Musical Notes ♫

Check Out Our New Website!

2015-01-12T10:00:00.000-05:00

Please note: This is our last post at this address. But don't worry! The NAMT blog -- including all of our archives, plus member news, press clippings and more -- can now be found on our new website at namt.org/about/news/

If you follow us via RSS, the new feed address is https://namt.org/feed/

And of course, you can still find us on Twitter and Facebook.

I feel (and some of you may, too) like I’ve been talking about our new website forever. We’ve known for at least two years that our old site was nearing the end of its lifespan, and started making necessary arrangements. Bidding for developers started almost a year ago. The Board approved our plan last spring. The design process began over the summer, then got put on hold because, as you may have heard, we get a little busy in September and October. There was a flurry of intense activity in November and December in which concepts became reality, we learned what did and didn’t work, what changes for change’s sake sounded great but weren’t, the old words and images made their way to the new pages, and our amazing developers, Nick Keenan and his team at NickXD, worked their butts off to say yes to nearly every “what if” and “wouldn’t it be cool?” we threw at him. Then holiday break and another pause. So close! And finally, shiny and new for 2015!

I couldn’t be prouder to share the new namt.org with you all. It was designed with our members, Festival alumni and supporters chiefly in mind, as well as our expanding concert series and programs for the theatre-loving public. How can we make it easier for you to find the resources you need? How can we simplify? What information do you need the most? What member benefits were hidden away behind too many menus and clicks, now front and center?

The new site is fully mobile adaptive, resizing itself to any screen size (if you’re on your computer, change the size of your browser window to see it in action—it’s fun!) and working beautifully on your smartphone. Now, instead of a paper Little Black Book, which was typically out of date before we got it back from the printer, you’ll have a complete, always accurate membership directory in the palm of your hand at all times, along with event agendas, attendee lists, maps and more. We’ve made videos of past events and webinars easier to access, and if you ever forget your login information, it’s now just a click away. There’s also an increased focus on our members and alumni, through photo galleries and a brand new blog, so send us your updates!

Plus, it’s really pretty.

Play around and let us know what you think. It’s designed to stay flexible to change and grow with us and our membership, so your feedback will help us very much. We think you’ll like it as much as we do!

Adam Grosswirth
Membership Director

New Work In Progress: DISENCHANTED!

2015-01-08T16:39:00.000-05:00

This month, we check in with Don Frantz, Producer and General Manager at Town Square Productions, as he tells us about their brand new, Off Broadway musical, Disenchanted!, by Dennis T. Giacino.

Poisoned apples. Glass slippers. Who needs ‘em?! Not Snow White and her posse of disenchanted princesses in the new musical comedy that’s anything but Grimm. Forget the princesses you think you know. After multiple sold-out runs nationwide, these royal renegades toss off their tiaras to bring their hilariously subversive, not-for-the-kiddies musical to New York City—and fairy tales will never be the same!

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

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

What has the development of the show been and how has it changed through the years?
The first presentation that I watched had a cast of 11 actresses and piano. The show felt more cabaret than musical theater. There was just a hint of character development and script. There were no significant production elements in terms of set, lights and choreography; costumes and props were minimal. They were great songs. As we aimed for Off Broadway, we realized that the cast had to be smaller and after exploring all the characters, we realized that there were just 3 characters to focus on: Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. The others had great messages and filled with comedic value, but became secondary characters restructured to be played by other actresses in multiple roles. So we settled on a cast of 6. Since the music drove the show, we did expand to a band of 3 which added a valuable drummer to accent the comedy and the new dance elements and a bass player to give a ‘bottom’ to the all female cast.

The show became anchored with the concept that the princesses were putting on a revue, like a vaudeville, if you will. Just like developing the old vaudeville comedy routines of years ago, we went ‘on the road’ to discover the bits, lines, takes and gags. Prior to New York, the creators did or watched others do over a dozen productions all over the US in readings, cabaret, concert, dinner theater, community theater, college, developmental workshops, AEA guest artist productions. The show grew up over the last 5 years. I can watch the show now and remember when each bit was tried out at one of these productions and survived and made it into the final script. The success we have now is because of the many theater owners, presenters and producers that gave the show a chance along the way, the last and greatest help being offered by the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa which gave us the opportunity to put it all together prior to New York.

Why was this a good time to bring the princesses Off-Broadway?
Simultaneous with the growth of our musical, there has also been a growth in pop culture about a sense of, let me call it, something other than the princess myth. I don’t want to call it the Anti-Princess movement as we are really not anti-Disney at all. My 8 years with the mouse were the best times in my creative career. Most everyone in our company has been or is engaged on a Disney project. But the old stereotype of the princess waiting for her prince to come has molded a lot of lives and expectations. In the last 72 months, the ‘not so happily ever after’ chord has struck a nerve—in Saturday Night Live’s Desperate Disney Housewives skit, in Dina Goldstein’s photography, in the AVByte webcasts, in Huffington Post editorials—all of which went viral on the web and social media. On Broadway, investors find security in film-to-stage transfers or jukebox musicals; with the princesses, we found a sense of security and positive momentum with what was ‘trending.’ It’s the right time because when I say, Disenchanted! is about the original storybook princesses you know and love, who have come back to tell the "truth," the people smile, nod and are ready to walk in the theater.

Why should everyone find some time to become enchanted with Disenchanted?
In 1994, I was fortunate enough to be the Associate Producer onBeauty and the Beast, which launched Disney Theatrical, and it brought a whole new energy to musical theater and another outlet for the perfect princess story. A great thrill during the course of‘Beauty’ at the Palace Theater was seeing so many little girls have their first musical experience. 20 years later a lot of those little girls have grown up and kissed a toad. Not the magical toad, just a toad. Now that they are in their late 20’s, the time seems right for a tip of the hat to a little Disenchantment. The audience—men and women—laugh, giggle and guffaw during a 90-minute good time in the theater…but at the same time each night I see some members of the audience walk away with the acknowledgement of some of truths in life—being happy with who you are, tossing off someone else’s expectations, the joy of friends who understand, the strength to stand up for yourself. One lady in her 50’s said, "It’s about time someone said that!” Then bought a return ticket for her and her daughter. Finally, I’d have to say that in New York at the Theater at St. Clements you also have the total enjoyment of being enchanted at the performances of 6 amazing women who simply put on a great show.

For more information about the show, visit theDisenchanted! website.

Festival Show Update: BEATSVILLE

2015-01-08T16:35:00.000-05:00

Logo from NAMT Fest '08

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

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

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

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

You got a chance to go to Rhinebeck Writers Retreat a couple of years ago to work on the show without the distraction of home life. What was it like to get away and what work did you do on the show?
Rhinebeck was amazing! As a married couple, we constantly find that our writing time has to compete with the needs of our two sons, so it was pure heaven to have a full week with no distractions. It was perfect timing, too, coming exactly when we needed a kick-start to get back to work on the piece and rekindle our excitement about the changes we knew we had to make. We used the week to flesh out Carla's story arc, and to begin sketching out a new Act II that would take our story in a new and more fertile direction. I made a ton of lyrical changes to bring the Act I songs into sharper focus, and wrote the Act II opening number, and it literally felt like we had breathed new life into the piece; when we left, we knew exactly where we were going. More recently, we had the good fortune to take part in another retreat, at the Weston Playhouse in Vermont—another godsend! By the time we arrived there, we had all our second-act material in place; by the time we went home, we had thrown out a ton of it, reshuffled a bunch of scenes, and finally solved our last few story problems.

