Our world premiere, and a wonderful 10-week run, March through May.
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The sitzprobe (seated orchestra rehearsal) sounded great last night. So proud of the cast and orchestra. Ten-day countdown to opening!
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Two weeks until opening night.
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One morning last December, as I was rewriting a lyric, I received a call from a man named Elliot Brown who told me he was from the Kleban Foundation. ("Omigod, I'm a finalist. Do not get overexcited. A finalist is great, it's great. I am a finalist, a finalist, a finalist.") And then, after affirming he had reached me, he said, "Hold on while I get Richard Maltby on the phone." ("Omigod...I am NOT just a finalist....") Flash forward to February 8, 2016….
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The lyricist, librettist and playwright Stacey Luftig and the writer and director Daniel Goldstein are the recipients of the 2016 Kleban Prize for promising musical-theater writers, the sponsors of the prize announced this week. The awards each come with $100,000.
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On November 30, Phillip Palmer and I received the 2015 Fred Ebb Award for excellence in musical theater writing. An incredible honor. Not the least of which because an idol of mine, Sheldon Harnick, was one of the judges. The materials we submitted (Phillip, music; me, lyrics) were four songs from MY HEART IS THE DRUM….
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Our first staged reading of MY HEART IS THE DRUM–the entire show–will take place at the Village Theatre at 7:30 p.m. on August 9, 2014. Our cast and music director are wonderful, and of course, we love our director, Schele Williams, who also directed for us at NAMT. And Issaquah, Washington, where the Village Theatre Festival is held, is a beautiful and friendly city. Phil, Jennie, and I are jet lagged but happy.
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What a wonderful week! Seven days in snowy East Haddam, Connecticut to work with Phillip Palmer and Jennie Redling on My Heart Is the Drum--in cozy house of our own. Loved the time to share work and shmooze with such talented writers and with gifted dramaturg Lee Johnson. Thank you Donna Lynn Hilton, Bob Alwine, and Jonathan Brielle for the opportunity!
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Sharing your musical through the National Alliance of Musical Theatre is a writers dream--top notch cast and crew, super well organized, mentor provided--and they even pay you! Thanks to everyone at NAMT for two fantastic 45-minute presentations of Act I of MY HEART IS THE DRUM. Directed by the magnificent Schele Williams (Motown, the Musical) and music directed with top expertise by Joseph Church (The Lion King), the all-Broadway cast included Saycon Sengbloh, Kyrstal Brown, Tommar Wilson….
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My Heart Is the Drum (book by Jennie Redling, music by Phillip Palmer, lyrics by me) was one of just nine musicals chosen out of 175 submitted to the National Alliance for Musical Theatre conference! We will be presenting a streamlined, 45-minute version of Act I at New World Stages on October 17 and 18. For more info, go to www.namt.org.
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Finally–a reading in New York! Don Brenner will be directing a reading of Jinxed at the Abingdon Theatre on Friday, February 22, at 7 p.m. Please come!
For details: www.abingdontheatre.org.
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Happy to announce that Jinxed will have two staged readings in Palm Springs, California, May 4 and 5. Jackie Cochran is a main character in the play; the real live Jackie Cochran lived in Palm Springs in the mid 20th century, and there may be many at the readings who knew her! Hope to see you there!
For more information, go to www.script2stage2screen.com.
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