Uncharted Musical Territory

Ars Nova has continually been the place to be when you're looking for new, exciting theatrical works of genius. Their Uncharted series, concerts presenting the work of up-and-coming composers, was often a go-to source for discovering new writers. This year, Uncharted comes in the form of a development incubator, a writers group based on their playwriting meet-up, PlayGroup. With artistic director Jason Eagan's promise of beer and pizza and regular meetings, the four selected writing teams to participate in the inaugural writers group will develop new works to be presented and showcased over the course of the next year.

If you read the blog, many of these names will sound familiar. Still, here are the writers and some songs they performed at the kick-off concert:

Shaina Taub -- Shaina Taub is known for her smoky vocals, folksy melodies, and whimsical lyrics. Her Greek song cycle The Daughters features some banging tunes for female powerhouses, and her EP, What Otters Do, is a common selection on my iPod.

Charles Vincent Burwell and James D. Sasser -- I was probably least familiar with Sasser and Burwell going into this concert, but the songs they played from their modern day Cuban musical, Cubamor, quickly made an impression. With some diverse styles of music and bilingual lyrics, I'm most curious to hear what comes from this team next.

Anna K. Jacobs and Michael R. Jackson -- She wrote the critically acclaimed Warhol musical POP!; he's known for his subversive subject matter and deliciously complex songs. Together, they're writing an adaptation of independent horror film Teeth, which should prove interesting.

Gordon Leary and Julia Meinwald -- This duo never fails to produce rich songs for complicated characters, and their musical Pregnancy Pact never fails to showcase this. Excitingly, there seem to be a few new projects on the horizon for them, so here's hoping for more new work soon.

A New York State of Mind

It's been an unusual week and a half, to say the least. Many parts of New York were devastated by Hurricane Sandy, and even areas that weren't hit very hard by the storm itself have still been at a standstill with power only coming to lower Manhattan over the weekend. There's still a lot to be done to get the city and its surrounding areas back to normal, but I feel like there's no better time to repost some videos from the recent concert Once Upon A Time In New York City, where up-and-coming composers shared original songs about this great city and the great people who make it what it is:

Gaby Alter singing his song "My First Year in New York":

Kate Rockwell singing Danny Abosch's "Real New Yorkers":

Katrina Rose Dideriksen, Molly Hager, Alyse Alan Louis and Lauren Marcus singing Michael R. Jackson's "New York Is the Worst":

Gaten Matarazzo and Grace Capeless singing Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich's "Why I Like New York":

Joe Iconis with Jason Williams, Eric William Morris and Molly Hager singing his song "52":

Watch more videos from the evening here.

Help Michael R. Jackson air some Dirty Laundry and make Good Clean Music

The Tony Awards are rapidly approaching, and while I am curious to see who takes home statues this year and am looking forward to some performances, I do have to admit that the Tonys have not been a huge source of excitement for me. Because while there are many great entries in there, I’ve been finding the more theatre I’ve been making an effort to see outside of Broadway, the more I realize that real invention, risks, and basically things that are defining the future of theatre are not represented on The Great White Way. This is not said to take anything away from this last season, but when half the nominees for best score are (yet again) plays, something seems a bit amiss.

This is all to say that one of the artists that I have been repeatedly thrilled by in the past couple of years has been Michael R. Jackson, who I’ve mentioned on this blog at least a couple of times. His characters are always complicated and unafraid of confronting uncomfortable truths, whether the audience likes it or not, in song. The narratives of his tunes are specific and sometimes gut-wrenching, and listening to his music, it’s not hard to see that he has a unique voice in the theatre landscape, particularly in musical theatre.

It is with this adoration that I am very excited about the possibility that he might be able to record an album, and this is the intention of his Kickstarter campaign: to record a double LP album. Even if it’s just a few dollars, please support this great project; there are only a few days left in the campaign, and there’s still a way to go. More information and links to donate are here. In the meantime, if you’re still on the fence, here’s a couple of videos from Michael R. Jackson’s recent Lincoln Center concert:

Some Song Things

Hey all! Just wanted to give a little round-up of some of the things I've been loving in the emerging musical theatre world as of late.

First of all, as a little plug, I'm going to be blogging with Ryan Scott Oliver's Crazytown for another two months, so keep tuning in on Thursdays for posts from me, Ryan Bogner (who is co-producing new Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis musical Yeast Nation playing as part of The Fringe in August), the hilarious Leah Bonnema, and Shoshana Greenberg (who provides your weekly new music fix with Rough and Ready).

Also, songwriting team Kooman and Dimond released their new album Out of Our Heads -- which, let me tell you now, is awesome. There are great voices on the recording (Heidi Blickenstaff, Kerry Butler, Natalie Weiss, Patina Miller, Anderson Davis, Matt Doyle, Phoebe Strole, Kyle Dean Massey, Chris Mann... look for an especially delightful track with Christopher Sieber), and all of the songs are beautifully recorded. There's a lot of love, pathos, and comedy in these songs, and I'm not only sure you'll be listening to them constantly but you'll want to be singing them too. You can purchase the CD from their website here and be on the lookout for their release concert at The Birdland on 7/18.

