Musical Theatre You Should Know

There is a wealth of new musical theatre concerts happening this time of year, from benefits to Cutting Edge Composers, from Contemporary Musical Theatre Songwriters You Should Know to Songs You Should Know. It's always a welcome thing to find yourself with an abundance of new musical theatre presentations, but when your budget and time are limited, how do you decide on what to see?

Last night I had the immense pleasure of attending Libra Theater Company's tuneful evening of new songs, conveniently titled, Songs You Should Know. And while admittedly (and in a good way) a lot of the writers are no longer people to know but people we already know and love, I realized through Libra's presentation what makes for a good musical concert of new songs.

The main thing is just that they're new. Fresh. That they give an indication of who the composers are and, more importantly, what they're working on next. As I listened to Caleb Hoyer's "If I Had Met You First," sung by Max Chernin, I was reminded of that feeling that I love when I see a new show-- that desire to have a single song last forever, or at least long enough so you can peel back the layers and live inside it for a little while.

I knew very few of the songs presented last night, but perhaps if you played them for me with no introduction, I could've made a guess and at least gotten kind of close. Miller and Tysen's "Town Goes Boom" was so specific to place and culture, a fresh slice of life delivered in a song as only they can. Joe Iconis' "Michael in the Bathroom" was a deliciously endearing geek-rock song that captured his brand of misfit like none other. And Amanda Green's haunting "Nowhere" and righteously angry "Waiting on My Thank You" demonstrated her great writing for self-aware, engrossing characters. It was also very cool to hear Amy Molewski and Nick Luckenbaugh's music make its 54 Below debut with "Rising Fire" and "Fall."

The evening was tied together by hilarious host Lauren Marcus, whose use of PowerPoint was better than half the things I've seen on Shark Tank. Her proof that she and Katie Thompson are basically the same person from behind was also quite compelling. The best part was that the evening felt very casual, very homey, a sense that I'm starting to get from a lot of Libra's productions.

On Being a New Yorker

While there were no projections of multiplying Beyonces or major reunions of Destiny's Child members, there were much more intimate fireworks over at Joe's Pub in the second installment of Once Upon a Time in NYC, an evening of brand new songs from musical theatre composers about New York City. The timing of this show uncannily comes around my fifth anniversary since moving to this city, and it was wonderful to get a musical perspective of New York from such a wide range of New Yorkers, whether they have since moved, have lived here their whole lives, or are just starting their journeys. Organized by Jennifer Ashley Tepper and Caleb Hoyer, this concert was clearly a labor of love, and it was such a lovely opportunity for writers to be able to celebrate and eulogize their experiences in song. We should all be so lucky to be able to distill something so special in such a perfect, compact way.

Below are some highlights, though all the songs are well worth a listen to and can be found here.

George Salazar with Michael Gioia, Will Roland, Yaniv Zarif singing Sam Salmond's "Walk Wrong":

Krysta Rodriguez singing Amanda Green's "A New York City Prayer":

Benjamin Howes singing Joseph Church's "Walking Shoes":

Jessica Phillips singing Amanda Yesnowitz and Doug Katsaros' "The Thing About Dylan":

Elanna White singing David Are's "All Over 28th Street":

And perhaps my favorite of the night (thought it's hard to choose): Jeff Blumenkrantz singing his own "Aunt Betty":

Songs You Should Know from People You Should Also Know

First of all, have you seen a show lately? If you're in New York and love musical theatre, there is a ton of exciting stuff going on right now/coming up, from Carrie (yes, Carrie the musical) to Ryan Scott Oliver and Matthew Murphy's 35 MM, from The Total Bent to the next show at the D-Lounge. If you're looking for a straight play recommendation, I haven't been able to stop thinking about Leslye Headland's Assistance at Playwrights Horizons and Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive at Second Stages. Of course, musicals have also been a huge part of my February, and while I know it's been a little while since I last posted on here, I promise there's a lot of exciting stuff to come (and more posts about some of the things I've seen this month).

So to go back in time for a bit, I wanted to revisit an awesome night of songs by new writers that I saw about two weeks ago. Entitled "Songs You Should Know," Libra Theatre Company presented a night of new and rarely sung tunes by amazing composers: Brad Alexander, Sam Carner and Derek Gregor, Joshua H. Cohen and Lavell Blackwell, Bobby Cronin, Adam Gwon, Caleb Hoyer, Joe Iconis, Russ Kaplan and Sara Wordsworth, Pete Mills, and Will Reynolds. The evening was hosted by the wonderful Jennifer Ashley Tepper and Jeremy Morse, and there was a lot of great banter throughout the evening between each of the amazing musical performances. Here are some highlights:

When asked who he would like to star in a show with someday, Jeremy Jordan shared that he wants to be in a musical where Mandy Patinkin sings him a lullaby. (Above, he sings "If the World Looked Like You" by Will Reynolds.)

J. Austin Eyer sang Will Reynold's beautiful "Like That For You" that left my jaw on the floor.

Blair Goldberg told the audience about how she got a massage alongside Dick Latessa before taking the mic to sing a great Adam Gwon song ("So Over").

Not only did Melanie Field kill this song ("Lullaby" by Russ Kaplan and Sara Wordsworth), but Russ Kaplan also floored everyone when he revealed the song is from a new musical based on a woman who assumes her daughter's identity.

You can check out more clips at Libra's Youtube channel, and even then there are a lot of other songs that didn't make it up there (including a song by Joe Iconis about a Naked Korean Girl... sad you missed out now, aren't you?). What the night cemented for me, at least, was the sense of community among new artists, both writers and performers, and it was really sort of magical to be a part of that. The audience really enjoyed every minute, and I can't agree more that all of these songs, people, and shows should be known by everyone.