News | Ryan Scott Oliver

RSO Returns to LA at Rockwell in Hollywood 11/21

November 7, 2016

From BroadwayWorld.com:

On November 21, acclaimed composer-lyricist Ryan Scott Oliver will return to Los Angeles with a concert at Rockwood in Hollywood. Show time is at 8:00pm.

Featured that evening will be: Kerstin Anderson(The Sound of Music National Tour), Jason Michael Snow (The Spongebob Musical, The Book of Mormon), Eric Krop (Godspell), Ben Davis (The Sound of Music National Tour), Jared Gertner(The Book of Mormon), Deborah S. Craig (25th Annual…Spelling Bee), Carly Jibson (Fat Camp, Cry-Baby), A ndrew Samonsky (The Mystery of Edwin Drood), Kate Reinders (Something Rotten!), Anna Grace Barlow (Scream Queens), Chris Meissner (Grease Live!), Kate Pazakis (The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas), Katherine Washington, plus more to be announced – and the composer himself.

Attendees can expect to hear selections from RSO’s numerous musicals including Mrs. Sharp, Darling, 35mm: A Musical Exhibition, Jasper in Deadland, We Foxes, Rope, Out of My Head and many more. Emily Clark and the Unknown Artists will co-produce, and Rodney Bush will music direct the 5-piece band.

Oliver was called “the future of Broadway… a major new voice in musical theatre” (Entertainment Weekly) and is “shaking up musical theater with his dark, twisted and genius work … [Oliver] could very well be musical theater’s answer to an auteur filmmaker or a gothic novelist” (Huffington Post). He is the winner of a Larson Grant, Rodgers Award, ASCAP Harold Adamson Award, New Musicals Awards from Weston Playhouse, Pace University, and Lortel Award Nomination. He wrote the music and lyrics for Jasper in Deadland (premiered off-Broadway and remounted at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre), 35mm: A Musical Exhibition (licensed by Samuel French, original cast recording avail. on Ghostlight Records), Darling, Mrs. Sharp, Out of My Head, and more. He is currently at work on a trilogy of new musicals beginning with We Foxes and continuing with Rope and Three Points of Contact, both currently in progress. More info can be found at ryanscottoliver.com, and his morbidly optimistic musings can be followed at @ryanscottoliver.

Rockwell Table & Stage is located at 1714 N. Vermont Ave. Tickets are on sale for $20/$30/$40 at Rockwell-la.com.

HARVARD BRINGS 35MM TO LIFE; LINDSAY MENDEZ AND RSO OFFER MASTER CLASS

September 28, 2016

35mm: A Musical Exhibition will be presented by students at Harvard University this fall on October 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th. In preparation for the show, RSO and Lindsay Mendez, an original cast member, will come from New York, NY to Cambridge, MA to work with Harvard’s 35mm production team.

From press notes: “While on campus, Oliver and Mendez will also hold two master classes presented by Learning From Performers, a program of the Office for the Arts at Harvard. The first is a seminar led by Oliver focused on creativity in art-making and the second is a workshop based on Oliver and Mendez’s Actor Therapy program in which selected musical theatre students will perform for and receive feedback from Oliver and Mendez.

“The cast includes Ashley LaLonde, Brooke Sweeney, Brian Cami, Geoffrey Binney, and Jacob Rienstra. The production is directed by Missy Dreier, music directed by Liz Kantor, and stage managed by Kira Telgen. The production team also includes Kara Roberts, the producer, and Lindsey Ruggles, the production advisor.

“The show will be performed in the Adams Pool Theatre at Harvard University on October 7^th at 7:30pm, October 8^th at 2:30 pm and 7:30 pm, and October 9^th at 2:30pm. Please visit www.hrdctheater.com/35mm for tickets and more details.”

‘WE FOXES’ to be performed at Village Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals

July 11, 2016

This year, We Foxes by Ryan Scott Oliver will be among the five new musicals brought to life at the Village Theatre‘s Festival of New Musicals. Through the creative collaboration of nearly 75 artists and writers, performed and directed by the region’s foremost theatre professionals and guest artists from across the country, it will be the first Festival of New Musicals led by newly appointed Associate Artistic Director Brandon Ivie.

The Festival of New Musicals provides an essential platform for writers to incorporate a key component of Live Theatre: the audience. Each new musical will be rehearsed throughout the week, then presented to the Festival’s audience in staged reading format, fully sung using scripts. Though readings are not open to the general public, audiences are partly comprised of Village Originals members who are asked to participate in moderated talkbacks and provide written feedback and constructive critiques of the work, thereby becoming an integral part of the developmental process.

