ceelove

I have watched this (and another from a different angle) about 15 times in the last couple of days and cried every time: https://youtu.be/IGVxaFJeYTo

It’s the finale to the musical “Waitress,” sung by a 14yo boy invited on stage by the cast. I seriously cannot believe how gifted he is, how much he shares of himself, and how touching it is to watch a bunch of adults just lose themselves in raw emotion.

(See what I did there?)
Jan 15 - Feb 20, Lyric Stage Company is presenting Sondheim on Sondheim (which played on Broadway), a showcase of his work interspersed with his commentary.

http://www.lyricstage.com/productions/production.cfm?ID=98

Tickets are pricey but less so on weekdays. My ideal showing would be Feb 11, but I could likely manage others. Anyone want to go with?

I've seen Chess three times now, starting at 17 when I didn't get it at all but loved the music, even though it was the watered-down American version. It's been rewritten [again, still] and is playing in Needham next month.

So who's up for a bit of a traipse to see what I hear is a cool new production of a perhaps-even-more-intact-than-the-original-British Chess? The only date I can make work is May 10 at 8:00 (and I'd still need to get childcare - this is not a kid-friendly show). Tix are $22.

Moar infoz: http://needhamtheatre.org/showinfo.html

Woot, I am chair-dancing! My revision of Fire and Ice, she is finish! Almost a year after the first take, but I was kind of busy this year. :P

I've never before enjoyed rewriting - when I did it to get a story published at 20, I said that it was like cutting off my baby's arms and sewing them on backwards (not that I would have known). But this! This was fun. I shaved that puppy down from 129 pages to 99 (should be under two hours), tossed out two songs, and now have something that feels manageable instead of lumbering.

And now I must read everything the internet thinks about what I can do to get it produced. Unless you happen to know a theatrical company looking to do a cutting-edge apocalyptic musical with eight principles and six in the ensemble?

So, absolutely no thanks to me, Fire and Ice is now up on YouTube. Chris Lahey (who performed as Frank) deserves all the credit for cutting it into useable pieces and putting them up.

It is as rough (especially early on) as one would expect from a piece as unrehearsed as this was, but I believe you can still get the gist.

Also understand that I know this to be a work in progress. I've already gotten plenty of useful feedback suggesting where my rewrites will lie: making Frank's character less unlikeable, making Act One less redundant in establishing the characters, stripping back the conversations with Janet and adding in a boyfriend for Madison who is stuck vacationing in Europe, rewriting "Who Can We Blame," and possibly leaving out "Buy Buy Buy." I'm open to hearing your thoughts!

A family slogs across post-apocalyptic America. Most of them die. And, perhaps the worst indignity of all, they are characters in a musical, and so they have to warble about the whole damn thing.

It's Fire and Ice, the epic tragedy that I've been crafting for the past two years. Some cohorts and I will be doing a read/sing-through, open to the public, in the conference room of the main Somerville library.

We will start promptly at 2:00 and likely go til about 5:00, with an intermission between acts. Did I mention there are 19 songs? There are 19 songs. If we're lucky, a majority will be accompanied by piano.

Yes, bring your videocamera. Yes, invite your friends, at least those whose tastes run to countercultural musicals. Yes, volunteer to read a part (in which case, I'll email you the script beforehand) and/or sing (in which case, I'll email you song files and coordinate rehearsing beforehand). But mostly, if you've ever wondered what else the writer of Never After might have to say, just show up, because, YES!, it is finally ready for your delectation.

(But no: don't worry that I will be offended if you don't show up. I get that a musical post-apocalyptic Grapes of Wrath isn't for everyone.)

Told you. :)

It's been over two years that I've been writing Fire and Ice. It took me the first two-thirds of the time to write the first one-third of the script, but then I thankfully found my groove, and since the spring it's felt like I could finish this year. So I did. Including rewrite.

It's 128 pages, about two and a half hours runtime. Nineteen songs, well over an hour of music even before an overture or whatever. Sometimes people have expressed amazement about one person writing the music, lyrics, and libretto, whereas to me it's not amazing, merely a lot of work; what boggles my mind is the idea of trying to mesh talents between multiple people to produce things. (Unsurprisingly, I'm having a hell of a time getting this bugger arranged.)

Congratulate me, people. This was the longest, most intentional, epic, demanding thing I've ever written. I believed that Never After was good, and many hundreds of people apparently agreed. I'm telling you that this is better. It may not necessarily be to your tastes, but it is a damn fine work.

"Fire and Ice", Act One, in narrated house-concert (reading by some of y'all, songs by me & Mary Casiello)
February 21, 8:00
First floor of left-hand side of And/Or, 35/37 Kidder Ave, Somerville

Be there or be bereft of the first act of a completely unknown apocalyptic stage musical.

So, Legally Blonde the movie was, y'know, cute. Legally Blonde the musical, though, is inspired, at times verging on genius.

And it's playing at The North Shore Music Theatre (in Beverly), 11/1 to 11/13, every evening but Mondays. It is, unlike most of what I rave about, a fairly big, expensive show, with tickets ranging from $40 to $55.

Who's with me? I'll buy tickets upfront, if we can agree on a date. Weekend evenings are more expensive (and full of parties anyway), so I'd prefer to do a weekend matinee or T/W/Th evening.

The Longwood Players, one of my favorite companies, will be putting on The Secret Garden in May. It runs from the 6th to the 14th. I am most interested in going to the matinee on the 14th, because then Sylvana could go too. She won't understand all of it, but I love the idea of attending a musical with her. (No, really, cee?)

General admission is $16, kids are $10 (plus, y'know, some handling fee or other). This is a play with and about children, but not specifically targeted at them. Interest in joining us? I'll buy tix in a few days.