Perks of Debuting a Musical: An Interview with Tom Diggs

The pilot episode of Perks, formerly known as The Perks of Writing a Musical, premiered on Youtube this past Sunday, marking the exciting beginning of a new musical webseries. Sporting a cast and creative team that should look familiar to followers of Emerging Musical Theatre, this is going to be a show worth keeping up with. I’ve written about the Perks blog before, which is regularly updated by Perks creator/writer/producer Tom Diggs. Amidst the series’ debut, Tom took some time to answer some questions about the process of putting on a webseries, using social media, and the future of the series.

(The pilot of Perks)

Me: Where did the idea for Perks come from? How did you decide to make it a webseries?

Tom Diggs: Perks came out of a writer’s group I’m in where we went from playwriting to TV writing to web series writing. I had been at BMI for a few years and I love the world of musical theatre. And Glee’s success inspired me to think about a web musical. I studied the fanboy world and came up with a story – which my writer’s group encouraged me to write. As I get older, I’m aware of how fast forms keep changing! The web seems to be the last great frontier for dramatic writing. And I want to be a part of it. The computer is currently in the process of replacing the television. There was a lot of emphasis on short forms in grad school – short films, ten-minute plays – so I thought this would be a great way to bring all these elements together in a current, relevant way.

Me: Having experience as a playwright, how has the experience been working on a musical screenplay, not to mention a series?

Tom: Plays can include language flourishes to a certain degree. The musical libretto, on the other hand, is a very unforgiving form when it comes to over-writing. One extra line and you can feel it. The songs and musical score do a lot of the heavy lifting. Add the visual element and it’s really “less is more” time for the words. Cutting the dialogue to the bone is the name of the game. It’s interesting how, the less there is, the more it breathes and comes to life.

Me: How did you connect with Jason Michael Snow and Mishaela Faucher for the music and lyrics?

Tom: I was in their BMI composer/lyricists group. I never got paired with either of them during our time together, but I always deeply admired their work – and love them very much as people. When I started thinking about approaching songwriting teams for this project, they were the first team I thought of. Their energy and talent is a perfect fit for this project.

The Perks of Writing a Musical

Something that I discovered about two months ago (and have been religiously reading since) is Tom Diggs's blog about up-and-coming musical web series The Perks of Writing a Musical, which will feature music by Jason Michael Snow and lyrics from Mishaela Faucher. The series will follow a gamer/poet as he tries to musically adapt Stephen Chbosky's classic coming-of-age novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, in an attempt to impress the girl at school who he's in love with. It's a fun, meta concept with a fantastic cast attached.

What makes this project even more engaging is being able to read about the process of developing a web series. Blogging at least five times a week, Diggs gives regular updates about the progress of the creative team and details about the cast. One of the coolest things he also does is breakdown his research process as he explores the different platforms for promoting a web series and finding an audience on the great wide web. Everything from QR codes to copyright are topics of discussion, all incredibly well researched and articulately analyzed. Not only does seeing behind the scenes really make you root for the series, but seeing the nuts and bolts of how they will be successful is also incredibly valuable (so much so, I am using them as an example in the Social Media workshop I'm doing today at the Florida State Thespians conference).

Also, the music already looks like it's going to be awesome. See below for the song "Absolutely Hell," performed at Mishaela Faucher's recent New York Theatre Barn D-Lounge show:

Straight from the Silver Screen

There is one day left in the contest to win a copy of the cast recording for Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, so see the post below to get on that! It's easy to enter and there have already been a lot of great ideas circulating in the comments section. I'm hoping to also post the musical ideas along with the winners on Thursday so spread the word and get your entries in!

It's no secret that musical adaptations of movies have exploded in popularity over the past years. In fact, the translation between the screen and stage can be so incestuous, a book can begat a movie that can begat a musical which can begat a movie musical...and so on and so forth. And while the success of a stage musical capturing what we love most about the movie it's based on ranges wildly from show to show, I have to admit that one of the shows that will be doing a presentation at the upcoming NAMT festival that most caught my eye was an adaptation of the movie Heartbreakers. In case you missed out on this gem from 2001 starring Sigourney Weaver, Ray Liotta, and Jennifer Love Hewitt, Heartbreakers tells the story of a mother-daughter con team that runs into trouble when the daughter begins to fall for what she thinks is her wealthy mark.

My interest in this show is partly nostalgic-- I remember being on a school overnight where we all went to the movies. We had a choice between Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Heartbreakers, and, surprise surprise, almost every hormonal teen went for the romantic comedy and Jennifer Love Hewitt playing a seductress. But I'm also interested in seeing what the show's talented creative team does with this material that really contains a solid, rather traditional plot set-up. With collaborators Robert Cary, Benjamin Feldman, and David Gursky, who are NAMT alum with their show Palm Beach, all the writers have impressive resumes spanning from West End adaptations to film and television credits.

Another recent musical adaptation of a film to come to light was the concert presentations of Heathers (by Kevin Murphy and Laurence O'Keefe) at Joe's Pub last night and tonight. Sold out for all performances, I'm interested in hearing more about this project as it continues development. Obviously the source material is full of campy musical potential.

To further illustrate the potential of musical adaptations, even at their most outlandish, I leave you with a few of my favorite videos from "Hey, You Know What Movie Would Make a Good Musical?" which was performed at the Zipper Factory. With music, lyrics, and books by Hey You Know What Productions, this show featured songs and scenes from potential musical adaptations of films, from Twister to Scream.