Day before yesterday we gathered the majority of our cast, creative team, and production team to read and sing through the latest version of the script and score. 
Vienna and Matt flew in that morning for the event. It was wonderful to gather all that talent in the same room for a few hours – I can’t wait till January, when I get to live in the electric zone of creating live theater with these incredible folks for thirty hours a week.
What’s that you say? What do I mean by “the latest version of the script and score”? Surely we’re not still working on these things less than two weeks before the start of rehearsals!
To that I say, welcome to the marvelous, maddening, endlessly unfolding process of developing a new musical! Yes it’s true, Vienna and I are holed up for the rest of this week with our fabulous orchestrator, Robin Reynolds, writing and rewriting and writing some more. New songs are emerging even now, six years into the collaborative process, and older ones are being threaded more deeply and intricately through the script. Because in amusical, much like in a symphony, it’s all about theme and variation. You hear it here and it means one thing, you hear it there and it carries an entirely different weight, especially when juxtaposed with the context in which it appeared the first time. As this is the first musical that Vienna and I have written, we’ve been developing our understanding of the musical theater form right alongside our development of the script. Fortunately, Matt August (our fearless director) has loads of experience developing and directing new both on and off Broadway. His insight, passion, and guidance have been and continue to be invaluable in the process.
And so… Onward ho! Looking forward to seeing you all at the theater in the New Year. And by the way, if you’re short of inspiration for a last minute holiday gift, how about a PAIR OF TICKETS to a transformative night out?
