I had the pleasure of sitting down with Tituss Burgess tonight at the “Cutting-Edge Composers II” concert to interview him for “Adaumbelle’s Quest.” Tituss has been singing since childhood. From church to hometown establishments to the Broadway stage. Tituss’ vocals has been entertaining & wowing audiences in such shows as “The Little Mermaid,” “Jersey Boys,” “Guys & Dolls,” and “Good Vibrations.” Regionally he has been seen in “The Wiz” as the “Cowardly Lion” and “Songs For A New World” with Jason Robert Brown, Brian D’arcy James, and Alice Ripley. Tituss just released his debut solo CD entitled “Here’s To You.” To find out more on this powerhouse performer, be sure to visit: http://www.titussburgess.com/

1. Who inspired you to become a performer? I’ve had many influences, but from really from the moment I was born, I had things I wanted to say and a feeling that people should listen.

2. Who is the one  person you haven’t worked with that you would like to? Meryl Streep & Renee Flemming (who I will be getting to perform with on November 21 as part of “Sing For Hope Gala: Songs for Our Future).

3. Is there ever time you thought about quitting? If so, what did you consider doing? Yes there was a time and I thought I’d be a therapist–psychologist because I give great advice and have a great ears.

4. Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts? What do you order? Dunkin’ Donuts regular coffee.

5. Favorite kind of sundae (ice cream flavor and toppings)? Brownie sundae with chocolate chip cookie dough. I know that’s ghetto, but it’s good.

6. Favorite way to stay in shape? The treadmill.

7. Boxers or Briefs? Briefs. I like everything to be held in place.

8. Favorite website? The Randy Rainbow Bloggity BLAHg-BLAHg & of course “Adaumbelle’s Quest.”

9. Favorite musician/singer? Singers: Renee Flemming, India Arie, Adele. Musicians: Jamie Cullum & John Mayer.

10. Superman or Wonder Woman? Wonder Woman and would they make a live-action film version already!

Fans of Jason Robert Brown will be thrilled to find his music now appearing in choral repertoire.  Christmas Lullaby is from the memorable 1995 theatrical revue and album Songs for a New World, which put Brown on the musical map.  This exquisite choral is a reflection on the blessing of Mary and the miracle within us all.  It’s particularly powerful in the SSA voicing – “And I will be like Mother Mary with a blessing in my soul and the future of the world inside of me…”

Also available from Brown for choirs is Brand New You, from his new musical 13.  Packed with infectious energy, this Broadway powerhouse absolutely rocks with youthful spirit and humor!  A fantastic concert closer.

Contact us for more terrific recommendations for your choir!

In 1998, Steven Winn wrote an article about lyric writing in contemporary musical theatre for the San Francisco Chronicle: Discouraging Words. The general thrust of his article is that “Broadway lyrics, with a few exceptions, have lost the wit and range of the classics”. Framing the piece with a superficial comparison between My Fair Lady and Miss Saigon, Winn’s beef really seems to be with the way that the musical has developed into a piece that serves the character before the lyricist him- or herself and is little more than a grumpy rant about how “they don’t make ‘em like they used to”. Read through it for yourself, but what follows is what I make of it all. The boxed sections are all quotations from the article.

In Miss Saigon, another young girl hit the big city with uncertain prospects and fell under the sway of an older man. “I’m 17 and I’m new here today,” Kim sang when she arrived in war-torn Saigon. “The village I came from is so far away.” … Miss Saigon demonstrates the demoralized state of Broadway lyrics-writing today. There’s hardly a line in Miss Saigon that rises above pedestrian sentiments and lockjawed rhyme.

Miss Saigon may not have the greatest lyrics, but it sometimes gets a short shrift. For example, I really like Kim’s introduction, simple though it may be, because it sounds like something one of the Dreamland girls would say on that stage. Immediately, the simplicity stands in contrast to the crude lines from the other girls and, later, we discover that, for Kim, these words are in fact the truth. It works for the character, for the situation and provides a dramatic building block for the play as a whole. There are other lyrics in the show far more deserving of criticism than this one, but I think there are are other things to consider too. Lyrics aren’t lyrics wherever they may be; we simply can’t take that as a given principle if we believe that content dictates form.

Compare the work of almost any contemporary lyricist with that of Lerner, Cole Porter, Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart, Frank Loesser, Johnny Mercer and even the more workmanlike Oscar Hammerstein II and Irvin Berlin, and the gap is yawning. The virtues of classic Broadway songs – which can register emotion, character revelation, narrative, poetry, wit, surprise and the sheer pleasure of melodious verbal dexterity – rarely come together at once in new musicals.

I think the juxtaposition of these two statements is somewhat amusing, possibly even ironic. I don’t think Winn has unpacked enough the work of the lyricists he has so deftly named. There are many examples where Hart, in particular, but also Porter and Gershwin and even Lerner sacrifice character and narrative for the sake of wit and verbal dexterity and, for me, wordplay for the sake of wordplay or merely to appear witty can sometimes be even more destructive than a lyric that is perhaps more pedestrian but more suited to character and situation. The lyricist should show off the character, not him- or herself.