Now the show is ready to be presented in a workshop production at NYU-Steinhardt this spring. What are you most excited to work on with the show as it gets up on its feet?
We’ve made a ton of structural changes, and while the piece feels sleeker and sharper on the page, we’re very eager to see how the new material plays on stage. We’re also very excited to work with the university students—our characters are the same age as they are, live in the same neighborhood and are grappling with a lot of the same issues: artistic ambition, the pressures of hipster conformity, a yearning for authentic experience. We can’t wait to see what kind of energy they bring to the show! NYU-Steinhardt has a terrific jazz program as well, so I’ll get an opportunity to work closely with some great young players in honing the newer songs.

Why should people slip in to a black turtle neck and head down to Greenwich Village this spring to catch the Beat(sville)?
Because it's cool, daddy-o!

For more information about NYU's production of Beatsville or for tickets, please contact John Simpkins at john.simpkins@nyu.edu.

New Work in Progress: FIELD HOCKEY HOT

2014-12-04T12:45:00.001-05:00

Last month, we checked in with Kate Galvin, Associate Producer and General Manager at 11th Hour Theatre Company, as she told us about their brand new musical, Field Hockey Hot.

Field Hockey Hot is a smart and entertaining new satire about a high school girls’ field hockey team, their ambitious coach and America’s favorite pastime…winning! When Applebee Academy’s star goalie is injured two weeks before the championship, Coach Shipley Barnes will stop at nothing to win the North American title. It's a hilarious and zany comedy featuring a pop score inspired by iconic musicians of the 1980s and a world where field hockey rules all!

How did Field Hockey Hot find its way to 11^th Hour?
Writer/Composer Michael Ogborn had come to see our 2008 production of Reefer Madness and it just clicked! Michael has an outrageous sense of humor and he'd been kicking around an idea about field hockey and female athletes (those hot, tough, unapproachable girls from high school) but the show hadn't taken shape for him yet. When he saw our version of Reefer, the style and performances and musical drive matched what he wanted Field Hockey Hot to be. He knew then that he wanted 11th Hour to produce this show.

What attracted you and the rest of 11^th Hour to the show originally?
We love Michael's work and we also love him. Although he may be unknown to many of the NAMT members, Michael's work is beloved in Philadelphia; he's been produced by 1812 Productions, the Arden Theatre Company and People's Light and Theater, where he has written many British-style Pantos for the holidays. So we were honored that he wanted to work with us. And we couldn't stop laughing when he pitched us the show! Michael sat down at a piano and talked us through the basic story, playing a little bit of the songs and stepping in to each character. He's a master; we were rolling!

Your organization has been quite active in the development of the show. Tell us a bit about the process of developing the show.
Once Michael gave us the initial pitch, we agreed to commission it. So 11th Hour has been involved every step of the way, with director Megan Nicole O'Brien providing valuable input to the development of the script. We've also had a few actors involved since the beginning, including Jennie Eisenhower who will star as Coach Shipley Barnes. Michael wrote the role for her after seeing her in Reefer, so her voice is very strong in the style of the piece. We did a few table reads with the staff and a handful of actors. And then we were lucky enough to get a workshop opportunity with University of the Arts. This gave Michael and our Musical Director/Orchestrator Daniel Kazemi the chance to really flesh out the vocal arrangements and gave our choreographer Kat Borelli the chance to experiment with the physical side of the show. We then shifted our focus back to the book and have been working on that for the past several months, trying to work out the complicated second act and figure out how to get the cast to 10 actors (down from 17 in the UArts workshop). There is a lot of gender-bending in the show, so figuring out the right male to female ratio and all of the doubling was a little tricky. We have a final 29-hour reading coming up in December with the full cast and then we start rehearsal in February.

Why is the show a good fit for your organization and audience?
11th Hour has had a lot of success with highly stylized comedies like The Bomb-itty of Errors, Little Shop of Horrors, Reefer Madness and The Great American Trailer Park Musical. Field Hockey Hot absolutely fits into that genre and we know our audience is going love this show. And after doing many Philadelphia premieres, we're really excited to be producing our first World Premiere!

Why should everyone come to Philly in the spring to catch Field Hockey Hot?
Because you should know Michael Ogborn! Because we have an all-star cast of Philadelphia actors and creatives. And because who doesn't love 80's pop music and men in skirts?

For more information about the show, please click here.

Festival Show Update: THE SANDMAN

2014-12-04T12:41:00.002-05:00

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

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

What was the feedback like after you presented at the Festival?
The feedback immediately following the presentations was very strong. This included members approaching us directly after the performances and at the followup "meet the authors" events. There were certainly a lot of questions about how the story ended, the true "fear factor" and the appropriateness of the material for various age groups. From our point of view this was a perfect response because it meant we had used the presentation to introduce the material, but not give the whole thing away and to make people curious about whether or not the show was right for their theater. It seems to us that the best thing an author can do is to present an excerpt that makes the members want to read and listen to the complete work.

You are now working with NAMT Member Playing Pretend to develop the show. Tell us a bit about all of the exciting developments on the show since the Festival.
Playing Pretend came onboard the project because of Stephanie Cowan, who served as our NAMT Consultant for the Festival. It was really her enthusiasm that brought that production company to the table. With them, and our director from the NAMT Festival Sam Buntrock (Sunday In the Park With George B'way revival), we have had continued conversations about the dramaturgy of the piece and have had the luxury of a week-long writing "summit" in New York that culminated in another private table reading of the complete work, incorporating all of the changes and new material. We have also secured the participation of several key design and creative collaborators who will be absolutely essential in giving the show an indelible look and physical vocabulary—one that we expect will be as surprising and unique as the story itself. We have on the calendar over the next few months several workshops with each of these artists to develop their particular contributions to the work. We expect all these elements to be brought together in a developmental workshop sometime in 2015. So far these collaborators include Michael Curry designing all sets, props, costumes and puppets; Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer designing the lighting; Sam Pinkleton creating the choreography and Teller (of Penn and Teller) designing the illusions.

What type of work have you done on the show since the presentation beyond the expansion of your team with Playing Pretend?
Since the Festival presentation, we have continued to streamline act one: incorporating many of the edits we made to make the piece work in the festival time limit. We also added two new songs in act 2: one, a comic production number, and the other a song which deepens the emotional connection to one of the supporting principles, lending an additional layer of humanity to the piece as a whole.

Also, this February the show will premiere in Denmark at NAMT Member Fredericia Theatre. This is not affiliated with your work with Playing Pretend but what are you hoping to get out of putting the show up on its feet in Denmark?
We are thrilled that Soren Moeller took such a shine to the piece and followed through on his excitement by offering a full production. The fact that this production will be its own entity in terms of direction and design has more to do with the schedules of our U.S. creative team than anything else. That being said, we are actually looking forward to having the experience of handing the piece over to a completely new creative team and stepping back to allow them to do essentially as they please with it. And there is much to learn in the European approach to developing new work which relies less on multiple readings, workshops and notes by committee and more on putting the work before an audience and trusting that the authors themselves will see clearly what works, what doesn't and what they wish to change for future full productions. Naturally this approach saves any new work from dreaded "Development Hell" that sadly swallows most new works here in the States where production costs are so high—and not state or federally supported—and theaters are therefore extremely risk-averse. For the Denmark premiere we will have the privilege of having the score orchestrated by the brilliant Bruce Coughlin as well as having the material interpreted by an internationally recognized director who is Argentinean by birth, but lives and works throughout Europe. We look forward to what their combined life and artistic experience will bring to the bizarre and twisted world of our show. And lastly, as The Sandman is a fairy tale—albeit a macabre German fairy tale—fewer countries have a closer connection to the art of the fairy tale than Denmark. We expect to learn much about the tone of the piece in how these artists approach the material and how these audiences react to it.

