For my first interview of the new year, I reached out to Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen to answer a few questions about exciting projects, from their recently released cast recording of The Burnt Part Boys (which I wrote about when it played at Playwrights Horizon) to their Broadway-bound Tuck Everlasting adaptation. Undoubtedly, very exciting things are on the horizon in 2012 for this songwriting team (including a recording of their song cycle Fugitive Songs), and they were gracious enough to share some details about the cool things they're working on:
Nathan Tysen: We met in the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU. We liked about 90% of the same things and have a similar aesthetic. It seemed only natural for us to write together.
Chris Miller: Our process of picking projects is odd—we just know it when it hits us. We currently have commissions from both Lincoln Center Theatre and Playwrights Horizons, and we’re just reading a lot of books, watching a bunch of movies, television, and listening to new music looking for the seed of the something that’s inspiring, that makes sense for us to either adapt, or jump off of into an original idea. It’s hard because you never know what will start speaking to you, so right now, as we’re looking for new things to write, we’re constantly tuned in to many different possible sources. Who knows? It’ll just make sense when we decide what it is.
Me: Congratulations on The Burnt Part Boys cast recording! What was it like making the recording?
Miller: Making the record was awesome, although we didn’t do it in the traditional way cast albums are made, so it took a little longer. We tracked the band first, then the strings, then brought in the vocals—all on separate days. It made for a long editing process, but it was totally a joy to work on, and we’re very proud of the end result. The show had closed in June of 2010 so when we got everybody back together the following November/December it was like a family reunion.
Tysen: There have been so many iterations of BPB (The Off-Broadway production was it’s tenth step of development), it is a great comfort to finally record the final version. It was especially amazing since our first cast album also happens to be the first show we wrote together (It started as our thesis at NYU). So it all came full circle. Now, with the near-completion of the Fugitive Songs album, we’ll finally have most of our early work out in the world.
Miller: Also working with the guys at Yellow Sound Lab has been a fantastic experience.