Village Theatre will welcome to Issaquah the critically-acclaimed musical theatre writers at the helm of the new works, who will convene from across the country for the three-day event. “I’m so pleased with the five shows we will have in residence for the festival,” says Festival Producer and Associate Artistic Director Brandon Ivie. “While all are at different stages in their development and vastly varied in style, these writers are all incredibly sophisticated with exceedingly unique voices, and are an inspiring testament to the future of the American Musical.”

RSO’s WE FOXES takes place in the small town of Havoc, Missouri at the onset of World War II. A tough, unmannered orphan girl is plucked up from her vagabond life and adopted into a world of style and social graces by the beloved wife of the local sheriff. But in her new, unfamiliar life, she begins to discover that there are sinister secrets beneath the shiny veneer of this small town. Her adopted mother is not who she seems to be, and people are lurking in the dark. This gothic musical thriller follows one girl’s struggle to summon courage and survive at all costs.

Other new musicals of the festival include COSTS OF LIVING (Book, Music, and Lyrics by Timothy Huang), HOW TO BREAK (Book and Lyrics by Aaron Gaffers), STRING (Book by Sarah Hammond, Music and Lyrics by Adam Gwon), WRITING Kevin Taylor (Music and Lyrics by Will Van Dyke, Book and Lyrics by Josh Halloway).

WATCH: ‘WE FOXES’ and ‘ROPE’ in Concert

May 20, 2016

CHECK OUT TWO PLAYLISTS FOR RSO’S LATEST SHOWS!

‘WE FOXES’ and ‘ROPE’ represent two of three musicals in a trilogy of musical folk operas RSO is writing about American desperation during war-time.

SELECTIONS FROM ‘WE FOXES’ IN CONCERT

‘WE FOXES’ is a southern Gothic thriller set in small-town Missouri, 1945. It’s the story of Willa, a tough, 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 – however 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.

SELECTIONS FROM ‘ROPE’ IN CONCERT

‘ROPE’ which takes place in 1864 New York, tells the story of Clay, a gang-thief who’s determined to find life’s fortune alone, and Szajda, a ghostly Jew with an Irish accent. He is blind but possesses a remarkable power. 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 Szajda to see through the eyes of Clay, the two young men must escape the vicious gangs of New York and forge a path into the heart of the Civil War where they find the greatest battle of all must be between themselves.

RSO JOINS DUNCAN SHEIK, MARC SHAIMAN AND MORE FOR SH-K-BOOM 16TH BIRTHDAY

May 20, 2016

Ryan Scott Oliver joined other all-star artists in concert to celebrate Sh-K-Boom Records “Sweet 16” birthday on April 14 at Symphony Space’s “Leonard Nimony Thalia.”

The music portrayed at the event spanned the spectrum of contemporary and classic theater talent that has earned Sh-K-Boom records three Grammy Awards, twelve Grammy nominations, and a Drama Desk “Special Award.” Among these was RSO’s ‘35 MM.’

In ‘35MM,’ each photo creates a unique song, moments frozen in time; a glimmer of a life unfolding, a glimpse of something happening. The multimedia musical explores a groundbreaking new concept in musical theatre through a series of vivid, imaginative songs. This show was represented at the Sh-K-Boom Birthday Concert with Grace McLean singing “The Ballad of Sara Berry” with Ethan Carlson, Mary Claire Miskell, David Park, and John-Michael Lyles.

“I’m proud of the range of music our label has preserved and highlighted over the last 16 years,” says Kurt Deutsch, founder and producer. “We are thrilled to have all this musical creativity together on one stage with such stellar performing talent to celebrate the records that are treasured within the community and around the world.”

35mm: A Musical Exhibition will be presented by students at Harvard University this fall on October 7th, 8th, and 9th. In preparation for the show, RSO and Lindsay Mendez, an original cast member, will come from New York, NY to Cambridge, MA to work with Harvard’s 35mm production team.

CHECK OUT TWO PLAYLISTS FOR RSO’S LATEST SHOWS!

‘WE FOXES’ and ‘ROPE’ represent two of three musicals in a trilogy of musical folk operas RSO is writing about American desperation during war-time.

Ryan Scott Oliver joined other all-star artists in concert to celebrate Sh-K-Boom Records “Sweet 16” birthday on April 14 at Symphony Space’s “Leonard Nimony Thalia.”

35mm: A Musical Exhibition will be presented by students at Harvard University this fall on October 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th. In preparation for the show, RSO and Lindsay Mendez, an original cast member, will come from New York, NY to Cambridge, MA to work with Harvard’s 35mm production team.