NYC's composer-lyricist fashioning Gothic thrillers, queer poperettas, and high-octane rock into exhilarating new musicals
November 18, 2015
RSO’s southern Gothic thriller We Foxes will receive a developmental workshop at Goodspeed Opera House as part of their festival of new musicals. It will again be directed by Leigh Silverman (who presently directed during this summer’s reading at Playwrights Horizons), with dramaturgy by Matthew Schneider. Rich Silverstein will music direct. The reading will be presented on the mainstage and open to the public.
All casting will be announced soon.
We Foxes was commissioned by Broadway Across America and has been developed in readings or written in residence at the 5th Avenue in Seattle, Goodspeed, TheatreWorks, Silicon Valley’s Writer’s Retreat, Pace New Musicals (Pace University), CAP 21 and the Weston Playhouse. The York Theatre Company presented the New York premiere Sept. 12, 2014, as part of its Developmental Reading Series, and the show is the winner of the New Horizons Award.
Goodspeed Opera House has produced over 250 musicals, including over 70 world premieres, and exported 20 productions to Broadway including Amazing Grace, 13, and Annie. Goodspeed stands as the first regional theatre in America to earn two special Tony Awards, one in 1980 for outstanding contributions to the American musical and a second in 1995 for distinguished achievement for a regional theatre.
Goodspeed mounts both new and newly revived musicals each year on our main stage at the Opera House and on their second stage in Chester – a total of more than 400 performances during the April to December season attracting 130,000 patrons to the Connecticut River Valley. They stand at the forefront of producing and preserving the American musical, simultaneously reinventing the classics and inventing new ones. They attract well-known icons of the theatre world and foster emerging talent among composers, lyricists, and librettists. Each year, thousands of actors, directors, choreographers, and technicians aspire to come to Goodspeed to practice their craft. Among millions who know and love this art form – and those who appreciate its history and enduring appeal – Goodspeed is widely recognized as “The Home of the American Musical.”
See more at: http://www.goodspeed.org/about/all-about-goodspeed#sthash.M3x2XTMz.dpuf
The developmental cast will feature college students from the Hart School and Boston Conservatory.
Listen to the #FoxesTracks here
We Foxes is a southern Gothic thriller set in small-town Missouri, 1945. It’s the story of WILLA, a tough and unmannered orphan girl, and her adoption by the crafty Sheriff’s wife, VESTA QUIMBY. When Willa discovers the dark secrets beneath the floorboards, a war cuts them apart and Willa must fight to survive. After all, Vesta Quimby is the most beloved and powerful woman in town … Yet she’s less humanitarian socialite than she is Machiavellian sociopath… Can Willa discover her own salvation, deliver herself into courage, and sacrifice everything to escape Vesta? It is a story of intense human struggle, deliverance, and the great salvation found only through oneself.
November 18, 2015
The cast will include: Zack Zaromatidis, Ethan Carlson, Chris Isolano, Saidu Sinlah, David Park, Mary Claire Miskell, Bethany Perkins, Aury Krebs, Ian Fairlee, Jonathan Miller, Linnea Sumner, Hanako Greensmith, and Sam Swenson.
The story of ROPE is as follows: “New York, 1864. They are an unlikely pair: Clay, a gang-thief determined to find life’s fortune alone; and Szajda (“Shy”), a ghostly Jew with an Irish accent, blind but possessing a remarkable power. Yet they become tied at the waist with a length of rope, stuck together on a desperate quest through a war-torn America. Clinging together with this charmed rope that allows the blind Shy to see through the eyes of Clay, the two young men must escape the vicious gangs of New York and push a path into the heart of the Civil War, where they find the greatest battle of all must be between themselves, brother and brother.”
More information will be released soon on performances open to the public.
July 19, 2015
RSO in London took place at the St. James on March 23, 2015. The cast included: two time Oliver-nominee Emma Williams, current Kim in Miss Saigon on the West End, Eva Noblezada, BBC’s Any Dream Will Do Daniel Boys and Anton Zetterholm of European productions of Tarzan,Wicked, and Les Miz.:
RSO in London was directed by Katie Pesskin with music direction by Michael Riley and was produced by Susan Winter and Katie Pesskin for As Told By Productions.
July 19, 2015
After an off-Broadway run in 2014 and a critically acclaimed production at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theater, songs from Jasper in Deadland will be released to the public for purchase in a digital vocal selections book, on August 4th, 2015. The selections will include hit songs like Stroke by Stoke, and Living Dead as well as never-before-released songs. Books ($34.99) and individual songs ($8.99) will be available for purchase at www.ryanscottoliver.com/store
Vocal Selections Include:
Stroke by Stroke
The Forgetting
Living Dead
Awful People
Hungry for Your Heart
Lifesong
The Killing
One More Day of Snow
Jasper in Deadland tells the story of 16-year-old Jasper, who journeys into the Afterlife to rescue his recently deceased best friend, Agnes. But in this version of the hereafter – known as “Deadland,” a hybrid of mythology, religion, and superstition – the dead forget Life… And so, too, will Jasper, if he can’t get past the seven circles of Deadland, fearsome Cerberus, heavenly Beatrix, mysterious Mr. Lethe, and ultimately himself. Can Jasper bring his best friend back from the dead, or will he join the dead forever? Book by HUNTER FOSTER and RYAN SCOTT OLIVER, music and Lyrics by RYAN SCOTT OLIVER.
July 18, 2015
The reading stars Katie Thompson, Emily Rogers, Ben Crawford, and Ben Frankhauser with Jill Abramovitz, Cory Jeacoma, Natalie Charle Ellis, Tori Huston-Elem, Will Erat, P.J. Griffin, Azudi Onyejekwe, Jen Perry, and Jim Stanek. Creative team includes Music Director Rich Silverstein, Music Assistant Kailey Marshall, with Stage Manager David Lurie and Production Assistant Nessie Nankivell.
We Foxes is a southern Gothic thriller set in small-town Missouri, 1945. It’s the story of WILLA, a tough and unmannered orphan girl, and her adoption by the crafty Sheriff’s wife, VESTA QUIMBY. When Willa discovers the dark secrets beneath the floorboards, a war cuts them apart and Willa must fight to survive. After all, Vesta Quimby is the most beloved and powerful woman in town … Yet she’s less humanitarian socialite than she is Machiavellian sociopath… Can Willa discover her own salvation, deliver herself into courage, and sacrifice everything to escape Vesta? It is a story of intense human struggle, deliverance, and the great salvation found only through oneself.
The reading is produced by Grove Entertainment and hosted by Playwrights Horizons.
Katie Thompson performs “Ruination” from We Foxes below.