What are you hoping will be the next steps for the show?
We hope that the next steps for the show are ones that organically arise out the needs of the piece itself. If the show, as we suspect, benefits greatly from unique designs that might be better executed and experienced in a non-traditional venue, then the next steps we would hope for would be ones that allow the design team to fully explore and develop these options. Once that has been fully realized, then surely the right venue for the production as it has been conceived would be self-evident and the producing team would move to secure it and present the show to the public. That particular venue and presentation might not be a commercial run in a proscenium theater. But once the show has had the opportunity to be experienced in a possibly unique venue, then a further step might be taken to find out if the show works in a more standard theatrical venue which would allow for a traditional commercial run.

For more information about the show and to listen and download the demo recording featuring Mary Testa and Patrick Page, please click here.

Festival Show Update: BLOODSONG OF LOVE

2014-11-10T17:20:00.000-05:00

Last month, we caught up with alumnus Joe Iconis as he prepared his 2011 Festival show, Bloodsong of Love, for a new immersive presentation at 54 Below on October 20.

A wild musical theater interpretation of the Spaghetti Western film genre. It follows the story of a wandering guitarist, known only as The Musician, on a journey to reclaim his bride from the evil clutches of Lo Cocodrilo. Raucous, heartfelt and hilarious, Bloodsong is a raging battle cry for those who believe in art and love and sticking together.

What was the response to Bloodsong of Love after the Festival?
It was really encouraging to hear the positive reactions of audiences and NAMT members. I met a rather large bearded man in the lobby of New World Stages and he said it was pretty good, so that was nice.

What did you learn from the Festival process and what changes have been made to the show since?
By cutting down the show to a 45-minute preview, it helped us see what the most “important” moments were in a very clear way. When you’ve got to encapsulate an entire musical in a third of its own running time, songs you thought defined your entire piece suddenly seem less essential. It was a great exercise in forcing myself to be un-precious about my own work. I’ve done a ton of script work since then, and I think that’s it’s not only different but better.

The thing that has always been special about the show is that it is versatile in the ways that it can be presented. Was that intentional from its creation or something that evolved with the piece?It was definitely something that evolved. I guess I always imagined that the show would “overtake the space” wherever it played, but I think the more [director] John Simpkins and I have worked on the piece, the more its versatility has become integrated into the script. Part of the beauty of the show is that it can feel at home in a traditional proscenium space, a bar, a barn or an abandoned Haunted House at your local theme park.

Bloodsong of Love is going to have a special one-night, two-performance event at 54 Below on October 20 (just days before this year’s Festival). What brought you to create an immersive version of the show to the supper club venue?
The show played a workshop run of a few weeks at Ars Nova in 2010 and hasn’t been on a stage since. The script has developed quite a bit, but at its heart, it’s still the same show. Of all the things I’ve written, Bloodsong is my favorite and I truly believe it has the potential to live on in a grander way. I don’t think it has had its ultimate New York production yet. This concert version at 54 Below is, hopefully, the first step in its journey towards the show getting its dream production on the island of Manhattan.

What are your hopes for the show after the October presentations?
I’m hoping that a brave and brilliant producer thinks this show has an energy and a sound and a structure and a cast that are completely unique and a breath of fresh air in the world of new musical theatre. I’m hoping this producer thinks this musical should have a commercial production in New York. I’m hoping that production is a critical hit and is swept up onto a Broadway stage. I’m hoping that the Broadway production is embraced by the sort of people who went to see shows like Once, and Hedwig, and Next To Normal, and movies like Django Unchained and Sin City. I’m hoping the musical wins seven Tony Awards and that famous people make a movie version that does OK business. And I’m hoping that they do Bloodsong in every high school across America and illegally change all the naughty words to less naughty words.

For more information about the show, please click here.

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: The First Rehearsal

2014-10-22T12:21:00.001-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: Casting for the Festival

2014-10-21T14:22:00.001-04:00

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

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

So, we’ve made it into the NAMT Festival. We’ve got an amazing director and musical director, we’ve sweated over cutting our piece to the required 45-minutes, and now—casting!

Truth be told, almost from the first moment I put fingertips to keyboard in the creation of Mary Marie I was able to hear the voices of the characters coming from the mouths of specific actors; friends who had agreed to help us develop the show. They got us through the teething, crawling, first steps, dare I say potty training, and eventually the adolescent stage of the show, and we have been so fortunate that these actors stayed with us through the whole development process, which included five or six staged readings. Not only had they become entrenched in the work, but we all
grew to become a sort of Mary Marie family.

Now we couldn’t be more thrilled that Mary Marie would be growing up and taking a trip from Southern California to New York, but it also meant that it would be time for a new set of amazing actors to bring their own unique talents to these roles. To carry the metaphor a little further, it’s a bit as if Mary Marie would be taking a cross-country trip to the prom—to a new cast of five blind dates. Since neither Carl Johnson (composer) nor I have spent much time in New York, we depended a lot on Branden Huldeen (NAMT Festival Producing Director), Michael Cassara, (Casting Director) and Daniella Topol (Director) for their expert advice, input, and contacts to cast the show. We had access to an initial list of actors who have worked for the Festival in previous years, which was helpful, but not knowing or having ever seen them, it was still difficult to tell, from our end, who might be right for the specific characters in our show. Thank goodness for YouTube!

Our first role cast was that of the Male Swing. In the full show (the uncut version) this character plays six different characters and contributes much of the comic element. We were delighted and relieved that Colin Hanlon was available. Our first character was cast! After that, our other cast members Kevin Earley, Mamie Parris, and Ruth Gottschall eventually and fortunately for us, fell into place. We were especially concerned that we find a Mary Marie who was not only close to the right age of the character (13-years-old), but who could learn the music and grasp the complexity of the character in such a short rehearsal period. Fortunately Emerson Steele was free and happy to join us.

We are so excited about starting the next phase of work on this show and to meet the men and women who will help us to grow these characters even more. And hopefully, someday soon, Mary Marie will be ready to take off on its own—and we’ll be empty nesters.

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: Writing my First Musical

2014-10-20T13:28:00.000-04:00

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

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

I came to New York as a playwright, but I'm like most theater kids from the farflung suburbs of America: I grew up on musicals. At 9, I was choreographing dances for "If Momma Was Married" to be performed on roller skates at the bottom of our cul de sac. I grew up singing Aladdin in the carpool, playing munchkins in The Wizard of Oz, and from 5th through 8th grade, cast myself as Little Red for school talent shows, in which I sang in a dress my grandma made. What a geek! I had an aquablue tie-dye JC Superstar tee-shirt, in the bible-thumping South, and I remember insisting earnestly, "it's not a church shirt, it's a theater shirt, it is a show, a musical, and it is by Andrew Lloyd Weber." Geek.

