NEW WORK IN PROGRESS: Snapshots

An interview with Goodspeed Musicals' Bob Alwine about their current production of Snapshots, a new musical that uses the songs of Stephen Schwartz to tell a new story.

Sue and Dan, after 20 years of marriage, have drifted apart. They discover a box of photographs in their attic which leads them to relive the memories captured in the snapshots. The couple discovers the humorous twists of how love united them and why life has pushed them apart. All couples will see themselves in Snapshots.

How did Snapshots find its way to Goodspeed?
I saw a production of Snapshots at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto in 2008. I knew that the writing team was looking to develop the work further, so I suggested a production with Goodspeed Musicals. I remained in touch with the team for the last five years which lead us to the current production in our Norma Terris Theatre in Chester, CT.

The show has already had a couple of productions. How can Goodspeed help further the show's development at this stage?
The journey began in 1991 when the book writers approached Stephen Schwartz to see if he was interested in a revue of his work. Over the years there have been several breaks in the writing process. During these breaks the writers grew as artists, as did their respective life experiences. This journey helped to inform the characters while expanding the body of available songs. The various productions have had different creative teams, so these productions became very useful in showing the writing team what did and didn't work. This collective information will be applied to the production at Goodspeed.

How much do you anticipate changing while at Goodspeed given that you never officially open the shows at the Terris?
Like all shows at the Norma Terris, the team will continue to work during the run. Since the show has been through several previous incarnations, more emphasis will be placed on refining the work under the leadership of a creative team new to the show. Stephen Schwartz and book writer David Stern will be available to us during the process as we explore the storytelling aspects of the show.

What drew you to this show?
The show has a unique format. At its core the show features the catalogue of celebrated songwriter Stephen Schwartz. However, the structure of the show, unlike a revue, has a complete emotional arc for the main characters. To make the storytelling work, Stephen Schwartz made revisions to some lyrics in order for the repurposed songs to make sense. His active participation in the process, including writing one new song for the show, has created a work that is neither a revue nor a book musical, but instead a musical scrapbook.

What do you think will surprise people the most about the show when they come catch it in Connecticut?
Audience members who know the Stephen Schwartz songbook will be surprised at how the songs from Wicked, Pippin and Godspell have been repurposed and combined with songs from Rags, Children of Eden, The Magic Show, Enchanted, etc. to tell an emotional journey of the central couple, Sue and Dan. Audiences who are not familar with his body of work will be introduced to the full breadth of this celebrated songwriter.

For more information on Snapshots, please visit www.goodspeed.org.

FESTIVAL SHOW UPDATE: Lizzie

An interview with the writers of Fest 2011 show Lizzie (formerly known as Lizzie Borden), Steven Cheslik-deMeyer (SCD), Alan Stevens Hewitt (ASH) and Tim Maner (TM) about the upcoming concert, three productions around the world and a studio cast album!

In 1892 on a sweltering August day in a small New England town, “somebody” brutally murdered a well-to-do elderly man and his second wife with an axe. Lizzie Borden, their youngest daughter, was the primary suspect, arrested and tried. Without any witnesses to the hideous crime, she was acquitted, and the murders remain unsolved to this day. Though Lizzie was ultimately declared innocent according to the law, her infamy lives on.

Lizzie has had quite a bit of development since it left the Festival.  Other than the new name, what has changed with the show since it was at the Festival?
ASH: If you think of the show as a gatefold vinyl double album (a la Tommy, or Jesus Christ Superstar), pretty much the entire Side 1 has been rewritten, with the addition of two solos for Lizzie and one for Alice to allow the audience to understand where they are starting from and to get onboard with them. Also, one of the central musical/lyrical themes (which is reprised, transformed, at the end) is now introduced in a completely different way from how it had been previously. Whereas it had been an internal dialogue for Alice, it is now a lullabye ("Maybe Someday") sung by Alice to Lizzie. It brings the harrowing "Side 1" to a gentle close.
SCD: We wanted to strengthen the introduction of Lizzie's friend Alice who becomes so pivotal in the story, so we wrote a solo for her early in the first act. We also rewrote Lizzie's song “Gotta Get Out Of Here” to be more explicit and hard-hitting. Those are the big changes, but we also made lots of little tweaks here and there. 

