Visiting Crazytown/RSO Songbook Giveaway

Have you been reading Ryan Scott Oliver's Crazytown blog?

Because what was already a fun and informative blog now features a slew of guest bloggers, from musical theatre writers to producers to actors, and many in between. Best part? Every guest contributor has a post a week, so you can easily follow the different "columns" for your weekly fix. Get a glance behind the barricades at the stage door with Alex Brightman. Or find (another) producer's prospective with Ryan Bogner. Or catch up on some monkey business via Tony Asaro. Or hear newly born musical theatre songs curated by Shoshana Greenberg. Or share the perspective of a creative making her way through finance social circles with Kirsten Guenther. Trust me, there's a ton of good stuff on there, with Ryan Scott Oliver chiming in regularly. Here is a list of all the new contributors:

Alex Brightman

Alexander Nagorski

Brett Ryback

Daniel Mate

Geoffrey Kidwell

Gordon Leary

Isaac Oliver

John Constantine

Julia Meinwald

Kevin Michael Murphy

Kirsten Guenther

Matthew Murphy

Ryan Bogner

Sophie Modlin

Tony Asaro

Shoshana Greenberg

BUT WAIT!

I have more RSO goodness.

How is that, you ask?

In honor of the release of RSO's first songbook (with a concert on February 7th at Joe's Pub), we are giving away a copy of RSO's brand new songbook! It's easy to enter. Here are the details:

• To enter, simply post a link in the comments to your favorite RSO performance video. Need some inspiration? Look at any of the videos mentioned on this blog here, or check out RSO's youtube channel here.

• You have until 11:59 p.m. eastern time on Saturday, 1/29 to enter.

• The winner will be drawn at random and announced by 1/31. The winner's name will be posted on the blog then, so be sure to check back so you can send me your address if you win. If I don't receive the winner's information by 2/7, I will draw again.

I am very excited about this songbook, which would be perfect for any performer looking for dynamic, new songs. So be sure to put in your entry or spread the word to other musical theatre enthusiasts!

We Go to 11

This post is overdue, but last Wednesday I had the extreme pleasure of hearing five 11-minute musicals written by BMI Musical Theatre Workshop writers at Don't Tell Mama as a part of We Go to 11.

Timothy Huang, who I interview in my last blog entry, had his fantastic piece A Relative Relationship, which told the story of a step brother and sister who struggle to accept each other and their respective parents' separations (performed below by Jennifer Blood and Timothy Huang).

Noah Aronson and Patrick Gallagher wrote the beautiful piece I'm Listening, which tells the story of a suicide hotline operator who helps other people find connection but has trouble connecting himself when faced with the idea of meeting his online girlfriend in person for the first time.

Michael Dexter and Kevin Hammonds' Smokey Topaz was a swift and hilarious cautionary tale of a man who refuses to grow up and is consequently pushed out of his own life by his childhood imaginary friend.

Eric Kubo and William TN Hall's On the Lawn was an all too familiar character study of two friends post-house party hungover, trying to sort out their feeling for each other in the harsh morning light.

And Lauren Cregor Devine and Emmy Laybourne closed out the night with the rousing The Chorus, a story of a girl being followed by a Chorus that refuses to leave until she solves a riddle that reveals what is missing from her very controlled life.

It was a very fun night, and I walked away really inspired with the performances. Though there were no real sets, the pieces were really transformative and the energy was palpable amongst the cast (which some of the writers were a part of). Perhaps the thing that really got to me though was how deftly the short musical format was handled in all instances -- really taking a limited amount of space and filling it with characters who told compelling stories. The craft of structuring such a thing seems daunting, but even the way music was incorporated made everything seem so organic, as though the need to express a small but important moment in song could never be incidental. It was a great thing to witness, and I look forward to seeing much more from these writers in the future.

Drawn to You: An Interview with Timothy Huang

Timothy Huang wears many hats, writing as a composer, lyricist, and librettist in addition to having some acting/singing experience under his belt. He's a graduate of NYU's Tisch (twice!) and received the audience award in 2004 for the New York Musical Theatre Festival production of his musical And the Earth Moved. Yesterday, his work was showcased at Don't Tell Mama as a part of We Go to 11, an evening of five 11 minute musicals written by BMI Musical Theatre Workshop writers. We Go to 11 has another show on Wednesday, but for now, I have the privilege of posting this Q&A where Timothy talks about Joss Whedon, the writing process, and being the self-proclaimed mayor of 15 minute musical town:

"Drawn to You" performed by Jared Gertner, Kendal Sparks, Jen Blood, Sarah Corey, Piper Goodeve, and Andrew Kober

from song cycle Lines as part of Timothy Huang: Chinese or Crazy at NYTB

Me: How did you get started in musical theatre?