Then in college, I discovered Falsettos and Hello Again, and while I wrote plays in South Carolina and then Iowa, I secretly loved these great ruthless musicals created by faraway people. In shows like these, singing's like breathing. Like there's no other way to exist except in music. It's tumultuous and it's funny and it's the best thing there is. But I loved all that in secret. I never knew any musical theatre writers till I got to New York in 2006, and when I got here, one of the first people I met was Adam Gwon, which turned out to be a pretty lucky break. Adam loves playwrights, and I love musicals, so... crazily, we decided to
go down the rabbit hole together. We took a dreamy one-act I'd written for fun, and we turned it into String. Early in the collaboration, at a retreat, Adam said to me, "You know, it's easy to find song moments for these characters. It really sings." Good news. Happily, it turns out that my dreamy odd characters were supposed to be singing all along.

But the playwright-to-librettist transition was not seamless. Figuring out bookwriting took a while. Every week, I'd be at the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center studying my butt off—watching old videos in the archives, journal and stopwatch in hand, clocking the scenes, dissecting my favorite shows. Like frogs. What is the book? What makes a good book? Simply, it's invention and arrangement. It's plotting artfully, building story, imagining characters, slinging jokes so we can all breathe between songs, setting up plateaus for different types of music, conceiving a world that requires music in the first place—and the scenes, yes, the scenes that you see in the final product, of course it's that. But for my money, the bookwriter's most important work is invisible. It happens in conversations with the songwriter. Lots of time in a room with each other. It happens over years and through workshops. You put in the time, you imagine things together, till nobody remembers who thought what first. Best moment along the way: after we finished our first draft, a producer told us that the show felt like "one voice," and that might be my favorite compliment ever.

Writing a first musical is like this: we talk, we write, we rewrite, we edit each other, we talk, we despair, we cut, someone gets inspired, we talk, we write, we rewrite, rinse repeat. "Talk forever," John Weidman says. That's how you get to one voice. We're just playing pretend. Part of me's always gonna be that kid in roller skates at the bottom of the cul de sac, but now the songs are new. Let me write ten more. I'm hooked! I love this difficult work we do.

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: Returning to the Festival

2014-10-17T15:37:00.001-04:00

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

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

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

I’m pretty sure my and Ian Williams’ show Kingdom was in the NAMT festival 2007. Though I have no memory of the year 2007, I have evidence that it worked out well, since many of the contacts in my “theatre industry” Excel spreadsheet say “NAMT 07.” I also know that it was at the NAMT festival where folks from The Old Globe first got interested in Kingdom, which is what led to our first production, first agent, first improper liaison with a cast member, etc.

(Note: that last “first” is in dispute, thanks to differing definitions of words like “improper” and
“member.” And “first.”)

I can only assume the main difference in terms of process between then and now is that in 2007, Ian and I were sitting on our asses picking our toes (each our own asses and toes, thank you very much – please see reference in paragraph one to “cast.”) waiting for the next email from NAMT telling us what to do; whereas in 2014 my collaborators and I are so incredibly successful, juggling so many projects, that we have been delinquent in serious tasks like blog-writing and less serious tasks like finding a director and cast.

That said, we feel confident that when we (the How to Break team) get it together, NAMT will be able to tell us what to do with it. Unlike in my imaginary memory of 2007, NAMT now has fancy GoogleDrive spreadsheets for casting, fancy logos for all the shows, audio samples on the website, electronic clones of Branden Huldeen, etc.

Meanwhile, my collaborators and I are making up for the technological improvements made by NAMT since 2007 by regressing not only to a pre-digital age but to a pre-paper age.

(When was paper invented? Were the 10 Commandments written in stone because there was no paper, or because stone is an easier material with which to hit people upside the head?)

Kingdom presented difficulties in the NAMT 2007 festival process because Ian scored everything by hand, and the raps were very loosely scored. How to Break is attempting to make up for what it lacks in musical complexity (basically, one person sings all the songs and the other three rap) with an innovative aural score. Meaning we haven’t written any of the music down. (Shh, don’t tell Branden.)

All obnoxious ribbing aside, the support and detail-oriented guidance coming from NAMT throughout this process have been just what we need to get us all on the same page (a metaphorical page given that the score doesn’t exist, but a page nonetheless), and stands in stark contrast to my recent attempt to organize a tour of How to Break with my own theatre company, which crumbled due to the fact that I am not NAMT.

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

2014-10-09T14:17:00.000-04:00

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

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: Preparing Orchestrations and Arrangements

2014-10-01T14:44:00.001-04:00

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

well as the challenges and great rewards of live performance.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Work in Progress: IRVING BERLIN'S HOLIDAY INN

2014-09-24T13:36:00.000-04:00

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

Happy holidays! Check into the tuneful world-premiere musical about a Connecticut farmhouse transformed into a jubilant nightspot—but only on holidays. From Valentine's Day to the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving to Christmas, expect a cornucopia of hit songs by Irving Berlin in a dance-dizzy romance based on the classic film that first starred Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby. Raise a glass of cheer to "Happy Holiday," "Easter Parade," "Be Careful, It's My Heart" and more of the world's greatest show tunes.

Who had the initial idea to turn Holiday Inn into a stage show and what was that impulse?
Universal Stage Productions launched the initial process of turning the beloved film “Holiday Inn” into the stage musical Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn. Universal has a thriving development arm led by Chris Herzberger. Chris came out of the regional theatre in Chicago and values our place in the development of new work. Under Chris's leadership, Universal is working with partners across the country on developing their catalogue and Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn will be one of the first to make it to full production.

What is Goodspeed's relationship with Universal pictures through this process?
Universal and Chris Herzberger have been truly wonderful partners and colleagues throughout this process. Universal brought writers Gordon Greenberg and Chad Hodge on board to begin developing the adaptation of “Holiday Inn” in 2012. Goodspeed has developed several projects with Gordon as either bookwriter or director (or both!) and he suggested to Chris that Goodspeed was a natural fit as the first home of Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn. From our very first conversation at the NAMT conference in the fall of 2012, it was clear that Chris and I shared a love of this film and a vision for bringing it to life on the stage. Universal led the charge in the early stages of development working closely with the Irving Berlin Music Company, but Goodspeed's early commitment to producing the show on the Opera House stage in the fall of 2014 was a critical piece of the plan from Universal's perspective. Once the major players committed to the project, work moved very quickly. Chris and I have worked for about a year with Gordon and Chad to bring the script to the point where we are excited to begin rehearsal this week—in fact, I am writing this in the afterglow of the read-through on our first day of rehearsal. Goodspeed suggested Sam Davis as vocal and dance arranger for the project and that has proven to be a brilliant choice—if we say so ourselves! And we worked together with Universal to identify the remainder of the creative team. Honestly, Goodspeed and Universal have been on the same page about this project at every turn.

Why does Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn fit well with Goodspeed and the Opera House audience?

Anyone who has attended a performance at the Goodspeed Opera House understands that we are a perfect fit for Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn. Our creative staff and our audiences have a love and appreciation for musical comedy loaded with dance. It’s what we cut our teeth on, so committing to this project was truly a “no-brainer” for us. And our audiences responded immediately to tell us we’d made a choice of which they approved (translation: get your tickets soon!)

You have a produced a couple readings of the piece prior to presenting it. What has changed as the show has evolved from the screenplay to the stage musical?
Although many elements of the film remain, we’ve taken liberties to enhance the experience of seeing the show live onstage. The goal was to amplify everything we loved about the movie. To do that we’ve interpolated songs and turned a few songs from the movie into big production numbers. We’ve made narrative adjustments, looking at characters and their humanity through a contemporary lens, while keeping it all firmly rooted in the period in which the film was created. I think the result is something quite special.

