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New Work in Progress: Indian Joe

This month, we chat with Donna Lynn Hilton from Goodspeed Musicals in Chester, CT about their upcoming premiere of the new musical Indian Joe.
Inspired by true events, this brand-new musical tells the unlikely story of a homeless Native American and a Texas beauty queen who never should have been friends. He’s looking for a fight. She’s looking for a cause. As they stumble toward friendship, both ultimately overcome fear and prejudice to discover that there’s more to family than what you see. From the streets of Waco, Texas to the streets of New York City, it’s a uniquely American story with a progressive Americana beat. You’ll never forget Indian Joe.
How did Indian Joe and Elizabeth A. Davis find their way to Goodspeed?  
Elizabeth and Indian Joe were introduced to Goodspeed by Carolyn Rossi Copeland just as we were preparing to launch the inaugural Johnny Mercer Writers Colony. We had worked with Carolyn on the successful developmental production of Amazing Grace at our Norma Terris Theatre, so when she suggested that we might respond to Indian Joe, we bit. We invited Elizabeth to work on Indian Joe at the Mercer Colony in 2013.

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Festival Show Update: Ace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjER7dUdCSM

This month, we checked in with Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker about a new version of their 2005 Festival show Ace, which recently had a staged concert production at The Nevada Conservatory Theatre after a few years of revisions. We also chatted with Ace director David H. Bell (below writers’ interview).
Set in 1964, ACE follows the journey of twenty-one-year-old Danny Lucas returning home to discover the truth about his mother’s hidden past.  The unexpected appearance of a grandmother he never knew existed leads to an emotional battle over the legacy of Danny’s real father.  Uncovering a saga spanning three generations of Ace fighter pilots through two World Wars, this original musical explores the trials and triumphs of a family in search of true heroism.

Ace had quite the extraordinary trajectory right after the 2005 Festival with a handful of full productions starting in 2006 leading up to a production at The Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA.  But this was a unique situation where you went in to rehearsals for a full production without ever really having done a reading or a workshop.  What did you learn about the show as you worked your way through the multiple productions?
We learned that the core story of the three generations of this American family and the score they sang resonated deeply with audiences.  We also learned that the central character was entirely passive with no control over his destiny and without true stakes or even an identifiable antagonist.  And we learned that the majority of the first act was expositional and that the stories of the past didn’t arise organically from the present.  Perhaps the most striking thing we discovered was that by deciding to have a lead character who was a child, it demanded there be a host of other ancillary characters to provide the realistic infrastructure for a child’s needs which naturally confused and diffused our central story.

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Additional Casting and Directors Announced for the 27th Annual Festival of New Musicals

We’re thrilled to announce additional directors and casting for the 27th Annual Festival of New Musicals, taking place on Thursday, October 15 and Friday, October 16 at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues).
Costs of Living
Book, music & lyrics by Timothy Huang
Director: Marlo Hunter (Callaway Award-winner for Unlock’d)
Cast: Jenni Barber (Broadway: The Nance), Kiet Cao, Daniel J. Edwards (Broadway: Anything Goes), Ali Ewoldt (Broadway: Les Misérables), Raymond Lee (Broadway: Anything Goes, Honeymoon in Vegas), and Kelvin Moon Loh (Broadway: The King and I)
Based on a true story, COSTS OF LIVING chronicles the lives of two immigrant cab drivers who come to New York for the American dream but instead find a nightmare scenario.  Set to a rock and pop theatre score, featuring a predominantly Asian-American ensemble.
 