Timothy Huang: I had Asian parents. So I grew up playing piano, saxomaphone and drumming and other foolishness. I started singing at an early age too and my school was like, the artsy one, so there were a lot of opportunities to perform. When it came time to pick a college I knew I wanted to act in theater and NYU turned out to be where I landed. One of the other theater people at my high school (the girl whom I always played opposite in school shows) had very supportive parents and they sort of knew my parents were unfamiliar with the whole "study of art as a profession" thing so they made themselves available to me whenever I needed advice.

About halfway through college I started wondering why all my classmates seemed so content to do other people's choreography, sing songs that other people had made famous and do shows that had been already done. The answer, obvious to me now but not back then, was because they were real actors and I was really a writer. Eventually I figured that out and when the opportunity came to go to grad school, I ended up back at NYU because I didn't want to leave the city and lose touch with my agents, etc.

Me: How would you describe your musical style? Who are your biggest influences?

Timothy: I would probably call my style "contemporary American theater" which is of absolutely no use to you... But critically I have been likened to a lot of different people. Bill Finn, Jonathan Larson, George Gershwin (??). I think that people tend to want to put artists in a box, critics especially, because they have an obligation to make the art accessible to the lay person. I mean, that one time someone likened me to Gershwin, it was a different show than when they likened me Bill Finn. Each show tends to have it's own voice and it just happens that in The View From Here I wrote a song that aped the jazz standards of the 20s/30s and used that as my backbone, and in And the Earth Moved I wanted a very "New Yorkey pre-9/11 hopeful" feel. And that translated to one reviewer as William Finn-ish. He's not wrong, I studied under Bill at NYU and I grew up loooving the Falsettos score.

As for my influences, I'd have to say that most of my writing influences are literary/dramatic, not musical. The nature of the drama always dictates the nature of the music (which may account for why there is such a disparity between the writers I have been so generously compared to). I'm a huge Aaron Sorkin fan. Have been since A Few Good Men. The economy with which he conveys depth of character is really unparalleled, I think. And in a musical theater setting economy is key. You can't really write a twelve page scene and then have someone sing about it. Well... I suppose you could, but it wouldn't be the least bit engaging... I loved Sports Night, and feel like Studio 60 got unfairly judged. I thought the opening scene to Social Network was so brilliant. Conveying as much in what they do say as in what is implied or left unsaid.

I'm also an enormous Joss Whedon fan. Discovered Firefly during the legendary "million amazon five star rating age" and subsequently bought all the Buffy/Angel sets. I feel just a few steps removed from him because I went to college with Sean Maher, who played Simon Tam in Firefly, and in the summer of 2000 right before grad school I did an indie film with a then unknown Amy Acker who would go on to play Fred in Angel the following year. I feel like he and I have similar tastes in actors. We maybe look for the same things.

Beyond that I can say I've been really fortunate in my career. Studied under William Finn and Michael John LaChiusa at NYU, and by way of my former life as an actor, I got to work with and for Jason Robert Brown, Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt, all of whom are so generous with their time and talents. But just having access to that brain trust is like -- kind of a huge deal. They're successful, and they care about passing the torch. They aren't so wrapped up in their own ambition that they won't sit down and tell you what they think of your work. That's very rare, especially in this landscape where genuine musical theater writers are struggling to compete in the mainstream with aging rock stars searching for cultural relevance and musical adaptations of movies that existed in the 80s and 90s. Which isn't to slam adaptations, or rock stars (We're all artists right?) but just to say that when your goal, like mine is, is to create new and original work, it's that much harder to get the attention of a producer who for better or worse thinks a "known" property is more likely to return his investment than an unknown one.

Story Pirates

Hey all, and happy new year! There's a lot I would like to say about my blog topic today, but I wanted to start by formally announcing that I am officially now on Twitter. Yes, I am finding myself falling down the dizzying rabbit hole that is social media, and surprisingly, I am finding it to be a ton of fun. I encourage anyone else on Twitter to follow me and to also follow many of the emerging musical theatre writers who tweet regularly (I'm trying to follow as many as I can find... Also, notice how I used "tweet" as a verb? I feel so hip!).

Anyway, when trying to figure out what writer to kick off the new year talking about, I had a ton of people immediately come to mind. There are a lot of exciting things I want to do with this blog and new writers I want to continue to mention/show their work off. When I was doing research on songwriter Eli Bolin, however, I also discovered the Story Pirates, an organization for which he serves as songwriter and musical director. And while I intend to do a full post of Eli Bolin later (and his cool projects with Sam Forman), I feel like Story Pirates more than warrants its own post.

So what is the Story Pirates? Since it was founded in 2003, it's a multimedia organization that encourages kids to write creatively by adapting their short stories into sketches, songs, and stories. From in-school programs where they have writing workshops and performances to their weekly mainstage shows out of Midtown's The Drama Bookshop (250 West 40th St.), they provide a wealth of opportunities for kids to see their words come to life. Watch the following documentary to get a behind-the-scenes look at what exactly they do:

This program is so fantastic for so many reasons, and I couldn't think of a better way for musical talent to be spent than using its magic to transport kids into each other's imaginations. These songs are great, and I think Eli Bolin does an amazing job of really embracing silliness and whimsy without pandering to younger audiences. The music for pieces like "Tickle Monsters Are Robots!!!!!" and "Leo's Favorite Train is the F Train!" conceptualize the stories in a way that really captures the hearts of the kids writing them and makes adapting them look seamless.

But perhaps one of the best parts of talking about Story Pirates is that the book/lyric writers are, for the most part, the kids, and I'm sure anyone who is a writer can feel in his/her gut how this organization is providing a meaningful service . Even as a writer now, I know how hard it is to be able to get my work on a stage with an audience, so to be five or six and get to see your work being performed in front of all your peers, the experience would be an invaluable source of pride and encouragement. Not to mention that there is a lot of talent to be fostered here -- and these kids could very well represent the future of the musical theatre community.

So, I thought it was nice to open the year highlighting an organization that I admire a lot and that provides the kind of hope I think we can all use in the new year. Please check out all of Story Pirates' Youtube videos at their channel here, and go to their website to see how you can get more involved!

New Year Wishes

This will be the last post of 2010, so when I was preparing to write it, I knew that it needed to be something good. First of all, I wanted to let all you readers know how much I've enjoyed keeping this blog for the past year and that I have a lot of plans for new content going forward (trust me, I'm well aware that I haven't even scratched the surface of some of the up-and-coming talent out there). Your thoughtful contributions and kind words are the reason I really wanted to write this blog, and I'm entirely grateful to have people who share a passion for music and theatre and talented people and everything in between!

I know that a common end-of-the-year thing in the blogosphere is the retrospective post -- some kind of top 10 list of things that have happened over the year. And though I could easily drum up the material for that kind of thing, I thought that I might want to end this year looking forward, instead of back. So, I came up with a list of 10 songs by musical theatre writers and how they represent some of my hopes/goals in the new year. Please give them a listen, and feel free to share your own in the comments if you feel so inclined! In no particular order:

1. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul's "Coasting" (sung here by Steven Booth, Farah Alvin, and Whitney Bashor)

Something that I always want to stress to myself is the importance of real connections -- learning to weed through the relationships that aren't as important and really work at the ones that are. "We are capable of finding, saying, feeling so much more." I think that line alone is something to aspire to.

2. Colleen Dauncey and Akiva Romer-Segal's "I Want It Now" (sung here by Sara Farb)

It's scary not to know what you want from your life, but it can be just as scary to know exactly what you want and fear that you're never going to get it. To be ambitious, you have to delude yourself to some degree, to make assumptions about the way your life will go so that you will have the confidence to achieve it. I think this song nicely balances the hope of having big dreams with the fears that are always beneath it. A friend and I always joke that you can't cross the line into doubt, because if you fully give in, it's really hard to ever come back from it. I think this is a song that reminds me of being confident and unyielding -- no matter what the cost.

3. Paul Scott Goodman's "Kindness" (sung here by Alicia Kakauer)

This song works on two levels -- the first being that it has a message that simply reminds me of the virtue of being kind. It's such a simple thing that I think is easy to forget (especially in the hustle and bustle of New York City), so to hear a character talking about how that idea was passed down through her family is reassuring in its own way. But in a bigger sense, one that is revealed through the irony of the song, this tune reminds me that sometimes perfect advice can come from imperfect people, and it's the value of what someone says that can be more important than the person who says it.

4. Adam Gwon's "Alaska" (sung here by Nick Blaemire)

Living in New York and having wanted to live here for years, I sometimes can't believe that people want to be anywhere else, in the world or in life. But over the past year, I've especially come to terms with the idea of resetting priorities and seeing the richness of living a different life in a different place. This song puts things in perspective in both a humorous and poignant way, and I think it's always a nice reminder of what else is out there to be explored.