In speaking of cast recordings, if you want to help another album yet-to-be-made, support songwriting team Miller and Tysen's Kickstarter campaign to record their song cycle Fugitive Songs. Every song I've heard from this show is fantastic -- heartfelt and evocative, living up to the idea of being a fugitive in the way they just move musically. Even better? If you donate $150 or more, you get a recording of Burnt Part Boys, which is pretty good incentive, if you ask me.

Lastly, I just wanted to end with a couple of videos from recent concerts, the first being Nick Blaemire singing "Trouble" at his recent gig with band The Hustle as a part of Ars Nova's 54/10:

Then, from Good Clean Music: Another Michael R. Jackson Song Thing at The Beechman, Jeremy Morse singing "Girlfriend":

And, also from Good Clean Music, Molly Hager singing "Fairweather Friend":

Concerts and Clips

It's definitely my bed time after a long week, but I happened upon these freshly uploaded videos from Michael R. Jackson's concert at Joe's Pub this past Monday (which I would have given anything to go to, were I not stuck on a plane) titled So Fucking Gay: A Michael R. Jackson Song Thing.

These videos are really striking to me for a few reasons. First of all, it reminds me that I should really mention some of the amazing concerts coming up in the next month in New York from some composers who I have mentioned on the blog and am absolutely loving discovering their music right now. Some of the old favorites are doing shows (Joe Iconis is having his Halloween Special on 10/31 at the Laurie Beechman and a performance of his musical ReWrite will be at Joe's Pub on 11/6; The Civilians are doing their Let Us Ascertain You at Joe's Pub on 11/4), but I'm especially excited to see some live performances for the first time from some other writers. The three shows in particular I'm hoping to get out to are: Astronauts, Bedbugs & Other Killers, the music of Paul Leschen and Fred Sauter at the Laurie Beechman on 10/27, Peter Lerman's New York debut concert at the Laurie Beechman on 11/1, and Tommy Newman and Gaby Alter's 29 at Joe's Pub on 11/8. I highly recommend any of these and will definitely be trying to get out to as many as I can.

The other reason these Michael R. Jackson videos are also keeping me up is that I'm just so captivated by his style and the intricacies of his work. Not only does he create a uniquely personal snapshot in every song, but I also find it amazing that the more detailed and complicated the characters in his songs get, the more universal their experiences seem. He's not afraid to shock or pit characters against each other, themselves, or the music, which occasionally gets messy but always pulses of something true.

Anyway, please enjoy two of my favorites and keep up with new songs through his youtube channel found here.

"Memory Song" sung by James Jackson:

"Secretly Hoping" sung by Molly Hager (when this song transcends words, it takes things to another level):

Ridiculously Talented Composers (Period)

This post is overdue, but it's one that's quite important to me... and the whole purpose of this blog, really.

About a week and a half ago, I took myself out on a date to see the Kaufman Center's Ridiculously Talented: Songs by Composers and Lyricists You Probably Don't Know But Should. Hosted by William Finn, the night offered a great selection of talent from NYU's graduate Musical Theater program with a bunch of incredible performers giving voice to their creations. Some of these writers have been mentioned on this blog before and some I had never heard of, but possibly one of the coolest parts of going to this event was hearing William Finn give a mini lesson in the art of writing songs. Where else are you going to hear someone explain that the job of a composer is to "not fuck up" or that writing lyrics can be compared to a Turducken (a lot of meat in a very small package)?

While there was a lot going on onstage, there was also another show going on in the aisle in front of me, as 3 older gentlemen watched the show. Their sighs and bragging about having seen "everything on Broadway for the pat 40 years" already kind of warned me that this event might not exactly be their type of thing, but I certainly didn't expect when one of them launched into a tirade at intermission about how what we were watching wasn't musical theatre but "conversations set to pop music."

Which is not to say that I don't feel like he has a point. The cabaret-style music was definitely the trend of the evening, and while it was appropriate for the event, I can see how it can get a bit tiresome. Also, with many musicals taking on a very "contemporary sound," distinct voices and melodies seem to be harder to come by these days.

And at the same time, I wanted to point out that musical theatre is changing with the times-- a necessary evil that doesn't diminish the genre, but helps it endure. While I love the days of On the Town and Oklahoma, subject matter is shifting so that it's not always about young, white heterosexual couples finding love. In fact, I loved the observation made by Mary Anna Dennard on The New York Times Arts Beat Blog about how now, despite the proliferation of musical theatre "types," views of masculinity and masculine characters have shifted from that of the "masculine neutral presence." Musical theatre is becoming more encompassing of the community that creates it, and this couldn't have been more evident in the incredibly personal and intimate songs, from Michael R. Jackson and Kori Withers' "Old Mr. Drew" to Will Aronson and Sam Salmond's "Pole Song" to Nikos Tsakalakos' "My Trip to Africa" to "Driving Home on the Freeway" by Katya Stanislavskaya and Frank Terry.