You had the opportunity to have the show developed at Baldwin Wallace University and at the Village Theatre.  What did you learn about the show as it changed theatres, actresses and regions? 
SCD: The BWU production was the first time the show was produced where we weren't closely involved. It was great to find out that we really can hand it to a group of talented folks and feel confident that our idea of what the show is remains intact. It helps that the BW students directed by Vicky Bussert are phenomenally talented! We made discoveries about the first act and the Alice character that led to the changes mentioned above. Village gave us the opportunity for a trial run of lots of new elements: Alice's new song and the new orchestrations, a more rock and roll-style set and lighting. The folks at Village gave us great support in the process.
TM: We've learned new things every time, from new design teams, from different levels of production, from the unique variations all of the amazing women who have taken on the roles have shown us. We've gotten to really look at the show from different perspectives that have strengthened it at every turn.

What has surprised you about people’s response to the show outside of New York City?
ASH: I don't know if there have really been any "surprises" for me about how Lizzie has been received. It certainly has been thrilling though, and immensely gratifying to experience it connecting so strongly with people.

The show played last month at TUTS in Houston, having a concert version in Philly this fall with 11th Hour Theatre Co. and then jumping over to Denmark for a production in the spring.  What is it like to have your show spreading around the country?
SCD: It's tremendous! This show has been cooking for a long, long time. It's always felt really special to us, like it had the potential to connect with a wide audience. Now that that is starting to happen, it's incredibly gratifying. As an artist that's what you always hope will happen.
ASH: Around the country AND THE WORLD!  (Cue demonic laughter....) Are you kidding? It's AMAZING. I'm particularly interested to see how this subject from classic American mythology goes down with folks who have a different cultural perspective.
TM: It’s kinda unreal, but amazing. All those years ago when Lizzie began it was really pure fantasy to think anything like this could happen, and now it’s happening. It’s a rare thing in life to actually have a fantasy come true, and I’m very thankful.

A studio cast album is being released this fall.  Tell us a bit about recording the album and working with that cast. 
SCD: The conceit of Lizzie has always been that it is a rock concept album come to life on the stage, despite the fact that until now the album only existed in our minds. Now it's real. It's great to have this thing that we can hand people and say, "This is the show. Everything you need to know about Lizzie is here on this record." And the guys who play on it and the women who sing it blow me away every time I listen.
ASH: Well, we were very fortunate that we were able to get all the planets to align. Much credit to our producer Brisa Trinchero for green-lighting it and actually making it happen and to Broadway Records for their commitment to the project. I don't even know where to start talking about the album cast... Carrie Manolakos, Storm Large, Carrie Cimma, Ryah Nixon. Incredible, one-of-a-kind talents, all.  Really, so privileged to have been able to work with them, and they each turned in phenomenal performances that reward repeated listens. I am very proud of what we accomplished. I can't wait for people to hear it. And hear these women.
TM: The women are just amazing. Incredible singers/performers, and great people to work with. Same for the band/musicians. It was an incredible team effort from artists, to producers, to graphic designer, to our amazing engineer and more.

What are your hopes for the Borden sisters in the next few years? 
TM: I hope the House Of Borden continues to expand to include more theaters, more audiences and more amazing artists through new productions, concerts and the release of the album.  I want to attend many more opening nights.
ASH: I would love as many people as possible to have the opportunity to connect with Lizzie. I love the idea that, with the record available online, a kid in Japan, or Alaska, or Brazil, or Iceland, or Lithuania, could potentially find his or her way into the piece.  And I would love to see people continue to come together in dark rooms all over the world and experience great artists bringing it to life right in front of their eyes and ears.
SCD: More productions! We're at the end of the option period with the producers we've been working with the last couple years, so we're giving a lot of thought to next steps. We would all love a big New York production, since New York is home, but that's the tough nut to crack. Everything is kind of in flux right now. Stay tuned!

For more information on Lizzie, please visit www.lizziethemusical.com

NEW WORK IN PROGRESS: The Black Suits

An interview with Center Theatre Group's (CTG) Associate Artistic Director, Kelley Kirkpatrick, about their upcoming production of The Black Suits by Fest Alumnus Joe Iconis (Bloodsong of Love, '12) and Robert Maddock.

Every rock and roll fantasy begins in a garage. Scattered among the drums and guitars are the hopes, dreams, angst and rebellion of a new generation screaming to be heard. Joe Iconis takes us behind the music as four teenage Long Island misfits band together to escape Garden City, to conquer the world, to be “cool and whatever.” Now if the Black Suits can only win the St. Anne’s Battle of the Bands, their friendship just might survive the perilous transition to adulthood. The Black Suits celebrates the wannabe rock star in all of us: with a score that sends us out of the theatre singing and longing to be eighteen again.

How did The Black Suits find its way to CTG?  
I first became aware of TBS after seeing Bloodsong of Love at the NAMT Festival in 2011. I spoke with Joe and his agent, Scott Chaloff, briefly after the NAMT presentation, as I wanted to let them know how much I enjoyed it. Scott followed up (like a good agent always does) with me the following week and we had a long conversation about Joe and where he was in his composing and writing career. While ultimately I didn’t feel that Bloodsong of Love was quite the right fit for CTG at the time, I thought Joe was a tremendously gifted composer. Scott sent me The Black Suits to read along with a few of the songs from the show.
After reading and listening to it, I thought The Black Suits showed a lot of promise, but CTG wasn’t in a position to produce a new musical in the upcoming season, so I had to pass (for now). I asked Scott if he could arrange a meeting with Joe and me in order for us to get to know each other a bit more; sort of like an artistic first date between composer and not-for-profit institution. Joe and I had a terrific meeting discussing his past and future projects as well as ideas he had for future shows. I felt that Joe would be an exciting artist to share with CTG’s audiences in Los Angeles and we agreed to stay in touch and look for the right opportunity to work together in the future.
Fast forward to the fall of 2012 and Scott Chaloff called and asked if I would look at a new draft of The Black Suits as they had just completed a developmental production at Barrington Stage Co. I read it right away and was very excited by the work that had been accomplished since the last draft. I immediately passed it on to Michael Ritchie and asked him to read it and consider it for the 2013/14 season at the Kirk Douglas Theatre.

How does the show fit into CTG's overall new works programming? 
At any given time, CTG has 5-7 plays and 2-3 musicals in various stages of development. Whether they be commissioned, submitted or discovered, CTG has the great luxury of working with a very wide vocabulary of new works due to our three unique theaters. CTG can go from a new musical by Kander & Ebb (Curtains) at the Ahmanson, to Michael John LaChiusa & Ellen Fitzhugh at The Taper (Los Otros) and finally to Alex Timbers and Michael Friedman (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) at the Kirk Douglas.
We decided to present The Black Suits at the Kirk Douglas as that serves as our primary home for early and mid-career artists that we want our audiences to develop a long and lasting relationship with.

CTG has been very active on working on the show including readings and a workshop.  How does CTG make a plan on how to specifically develop each show and why was this course chosen for this show? 
Once Michael gave the thumbs up to start moving forward with the show, I met with Joe and John [Simpkins, director] to discuss next steps. At CTG, we tend to let the artists chart their own course while we remain at the ready to support, advise and keep them from running into the rocks when needed. I asked Joe and John one question: "What do you need?" It is my favorite question to ask any artist. We ended up doing a two-week workshop focusing on the book while starting to explore the choreography (with the incredible Jennifer Werner). Prior to this, they had never had the opportunity to spend a prolonged period of time just working on the script with actors. Before the workshop began, we had several note sessions and generated a list of the areas of the script we wanted to focus on during the workshop process.
In the end, the workshop taught us a lot about the show, but we agreed that there was still more work to do. We didn't have the script we wanted to start rehearsals with. So, we gathered again for a lengthy note session and decided to do a one-day “work session” with actors. We spent the morning of the work session putting in new pages, reordering songs and trying out new ideas that came out of the prior two-week workshop. That afternoon we read the script for the creative and production team as well as CTG’s commercial producing partner. A week after the one-day work session, the team gathered for one final note session prior to going into rehearsals. We now felt that we could begin rehearsals with a script that allowed Joe and John to focus on getting the show up in front of audiences and less on “fixing” the script. Of course, there will still be things to address in rehearsals, but the heavy lifting was finished.

What are your hopes for the show while it is at CTG? 
I simply want to give our audiences the best show possible. I can’t wait for them to “meet” the incomparable Joe Iconis and the insanely talented team behind The Black Suits.

Why is this show a good match for your LA area audiences? 
This show is right up our audience’s alley at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. They are always up for a new voice and new experience. They love to be challenged and entertained and be the first to see and hear the next generation of theater artists.

Why should people hop over to CTG to catch The Black Suits this fall?
Because for any NAMT member who comes I will personally buy a drink at the bar and regale them with stories of new musical development!

For more information on The Black Suits, please visit www.centertheatregroup.org.

Reflections on the Festival

A guest blog entry from Rob Taylor, writer of The Sandman, presented last weekend at the Festival of New Musicals.  

Now a mile high and two hours behind, the weeks just past in New York in preparation for the NAMT Festival presentations of our little nightmare musical "The Sandman" feel less as if they occurred in a distant time zone, and rather more as if they happened within a time warp.

Can it be over already? Did we actually find and rehearse a cast, slice and shrink an entire Act into a 45 minute cliffhanger, and convey the essence of the macabre little world of our imagining to all those people? Impossible.

And it all would have been impossible - were it not for the surreally magical way in which a dream cast and creative team seemed to materialize around us, and were it not for the outstanding and intuitive support NAMT seemed ready to provide at every turn.

Eight years ago, Richard and I participated in another NAMT Festival. As happy as we were to have been included in those 2005 proceedings, the organizational improvements put

25 DAYS OF NAMT: We Don't Wanna "Show Off!"

Day 25

It's finally here! SHOW OFF! is tonight at 7pm! Do you have a ticket?

In honor of this event, let’s look at the show this title is borrowed from—The Drowsy Chaperone, which appeared in our 2004 Festival. Refresh your memory of the show with a video feature about the Original Cast Recording…and if you attend SHOW OFF! tonight, you may even see an original cast member recreating one of the performances shown below:

25 DAYS OF NAMT: "It Takes All Sorts" of Shows to Make NAMT

Day 24

This Festival show has had over 4000 productions in the US and Canada alone---but it has also been translated into many different languages and performed all across the world. (Including, albeit in English, in London, where it won the Olivier Award for Best Musical!)

Check out this fun clip from a Norwegian-language production of Stiles & Drewe's Honk! at Stavanger kulturskole in Stavanger, Norway:

 

What Honk! song do you hope to see in SHOW OFF? 

25 DAYS OF NAMT: "A New World" of Musical Theatre

Day 23

Songs for a New World put Jason Robert Brown on the map, and appeared in the Festival in 1997. As this composer gears up for a Broadway run in January with his newest show, The Bridges of Madison County, why not look back at the show that started it all?

Read the original New York Times review for the show's original Off Broadway run.

Watch and listen to Audra McDonald singing the popular song “Stars and the Moon:”

 Buy tickets today to SHOW OFF!, where there a sure to be world-class performances like the one above.