Why should everyone come see Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn this fall?
As Gordon Greenberg said in his “Director’s vision” for our playbill, “Holiday Inn is a sparkly new musical with all the great Irving Berlin songs from the film—and many more Berlin songs that audiences will recognize and love. It has big dance numbers, big ideas and most of all, a big heart. It’s all about the beauty of being true to yourself; living simply and honestly and finding rewards in doing what you love on your own terms.” Isn’t that reason enough for a visit to East Haddam?

And the best time to see Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn will be at the NAMT New Works Summit on November 13!

For more information about the show, please visit www.goodspeed.org

Festival Show Update: MY HEART IS THE DRUM

2014-09-24T13:34:00.000-04:00

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

My Heart Is the Drum is a big musical set in West Africa with a driving, African-influenced score. It is about Efua Kuti, a 16-year-old girl who aches to leave behind her stifling, poverty-struck village to become a teacher, and Edward Adu, a traditional farmhand who is in love with her. Inspired by the spirit of her grandmother, Efua runs away to the city of Accra to attend the university, but on arrival gets abducted into prostitution. Edward sets out to find her. Efua has always been able to draw on her cunning to solve her problems, but will she escape these most desperate circumstances? And if Edward finds her, will he still love her now that she has been “disgraced?” At its core, the musical is about finding the inner strength to achieve your goals and create social change.

What was feedback like for your show after you presented in our Festival?
Mainly, people told us they wanted to know what will happen to Efua, our heroine, in Act II. We took that as a good sign.

You had the opportunity to bring the show to Goodspeed’s Johnny Mercer Writers Colony this winter. What did you work on during that time in snowy Connecticut?
First, we went through the script and pinpointed the scenes, lyrics and music that we had always labelled "good enough for now" and that we'd fix "later." Our time at Goodspeed was our "later."
We also focused on two pivotal moments for Efua, one in Act I, one in Act II. We all feel very passionately about her, and it took several passes—including one serious crash and burn—before we found the monologue in Act I, and the completely unexpected song in Act II, that we all felt to be "effortlessly" right.

This month at Village Theatre, you had your first ever reading of the full show. What was it like to finally hear the whole show aloud in front of a public audience?
Thrilling and gratifying. After so many years since its start at the BMI workshop, we could see that we had a full, working show and one that moved people. The audience also responded strongly to the script's humor. For the songs, they not only clapped, but cheered for most of them and scene moments also drew applause.

When a member of the audience approached us afterwards to point out how moved she was by one of those key moments for Efua we’d labored over—the spot where a song had crashed and burned at Goodspeed, and which we'd gone on to reconceive completely—well, that was a proud moment.

What did you learn from that reading and what changes are you looking to make now?
As the reading at Village Theatre was only a week ago (and we’re still basking in the afterglow), we’re just now figuring out what changes need to be made. We’re also looking forward to receiving and reading the comment sheets from their audience members for additional feedback. But we do know we’d like to trim and sharpen Act II, to create even more tension and a greater acceleration toward the end of the show.

Next season, you are heading to Kent State University, near Cleveland, for a full production! What are you excited about working on when you finally get the show on its feet?
Everything! But “on its feet” are key words. Dance is completely integrated with music in West African cultures and we can’t wait to adjust the show, as needed, as we finally discover how dance helps bring the show to life.
Also, it is an extremely visual show, with images that are unfamiliar to most of our audience. Daily village life and work, urban street hawkers, the clash of African traditions and poverty with modernity and rich businessmen—we think that these visuals will add many layers to the story.

Why should people plan to come to Kent State to catch My Heart Is the Drum?
We believe that My Heart Is the Drum is something rare today: an original story that is transporting and dramatic, told with warmth, humor and hope. It has a driving, African-influenced score that is deeply theatrical. And while the themes are universal, many of the timely details are particular to the hardships of those in West Africa, particularly of girls who struggle for an education, and who make great sacrifices as they strive for a better life.

For details about the Kent State production, please visit www.kent.edu/theatre_new/my-heart-drum.

For more about the show, please visit www.myheartisthedrum.com or like My Heart Is The Drum on Facebook.

FESTIVAL COUNTDOWN: Cutting Down Your Show

2014-08-21T14:32:00.001-04:00

We kick off this year's Festival season with our first Festival Countdown Blog! In this

entry, Duane Poole, bookwriter of Beautiful Poison, gives us insight on how to prepare the 45-minute cut of the show for the Festival.

So we get the news that we made the cut. (By “we” I mean composer Brendan Milburn, lyricist Valerie Vigoda, and bookwriter me.) Our “Beautiful Poison” is in this year’s NAMT Festival! The thrill of the announcement is still fresh when we realize we have yet another cut to make -- bringing our two-hour musical down to a strict forty-five minutes for the presentation.

Okay, this shouldn’t be a problem. As both a writer and producer, I’ve done this sort of thing countless times over the years. But there seems to be extra pressure on this particular cut. Perhaps it’s knowing who might be in our audiences this October. What can we show these theatre insiders in that abbreviated time that will truly represent the variety of music, the twists of plot, and the richness of character we three have worked so hard to create?

We briefly consider using a narrator to present the entire musical, speeding past plot points
and trimming songs along the way to get it all in. We realize, however, that this “best of” approach would surely strip a dimension or two from what we believe are richly layered characters. So we quickly dismiss that idea and opt to focus on the first act. If we begin at the beginning and carry it through to our cliffhanger act break, the audience might be intrigued enough to want to learn what the second act holds.

Sounds good. We’re all on board. But our first act has been running sixty-two minutes and we know that at forty-five minutes sharp the lights go out, the curtain comes down. Each of us now pulls out a red pen and begins cutting. What can go without doing serious damage?

Well, a couple of characters and plot points don’t really pay off until the second act, so those are easy lifts. Likewise, some dialogue is merely set-up for a reveal we won’t be getting to in this act anyway. Another easy choice. Snip. From there, however, the cuts come hard. Real sacrifices.

The use of a narrator allows some dialogue to come out in helpful chunks, the saving grace being that those exchanges are not lost forever. Favorite stretches of music are abbreviated or cut completely. We realize one extended musical sequence that we all love is pure set-up and atmosphere involving a couple characters we don’t see again in this act. We have to be practical...and that includes keeping an eye on cast size for this presentation. (We’re limited to ten players.) So the sequence disappears and we’re five minutes and two less characters closer to our target time.

Once we’re satisfied with the draft, it goes off to our director and musical director for a fresh look. Have we cut enough? Have we cut too much? Have we cut the right things? Ultimately only the audience can tell us that -- as long as we reach that cliffhanger before the hook drags us offstage. Time will tell.

New Work in Progress: THE MAX FACTOR FACTOR

2014-08-20T14:34:00.000-04:00

This month, we check in with Elise Dewsberry, Artistic Director at New Musicals Inc. as she tells us about the reason for their new name and tells us about their brand new musical, The Max Factor Factor.

It’s 1936; the golden age of Hollywood, and two rival movie studios are in a heated battle for survival when their opposing leading men fall in love. Reminiscent of screwball comedies of the past, this new musical takes place in a world of artifice, backstabbing, lavender weddings, double-crossing starlets, and a moral crusader from the Legion of Rectitude, making it increasingly more difficult for the leading men to hold on to the one real thing each has ever found. It’s funny, charming, romantic, happily nostalgic, and very tuneful.