 

 
Imagine Harry
Music & lyrics by Will Van Dyke, book & lyrics by Jeff Talbott
Director: Brandon Ivie (Off Broadway: Jasper in Deadland)
Music Director: Ian Weinberger (TV: “The Sound of Music Live”)
Cast: Brad Oscar (Broadway: Something Rotten, The Producers), William Parry (Broadway: Passion, Gypsy), Preston Sadleir (National Tour: Next to Normal), Myra Lucretia Taylor (Broadway: Nine), Taylor Trensch (Broadway: Wicked; Off Broadway: Little Miss Sunshine)
 
 

The Last Queen of Canaan
Book by Harrison David Rivers, lyrics by Rebekah Greer Melocik, music by Jacob Yandura.
Director: Peter Rothstein (Power Balladz, Artistic Director of Minneapolis’ Theater Latté Da)
Music Director: Matt Gallagher (Broadway: Doctor Zhivago, Hands on a Hard Body)
Cast: Chasten Harmon (Broadway: Hair), Kecia Lewis (Broadway: Leap of Faith, The Drowsy Chaperone), Kenita Miller (Broadway: The Color Purple), Jon-Michael Reese (National tour: The Book of Mormon), Margo Seibert (Broadway: Rocky), Q. Smith (Broadway: Mary Poppins)
 
 

Legendale
Music by Andrea Daly, book & lyrics by Jeff Bienstock, story by Bienstock & Daly.
Director: John Simpkins (Off Broadway: Bloodsong of Love at Ars Nova).
Music Director: Vadim Feichtner (Broadway: …Spelling Bee)
Cast: James Monroe Iglehart (Broadway: Tony Award-winner for Aladdin), Lauren Marcus (Hello, Dolly at Papermill Playhouse), George Salazar (Broadway: Godspell), Ryan Vona (Broadway: Once), Jason SweetTooth Williams
 
 
 

lift
Book & lyrics by Daryl Lisa Fazio, music by Aaron McAllister
Director: Schele Williams (PBS’s Broadway or Bust)
Music Director: Madeline Smith (Off Broadway: Futurity, An Octoroon)
Cast: Joél Perez (Broadway: Fun Home), Lauren Worsham (Broadway: A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Tony Nom)
 
 
 

Noir
Music & lyrics by Duncan Sheik, book & lyrics by Kyle Jarrow
Director: Chloe Treat (Off Broadway: TheaterworkUSA’s The Lightning Thief) with Rachel Chavkin (The Great Comet, Prelude)
Music Director: Jason Hart (Regional: Because of Winn Dixie; Whisper House)
Cast: Lilli Cooper (Broadway: Spring Awakening), Daniel Everidge (Broadway: Grease), Kevin Mambo (Broadway: Fela!), John Schiappa (Broadway: Rocky), Emily Skeggs (Broadway: Fun Home, Tony Nom.), Theo Stockman (Broadway: Hair, American Idiot), Adrienne Warren (Broadway: Bring It On), with Foley Artist Jeremy Bloom (Off Broadway: The Mysteries)
 


 
 
On The Eve
Music & lyrics by Shawn Magill & Seth Magill, book by Michael Federico, story by Michael Federico, Shawn Magill & Seth Magill
Director: Sam Buntrock (West End & Broadway: Sunday in the Park with George, Olivier Award and Tony Award noms)
Cast: Will Connolly (Broadway: Once)
 


 

Othello: The Remix
Book, music & lyrics by The Q Brothers (GQ and JQ), developed with Rick Boynton
Director: Brian Hill (Goodspeed Musicals’ The Theory of Relativity)
Cast: GQ (The Bomb-itty of Errors), JQ (The Bomb-itty of Errors), Postell Pringle (Broadway: A Free Man of Color), Jackson Doran (A Q Brothers’ Christmas Carol, Chicago Shakespeare’s Funk It Up About Nothin’)
 

Registration for the Festival is open to theatre industry professionals and major donors to NAMT through October 9. For more more information on registration (including walk-up), plus details on all eight Festival shows, the Songwriters Showcase and the Songwriters Cabarets, visit the Festival web page now, or email festival@namt.org.

 
NAMT thanks the following foundations, government agencies and organizations for their ongoing support of our programs:  ABE Charitable Foundation, The Alhadeff Family Charitable Foundation, The Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York Creative Space Grant, ASCAP Foundation Irving Caesar Fund, BMI Foundation, The Dramatists Guild Fund, Friars Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, The Noël Coward Foundation, The Purple Plume Foundation, The Rodgers and Hammerstein Foundation, Stacey Mindich Productions and The Shubert Foundation.

