The Duncan Sheik episode of the new BYUtv series The Song That Changed My Life is viewable here.
What’s BYUtv? The media outlet of Brigham Young University. There’s no direct connection here—Brigham Young is a Mormon institution and Sheik is a Buddhist who studied Semiotics at Brown University.
I was a Duncan Sheik fan from when I first received an advance copy of his first album back in my Arts Editor days, before “Barely Breathing” broke big nationally. I knew who Sheik’s Spring Awakening collaborator was years before that 2007 show happened because Sater’d done lyrics for Sheik’s album Phantom Moon. (The pair did several theater pieces before Spring Awakening, and continue to work together.)
Little-remembered fact about Spring Awaking: a pre-Broadway tryout of the show was announced for New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre, and a couple of songs were even performed at a season-announcement event. Then the musical was pulled from the slate. The official explanation was that director Michael Mayer had a scheduling conflict, but the theater later confessed that the project’s budget was a concern.
In the BYUtv show, which documents a recording session and ranges from his ‘90s and early 2000s pop hits to his recent album of ‘80s rock covers, Duncan Sheik refers to his first album as a “pretty arty affair,” the bulk of the songs differing notably from the stand-out hit single “Barely Breathing.” Sheik admits “I knew it was going to create a certain amount of cognitive dissonance” for those who wanted all the songs to sound like the hit. He discusses theater music as songs which exist for characters other than himself to sing.
Sheik mentions his theater pursuits (and film soundtracks, for that matter) throughout the 24-minute show. He talks about Whisper House—the stage musical, distinct from the Sheik album of the same title (which contains some of the same songs). The show premiered at the Old Globe in San Francisco two years ago.
Nothing’s said about Sheik’s supposedly all-electronic score for the musical version of Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho, or about the tour he cancelled last summer due to an “alcohol related addiction.” Granted, neither seem right for a show produced by Brigham Young University.
The Song That Changed My Life only has three episodes so far, and two of them are theater-related. Besides the Duncan Sheik show, there’s one about Lea Salonga, noted Disney princess and the Broadway star of Miss Saigon, Les Mis and the 2002 revival of Flower Drum Song.