We’re all very aware that there are a million and one ways to approach writing a musical. Some musicals are built around a collection of preexisting songs. Other musicals are devised with a group of collaborative artists. And of course (when adapting a preexisting work into a musical) you have the ability to use the […]
The post The Almighty Blueprint appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
It can be easy for us to look at certain musicals from the past and claim them to be groundbreaking, revolutionary, or just plain great. But trying to put ourselves in the mindset as those who were in the audience when these shows opened is a different story. One of my all time favorite moments […]
The post Making Things “New” All Over Again appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
When I stepped onto the plane last week it was 70 degrees at LaGuardia. Granted, it is the global warming apocalypse, but the point is I was leaving a pretty beautiful day in New York City. When I stepped off it was in the 30s in Buffalo. The next day the high was 13. Thir. […]
The post My Secret Source of Ideas appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
As I sit trying to think of what to write next, I’m listening to Philip Glass’s opera theatre piece In the Penal Colony, after the Kafka story by the same name (really great, I highly suggest it). I find myself thinking of the difference between opera and what is generally perceived as straight up musical […]
The post The Art of the Opera-Beast appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
“A novel is only a place of storage – of all the meaningful things that a novelist isn’t able to use in his life.” ~John Irving I came across this quote this week near the end of The World According to Garp, a truly amazing John Irving novel that I somehow didn’t read in high […]
The post A Reason To Write appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Recently there was an article in the New Yorker about Google’s quest to build a self-driving car. In it, Charles Smart, an M.I.T. professor, describes the process of figuring out how to get a dirt bike to drive itself, which involved more than six hundred failed test runs. He recalls a colleague of his telling […]
The post This Is Robotics appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
I’m sure I’m the only one out there that needs a kick in the inspirational pants from time to time. No one else ever needs a trick or two to get the creative juices flowing. But just in case you have a friend who might need a little help, here are three of my quick […]
The post Getting Unstuck appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Happy November and welcome to The Writers Block! This month, I am highlighting a song by the wonderful composer/lyricist, Michael Patrick Walker. Last summer, I had the pleasure of working with him when we performed together at a concert at the Hippodrome in London, along with Georgia Stitt. Born and raised in the small town of New Freedom, […]
The post THE WRITER’S BLOCK: The Wall appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
I was sitting on a beach in the Baja when it hit me. I’d had it with writing musicals. I’d been doing it for a while, and with a decent degree of semi-success, but I’d hit a wall. They take forever to finish. And they’re so – well, so American. I was longing for something that happened […]
The post What Does A Musical Theatre Writer Do When They Get Fed Up With Writing Musicals? appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
If you’re a hardcore musical theatre fan – and let’s be honest, you probably are if you’re on this site – you’re familiar with the term “trunk song.” On the off-chance that you stumbled onto this blog thinking I’m one of the writers and producers of Sex and the City – I’m not, by the way – I’ll […]
The post Baby, Bathwater or Both? appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
When Vital Theater Company approached me in the summer of 2009 to write the score for their children’s musical UNCLE PIRATE, I half-heartedly said yes. They were in a pinch, having just lost their songwriter, I was free, and the director was a good friend. I don’t have children. I didn’t even know much about them, but I figured I’d […]
The post Five Things I’ve Learned from Writing Children’s Theater appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Hello theater geeks, performers, fellow writers, and parents of the theater geeks, performers, and writers who are reading these blogs as to further understand why their child is “the way they are.” Today I wanted to tackle a subject that comes as an occupational hazard… writer’s block. This blog may seem to be catered to strictly composers and writers, […]
The post Drew Gasparini’s Guide To Saying “F*** You” To Writer’s Block appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Every time I have performed an evening of my music, I am inevitably asked the same questions: “What is that from?” “Why did you write that song?” “What did you write first, the music or the lyrics?” “What’s your bank account number?” Well, the last one only happened once…… But the point is…people ask questions. So, it […]
The post THE WRITER’S BLOCK: More Than Just Sundays appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
There’s an old theater adage that “no one leaves humming the set.” I contend it’s equally true that “no one leaves humming the syncopated, accidental-filled, sixteenth-note-y vamp.” As more new musical theater is being written by amazingly talented, expert pianists (who are often non-singers), increasing attention is being paid to the accompaniment figure, which is being written first, at […]
The post Melody Matters appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Can I tell you a Story? In an ideal world, that question is what I use to maintain my laser-like focus every moment of the ten hours each day as I write a great piece of new musical theatre. In reality, it’s a bit more like: What kind of song does this character need… Should I have […]
The post My Writing Process appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Truman Capote would have a pen in one hand and a glass of Brandy in another. Hemingway would limit himself to 500 words a day, only writing in the morning. Sondheim likes to be lying down on his back so he can easily doze off, and he only uses Blackwing pencils. Writers’ rituals become part of our personalities […]
The post Ritual in Writing appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