Before we dive in to the show, Academy for NewMusical Theatre recently rebranded as New Musicals Inc. Tell us a bit about the motivation behind the change and what this means for the company.
This is actually our second name change: for 30 years, we were the Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, focusing entirely on writers.
But in 2002, we added workshops for actors and producers, and felt we needed a new name to reflect the larger vision. Since THAT time, we have expanded our mission to include public performances, concerts, and production. That expansion has been very successful, giving us national presence, national partners with producers and theatre companies, and so we felt the need to make a distinction between our academic programs and our professional production and development branches. We wanted a name that would characterize us as a professional organization with ties to the commercial producing world, that also runs a school. So..."New Musicals Inc."
(We will still be running our academic division under the name "Academy for New Musical Theatre," as a program at NMI.)

This show was born out of your workshop/reading process. Tell us a bit about how NMI helps develop shows.
We've been developing musicals for nearly fifty years, so as you can imagine we have several different approaches we use, depending on the musical itself. Generally, we stay in outline until it's rock solid...even before adding songs, we want to make sure the story tracks, and the characters have strong, clear motivations. We find that all too often if writers gloss over this outlining step, and dive into writing songs too early, they fall in love with wonderful songs which don't serve the story, and spend the rest of their time trying to justify songs which belong in a different show.
So after outlining, we then encourage writing a very rough rambling draft of the book of the musical, exploring character diction, action beats, and conflict, etc. It's not until after the rough draft that we start to encourage beginning to think about songs. I think we're fairly unique in this step: many composers create songs straight from the outline, or even before that...but we've found the specificity of the rough draft really helps focus a lyric.
Another unique approach we have is to develop musicals FOR producers...to initiate musicals based on producers' and audience's needs and wants, rather than writersworking in a vacuum and hoping there will be some interest in it. For many projects at New Musicals Inc, we start with an idea, rather than with a script, partnering writers with producers to create the script together from the very very beginning. (This was, in fact, the case forThe Max Factor Factor with Celebration Theatre.)

This is the 3rd world premiere production for NMI; how do you go about selecting which shows go past the reading stage?
Many of NMI's shows are developed in partnership with producers, so it's usually the producer who says "This is ready to go past the reading stage." If we're the sole producers, we usually look for shows which have grown up in our own workshops, of course, but beyond that there's not really a common element. Dramas, comedies, big/small...family or edgy—that doesn't matter to us. Instead, we're looking for shows which would benefit from OUR producing it ourselves, where we're trying to balance honoring writers' visions, but at the same time, we're also often trying to lead the writers to see what changes might make their show more appealing, or commercial.

Why are you excited to present this show to a California audience?
We love "The Max Factor Factor." It's a screwball comedy that takes place in the 1930's about two rival movie studios whose leading men fall in love with each other. This show asks us to examine what kind of sacrifices we're willing to make for success or societal acceptance.

Why should people swing by North Hollywood catchThe Max Factor Factor?
Although the show was developed especially for Celebration Theatre, we believe it has a truly universal appeal in its message of acceptance and perseverance—not to mention it's just a lot of fun!

For more information about The Max Factor Factor, please visit www.nmi.org

New Work in Progress: NINE WIVES

2014-07-23T12:30:00.004-04:00

An interview with John Simpkins, Artistic Director of SharonPlayhouse, about their upcoming production of Nine Wives with music and lyrics by Douglas J. Cohen (Barnstormer, Fest '08; Glimmerglass, Fest '00; The Gig, Fest '94) and book and lyrics by Dan Elish.

Based on the novel Nine Wives by Dan Elish, this new musical tells the story of Henry Mann, a 32-year-old bachelor who discovers that the love of his life has met someone new and is about to get married. What's worse, he's been invited to her wedding! What follows are Henry's frantic attempts to find a woman he can take as his date – a potential future wife – to prove to his ex-fiancée (and the world) that he too is ready to move on.

How did Nine Wives find its way to Sharon Playhouse?
I had seen a reading of the show a few years ago and really enjoyed it. It had always been on my radar – and then Jayson Raitt, one of the producers on the show, approached me and wondered if it might be a nice fit for Sharon. I had worked with Dan Elish before…and I’ve admired Doug Cohen’s work for years. It seemed like a great fit to join their team. They had done quite a bit of really good work on the story since I had seen the reading and we had a terrific meeting about the things they wanted to accomplish with a developmental production in Sharon.

What drew you to this story?
I have a tendency to really fall for stories about the everyman. The protagonist, Henry, is one of those people who rarely shows up in musicals. He is, as he describes himself “a perfectly acceptable athlete, an excellent musician, passably good-looking, and disease free.” He just happens, like many people, to not be able to find someone with whom he clicks enough to have a real relationship. I tend to connect as a human with characters who are in the kind of turmoil that regular people experience in their life.

Why is the show a good fit for your mission and audience?
The Sharon Playhouse aspires to be a place where the next generation of artists and audiences can be celebrated and given a place to grow together. We have a diverse and eclectic audience that can get equally excited about a heavy drama as they can about something light and funny that they have never seen. We are proud of our ability to give artists a place to experiment and work – and our audiences are thrilled to be a part of that process and understand the way musicals develop and grow through production opportunities.

How does this show fit into your theatre's overall new works program?
We are committed to assisting writers in several stages of development – but the one we can be most helpful with on our Stage 2 space (where Nine Wives will be produced) is something early in the life of a piece. This will be the first staged production of Nine Wives – and we devote the resources of our terrific resident designers and staff to work with the creative team and writers/ producers throughout the process. This summer new work production slot in our season gives a musical a chance to have an actual small production instead of a reading – something that we hope is valuable in the evolution and development of any show.

Nine Wives is still very much in progress as a script. What are you and the writers working on for this production?
Like any musical at this stage of development, we have a long list of things that we’re working on across the board – most of which we will learn as we allow the characters to live and breathe off the page and out from behind music stands. In addition to those things that are learned through the production process, the writers are making some terrific changes in all areas of the book, music and lyrics based on the pre-production conversations we’ve been having. Hopefully people who have been exposed to this show in the past will see continued and exciting development as they come see us in Sharon July 24-27!

Why should people head up to Sharon, CT this summer to catch Nine Wives?
It’s a fun and terrific show, it’s a first production by a very talented writing and creative team, it’s a beautiful drive or train ride (under 2 hours from NYC!) and it’s a terrific chance to see a piece that you may want to program at your theatres. As currently structured, Nine Wives is a three person, 90-minute (no intermission) show with a pianist. It’s terrifically achievable to produce in any theatre setting – and we’re hopeful that the Sharon production will be the first of many.

Visit www.triarts.net for more information or to purchase tickets.

Festival Show Update: THE CIRCUS IN WINTER

2014-07-23T12:29:00.003-04:00

This month, we check in with Ben Clark, composer and lyricist of 2012 Festival show The Circus in Winter, as he prepares for its premiere this October at Goodspeed Musicals.

Meeting an elephant can change a man’s life. The Circus in Winter is a folk/rock musical inspired by the novel by Cathy Day, where legend and lore collide under the big top filled with disheveled hustlers, death-defying acrobats and a dreamer named Wallace Porter searching for redemption and grace.

A lot has been happening with the show since it was in the Festival. The biggest change is that Hunter Foster (Summer of '42, Fest '99) has joined the team as a bookwriter. Why did you bring on a bookwriter and what drew you and the rest of the team to Hunter?
Bringing Hunter on is a huge plus for us. We chose Hunter because we feel he can take the feel and spirit of the score, as well as the language of the source material, to give the piece a unified voice. Within the conversations about our first professional run, he agreed with a lot of feelings we had moving forward in regards to creative team, and was able to open some doors to benefit our creative process.

