Goodspeed Musicals’ 2012 Festival of New Artists kicks off tomorrow, a weekend of readings, screenings, cabaret performances, talks and other events which demonstrate the complex, fraught yet fun process of developing new musical theater projects.
Highlights include readings of three new musicals (Harmony, Kansas; Not Wanted on This Voyage; and The Dogs of Pripyat), Nancy Anderson doing a cabaret performance of Noel Coward songs; seminars with designer Tony Walton and a representative of Disney Theatricals, and a live preview of an unnamed musical “headed to Goodspeed’s Norma Terris Theatre in 2012.”
There’s some nice connections among the varied events this year. One of the staged readings is of Not Wanted on the Voyage, based on the fantasy novel by Timothy Findley. The show’s composer/lyricist, Neil Bartram, and book writer Brian Hill also created The Story of My Life, which had a pre-Broadway production at Goodspeed in 2008. The festival is screening a video of Story of My Life to kick on the festival Friday at 1 p.m., in anticipation of the Not Wanted on the Voyage reading Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.
The Goodspeed’s really achieved a remarkable balance of celebrating new works and new artists while acknowledging great historical theater traditions—not least of them the theater’s own extraordinary legacy of support for new musicals.
Here’s the updated sched just sent out by the Goodspeed. Bits in quotes are from the Goodspeed press release.
Friday, January 13
1:00 p.m.: Screening of the 2008 Goodspeed production The Story of My Life at the Scherer Library.
7:30 p.m.: Staged reading of the new musical Harmony, Texas (music by Anna K. Jacobs, book & lyrics by Bill Nelson) at Goodspeed Opera House. “A new musical with a lively, soulful score that follows Heath, a farmer in rural Kansas, and his city-born partner who talks him into joining a group of gay guys who get together to sing. Heath discovers a love for making music and unexpected kinship. But all that matters to him, including his life with the man he loves, is threatened when the group decides to perform in public.” Jacobs was the co-author of the Andy Warhol musical Pop!, which premiered at Yale Repertory Theatre a couple of years ago.
10:00 p.m.: Festival Cabaret at the Gelston House (next door to Goodspeed Opera House), “showcasing new songs by new artists.”
Saturday, January 14
10:00 a.m.: Tours of the Goodspeed Opera House.
Seminar Sessions at the Gelston House:
• 10 a.m.: There Is Life After the Festival! “The Harmony, Kansas creative team shares the ups and downs of creating a new musical, where their project is headed next and how Goodspeed’s Festival helped get it there.”
• 11 a.m.: The Disney Effect. “David Scott of Disney Theatricals will discuss Disney’s approach to the development of new musicals and the impact that Disney’s presence has had worldwide.”
• 12:00 p.m. Spotlight On: Tony Walton. A discussion with the great Broadway scenic designer, a longtime friend of the Goodspped.
1 p.m.: Screening of the 2008 pre-Broadway Goodspeed production of Jason Robert Brown’s 13, at Scherer Library.
2:30 p.m.: New Musical Preview at the Goodspeed Opera House. The show being previewed is apparently already a part of the 2012 Norma Terris Theatre season.
4 p.m.: Musical Theatre Symposium – Sponsored by The Noël Coward Foundation at Goodspeed Opera House, featuring Nancy Anderson performing Noël Coward: The Man and His Music, and discussing the great Sir Noel’s life and work.
Actress and cabaret star Nancy Anderson as she appeared in the recent Goodspeed Opera House production of City of Angels. Diane Sobolewski photo.
5:30 p.m.: Festival Dinner at the Gelston House
7:30 p.m.: Staged reading of Not Wanted on This Voyage (music & lyrics by Neil Bartram, book by Brian Hill, based on the novel by Timothy Findley) at Goodspeed Opera House. “A housewife, her husband, their three sons, and a talking cat – just an ordinary family living ordinary lives in the turbulent days before the Great Flood. Their ordinary lives are turned upside-down when they learn that they alone will survive the coming deluge. Filled with magic, mythology and, above all else, hope, Not Wanted on the Voyage is a provocative new musical about the first time the world ended.”
10 p.m.: Festival Cabaret at the Gelston House, featuring new work performed by Michael Kooman & Christopher Dimond and Jeremy Desmon & Jeff Thomson.
Sunday, January 15
11 a.m.: Tour of the costume collection at the Goodspeed’s Norma Terris Theatre
1 p.m.: Staged reading of The Dogs of Pripyat (music by Aron Accurso, lyrics by Jill Abramowitz, book by Abramowitz and Leah Napiolin, based on a play by Napolin) at Goodspeed Opera House. “USSR, 1986. As all humans are evacuated from Chernobyl, their pets are left behind to fend for themselves. This is the story of those animals. Boychik is a gentle mutt who pines for his masters’ return. But when a pair of alphas take control, Boychik learns how to hunt, kill and ultimately form a new kind of family. Based on true events, The Dogs of Pripyat is a story about hope and survival when they seem least possible.”
3:30 p.m.: Meet the Writers Reception at Gelston House
There’s also an exhibit, From Goodspeed to Broadway, in the Scherer Library on Friday and Saturday from 1-4 p.m.
Ah, January in East Haddam. Feels like Broadway in June, don’t it?
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