When his angrier friend stepped out during intermission, one of the men in front of me turned back and asked me if I knew anyone in the show (he assumed I was an NYU student supporting a friend). I explained that I wasn't and was instantly met with another question. "Then may I ask why you're here?" he asked. And it was a question that caught me a little off-guard.

I gave him a simple, honest response, but I don't think I really had an answer until I realized how swept up I had gotten in some of the songs from the show long after it was over. I'm not exactly musically inclined, but something comes over me when I hear a good piece of musical theatre. There's a kind of magic in hearing a song that seems to perfectly describe a moment-- a high that makes you hope the song will never end so you could capture that instance forever. There's an art to it that escapes me, even as a writer, where the lyrics take on dimension and rhythm and music carries it off any page. I love that feeling, and it's the reason I started this blog and the reason I was captivated throughout the show. William Finn provided some context for many of the songs that evening, trying to also root them in his mini lesson about craft, but for all I could tell, there was another force at play and I was just lucky to take it in.

Anyway, enough babbling. I look forward to much more from everyone who was represented that evening. And, just so you can't say you've never heard of them, here is the full list of writers from that night:

Josh Freilich

Seam Patterson

Will Aronson

Tony Asaro

Julian Blackmore

Yea Bin Diana Oh

Sam Salmond

Nikos Tsakalakos

Janet Allard

Dimitri Landrain

Dan Marshall

Anna Ruth Nirmala Jones

Julianne Wick Davis

Zach Redler

Sara Cooper

Kori Withers

Michael R. Jackson

Jennifer Stafford

Bill Nelson

Joel Waggoner

Becca Anderson

Rebekah Melocik

Gihieh Lee

Scott Murphy

Hannah Kohl

Katya Stanislavskaya

Frank Terry

Deborah Abramson

Rachel Sheinkin

One of us cheated... and it wasn't you

Michael R. Jackson has made an appearance on this blog before singing "One of Us" with Joe Iconis, but he also has an amazing collection of his own songs, many of which he performed at the Bare Bones concert recently with Joe Iconis. And while I've only heard a couple of his songs before, I think that Joe's blurb in the SPF newsletter is a really great endorsement for his music:

"One of my absolute favorite new writers out there is the spectacularly-named Michael R. Jackson, aka Michael Living-Jackson. He was a classmate of mine at the Tisch Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program and I've loved his stuff for as long as I've known him.

The thing that makes him so special is his ability to transform situations that might seem outlandish or horrific into experiences that are shockingly moving and weirdly relatable. I feel like there's so much 'new musical theater' that's about being young and dating in New York- lots of songs about white people who go on picnics and have dreams and learn things and feel things. I've certainly written my fair share of those types of songs. But here is someone who is writing something completely different- a truly unique and electrifying voice.

Anyone reading this needs to stop what they are doing and watch a recording of Michael's song 'Jethro.' If you can watch that and not realize that you are experiencing the work of a true artist, you need to hang on to your Ferngully: The Musical! ticket stub and promise to never go to the theater ever, ever again."

The song Joe mentions is this one, which was performed by Jason "Sweet Tooth" Williams at the Bare Bones concert:



And to call it a rather shocking piece would be a bit of an understatement. There's something startling about the frankness of the portrait Jackson paints in his music. It's strikingly honest -- at times brutal, and suprisingly gentle when need be. Here are a couple other highlights from Bare Bones...

Molly Hager singing "Verse Chorus Song":



And "Blood and Lather" sung by Joe Iconis:

A Very Iconis Update

So I know I mentioned Joe Iconis' upcoming show Bloodsong of Love, which is soon to premiere at Ars Nova in just over a month's time. Though tickets are not available to the general public yet, if you sign up to be a Super Nova (it's free) at the Ars Nova website, you will not only get a free drink at each Ars Nova performance you attend, but you will also have access to buying tickets to Bloodsong right now. Ars Nova has a lot of great programs and shows (by the way, try to see the Alter, Greenberg, Allen, and Allen concert of Band Geeks! on Monday, March 1st as they prepare for their production at Goodspeed -- I assure you it's going to be a solid night of some really wonderful songs), but throw in some free drinks and exclusive offers like this presale and I say why not.

And, just to give you more of an idea of the kinds of talent you will be treated to at Bloodsong, here are a couple of videos from Iconis' recent Bare Bones concert at Joe's Pub with Michael R. Jackson.

There's the always fantastic Jason Sweet Tooth Williams singing new Iconis' tune "The Protector":


And just because I can't believe they played this song that has been a strange motif in our office for the past month or so, here's Iconis and Jackson singing "One of Us":