5. Joe Iconis' "Last on Land" (sung here by Jason "Sweet Tooth" Williams and friends)

I know I've been a huge advocate of Bloodsong of Love all year and have posted this particular song on a couple of occasions, but I felt absolutely compelled to include this in the list because I can't think of another song in recent memory that so perfectly captures the camaraderie of working with people on something you're passionate about. In anything I do, I am determined to pay tribute to and appreciate those people in my life, and this song is a promise of that.

6. Drew Fornarola's "Prayer for Faith on Christmas" (sung here by Alexa Green and Bethany Moore

Performed at a recent Holiday Songbook Series concert at Lincoln Center, I find this performance breathtaking. While I can't say I'm a religious person, there's something about the very humble lyrics and beautiful music that is incredibly moving. In a song, it opens up a need for faith and reassurance of something greater without making overly dramatic demands. It's a nice reminder that we are never alone in our search for something greater and our need for faith in something when things are tough.

7. Michael R. Jackson's "Things Change"

It's a small variation on The Trevor Project's "It Gets Better" campaign, but it's incredibly effective. There's a great message here of accepting the reality of life's challenges but seeing the world for the ever-evolving thing it is. It's true and simple, but really quite lovely in the way it refuses to adhere to cliches while delivering a positive message about sticking around to see where life takes you.

8. Gaby Alter and Tommy Newman's "The Argument" (sung here by Blake Daniel with Nick Cartell, Ryan Duncan, Piper Goodeve, Lauren Marcus, Jared Weiss)

This song always manages to get to me, especially with the way the music slows and the heart of the matter is revealed in one simple line: "The one thing we agree on is we don't have very long." It's a song about perspective and the giving and taking of relationships, musicalized in a way that is uplifting and rather grave at the same time.

9. Brett Ryback's "Hymn for St. Anthony"

It's a simple song, but it has a wonderful message about the freedom of accepting that sometimes "we lose things" and is beautifully rendered through the accompanying piano. Bonus points for this particular performance: I love the humility of this rendition without the veneer of a more polished recording. Really brings the idea to full realization.

10. Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk's "I Drove You Home" (sung here by Emma Hunton)

Kerrigan and Lowdermilk really have a knack for finding ways of stretching little moments into musical experiences that transcend time and space. This song just represents a desire to absorb each moment, to feel its weight, and to be able to share it with other people.

See you in the new year!

Trouble was that I forgot that love can make you sad...

Last week, I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Davenport Theatrical's developmental reading of new musical Date of a Lifetime, with lyrics and book by Carl Kissin and music by Rob Baumgartner. The musical, which follows a couple on speed date as they imagine their lives together, was a fun ride that seems to have come a long way in a relatively short amount of time. I'm excited to see where it goes and really enjoyed hearing people discuss their thoughts as the creative team continues to work on the show.

One of the things that struck me about the show was how beautiful the music was. I really loved the way it was constantly in conversation with the lyrics, punctuating jokes and building on itself with energy and wonder. Rob Baumgartner has collaborated with Heidi Helig on projects The Hole and Under Construction, the latter which features the following gorgeous song "The Man Who Isn't There" sung by Rob Baumgartner himself:

He also worked with Dante Russo on the family show Radiant Ruby, but the songs I've been playing most throughout this past week have been the beautiful songs of Rob's Adam Lives, which tells the story of a composer who leaves his home and wife to write a new single for pop star Jude Kane in New York. Watch the following songs from the show:

"Trouble Is" sung by Cait Doyle:

And "Pictures of the Border Signs" sung by Lindsay Mendez:

There's something really exhilarating about the way these songs explore romance and love -- examining both the thrilling and flawed moments of loving someone. The music isn't afraid to be quiet, to breathe, to contemplate, and most of all to feel the absence of someone or something who should be there. I love the way thoughts are broken down and deconstructed and pushed out into the world in moments that seem to take flight, and I highly recommend checking out all the music available at Rob's website.

Spending Christmas Alone

In speaking of the holidays, just had to post this gem from brilliant playwright Young Jean Lee's new collaboration with Tim Simmonds as a part of One-Woman Show, the next show to be produced by 13P. Listen to the song "I'm Spending Christmas Alone" here, which is a fantastic tune that sharply captures the seemingly depressing, surprisingly liberating idea of spending the holidays like any other days. Here are some sample lyrics The New York Times ArtsBeat Blog posted that I absolutely love:

I wake up Christmas morning
No presents and no tree
No friends or neighbors calling
No loving family
I pour a bowl of cereal and turn on the TV
A hundred different channels
A hundred shows for me.