Obscure Musical Theatre

I started listening to musical theatre singer-songwriters after a friend gave me a ride home once and he was playing a song that I could not get out of my head. I text him about an hour after he dropped me off and got the song information

Two Strangers - Matt Doyle, Morgan Karr, and Jay Armstrong Johnson.

I was immediately excited because I knew of Matt Doyle from the studio cast recording of ‘bare: a pop opera’ and I just loved his voice.

I looked up, and downloaded the album ‘Our First Mistake’ which is the first album from composers Kerrigan and Lowdermilk. I was so smitten with this album, and the idea behind what this was. An album compiled of songs that are loosely related (or from a sort-of show or shows they had maybe written) and sung by pop singers, and musical theater performers alike.

I started really enjoying how this grouping of styles showcased new composer(s) like Pasek & Paul, Drew Gasparini, Joe Iconis, Scott Alan and Ryan Scott Oliver as well as up and coming stars like Michael Arden, Lindsay Mendez, Laura Osnes, Natalie Weiss, and Katie Thompson. I never would have known who any of these people were if it were for albums like Kerrigan-Lowdermilk LIVE, 35mm The Musical, and I Could Use a Drink.

I got to listen as Lindsay Mendez jumped into Dogfight, that had critical acclaim, though not a ton of success off Broadway and then go on to play Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway for the 10 year anniversary, and Katie Thompson end up singing in John LaChiusa’s adaptation of the 1952 Novel (and somewhat of the 1956 film) Giant. I actually got to see Jay Armstrong Johnson in The Last Goodbye at the Old Gobe in San Diego, which was Romeo and Juliet set to a Jeff Buckley score.

I love these small seemingly random and fairly obscure things become something to take notice of. all of the talent in the world is getting documented and you can have a front row seat.

Some more fun facts: Pasek & Paul wrote some of the music for Smash on NBC, and were nominated for a Tony for the score of the musical adaptation of A Christmas Story.

Joe Iconis wrote one of the most famous songs in Smash, “Broadway Here I Come” and rumor has it that this song is actually about suicide.

Lindsay Mendez was in the cast of Grease that was featured on the NBC reality show, “You’re the One That I Want” playing Jan. 

The person who won the role of Sandy was Laura Osnes, who is featured on a lot of the albums I just mentioned. She sings a song by Scott Alan called ‘Now’ that breaks my heart every single time I listen to it. 

Jonathan Groff sings the Male version of it on a different Scott Alan album, and I literally cried the first time I heard it. 

I #fanboy very hard for both Jonathan and Laura. I want to be friends with them.

Are you a fan of some obscure musicals? How about some fringe composers? Where would these singers and composers be today without social media and youtube?

Dark Musicals and Kerry Butler

I sing in a vocal ensemble that deals in predominantly singing musical theatre. It’s one of the reasons i joined the group. I love choral singing and I love musical theatre.

Throughout the 2 and a half years that I have been involved with the group, we have hit a lot of music I love, and music that i like, and music I’m not so crazy about.

In the fall of 2013 we did a Halloween show, and all of our music focused on some creepy, dark, music. This was a really good learning show for me. There were some things that I knew really well, like Wicked, and some things I only had a vague grasp of, like Batboy: The Musical.

One of the catchiest songs that I had the pleasure of singing was “Cabin in the Woods” from the musical ‘Evil Dead: the Musical’. Evil Dead is based on the 1981 cult classic starring Bruce Campbell. I cant claim to be a connoisseur of cult films, unfortunately that will have to be another blog, but the musical, is super fun! That number will still get stuck in my head. Its that catchy! The show itself was actually never on Broadway, but has had a great life after its Off-Broadway run at New World Stages. There has been tons of semi-professional, and amateur performances all over North America, and even a tour.

I was actually surprised at how much Batboy: the Musical did not do anything for me. I know the local college in my hometown did it and other than that I had heard of this show a few times while being in and around community theatre and the insane premise of a Weekly World News article being turned into a stage musical just doesn't go unnoticed.

We sang “Hold Me, Batboy” which is a good opening for the show, there’s lots of exposition in it, lots of good belty one liners. The music and lyrics are even written by a favorite of mine, Laurence O’Keefe, who is also known for an ABSOLUTE favorite of mine: Legally Blonde: the Musical, as well as the brand new, not so well received off-Broadway show Heathers: The Musical (I have only heard a few numbers from this, and I liked them)

I should remain fully transparent in the fact that I have still yet to see full productions of Batboy: the Musical, and Evil Dead: the Musical. I'm sure my opinion may change if I see it as the producers intend.