Of course, that kind of peacocking was routine and acceptable, even expected, during the 1920s and 1930s when musical theatre songs and popular songs were one and the same thing, with the former feeding the latter in a very prominent fashion. That link still exists, but in a way it’s kind of reversed now and we see popular music being transferred onto the musical theatre stage not only in the form of jukebox musicals but also in the way that musical characters speak and sing in, say, the contemporary equivalents of classic musical comedies like The Wedding Singer, Legally Blonde or Hairspray, which themselves have their origins as popular films. But even in these latter-day equivalents, disposable as they may be, there is a far greater attempt to knit together the pop idioms with the characters on display, which – to return to my original point – just isn’t true of some of the “classic” musical theatre composers, even if their skill as lyricists of popular songs was incomparable. The virtues that Winn names may not all be in evidence in every new musical that comes along, but they did not always all “come together at once” in older musicals either.

That Sondheim’s extraordinary range and sophistication stand so distant from the competition only proves the point: he’s working in an age of lyrical mediocrity. George Jean Nathan’s remark about Cole Porter comes to mind. Like Porter, Sondheim seems “so far ahead of the other boys in New York that there is no race at all.”

Am I alone in finding this a strange attitude towards lyric-writing? Or perhaps it is just a critics attitude towards lyrics writing that I, as a writer, find disquieting? Creating art is not a race. Yes, from the outside, comparisons are inevitable, but if you’re writing lyrics with the goal of trying to be as good as somebody else, be it Sondheim or Porter or whichever lyricist you choose, you probably never will be. If we look at Jason Robert Brown for a second, a composer-lyricist who seems to try and emulate Sondheim in many ways, we can see that his work often just appears to be a pale imitation, even in cases where it is great work – as in certain parts of Parade, for example. I wish he would shake off whatever chip he has on his shoulder and delve deeper into his creative self and emerge with something that is truly his and no-one else’s. I think that musical might be amazing. I guess I just think you should be immersed in telling the story you’re telling. But I guess this whole issue is part of what is debate by Sondheim himself in Sunday in the Park with George, particularly in “Putting It Together”.

The catalogs in Noise/Funk operate in a fundamentally different way from that of the famous zoological one Porter marshaled in “Let’s Do It.” Gaines’ lines spring from a rhythmic and political impulse rather than a literary one. The Noise/Funk lyrics testify, in a street-smart, immediate way.

Seriously? I think to imply that the lyrics for “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love” spring from a literary impulse is a bit of a stretch. The narrative of Paris is so slim it might as well not be there at all and the link between the song and the narrative is so superficial and tenuous that the song was able to be extracted verbatim for the 1931 revue Wake Up and Dream. I highly doubt that Porter was very concerned with character and narrative when he wrote the song; it certainly is a bit sophisticated for an imperious matron from Massachusetts, even if she is pretending to be drunk. I would say it springs from an impulse to be witty and and verbally dexterous more than anything else; in that sense they are more street smart than literary, wouldn’t you say?

Noise/Funk, which turns to first-person autobiography in the second act, is a unique creation. But it also has roots in shows like Hair in the 1960s, A Chorus Line in the 1970s and The Who’s Tommy in the 1980s. Released from their traditional obligations, lyrics have become battlecry, confession and pop cultural anthems.

I’m not sure what Winn is saying here. At first I thought he was saying that there are certain baseline obligations for musical theatre lyrics. But this doesn’t allow for the principle of “content dictates form”, that a musical like Hair might need different lyrics than a musical like Anything Goes, and Winn then offers, almost begrudgingly, the idea these kinds of musicals actually can be released from those expectations, I suppose because of what they’re about. So is he actually criticizing the subject matter of new musicals, rather than the lyrics? Is he saying that the subject matter of contemporary musical theatre doesn’t offer opportunities for a lyricist to write good lyrics? But his idea of what comprises a good lyric is already in question – so where does that leave us. This article is not convincing me of the thesis that Winn has set out for it.

Critic John Lahr is concerned that the concept musical “is too often merely a song cycle… A smart lyric in the mouth of a stick figure is a theatrical nothing.” One trend, argues Lahr, is that “instead of being a game of show-and-tell the musical has become a song-heavy game of tell-and tell.” Examples abound in recent Broadway annals, from the long-running Cats and the curdled Jekyll and Hyde to Sondheim’s overly static Passion. Finding the right balance, for music, words and spectacle, is an eternal dilemma, no matter how much musicals change.

Now I think that either Steven Winn or John Lahr or both is oversimplifying what a concept musical is or can be and certainly his choice of examples is something I find a little confusing. As I see it, when it comes to concept musicals, we get at least three different kinds of concept musicals:

• Concept musicals that employ a narrative structure similar to book musicals, but which nonetheless always return to a central image, e.g. Cabaret, Fiddler on the Roof;
• Concept musicals that break down linear narrative forms or employ an episodic structure in favour of the central idea, e.g. Company; Nine; and
• Concept musicals that abandon plot, creating a series of character studies by placing a group of people in a common situation, e.g. A Chorus Line, Hair.

Now already, as far as I’m concerned, the first group is some kind of hybrid form of what I suppose we could call the musical play and the other two, going perhaps one step further towards being more presentational than representational. And, to get back to Winn and Lahr, I’m not certain that song cycles belong here, unless they are on the extreme end of the spectrum just before the form shifts into musical revue. I guess that’s what separates, slightly, something like Songs for a New World from And the World Goes ‘Round.

The point is that the field is wider than either is willing to admit and I don’t think any of the musicals in the three categories named above is guilty of merely putting “a smart lyric in the mouth of a stick figure”. But if we look at song cycles like like Songs for a New World or Closer Than Ever, the criticism snaps into focus.

Also, to consider this point in the wider context of the article, isn’t putting “a smart lyric in the mouth of a stick figure” precisely what lyricists like Hart, Gershwin and Porter did in many of their shows, musical comedies which were much slighter dramatically – much great “theatrical nothings” as Lahr might put it – than almost any of the concept musicals named in the little definitions list above.

Then if we look at the examples he’s chosen, Cats at least makes sense as a choice in that it is similar to concept musicals like A Chorus Line by presenting character studies of the cats as they compete for their spot in the Heavyside Layer, even though he doesn’t explore how the show might support the point he is trying to make. But I am not sure that using Jekyll and Hyde or Passion is much use to his discussion either. Both are is based on a particular thesis or theme, yes, are they concept musicals? I don’t think so.

Writing lyrics, Lerner said, was “a little above photography and wood carving.” But a serious sense of purpose, an aesthetic of fitting the words to a larger purpose, defines his work. A lyricist, he believed, was “a dramatist who wrote part of his plays in rhyme.” Lerner wrote at a time when musicals were much closer to their source in operetta. My Fair Lady, and to a lesser degree Camelot, are models of unified effect, with the music and lyrics poised like mutually enhancing counterweights.

What I have to say now might not be popular, I guess. But it doesn’t surprise me that Lerner equates lyric-writing with something like photography or wood-carving, which are hobbies for the masses but which only become art in the hands of a gifted minority. For me, Lerner was the Tim Rice of his era. I don’t rank him as highly as someone like Porter for wit and wordplay and he is no match for Hammerstein when it comes to character. I also think he tends to be a bit lazy and showy. I can’t handle “hung” instead of “hanged” coming from the mouth of Higgins or the mention of bobolinks in Camelot, when it is a species that is native to United States. And while we all know about the other minor lyric controversies in these two musicals, which arguably represent some of his best work, the errors and inconsistencies proliferate when we get to works like On a Clear Day. So I don’t agree with Winn that Lerner offered musical theatre a kind of unattainable perfection that will never be seen again.

But maybe lyrics have simply had a golden age that can’t, and shouldn’t, come again. If the form is going to thrive, musicals must reach an audience geared to high-speed transmissions, high-volume music and visually dominated ways of receiving and processing information. What can the chances possibly be of getting a few well-chosen words in edgewise?

Winn’s conclusion sums up for me the problem of his article as a whole. Although I can figure out, I think, what he is trying to say, but he isn’t clear about what he’s criticising. Does he want lyrics like Porter’s (which are smart and witty, often at the expense of character) or like Lerner’s (retaining a “sparkling” quality while making concessions for dramatic credibility)? He clearly doesn’t want a perfect marriage between character and lyric (“the more workmanlike Hammerstein”), although he does give Sondheim his dues. I think what’s he saying is he doesn’t like the way that musical theatre has developed, with lyricists writing for character instead of merely showcasing him- or herself as a wordsmith.

Winn says that he wants songs to “register emotion, character revelation, narrative, poetry, wit, surprise and the sheer pleasure of melodious verbal dexterity”, but he seems quite happy to leave emotion, character and narrative out of the equation if the lyric itself has poetry, wit or verbal dexterity. I think there is not a character inconsistency that Winn would not forgive if the lyric is sophisticated enough, and when it comes to musical theatre, that just doesn’t cut the mustard for me.

Over the last month, there’s been so much theatre to see and so little time.  And now it all seems to be ending.  The cheeky SHINE: A Burlesque Musical finished its two-week run at the Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island last weekend and we also bade adieu to the toe-tapping Thoroughly Modern Millie and Annie at Theatre Under the Stars.

At the Arts Club, the Altar Boyz are spritzing their hair with product for the last time and at Pacific Theatre, the good folks from Not Another Musical Co-op are singing the last notes of Songs For A New World this weekend.     Across the water, at the Presentation House Theatre in North Vancouver, comes the final curtain call for the newest object of my affection, Fighting Chance’s Rent.

Fighting Chance Production's cast of Rent; Clockwise from top left, Craig Decarlo, Christine Quintana, Jacqueline Breakwell, Anton Lipovetsky, Nick Fontaine and Cesar Erba.

I have a rather shameful admission to make . . .  I’ve never been a giant Rent fan.  Nor a Rent fan of any other size, for that matter.  It stems from a certain stubbornness that I possess when it comes to being told what to do or what to like.  In fact, I have an aversion to jumping on to bandwagons of all kinds.  It’s that contrary quality that made me disregard the film version and pooh-pooh the various Rent soundtracks.

But now, I’ve drunk the Kool-aid and have been totally taken in by Rent.  I’ve seen it three times and would have seen it again, if it hadn’t kept selling out.

Which brings us back to the end of the summer season and the sudden onset of my musical-theatre withdrawal blues.  My current state of despair is somewhat tempered by the knowledge that the fall musical season will soon be upon us.  Though, truth be told, I’m not overly enthused by this.  I’ve seen all of these latest summer shows twice and sometimes more and they’ve become familiar, like friends.  And it’s so hard to say goodbye.

I have some amazing breaking news for all Vancouver musical-theatre fans and performers.  Tony Award winning composer Jason Robert Brown (Parade, The Last Five Years) will be in attendance for the Friday, August 21^st showing of Songs For A New World (click here for my review) at Pacific Theatre and will also be performing a post-show concert.

For Friday the 21^st only, tickets will be $65 all-inclusive; don’t miss this once in a lifetime opportunity!

Sometimes less really is more.  Songs For A New World, presented by Not Another Musical Co-op, is an extremely minimalist production.  It’s a small four-person cast, there is little in the way of a set, and the stories told on stage are often left up to the interpretations of the audience.  That simplicity allows the actors and Jason Robert Brown’s music and lyrics (Parade, The Last Five Years) to soar, and they do.

Although there is no plot, the show is bound together with overarching and entwining themes, and while the actors do not play the same characters throughout the show, they do develop and grow.  The complexities of the music and of the human experience are always at the forefront and make for a captivating experience.

Jennifer Neumann, Jonathan Winsby, Daren Herbert and Alison MacDonald; the cast of Songs For A New World

The cast have all been seen in recent Vancouver productions.  Daren Herbert (Man 1) and Jennifer Neumann (Woman 1) played Richie and Maggie respectively in Royal City’s A Chorus Line in the spring.  Neumann also shared the stage with Alison MacDonald (Woman 2) and Jonathan Winsby (Man 2) in the recent Arts Club smash hit Les Misérables.

Herbert’s softer falsetto contrasts beautifully with Winsby’s powerful baritone and both Neumann and MacDonald are in equally fine form vocally.  Each one has the chance shows off in their solos and yet still come together to complement each other in the many harmonies.

The ever-charismatic Jonathan Winsby demonstrates his prowess as a leading man in both “The World Was Dancing” and “She Cries.”  Jennifer Neumann is fearless yet guarded in “I’m Not Afraid;” then she lets loose in her duet with Winsby, “I’d Give it All For You.”

Alison MacDonald is a bundle of neuroses threatening to jump out of an apartment window in “Just One Step” and then is a fierce and romantically-frustrated Mrs. Claus in “Surabaya Santa.”  Daren Herbert shows off in “Steam Train” and then is a dynamo of raw emotion in “King of the World.”

I find something new in Brown’s score on each and every listen, but my favourite has always been the oft-recorded “Stars and the Moon.”  Alison MacDonald embraces the song with open arms and hits all the right notes, emotionally and musically.

The ubiquitous and multi-talented Sara-Jeanne Hosie co-directs and co-choreographs with Shane Snow.  Their synchronised choreography worked well in “The Steam Train” but in other numbers, was far too distracting.  Brown’s score is piano-centric and the three piece band receives almost as much attention as the actors.  Pianist Sean Bayntun, percussionist Sam Hutchison and bassist Hugh Macdonald make beautiful music together.

Songs For A New World is a work of art and should be contemplated and savoured.  Come for both the amazing talent and the sumptuous score and you won’t be disappointed.

Songs For A New World is playing August 12th – 29th, 2009 at Pacific Theatre, located at 1440 West 12th Avenue. The show runs Wednesday – Saturday at 8pm, with matinees on August 22^nd and 29^th at 2pm.  Tickets are available online or by calling 604-684-2787.

After the success of last summer’s Ovation award-winning The World Goes ‘Round, some of its production decided to try their luck again.  Songs for a New World has been described as not fully a musical but something more than a song cycle.  While I’ve never seen it performed, I have heard most of its songs, as many have become cabaret-style standards.  Composer Jason Robert Brown (Parade, The Last Five Years) has written some beautiful music and I can’t wait to see it performed by some of our extremely bright local talents.

Not Another Musical Co-op presents Songs for a New World starring Daren Herbert (A Chorus Line, RCMT), Alison MacDonald (Les Misérables, Arts Club), Jennifer Neumann (A Chorus Line, RCMT) and Jonathan Winsby (Les Misérables, Arts Club).  Directed by Shane Snow and Sara-Jeanne Hosie and musical direction by Sean Bayntun, the show runs August 12th – 29th, 2009, Wed. to Sat. at 8PM, with matinees August 22nd and 29th at 2PM. All performances are at Pacific Theatre, 12th and Hemlock. Tickets are available online or by calling 604.684.2787.

On stage, hope is often born out of tragedy. That is definitely the case with Spotlight On Productions’ revival of Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World. The production will benefit the Patrick Michael McMurphy Memorial Foundation (PM3 Foundation), which supports the arts through scholarships and grants.

Songs for a New World, which debuted Off-Broadway in 1995, underscores the moments that determine whether someone is up for life’s challenges — those instances that define a person indefinitely.  

All net proceeds from the production will benefit The Patrick Michael McMurphy Memorial Foundation (The PM3 Foundation), which was established shortly after 23-year-old Patrick’s death from a tragic accident on August 30, 2008.  The PM3 Foundation provides scholarships and grants to support the arts, especially theater, film, and music. First seeded with Patrick’s life savings, the foundation has grown through the contributions of family, friends, and others whose life he touched.  The foundation currently funds a scholarship to the Stella Adler Conservatory, from which Patrick had graduated only a few weeks before his untimely death.

SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD
Written & composed by Jason Robert Brown
Directed by Ryan Gibbs
Musical Director:  Nick Williams

August 20 – 22, 2009 
Thursday & Friday at 8pm and Saturday at 2pm & 8pm

Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row (410 W 42nd St.)
Tickets: $18 | $15 students
All net proceeds benefit the Patrick Michael McMurphy Foundation

Starring: Amy Decker (National Tour, The Will Rogers Follies), EJ Griffon (National Tour, Smokey Joe’s Café), Jonathan Howard and Kim Kalish

Set Design: Steph Tucci
Lighting Design: Ryan Metzler
Sound Design: Gerry Marletta
Stage Manager: Kathleen Munroe 

Songs for a New World is presented through special arrangement through Music Theatre International (MTI).

Not really, but the lyric fits, don’t you think? It’s from Songs For A New World by Jason Robert Brown.

So, let’s take a look at some of the things that have gone on since I was gone, both in my life and in (recent) Broadway stuff:

- TONY NOMINATIONS!!! They were announced early Tuesday morning at 8:30 AM, with Billy Elliot tieing for the record for the most nominations ever recieved for one show (the other was The Producers). The number of nominations received by each show this season is listed below:

Billy Elliot, The Musical – 15
Next to Normal – 11
Hair – 8
Shrek The Musical – 8
Mary Stuart – 7
The Norman Conquests – 7
God of Carnage – 6
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone – 6
Rock of Ages – 5
33 Variations – 5
Exit the King - 4
9 to 5: The Musical – 4
Pal Joey – 4
West Side Story – 4
Reasons to Be Pretty – 3
Waiting for Godot – 3
Blithe Spirit – 2
Dividing the Estate – 2
Equus – 2
Guys and Dolls – 2
Irving Berlin’s White Christmas – 2
Liza’s at The Palace – 1
Slava’s Snowshow – 1
Soul of Shaolin – 1
Speed-the-Plow – 1
[Title of Show] - 1
You’re Welcome America. A Final Night with George W. Bush – 1

(for a full list of nominations, click here)

- Avenue Q Tour Wraps Up in Wisconsin. Yes, sadly all good things must come to an end. The long-running tour ends its run today in Appleton, Wisconsin after 721 performances.

- Love Never Dies, the sequel to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera has been delayed. Instead of opening in London at the end of this year, a new report says that it will instead open at the start of 2010.

- Casting has begun for the 2010 National Tour of Beauty and the Beast. The casting notice is available here. The actual auditions will take place this Monday thru Wednesday.

- And now we get to my life. Well, I’ve been doing alot of shows over the past few months, and am set to rehearse two musicals at once this summer. So, basically… I’ve been busy.

~Mel

You down with JRB? Yeah, you know me.

I’ma put it all out there: I’ve been a fan of Jason Robert Brown for some time now. From his bittersweet depiction of a marriage gone wrong in “The Last Five Years,” to his haunting, sprawling Southern epic “Parade,” even to his surprisingly soulful song cycle “Songs For a New World,” I’ve been down with the JRB from very early on in my ongoing love affair with the sultry vixen we call musical theater. His music is both traditional in its reverence for the history of musicals past, and progressive in that his melodies are fresh, unique, and original. Brown’s lyrics are, for the most part, quite nuanced, by musical theater standards, and his characters are all the more multi-faceted as a result. In short, JRB is the real deal, meng.

That said, I was understandably very excited when Mahotma and I attended a production of Brown’s new musical “13” at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre last night. I knew the musical was about a thirteen-year-old kid who moves from New York to Indiana when his parents split up, I knew that the kid’s Bar Mitzvah was going to be a central theme to the narrative (JRB, much like acclaimed author and bona fide MoJaMa hero Philip Roth, seems destined to weave his Judaism into every story he tells), and I even knew the New York Times gave it a pretty so-so review. Despite these warning signs, though, I was undeterred. Even when Mahotma and I showed up in our blazers and cardigan sweaters, very possibly the only non-teens or non-parents-of-teens in the building, I shuffled into our seats in the center of the orchestra section and was ready to be delighted. Bring on the show!

I don’t know what I expected. No, I do know what I expected. I expected a dark exploration into the minds of a cross section of surly, disaffected Midwestern youth, with a dissonant score sung in impeccable harmony by a cast of malnourished, sallow adolescents. I wanted a thematic hybrid of Brown’s “Parade” with “Thirteen,” that movie with Holly Hunter and Evan Rachel Wood where those girls, like, steal shit and take drugs, and, like, do it and stuff. I don’t know. I wanted substance; an introspective look at how crushingly impossible it is to grow up without being irreparably wounded in a post-9/11 culture propelled by fear, uncertainty, and death.

What I got was essentially a slightly artier version of “High School Musical.” Which is not to say that I didn’t enjoy it, because I did. Or, rather, I grew to enjoy it—during the opening number, as I came to terms with exactly what kind of show I was in for, I was initially against the whole thing. The lead off song wasn’t nearly catchy enough for how cheeky and abrasive it was. The cast, dressed in what appeared to be a forty-something costume designer’s idea of what teenagers are wearing these days, was animated and enthusiastic, but a bit too inconsistent when it came to vocal accuracy and, ya know, good acting. The entire band, with the exception of the lead keyboard player, was comprised of teens who looked a little too nerdy to be sporting the faux-rocker haircuts and pop-punk attire that essentially gave the production a sort of a Jonas Brothers-light type vibe. We were in for a long evening.

Over the course of the performance, though (the show, thankfully, is performed without an intermission and runs just over ninety minutes, so at least it has brevity on its side), I started to come around. Once I’d accepted that we weren’t going to witness anything transcendent on stage that night, I allowed myself to sort of take in the production for what it was: entertainment for teenagers. And with that in mind, the show is, admittedly, kind of a good time. While it’s probably JRB’s weakest score to date, there are some isolated pockets of melody where he just brings it home in a way that makes you remember how incredible a songwriter he can be (but are still wishing you were listening to the heartbreaking opening strains of “Still Hurting”). And the kids are fun—while they weren’t always technically flawless in their execution of the show, it turned out to be quite refreshing to watch a cast you can tell is having an amazing time. In short, “13” is a feel-good puff piece—it’s not going to last long on Broadway, and it’s not going to be remembered in any sort of musical theater canon, but it’ll serve as great fun for busloads of middle school students on class field trips as it enjoys its tenure on Broadway, and I’m sure it’ll live on in school productions for a least a decade after it leaves the Great White Way. And JRB will make a pretty penny on the whole ordeal, I’m sure. Good for him.

After seeing “13,” though, I did start thinking about depictions of adolescence in musicals past, and I began wondering how effectively and accurately the struggle of those formative, awkward years has been previously portrayed. Is it possible to capture the perilous struggle that accompanies the journey through the teens in a manner that is both artistically poignant and accessible to an array of different age groups?

Yes, it is. From “Spring Awakening” to “A Chorus Line,” musical theater has long been exploring the perils of adolescence on stage. It is a period fraught with uncertainty, and angst, and urgency, and it can be an incredibly effective thematic element when skillfully executed. Who among us cannot relate to the awkward, vital longing that propels “Chorus Line’s” excellent ode to the teenage years, “Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen…”? How can we not be viscerally moved by the reckless, blind love that Tony and Maria experience in “West Side Story”? How can we not understand Josh’s elation when he celebrates his first sexual experience in “Coffee Black,” a show-stopping Act II number from the commercially unsuccessful (but, really, quite good) “Big: The Musical”? Because of the inherent nostalgia associated with the teenage years, adolescence on stage can prove to be quite moving given the proper artistic treatment.

While I concede that the stakes are indeed much higher in the aforementioned productions, it doesn’t change the fact that “13” ultimately doesn’t make a lasting impression. Jason Robert Brown and co. acknowledge that growing up is tough, but their message is nowhere near significant enough to make us remember how important our struggles actually were to us when we were thirteen. As a result, “13” is fun but shallow—it’s certainly amusing to watch, but fails to attain any sort of meaningful emotional effect.

The kid who played lead guitar was really good, though.

It’s 12:25am Denver time, the night before I leave for my big adventure in the land of sunshine and body tans. And I admit that today was by no means an “easy” day. It was filled with goodbyes. Saying goodbye to my gradparents, and Wendy, and my brother and sister and Matt & Kristine. It was a day where saying goodbye to my parents was looming over my head and still continues to do so as I type this entry tonight. Kyle says, “It’s not au revoir, it’s a bientot.” And although I know that that is the case, it was still hard and the day came complete with many a tear from my eyes.

On my way to visit Matt & Kristine for one last night together for a little while, I was driving my mom’s deja blue colored car and had an emotional breakdown. I found myself sobbing, listening to the opening number from “Songs for a New World,” the show I will be directing at SDSU in the spring of 2009. I have listened to that CD over and over and over again all summer ever since Rick told me this was going to be my first shot at directing in San Diego, but never before has this song, and the meaning of this show rung so true and so clear in my heart, mind and ultimately, my soul.

I took a moment to look at myself in the rearview mirror. I see my new glasses. And I notice my new haircut. But more than that, I begin to feel the new feeling I am beginning to have in my heart. It was this epiphany moment when I realized that albeit very difficult, I am ready.

Ironically, that is what “Songs for a New World” is all about. To quote the opening song, “It’s about one moment. The moment before it all becomes clear. And in that one moment – you start to believe there’s nothing to fear. It’s about one second. And just when you’re on the verge of success, the sky starts to change and the wind starts to blow. And you’re suddenly a stranger. There’s no explaining where you stand. And you didn’t know that you sometimes have to go ‘round an unexpected bend. And the road will end in a new world.”

If there were EVER more fitting lyrics, I don’t know about them. This one passage describes everything that I am feeling tonight. About feeling like I am on the verge of something huge and yet feeling like a stranger in a foreign land where I must use sunscreen (I KNOW SARALYN & STEPH…Get off my case already!). Hehehe. It’s about me looking at my life and knowing that California was never in my plan, but feeling in my deepest heart of hearts that this “unexpected bend” is exactly the road I need to be taking.

I always believe that everything happens for a reason. And maybe I was given this show to help me in such a significant moment in my life. As I continued listening to the melodic passages of music and intricate lyrics put from pen to paper by the genius Mr. Jason Robert Brown, I realized that like his characters I too am facing the prospects of a new world that are both scary and exciting, both nervewracking and exhilirating, both terrifying and invigorating, all of these feelings co-existing at the same time.

I have never quite felt like this, and believe that this moment is what I needed in order to be able to tackle the diffult piece come next March. Leave it to me to find some deeper meaning in my tears. Most would probably just say, “I’m sad to leave.” And although I know that I AM in fact very sad to leave, just having feelings of sadness seems like a waste to me, seems like the sadness is all in vain without a stronger meaning. I must always apply those feelings to my unending quest to improve my work. I must always try to see the meaning behind the pain, or at least a glimmer of some sort of light at the end of the tunnel. And in using that fear for the betterment of my current life’s situation, I can only then find what lies deepest in the chambers of my heart.

In this case, the reason seems to be smacking me in the face: I now have the personal experience I feel I will need to bring to the “Songs for a New World” table. At the end of the song, the singers lament, “A new world crashes down like thunder, a new world charging through the air. A new world just beyond the mountain…waiting there, waiting there. A new world shattering the silence. There’s a new world I’m afraid to see. A new world louder every moment — come to me, come to me!”

I now get to find my new world “just beyond the mountain(s)” and I am happy to report that even though I might be afraid to see, like the actors in the musical that has become so special to me, I will proudly and exhuberantly scream (metaphorically of course), “COME TO ME! COME TO ME!!!”

“OPENING: THE NEW WORLD” was featured in Jason Robert Brown’s 1995 musical revue “Songs for a New World.” I guess today’s entry is what I normally put in bold, so refer to the above paragraphs for the overwhelming significance of this song.

But, since I have your attention, I’ll just go ahead and do what any good theatre artist knows how to do and does well: plug the shit of my production.

“Songs for a New World,” directed by Ira Spector (advised by Paula Kalustian), featuring eight brilliantly talented SDSU students, running from March 8-March 10, 2009, in the theatre building on the SDSU campus.

Man, I can’t wait.

(There isn’t a great version of the song online, so if you want a copy, email me and I will send it to you.)

Lyrics:

WOMAN 1:
A new world calls across the ocean
A new world calls across the sky
A new world whispers in the shadows
Time to fly, time to fly

MAN 2:
It’s about one moment
The moment before it all becomes clear
And in that one moment
You start to believe there’s nothing to fear
It’s about one second
And just when you’re on the verge of success
The sky starts to change
And the wind starts to blow
And you’re suddenly a stranger
There’s no explaining where you stand
And you didn’t know
That you sometimes have to go
‘Round an unexpected bend
And the road will end
In a new world

WOMAN 1:
A new world calls for me to follow
A new world waits for my reply
A new world holds me to a promise
Standing by, standing by

WOMAN 2:
It’s about one moment
That moment you think you know where you stand
And in that one moment
The things that you’re sure of slip from your hand
And you’ve got one second
To try to be clear, to try to stand tall
But nothing’s the same
And the wind starts to blow
And you’re suddenly a stranger
In some completely different land
And you thought you knew
But you didn’t have a clue
That the surface sometimes cracks
To reveal the tracks
To a new world

MAN 1:
You have a house in the hills

WOMAN 2:
You have a job on the coast

MAN 2:
You find a lover you’re sure you believe in

MAN 1:
You’ve got a pool in the back

WOMAN 2:
You get to the part of your life

MAN 2:
You hold the ring in your hand

MAN 1:
But then the earthquake hits

WOMAN 2:
And the bank closes in

MAN 2:
Then you realize you didn’t know anything

WOMAN 1, WOMAN 2, MAN 1, & MAN 2:
Nobody told you the best way to steer
When the wind starts to blow

MAN 1:
And you’re suddenly a stranger

WOMAN 1, WOMAN 2, & MAN 2:
All of a sudden

WOMAN 1, WOMAN 2, MAN 1, & MAN 2:
You life is different than you planned

MAN 1:
And you’ll have to stay ‘til you somehow find a way

WOMAN 1, WOMAN 2, MAN 1, & MAN 2:
To be sure of what will be
Then you might be free

WOMAN 1:
A new world crashes down like thunder
A new world charging through the air

WOMAN 1 & MAN 1:
A new world just beyond the mountain

WOMAN 1, WOMAN 2, & MAN 1:
Waiting there, waiting there

WOMAN 1, WOMAN 2, MAN 1, & MAN 2:
A new world shattering the silence
There’s a new world I’m afraid to see
A new world louder every moment
Come to me, come to me!

… en vez de darnos por usar el aparato respiratorio para hacer música, hubiéramos desarrollado el silbido? Habrían salido virtuosos del silbido, la técnica rusa, la técnica alemana, escuela superior, arias silbadas… Y los silbadores más agudos serían los divos, y los profes respira lila y siente que silbas burbujas de jabón… Y por qué no podría haber sido! Ahora, sin duda no sería tan guay… Digo yo.

En la primera clase, reflexiones sobre la evolución de las especies. Genial!

[no en feu cas, paranoies post-aules. Estic taaaannn contenta...! La setmana que ve, més. ]

Va, que no puc deixar això sense video ni res… Una altra descoberta de Ronda Litoral, by Lourdes. Això és Stars and the Moon, del musical Songs for a New World (que per cert estan fent al Teatre Gaudí!), cantat per aquesta dona que m’encanta com ho fa que es diu Audra McDonald, i acompanyada al piano pel compositor, Jason Robert Brown (un hurra també).

Lyrics aquí…I met a man without a dollar to his name
Who had no traits of any value but his smile
I met a man who had no yearn or claim to fame
Who was content to let life pass him for a while
And I was sure that all I ever wanted
Was a life like the movie stars led
And he kissed me right here, and he said,

“I’ll give you stars and the moon and a soul to guide you
And a promise I’ll never go
I’ll give you hope to bring out all the life inside you
And the strength that will help you grow.
I’ll give you truth and a future that’s twenty times better
Than any Hollywood plot.”
And I thought, “You know, I’d rather have a yacht.”

I met a man who lived his life out on the road
Who left a wife and kids in Portland on a whim
I met a man whose fire and passion always showed
Who asked if I could spare a week to ride with him
But I was sure that all I ever wanted
Was a life that was scripted and planned
And he said, “But you don’t understand —

“I’ll give you stars and the moon and the open highway
And a river beneath your feet
I’ll give you day full of dreams if you travel my way
And a summer you can’t repeat.
I’ll give you nights full of passion and days of adventure,
No strings, just warm summer rain.”
And I thought, “You know, I’d rather have champagne.”

I met a man who had a fortune in the bank
Who had retired at age thirty, set for life.
I met a man and didn’t know which stars to thank,
And then he asked one day if I would be his wife.
And I looked up, and all I could think of
Was the life I had dreamt I would live
And I said to him, “What will you give?”

“I’ll give you cars and a townhouse in Turtle Bay
And a fur and a diamond ring
And we’ll be married in Spain on my yacht today
And we’ll honeymoon in Beijing.
And you’ll meet stars at the parties I throw at my villas
In Nice and Paris in June.”

And I thought, “Okay.”
And I took a breath
And I got my yacht
And the years went by
And it never changed
And it never grew
And I never dreamed
And I woke one day
And I looked around
And I thought, “My God…
I’ll never have the moon.”

Production: Songs for a New World

 Personnel and Show Times