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Festival Alumni to be Featured in New 54 Below Concert Series

54 Below‘s Jennifer Ashley Tepper announced in an interview with Playbill.com that “Broadway’s Living Room” will be launching a new series next year called New Musicals at 54: A Showcase of Our Own. “The idea is to present ten new musicals that haven’t been produced in New York, yet that are things you might have seen an out-of-town tryout of or a workshop of,” said Tepper. No word yet on what shows will be featured, but the initial list of writers announced includes several Festival alumni: Kirsten Childs (The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds her Chameleon Skin, Festival 1998), Adam Gwon (Ordinary Days, Festival 2008), Joe Iconis (Bloodsong of Love, Festival 2011), and Georgia Stitt (Big Red Sun, Festival 2010).
We can’t wait to see what Jen and our talented alumni have to show us!
Watch video from our own shows at 54 Below in our concerts archive.

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Video Series: Measure What Matters

Our friends at TRG Arts have launched a video series called Measure What Matters: 6 Metrics Arts Leaders Should Track. Every Tuesday from now through October 20, they’ll be posting a brief video explaining different ways your organization can use data you probably already have “to assess [your] current situation, stabilize [your] business model, and start generating working capital.” 

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2015 Festival Update

Do you want to know more about the shows in the 27th Annual Festival of New Musicals? See the Five Things each show’s writing team wants you to know before you come to the Festival!
 

Five Things You Should Know About Costs of Living

1. Costs of Living was inspired by, though not based upon, a 2009 New York Times article by Corey Kilgannon called Night and Day about two immigrant cab drivers whose partnership began with promise and ended in tragedy.  Mr. Kilgannon liked it so much he wrote a follow-up article about the musical itself.
2. Costs of Living is very much a musical that behaves like a play. In fact, Playwright David Henry Hwang recommended it to the American Playwriting Foundation’s Relentless Award (the Philip Seymour Hoffman one), despite a very clear guideline barring musicals of any kind.
3. You might not think it from the description, but parts of Costs of Living are kind of hilarious.
4. With the proliferation of Asian-American stories in the mainstream, Costs of Living represents the next step in that evolutionary chain: a “Third Generation” story that isn’t about acclimation or immigration, but the impact of those things on the American tapestry.
5. Costs of Living has been in development for a few years with many readings and workshops.  We are looking for a staged workshop and/or production of the show, and are also open to seeking involvement from commercial producers.  Our hope is to get the show out there to as wide an audience as possible wherever possible.


Five Things You Should Know About Imagine Harry
1. Imagine Harry is about Tucker and Harry.  It’s about that moment in your life when you reconcile your need to be an adult with your desire to remain a child, and the musical comes at that moment through two lenses:  a 25 year-old who can’t seem to leave home and a 35 year-old who isn’t sure he’s ready to be a father.
2. Imagine Harry can be done at any scale.  Because the musical deals with imagination, it was written to sustain both a small theatre-out-of-a-trunk approach as well as an all-the-bells-and-whistles-and-possibly-laser-beams approach.  We want it to be a director’s playground, and are eager to take the first steps with a director and producer/theatre to explore ALL the possibilities for this magical world.
3. Imagine Harry is a musical for grown-ups. Although it has childhood as a central theme, the ultimate destination is an exploration of how to become a grown-up and deal with your aging parents, your fears about becoming a parent yourself and your place in the often overwhelming adult world. Think of it as a grown-up movie with a PG-13 rating, and you’ve got the target audience.
4. Imagine Harry has the beat of a pop song.  This musical was written by two guys who love pop music.  And musical theatre.  So if Ben Folds, Taylor Swift and A Great Big World had a jam session with Kander & Ebb, Ahrens & Flaherty and Jason Robert Brown, this score might have come from that session.
5. Imagine Harry has a big heart.  We are two guys who wear our hearts pretty much not only on our sleeves but with a neon sign pointing directly to them.  And we wanted to write a show that reflected that sensibility.  We don’t mind tears.  And we don’t mind laughing at the same time.  So we wrote a show that let us do both. And hopefully, you, too.