One of the best things that came out of the Halloween show was we did two numbers from Little Shop of Horrors, "Suddenly Seymour" and "Don't Feed the Plants". 

What a fun musical. 

I had the pleasure of Assistant Directing that show, and learning how to run a sound board come show time for it as well. I almost had to go on for Seymour once when our actor got stuck in Missouri, but we had cancelled the show instead, so I am very intimately familiar with that show.

Most people are familiar with the 1986 B-Movie starring Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene, (and a then rising comedic superstar Steve Martin as the sadistic dentist, Orin Scrivello) which, is in its own right, a fantastic musical film. It also stars Tisha Campbell (of Martin fame) as Chiffon, one of the Street Urchins, and probably my favorite part in the musical. 

I want to loop back to Batboy, in that Kerry Butler played Shelly in Batboy, and she played Audrey in the 2003 revival of Little Shop of Horrors (my personal favorite version), playing opposite Hunter Foster. 

I love Kerry Butler, she is one of my favorite performers, and she will come up a lot on this blog! Also, Hunter Foster is the brother to another Broadway powerhouse: Sutton Foster. #fangirling

I also CAN'T NOT (love me a double negative) mention the recent Encores! Revival of Little Shop of Horrors, which brought back the original (off-Broadway, and film) Audrey, Ellen Greene, as well as Jake frickin’ Gyllenhaal as Seymour and another rising comedic superstar, Taran Killam of SNL fame as Orin. I have read in many articles and fan postings that the show was superb.

What about you? Are you a fan of Little Shop of Horrors? Do you enjoy darker musical theatre? Let me know!

Another Openin': An Introduction

When I was 16 I was asked, and very aggressively suggested, to audition for the spring musical at my high school. I had been singing in the choir for several years, and my choir conductor needed tenors (and male bodies) to audition for the spring show.

That’s when the bug bit me. Yes, the performing bug, which… I’ll get into later, but this was a slowly growing tumor, as opposed to the zealous fever that comes with wanting to show-off in front of an audience.

I fell in love with theatre, and more importantly musical theatre, and I wanted to know more.

I was fairly small when my mom would introduce us to some of the Musical Theatre classics on film. I really only remember watching and loving West Side Story. I kind of remember watching some of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classics (Oklahoma, Carousel, Sound of Music, etc)


I even KIND of remember My Fair Lady, but I really remember West Side Story. It had to be the dancing. Also Russ Tamblyn…

I remember when I got cast in Once Upon a Mattress, and I wanted to find out more information about the show, this was back in the days before Google had the power it does now, and before Wikipedia, and LONG before IBDB.com, and I just wanted to know what I was getting myself into. 

I went to the local Tower Records, because exhaustive searches of Target, and Walmart were useless in trying to find ANY cast album, let alone one from 1959, and I eventually found it! Well, I thought I had found it and would later find out it was the revival cast album starring Sarah Jessica Parker. I was excited, though, because I knew who she was, and I heard of Jane Krakowski, who I thought was the mom in Malcolm in the middle (that would be Jane Kaczmarek).

I was CONVINCED that I had found the exact replica of what we were going to be performing, and listened to my little CD, and loved the music, and then got to my first rehearsal and found that almost EVERYTHING on the album was different then the script and score we were handed.

Distraught, I talked to my vocal director/choir conductor and she told me about the original cast album (starring the amazing Carol Burnett) and that it would be tough to find, and that she would burn a copy of it for me.

Chatting with her about theatre, performing, and show tunes was one of the highlights of performing in high school for me. Later, during my senior year of high school we did Anything Goes, and she once again was a wealth of knowledge about the 1962 production (which is what we would be performing), and the revival (starring Pattil LuPone) and would give me her opinions about things, and what she likes, and helped me foster my own opinions about things. 

The differences between those 2 revivals are vast as well, and also the television special with Ethel Merman and Bing Crosby that a friend of mine found as well. I remember going over to her house and watching it and pointing out the differences, and later obsessing all of those differences.

From then on, I started doing community theatre, and making friends who had the same passions. They would teach me, and we would discover new things together. It was always such a lovely time.

We would talk about themes of shows, then that would start a conversation about a composer, and then the Ingenue whose career was launched, and her body of work, and that choreographer... it would go on and on, and there was always something to talk about. Then and now, that knowledge gives me so much comfort.

Plus its just so fun to perform!

What about you? What introduced you to Musical Theatre?