‘WE FOXES’ WORKSHOPPED AT GOODSPEED IN JANUARY; CONCERT MARCH 14 AT 54 BELOW

The RSO show joins Goodspeed Opera House’s festival of new musicals IN JANUARY 2016, AND WILL BE PRESENTED IN CONCERT AT FEINSTEIN’S/54 BELOW ON MARCH 14.

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.

The concert presentation on March 14 will be held at 7:00pm and 9:30pm.  Ticket buyers can receive 50% off tickets on Cyber Monday (Nov. 30).  CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS.

SLIDER for site-wfconcert

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.

Goodspeed Opera House

RSO’S LATEST SHOW ‘ROPE’ PREMIERED AS DEVELOPMENTAL WORKSHOP IN NYC, JAN 2016

RSO’s ROPE, second in the Dogs Trilogy begun with We Foxes, will premiere as a developmental workshop at Pace University.

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.

Ethan Carlson

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Music+Lyrics by RSO: Vol. 3 released Oct. 20

New RSO Songbook to be digitally released on October 20

On October 20, 2015 Music+Lyrics by Ryan Scott Oliver will be available for digital download for $34.99 in the online store.

Highlights of the book include:

  • 20 songs with piano-vocal arrangements and chords
  • Featuring never-before-released tunes from WE FOXES and DARLING, plus more
  • 3 key changes for popular gender-benders

Lindsay Mendez in "Rated RSO" at the New York Musical Theater FestivalFull list of songs:
Sorrow Done” from We Foxes
Map of Scars” from We Foxes
Ruination” from We Foxes
“City of Angels” from We Foxes
“Clever” from Darling
“Ground” from Darling
“You’ll Never Grow a Day Older” from Darling
“Awful People” from Jasper in Deadland
The Forgetting” from Jasper in Deadland
“One More Day of Snow” from Jasper in Deadland
Hungry for Your Heart” from Jasper in Deadland
“Lifesong” from Jasper in Deadland
“The Killing” from Jasper in Deadland
“On Her Trail”
“Crazytown” from 35mm: A Musical Exhibition
“Hemming and Hawing” from 35mm: A Musical Exhibition
“Mama, Let Me In” from 35mm: A Musical Exhibition
“Leave, Luanne” (female key) from 35mm: A Musical Exhibition
“On Monday” (male key) from 35mm: A Musical Exhibition
“To Do” (male key) from Out of My Head

RSO + MATTHEW MURPHY “A FINE SHOWMANCE”

Playbill’s “A Fine Showmance” series highlights RSO and husband Matthew Murphy.

rso-mm460g_200_20035MM: A Musical Exhibition is a collaboration between RSO and photographer Matthew Murphy. Playbill goes behind the scenes on how their artistic and romantic relationship came to be:

“Although theirs is not a traditional showmance, in the sense that they did not meet while doing a show, they ended up creating one together, so this might just be the finest showmance of all. For this latest installment of “A Fine Showmance” Murphy and Oliver talk about trying to start their relationship off slow, their favorite upstate getaway and how Murphy ended up crying in the middle of Washington Square Park with a Chipotle burrito in his hand.” – Whitney Spaner for Playbill

Read the whole article HERE.

RSO Interviewed in Huffington Post

How Ryan Scott Oliver Is Shaking Up Musical Theater With His Dark, ‘Twisted And Genius’ Work

Huffington Post’s Curtis Wong interviews RSO on his inspirations, shows, and plans for the future -calling him “musical theater’s answer to an auteur filmmaker or a gothic novelist.”   Jay Armstong Johnson is quoted describing RSO’s work as “deep, rich, innovative and new.” Read the whole article here.

Check out Jay Armstrong Johnson’s “Stroke by Stroke” from Jasper in Deadland at 54 Below: