I’ve noticed a sudden influx of blog posts and articles in which the authors of said pieces openly explain why they don’t tip their servers. Since this is something that affects our little music and theatre community, as many of us are, were, and will be servers, hosts, bartenders, or whatever pays for what our […]
The post Tips… the musical? appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Roughly once per week I call home and complain to my mom about my life. And then she complains back about hers. It’s so much cheaper than therapy or yoga or binge drinking or any of the other ways of dealing with stress. But that’s not the kind of calling I want to address in […]
The post Is It Rude to Call? appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Whenever we discuss investments in musical theatre, our brains are usually drawn to one of two options: the investment of time from all the artists involved or the investment of funds in order to make a potential production/workshop/living room reading/etc… possible. But lately my mind has been drawn to the investment that an audience makes […]
The post An Investment Worth Notating appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Star ratings attached to reviews have long been a heavily debated issue. Most reviews in British national papers, which are still held in highest regard, never used to add star ratings, relying instead on the text to give the reader a full picture of a show’s merits and limitations. We are constantly being told that […]
The post Three Stars Good – Two Stars Bad appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
My column is Song Spotlights, but before I can focus on this particular number from David Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, I need to share my feelings on adapting doorstopper novels, the looming legacy of Eponine, and naturally, War and Peace. I read War and Peace in college, and I would […]
The post David, Sonya, and the Great Novel Adaptation of 2012 appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
As I write this we are six weeks – almost to the day – before the first day of rehearsals for Dog and Pony at The Old Globe Theatre. When we finally reach that milestone day and all assemble in the studio, the next phase of the show’s development really begins. Excited doesn’t begin to […]
The post Casting – Dog and Pony: Part 2 appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
This week, I’ve been working on revising a lyric of my own about a character whose town is threatened by a hurricane. In the process, I’ve been thinking a lot about another musical that tells the story of a natural disaster, Peter Mills and Cara Reichel’s The Flood. Pete and Cara happen to be graduates […]
The post Lyric Lens: “It’s Amazing the Things That Float” appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
In “normal” musical theatre there is a leading man and woman who eventually find love with one another. It’s not surprising, or even profound. It’s just how it’s been, forever. Straight characters are main characters. That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of other pieces that feature queer relationships (anything non-heterosexual) for lead characters, but […]
The post Being Aware Part II appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
In this series of posts, I’ve been having conversations with people who are involved in all different facets of the development of new musicals. Joe Barros is the Artistic Director of New York Theatre Barn, which has been producing new work since its founding in 2007. He works widely as a director and choreographer: recently […]
The post Thinking In Three Dimensions: The Director/Choreographer appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
It seems like the rivalry between the jocks and the theater kids goes back to the beginning of time, or at least to the day when some famous Greek wrestler gave Euripides a swirly in the Athenian communal baths, but fundamentally, although practiced by seemingly different types of people, sports and drama tap into the […]
The post Sports Lessons appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
The internet and social media has taken over so many aspects of everyday life in ways that the current ‘Generation Z’ will never quite be able to understand. Breaking news stories from around the world are now updated live and often as they are happening, defying the traditional methods and means of news communication. It’s […]
The post Gossip’s Worth Its Weight in Gold… appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Boys belt (and mix), too! Contrary to popular belief, or at least contrary to most discussions about belting, men spend a lot of time also learning how to stretch their voices to be strong and chesty in the upper register. The advice is the same: Get a teacher that really understands your voice and can […]
The post #NMTVotW: Belting, part 3 – Not Just For Girls appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
One of the hardest things to do as a performer is to play a child when you’re, well…not a child. While the idea of it definitely carries a comedic aspect that would benefit you, there is also the risk of making it too much of a cartoon. Part of what can help such a performance […]
The post Versions, Vol. 5: “My Party Dress” by Kerrigan-Lowdermilk appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
When I was in ninth grade, my friend Rachel and I went to Sutton Foster’s first-ever solo concert, a part of the 2004 American Songbook series. It was also the first solo concert we had ever been to. It was a great evening, and we heard lots of wonderful songs, but one of the ones […]
The post Lyric Lens(ish): “Beautiful You” by Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
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.
So, I never really had a great relationship to the most recent film adaptations of popular broadway musicals. The two exceptions were the Chicago film (2002) starring the fabulous Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones as the murderous duo, and The Producers (2005) starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, and directed by Susan Stroman, all from the original […]
The post Movie Musicals, and the Dream Cast You’ll Likely Disagree With, but Maybe Not appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