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INSIDE THE 2015 FESTIVAL: Why We Applied to the Festival

A guest post from Kyle Jarrow, book writer and co-lyricist for this year’s show Noir, written with Duncan Sheik. Kyle was previously part of the NAMT Festival in 2009 with his show Hostage Song written with Clay McLeod Chapman.  

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Choose Your Own Musical Adventure!

Here’s some fun for your holiday weekend: Alan Schmuckler (How Can You Run With A Shell On Your Back?, Festival 2009) and Dave Holstein have written a musical short film, My Little Red/Green Coat, about a young woman trying to make her way from Harlem to Brooklyn late at night (no easy task!) to reconnect with an ex.

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ACE is Reborn in Las Vegas

A new version of Ace (Festival 2005) is being workshopped at the Nevada Conservatory Theatre at UNLV. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports:

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New Work In Progress: Creep

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

How did Creep find its way to WaterTower?
The writer Donald Fowler, has been well known to WTT audiences as an actor on our stages almost since our beginning. In 2010, the first draft of the show was presented as a reading at our annual Out of the Loop Fringe Festival. I directed that reading, and it was well-received and generated quite a bit of buzz locally. Based on feedback from that reading, the writer continued to work on Creepand Uptown Players (another local company) did a full staged workshop in 2013. I saw that workshop and began talks with Mr. Fowler about a full realized production at WTT. In order to take it to the next level, in November 2014, I hired Kate Galvin to direct the production and to work with Fowler on refining and reshaping some key elements. Kate has great experience with new musical development and her insight and guidance has been invaluable over the last few months as we move toward the opening of Creep.

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Festival Show Update: Bernice Bobs Her Hair

This month, we check in with Adam Gwon and Julia Jordan as they prepare their 2011 Festival Show Bernice Bobs Her Hair for its premiere production at Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma this Fall.

 
In this new delightful dancing musical, small town socially awkward Bernice visits her popular cousin in the big city and finds herself making changes to fit in with her cousin and the popular crowd. Testing the limits of society, free-spirited Bernice bobs her hair, becoming a social revolutionary in the roaring 20’s.
 
It has been four years since we presented Bernice Bobs Her Hair in the Festival, but do you remember what the reception for the show was like at the Festival?
We remember a great reception, and how much Kate Wetherhead made everyone laugh! We got several offers immediately after the festival, and for a variety of reasons we can’t even remember, none of them worked out at the time. A lot of colleges were interested, but we felt strongly that we wanted to solidify the show with a professional production before releasing it out into the world. So we waited patiently for the right opportunity to come along.
 
Both of you have been quite busy with other projects over the past few years. What work have you done on Bernice?
When we found out that Lyric Theatre would be doing the premiere, it’d been awhile since we’d revisited the script, and at almost the exact same moment, we got an email from Bruce Goodrich at CSU Fullerton, who’d seen the show at NAMT and was checking in to see if Bernice had become available. It was perfect timing, so we did a reading with them and identified all the rewrites we wanted to do before going into rehearsal for the production. We also have a new 11 o’clock number for Bernice, which we wrote in two airport hotel bars after getting stuck on our way home from auditions in Oklahoma City!

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Members in the News: Baldwin Wallace Grad Makes Broadway History

Kyle Jean-Baptiste, a recent graduate of NAMT academic member Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music, made history July 23 when he went on in the role of Jean Valjean in the Broadway production of Les Misérables, becoming both the youngest actor and the first African American to play the role on Broadway, according to Playbill.com.

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Watch Rehearsal of Triangle

Check out video of the sitzprobe for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s world premiere production of Triangle (Festival 2012).

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Member in the News: Segal Centre Records Cast Album

Playbill reports that NAMT member Segal Centre for Performing Arts recorded their production of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, with a little-known score by Alan Menken (Festival 2003, The Ballad of Little Pinks).

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New Works in Progress: Developing musicals in Dayton, Ohio

 In June, we chatted with Kevin Moore, Producing Artistic Director of The Human Race Theatre Co. in Dayton, Ohio about their upcoming Festival of New Works (August 7 & 8) and how it has changed over the years.

