated lives of modern high schoolers as they manage their way through the funny, violent and emotionally turbulent period of adolescence. The story focuses on Casey, a young man who distances himself from not only his fellow classmates but also his sister, Sam, a freshman at his high school. Casey and Sam share a dark past that pulls them together while still keeping them at arm’s length.
How did you find the show?
This season we decided to look for a new contemporary musical that could be developed by the University and The Adrienne Arsht Center. We were on our way to producing something else when the negotiations collapsed. Scott Shiller, our co-producer at The Arsht, who already had a very strong relationship with The House Theatre of Chicago, had seen the original workshop of Girls vs Boys by our good friends at Northwestern University’s American Musical Theatre Project, and suggested we pursue it. Girls vs Boys made sense on many creative levels and also has the potential to attract young, diverse, multi-cultural ticket buyers.
What drew you to the show and how does it fit with the goals of your program?
Girls vs Boysfocuses an unblinking eye on the pent up rage, sexuality, fear and humor that all young people experience. Its themes are universal and, still today, swept under the carpet as we adults try to fight these feelings through medicating kids into NOT feeling, or at least not displaying or “acting out” on those feelings. The most obvious fit is the fact that the cast is exclusively young. There are no adult characters. It also fits with our mission, which in part is to develop new, edgy and exciting work for the American Theatre. This creative collaboration with one of the premier performing arts centers in the southern United States, which also happens to be in our own backyard, offers students a paid, real-world working experience on a world-class stage and ensures that they will have a competitive edge upon graduation.
How will the show be developed while at U of Miami?
We will first do a two-week workshop with the full cast, our creative team and the writing team from The House Theatre. This workshop will concern itself with the story, and how the story is presently served by the book, songs and the current structure. Nothing will be off the table. After that, we will begin a four-week rehearsal towards the production. The show will be co-produced by us and The Arsht, where it will play, in its beautiful, state-of-the-art Carnival Studio Theater.
In addition to featuring students-as-professionals on stage, the production also provides students majoring in technical theatre and design to work side-by-side with the Arsht Center’s production team–helping to create professional sets, costumes and lighting design; assisting stage managers and other key production positions.
What is the thing you are most excited to see when the show gets in front of an audience?
Like all great art, Girls vs Boys has the potential to be highly polarizing. The subscription audiences at both The Arsht and UM’s Ring Theatre, plus our students and the single ticket buyers will form a wildly diverse audience demographic. We look forward to seeing how different age groups react and empathize with the action unfolding before them. While we hope to please as many of these constituencies as possible, we also hope the show will retain some of its raw energy, force and the dangerous electric current that runs through the material. Also, the rock score is pretty exciting.

Why should your fellow members swing by Miami to catch the show?
If we do our job, Girls vs Boyswill become, or be on its way to becoming, a very hot and exciting new property. We can’t have too many of those. It’s new theatre. It’s our job as theatre artists to support and encourage these new voices in as many stages of development as possible. And it’s Miami in November…What’s not to like?

For more information about Girls vs Boys, please click here.

Read More

Blog

Festival Shows in the News

NAMT News

Festival Show Update: GOLDEN BOY OF THE BLUE RIDGE

An interview with John Fionte, New Works Director at Cumberland County Playhouse, about their upcoming production of 2011 Festival show Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge, by Peter Mills and Cara Reichel, playing Aug. 23-Oct. 26.

A pitch-dark comedy with the kick of moonshine, Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge transplants J.M. Synge’s classic The Playboy of the Western World to 1930s Appalachia. Bluegrass music and backwoods mayhem abound in this coming-of-age story about a slapdash murder, a whirlwind romance and a most unlikely hero.

 What drew Cumberland County Playhouse to Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge?
Producing Director Jim Crabtree first became aware of Golden Boy in 2009 through the authors’ agent, and he asked me to pay particular attention to it when the show was presented in the 2011 Festival. We both felt that Golden Boy‘s rural Appalachian setting, combined with its bluegrass score, made the show something worth investigating.
Why is it a great show for your audience?
The Cumberland Plateau is a part of rural Appalachia. This region is fiercely proud of its rich musical heritage…and of the Scots-Irish roots of its culture. Peter Mills’ compelling score celebrates both the contemporary bluegrass musical idiom, along with that music’s deep Celtic roots. Additionally, our audience loves shows with onstage musicians, as is evidenced by the perennial popularity of Smoke on the Mountain, which is in its 19th consecutive year here at the Playhouse. Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge has all of that, and it’s fresh, new and exciting. I hope it appeals to Smokefans and beyond.
Are there any special approaches you are taking to the show?
Just as Pete and Cara wrote a play that’s an intricate blend of the traditional and the contemporary, I’ve tried to give equal weight to both of those things in terms of the production. The choreography, staging, design aesthetic… all those choices are firmly grounded in Synge’s Playboy of the Western World, but filtered through a contemporary eye. I’ve also been careful to always consider Golden Boy‘s Irish roots. While it’s not particularly present in Playboy, Synge was part of an Irish literary tradition that was steeped in a sense of enchantment, of magical realism. I’ve tried to bring a sense of that to Golden Boy.
What are you most excited about when Golden Boyfinally hits your stage?
I’m eagerly anticipating that first audience reaction. Golden Boy is so full of things that our rural Tennessee audiences love; but it’s also full of surprises, of fresh new sights and sounds. I think it will be an electric experience.
Why should people check out the Playhouse and Golden Boy?
Cumberland County Playhouse is truly a gem that’s nestled in a rural part of the country, so it remains undiscovered to some people. It’s always a joy to hear first-time patrons express their surprise and delight to find such professionalism and exceptional production values in a small town. I hope that audiences will experience the same sense of excitement and delight when they experience Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge for the first time. It’s really a remarkable musica,l and it deserves to be discovered by a much wider audience.