You've also made some changes to the score and story. What changes are you most excited about?
Generally, we're trying see how thick we can make this story. We don't want to overload, but experimenting with multiple time frames, seeing the characters in many different lenses is what we're going for now. We really want the music and scene work to flow, we want the numbers to emerge organically from the action on stage.

You are preparing for a world premiere up at Goodspeed this fall. What are your goals for this production?
The goal, in my mind, is to use the environment at Goodspeed to experiment with, and shape our story. I think actors influence writing in a wonderful way; I start writing with my cast in mind when I have one so I'm excited for those new discoveries. In what little casting we've looked at, the possibilities are wide open to use individual strengths to the advantage of the entire show.

What is one thing that you have cut from the show that you miss?
We've yet to cut anything solidly, just exploring options in storytelling. So, no tears yet.

Why should people swing by Connecticut this fall to check out the circus?
Because tickets are going fast, and it's going to be too cool for school. An elephant in a folk rock musical in the 1800's sounds pretty cool in my mind. Personally, I've yet to work on any artistic endeavor with the passion I've put into this project. It started as a project in class for me and fourteen others, and turned into the launch pad for my career in composition. In my mind, it ensures that art is a study, young artists are doing legitimate work and this needs to be a part of education in this country.

For more information about The Circus in Winter, please visit www.goodspeed.org.

New Work in Progress: PLAY IT BY HEART

2014-06-09T16:03:00.004-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For more information about the show, please visit www.humanracetheatre.org.

Festival Show Update: ELMER GANTRY

2014-06-09T16:01:00.001-04:00

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

Elmer Gantry is a musical with a country-pop-gospel score, set in the Depression-era Midwest. The title character is a down-on-his-luck former minister whose life as a traveling salesman takes an unexpected turn when he walks into the tent of Sister Sharon Falconer, a beautiful and charismatic woman evangelist. Joining her troupe, he's soon preaching again and using his entrepreneurial instincts to make the troupe so successful, it's invited to play Zenith, the biggest city in the Midwest. He also becomes Sharon's lover. Their success in Zenith leads to opportunity, intrigue, tragedy and reaffirmation of Americans' ability to deal with their circumstances and get on with their lives. The musical is adapted from the novel by Nobel Prize-winner Sinclair Lewis.

The original version of the show appeared in our 1993 Festival, having been originally commissioned by Ford’s Theatre and presented there in 1988. What was your Festival experience like back in 1993 and what kind of response did you get from your presentation of your show?
There was a second production of the show in 1991, before we did it at NAMT, at La Jolla Theatre, directed by Des McAnuff. In 1993, we had a wonderful time at NAMT, and we felt the presentation was very successful. Several theaters showed interest. Frankie Hewitt, the producer of the show at Ford’s Theater in 1988, decided to revive the show at Ford’s in 1995 in a production directed by Michael Maggio. After that production, there was a New York City workshop in 1997, directed by James Lapine, and an outstanding production in 1998 at the Marriott Lincolnshire Theater in Chicago, directed by Eric Schaeffer.

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

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

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

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

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

New Work In Progress: DOG AND PONY

2014-05-14T11:44:00.003-04:00

An interview with Barry Edelstein, Artistic Director of The Old Globe, about their upcoming premiere of Dog and Pony with a book by Rick Elice and music and lyrics by Michael Patrick Walker.

Mags and Andy are a screenwriting team with a track record of hits and a professional relationship that’s firing on all cylinders. But when Andy’s marriage hits the rocks, forever single Mags finds she wants something more. Will romance ruin their perfect relationship? A witty and irreverent look at what women want and whether men fit the bill...or don’t.

How did Dog and Pony find its way to The Old Globe?
The first thing I did when I was appointed Artistic Director was call a bunch of talented people I’m fortunate to count as friends. I asked them what they had cooking that might be in need of a home. One of the wonderful artists I called was the great Rick Elice. He told me about this musical he was writing with Michael Patrick Walker, a funny, witty and urbane piece about two screenwriters whose professional relationship is buffeted when romance enters the picture. I read it and listened to the score and was just beguiled by it. Another person I called was Roger Rees. I asked him what he had up his sleeve to direct, and he said, “Rick’s musical!” So the piece’s charms, plus the considerable charms of Rick and Roger, made me say, “I’m in!”

What about the show did you see as a good fit for The Old Globe and your audiences?
I was looking for a small-scale musical for our Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, a 250-seat theatre in the round. San Diego has an incredible musical theatre audience, of course because of the reputations of the Globe and the La Jolla Playhouse for premiering these works, but also because the small theatre scene in town is rich in musical theatre talent. So Dog and Pony had it all: the right size and scope we were seeking, a winning tone, really terrific score and a group of artists who are top flight.

This is the first production for the show. What are some of the challenges for the team as they prepare to bring this show from the page to the stage?
Premiering a new musical is always a daunting task. Doing one in the round just adds to the degree of difficulty. I've so enjoyed watching Roger and set designer Kris Stone solve all the book’s demands in the round with a minimum of scenery and a maximum of imagination. There’s a climactic scene that takes place on an airplane, in one of those banks of three adjoining seats. Our hero and heroine are in the window and aisle seats, respectively, and having an intense moment. Someone comes in to take the middle seat, and the scene goes from there. It’s imagined for a proscenium stage: three seats side by side, facing front. You can’t do that in the round because you have to keep opening everyone to all sides of the house. Roger and Kris have come up with an ingenious solution involving three office chairs upholstered in pink. Nothing at all realistic about it, but we totally get where we are. It’s very clever.

What moment in the show do you think will most surprise or delight your audience?
There’s a duet between the mothers of our two leads, both singing about how their grown children have made messes of their romantic lives. The trick is that both moms are played by the same actress, who does a high octane crazy comic duet with herself. It’s a tour de force.

How does Dog and Pony fit in to the bigger new works initiatives at The Old Globe?
World premieres are very important to this theatre, which has a long track record of contributing material to the national repertoire. We are fortunate that we were able to find this wonderful piece but we want to be able to generate more work ourselves. We’re working on building an infrastructure strong enough that we can do much more development in house. Being able to give shows their first steps in to the big world is a real privilege and we want to get better and better and smarter and smarter at doing it.

Why should people swing by San Diego to catch the show?
It’s a delightful, funny, entertaining show and it’s also about real human issues: how we balance, or fail to balance, our professional and personal lives; how much easier it is to just be alone than actually to risk being vulnerable to another human being but how much emptier that makes our hearts. I love the piece and I think audiences will relish it.

For more information about the show, please visit www.theoldglobe.org.

Festival Show Update: ANALOG AND VINYL

2014-05-14T11:42:00.001-04:00

Festival 2013 show Analog and Vinyl is jumping up to Vermont's Weston Playhouse this summer for its world premiere. This month we check in with the show's writer Paul Gordon about preparing for the musical's first production.

Harrison is obsessed with LPs from the sixties and the superior quality of analog. Rodeo Girl, a quirky Silver Lake hipster, is obsessed with Harrison but he barely notices. With his vintage record store about to go under, Harrison and Rodeo Girl are visited by a mysterious customer who makes them a devilish offer they can't refuse.