The Human Race Theatre Company’s commitment to the creation of new plays and musicals takes center stage this summer with its Festival of New Works. We’ve selected 5 works in development—3 plays and 2 musicals—to present as staged and table readings for this exciting summer event. The productions perform in our 60-seat Caryl D. Philips Creativity Center and at The Loft Theatre over the course of the two-day festival, the culmination of a two-week-long workshop process in which writers have the chance to further develop their scripts with the help of professional directors and actors, then see them performed on stage. 
The Human Race Theatre Co. has been developing new musicals for years.  How did the Festival of New Works come about and how does it fit in to your mission? 
We started in 2000 with three workshops scattered throughout our season- plugging them in wherever we had time.  And we did that for 7 years.  But it became increasingly difficult overlapping with our regular productions.  So we shifted to a summer Festival because we traditionally did not produce in the summer and we now would have no competition for our housing, rehearsal space, actors and stage.  And it allowed us to stay engaged with our audience during the summer months.  Our mission always included nurturing writers and developing new works, which now includes plays as well as musicals.  This summer’s Festival combines both plays and musicals for the first time.
What does the Festival provide for the writers in residence as they work on their show? 
This summer’s Festival expands our format and allows us to work at various levels.  For example, there will be a full workshop of the new musical Mann…and Wife by Douglas J. Cohen and Dan Elish.  Our contract allows for 40 hours of rehearsal over two weeks and a public staged reading.  This really gives the writers a chance to hear their work while they continue to make changes.  We have two new formats this summer:
1) A public table reading of a new play – 11 hours of rehearsal.
2) A format I call a “Snapshot.”  This is a 20-30 minute presentation that introduces our audience to new works and includes scenes, songs and discussions with the writers.  Each work also has an 11-hour rehearsal contract.  This summer, two plays and one musical will be presented as one event for our audience.
Do you present shows at any stage on their trajectory or do you have a preference for when you present them? 

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New Duncan Sheik Musical on NAMT’s 2015 Festival Slate

The National Alliance for Musical Theater has set the slate for its 2015 Festival of New Musicals, the annual showcase of new work that attracts commercial and regional stage producers from around the country.
Among the titles on tap is the latest by Duncan Sheik, the musician who’s been the subject of theater-world talk lately because of impending runs of two shows for which he composed the music: “Spring Awakening,” for which he won a 2007 Tony, and the new musical adaptation of “American Psycho.” At the NAMT festival he’ll show off “Noir,” about a man who obsessively eavesdrops on the couple in the apartment next door, written with book writer-lyricist Kyle Jarrow (“A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant”).
The 27-year-old NAMT Festival of New Musicals has served as a launching pad for shows including “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” “The Drowsy Chaperone” and “Striking 12,” among others.

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Announcing the 27th Annual Festival of New Musicals Shows

We’re thrilled to announce the line up of new musicals for the 27th Annual Festival of New Musicals, which will take place on Thursday, October 15 and Friday, October 16 at in New York.
Now in its 27th year, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals attracts theatre producers from around the world for this industry-only event to discover eight new musicals presented in 45-minute reading presentations over two days. All production costs are underwritten by NAMT, at no cost to the writing teams.  As a non-profit organization, NAMT funds the Festival entirely through donations, sponsorships and contributions.
The festival has introduced musical theatre producers to 228 musicals and 432 writers from around the world. As a direct result of the Festival, more than 85% of the musicals presented have gone on to subsequent readings, workshops, productions and tours, been licensed, and/or recorded on cast albums. Some past festival shows include The Drowsy Chaperone, It Shoulda Been You, Striking 12, Ordinary Days, Thoroughly Modern Millie, among many others.

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Historical Musical Theatre Sightseeing

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s Managing Director (and NAMT Board member) Phil Santora was in New York with his partner Christian, and they paid a visit to the former Triangle Shirtwaist Factory building to take a selfie with the postcard from TheatreWorks’ upcoming world premiere production of Triangle (Festival 2012).

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