For more information, please visit www.ccplayhouse.com.  

Read More

Blog

NAMT News

Playing to Win

A guest post by Music Director, Orchestrator and Composer Eli Zoller. Eli was the Music Director for Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge at the 2011 Festival of New Musicals. He asked if he could respond to Adam’s recent post, which itself was a response to an article on Howard Sherman’s blog. We were more than happy to keep the conversation going!


I’d been struggling with my identity in the theatre for a while. For the multitude of professionals in this business, we’ve all had times where we’ve looked in the mirror and asked the daunting question, “how do I ‘fit’ in this industry?” My question wasn’t about my abilities on stage, confidence in my background, or my taste in current theatrical trends (though all weighed on my mind). I asked myself: “Am I in this as a dedicated professional, or as a dedicated fan?”  

I didn’t grow up a theatre fan; I grew up a sports fan. My heroes didn’t score music, they scored touchdowns. However, my love was music and theatre, and today I find myself working in the very field that combines those two wonderful entertainment mediums into the perfect story-telling mechanism known as the musical. However, upon arriving in New York professionally, I quickly became frustrated to find that unbridled and unmatchable creativity had been replaced with add-water-and-stir box office gimmickry; these were not championship teams.

As a sports fan, there are two kinds of teams that the majority of fellow fans root for: the powerhouses (teams with a history of dominance in their sport) and the underdogs (teams that, on paper, don’t match up to the others but still possess the intoxicating will to win…and every so often, they do!). Then there are the teams in the middle; the teams that lack some sort of spark or drive or full-bodied will to compete at the highest level. They think they can bare the same power and skill as the powerhouses, but don’t know how to properly execute. They think they’re better than the underdogs, but are too afraid of failure to go all-in against the toughest challenges. Instead, they play an over-calculated and timid game with underwhelming spirit, overburdened by outside opinion. With all of this focus on how not to fail, they don’t trust their fans to be enough of a motivation for them to just go out and play their hearts out. As a result, their fans abandon them, broken-hearted.

Cast off from the love of theatre audiences of all ages for the powerhouses and underdogs, these “middle teams” are the equivalent of commercial musical theatre today. So far as the entire industry is concerned, the conversation about how to improve has got to start focusing around our honesty between us and our fans; otherwise, we risk losing them for good; the clock is ticking. We as theatrical professionals on all fronts seem intimidated by our surroundings and outside competition (television, film, iTunes, even reality shows), and that’s exactly what turns our audiences away. We shouldn’t be focus-grouping to decide what the next hit Broadway show should be; we should simply be aware of our culture and choose how to affect that culture with our craft as opposed to the other way around. People don’t buy tickets to sporting events because they know the final score before the game starts; they want to see the action, feel the tension, experience the magic. We’re robbing our audiences of that opportunity every time we ask ourselves “what sells today?” “how can we sound more like…?” “has it succeeded yet?” Of course, it has been argued that the quality of the material is the constant culprit, but to what extent can we see a future for our industry if the best of our abilities are being spent on high-quality duplicates of previous art?

I often feared that we’d need to build from the ground up a new musical theatre for Broadway’s future, but it’s out there; it just needs greater support and the time to start is now. It’s certainly what our audiences expect of us as artists, and we owe it to them to be honest, eager, and unafraid to create an original musically theatrical experience. It’s time we admitted it: we’re underdogs! …and we should rejoice! Audiences love an underdog! But being an underdog means playing like one. We need producers who will stop predicting box offices and start believing in artists. We need writers who’ll start believing in their individualities instead of trying to sound like what’s popular. That, and only that, is where the beginnings of a new commercial musical theatre will start. Pundits like Howard Sherman see the proper ways to view our art form on Broadway for potential, not just product. NAMT offers new voices to audiences by giving proud musical theatre underdogs a stage that has the ability to reach across the country. We may lose a lot before we start winning; but I’d rather leave it all on the field than come away with an average and forgettable record. Those are the teams I root for: the underdogs, the fighters, the believers; they never lose the appreciation of their fans, and the legacy of both them and their game lives on forever! It’s a tough game, but I’m a die-hard fan and a die-hard professional, and I’m ready to play! 

Read More

3 Comments