What did you learn about Analog and Vinyl while preparing it for the Festival?
Preparing for the Festival wasn't as much a learning experience as it was an "inspiring" experience. Once you know your show is going to be seen by an industry audience, it does strange things to the creative process. You start looking at the material with more fluid eyes. You start questioning and examining the material (all while trying to create a 45-minute presentation), and suddenly you begin asking yourself the serious dramaturgical questions of theme and character (that you had previously avoided) that are vital to the developmental process. One of the great gifts that came out of my preparation for the Festival was that I felt incentivized to write a new song for the lead character that helped to transform the show.

Your show only had readings leading up to the Festival and now is preparing for a world premiere this summer at Weston Playhouse. What has it been like to jump from reading to production without a workshop in between?

Heaven. I love workshops and readings but there's nothing like preparing for a production. In our day and age some have been critical that shows have "too many readings" and "too many workshops" in the developmental stage. To me that is pure nonsense. I have never done a reading where I didn't gain some primary understanding about my show (even if that understanding was, "hey, this is crap..."). With that said, after several readings and the Festival, I'm delighted to actually have, for the first time, a proper rehearsal period to really further develop the work with cast, crew, designers and director.

What have you been working on since the Festival?
Michael Berresse, the director of Analog and Vinyl, has wonderful dramaturgical skills. Since the Festival we have had several extensive note sessions and I have written two new drafts of the show and three new songs. We are still hard at work: tightening, refining, raising stakes and trying out some new ideas. The "essence" of the show remains unchanged, but improvements are on the way.

In the Festival, we mixed things up a bit and made “The Stranger” a woman (played by the wonderful Harriet Harris) when it had always been a man in previous readings. Have you settled on a preference of genders for “The Stranger”?
The idea of The Stranger being a woman was so well received at the Festival that we have decided that, at least for now, we'd like to continue with the character being female. It works either way, but there were some new discoveries we made when Harriet did the part that we'd like to keep intact in the script.

What are you hoping for next after Weston Playhouse?
Ideally we'd like to take the show into New York. We feel the themes of Analog and Vinyl are universal and contemporary. We hope the show's esoteric humor and its indie rock score will appeal to a wide range of theater-goers. And we hope to offend EVERYONE with our irreverent take on spiritual themes often unexplored in rock musicals.

Why should people head up to beautiful scenic Vermont this June and July to see Analog and Vinyl?
Because this show, above all else, is FUN. If you learn anything from this show or if the show gives you insight or deeper understanding about how the universe works— that is purely accidental. We simply want you to see this show because we think you will have an amazingly good time. And you will laugh. And you might come home with a song or two stuck in your head and then illegally download songs from my website. And that would be fine.

For more information about Analog and Vinyl, please visit www.westonplayhouse.org.

New Work in Progress: CHASING THE SONG

2014-04-15T15:28:00.000-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What are you hoping to discover as the show gets up on its feet for the first time?

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

What are the plans for the show after La Jolla?

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

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

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

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

Festival Show Update: BLEEDING LOVE

2014-04-15T13:25:00.000-04:00

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

Bleeding Love is a post-apocalyptic musical comedy about a sixteen year old cellist who has never left her building, who risks going out into the dangerous world in order to get her one chance at love.

When you presented Bleeding Love at the Festival, it was the premiere of the musical for any audience. What did you learn about the show from finally seeing it in front of an audience?
Yes, NAMT was our very first reading! We learned a great deal about how specific the tone was, because it rides the line between bleakness and comedy, and honest emotion and farce, so we had to make sure we were making that balance clear to the audience.

You were up at Goodspeed Musicals last winter for the Mercer Writers’ Retreat. What was the focus of that devoted time away?
That was an incredible experience. More productive than we ever could have imagined. The three of us, who do not all live in the same city, got to be together for a week straight and just write. We ended up writing an entirely new opening number, completing a very complicated multi-scene song and brainstorming what the end of the musical would be. An unbelievable amount of productivity in such a short period of time.

The show will have a premiere production this season at The Spirit of Broadway Theater in Connecticut. What work are you doing on the show to prepare for its first production?
We are tightening the show to make sure it is production-ready as well as getting our first orchestrations together. We are very excited.

What are you hoping to discover and sort out when the show finally gets on its feet in a production?
We are excited to finally get the chance to see what the show is as a whole without the rhythm being impeded
by stage directions or mimed props. The show takes place in different areas of an apartment building, so a lot of the storytelling is dependent on the shift from location to location, the life that exists within those locations, and visual props and phenomena (snow, growing flowers, etc.) much more so than most other musicals. So we are excited to see the piece fully realized.

The show will also head to Denmark next season for a premiere there. Are there any anticipated changes for its European premiere?
Well, the biggest change is that it will be in Danish! We are going to see what we learn from the Spirit of Broadway production and are lucky to be able to make those changes and see them implemented in the Denmark production.

What are the long range hopes for the show after Connecticut and Denmark?
We hope to bring it to a commercial audience in NY. The show is in the vein of other comically dark pieces likeLittle Shop, Urinetown or Sweeney Todd, so we hope for it to find its NY audience.

Why should people swing by Connecticut (or Denmark) to check out Bleeding Love?
Because Bleeding Love is a unique, well-made musical. It has an original voice, fun characters and exceedingly melodic music. The show itself uses magical theatrical conventions that can only be seen in full production. The readings we have done have gotten people excited, laughing, and moved and we believe you will be, too.

Festival Show Update: THE TROUBLE WITH DOUG

2014-03-11T15:04:00.003-04:00

An interview with the writers of The Trouble with Doug, Daniel Maté and Will Aronson, about the developments on their 2010 Festival show as it prepares for a production at NAMT member theatre Arts Garage down in Florida this spring.

A contemporary re-imagining of Kafka’s "Metamorphosis," The Trouble With Doug is a hilarious and moving new musical about a healthy young man who transforms inexplicably into a giant talking slug. Thrust together awkwardly under the same roof, Doug, his family, and his fiancée all struggle to understand and respond to this strangest of crises.

Last time we checked in with you, Doug was heading to Palo Alto, CA for TheatreWorks' festival. How was that process for you and the show?
We had a great time in Palo Alto. TheatreWorks provides a unique workshopping opportunity – a chance to perform the show in front of an audience, rewrite, re-tech, perform again, and then repeat that process three times. You can really take the show into the laboratory and experiment. (There’s really no better way to see what works and what doesn't than to watch the show in front of actual people a few times!)

What changes did you make to the show while in California?
After watching the show, we felt that our titular character was under-developed — so we added several new musical moments for Doug throughout the first act to clarify his arc and round him out a bit more. We also tried out a number of new scenes for Doug’s family, and also ended up with a slightly gentler ending.

You are currently rewriting the show for a production down at Arts Garage in Florida. What are your goals with this rewrite?
We’ve both been busy with several different projects, so this is a great opportunity to get back into Doug world and implement the changes we've long discussed. Aside from continuing to flesh out the rewrites we began in Palo Alto, we’re excited to upgrade the score so that each song moment is as dynamic and memorable as possible! In addition, true to that old musical adage that openings often come last, we’re writing an entirely new opening— replacing a song we’ve had for a long time with what we hope will be a new and more energetic start to the show.

What are your desired next steps for the show after Florida?
It might sound strange to say when a show is about a giant talking slug and his crazy family, but we’ve felt, especially since TheatreWorks, that we have the basis here for a really accessible, crowd-pleasing show, one that could connect with a lot of different audiences and fans of new musical theatre. We’d love to get more theaters interested in the piece, and hopefully license it. A New York production would also be fabulous of course!

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

For more information about the show, please visit www.artsgarage.org