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Here you’ll find news and information about me, Brett Ryback - the actor, composer, and playwright – in addition to my irregular blog. Find me on facebook and twitter, and subscribe to my mailing list.
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DARLING at A.C.T.
From June 14-June 29th, DARLING will be performed by American Conservatory Theatre’s (A.C.T.) Young Conservatory (YC) at The Theater at the Children’s Creativity Museum (221 4th Street, San Francisco).
At A.C.T.’s Tony Award–winning YC, students ages 8 to 19 develop their talents, perform in professional-caliber productions, and gain the confidence to succeed—all in a creative, fun, and encouraging environment. The ten sessions of classes and eight public productions offered throughout the year are designed to develop talent and creativity, as well as communication and cooperation skills, for young people with all levels of theater background. Working professional actors and directors lead students in a spectrum of classes, including acting, directing, voice and speech, musical theater, audition, and improvisation.
Directed by YC Director Craig Slaight and Domenique Lozano, DARLING features a talented young cast from across the San Francisco Bay Area.
If you’re in the Bay Area, please take this opportunity to see DARLING!
Tickets are $20 and available by calling the A.C.T. Box Office at 415.749.2228 or going online to www.act-sf.org/ycshows.
Filed under Darling, Musical Theatre, News, Photos, Theatre
Getting Away with Murder
I’m so freakin excited to share this with you guys.
This summer, I will be heading to New York City to make my Off-Broadway debut in Second Stage’s production of Murder for Two by Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair. 
Mixing classic musical comedy with a dash of Agatha Christie, everyone is a suspect in this house of eccentric characters unfazed by the dead body on the floor. But this whodunit comes with a killer twist: one actor investigates the crime, the other plays all thirteen suspects, and they both play the piano! This madcap mystery will tickle the ivories and your funny bone.
I will be playing the young investigator, and musical theatre/Broadway mainstay Jeff Blumenkrantz will play…everyone else.
If you don’t know, Jeff is an established songwriter as well as a Broadway actor. One of his most famous pieces is “I Won’t Mind”, recorded by Audra McDonald. Which begs the question…between Jeff, Joe, Kellen, and myself – how many songwriters does it take to mount a two-person show in New York City? (Also – whoever at broadwayworld.com put Jeff and I shoulder-to-shoulder in that picture is a freaking genius. Can anyone say Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen solving a murder on the UWS?)
The production will be directed by Scott Schwartz (which adds another songwriter to the mix if you count his father Stephen) and is scheduled to run from July 10 – August 10th. So DO NOT miss this NYC. I mean YOU.
Extended!
Great news from Burbank! Falling for Make Believe is a critical and audience success and so the show is extending by popular demand!
“[Playwright Mark] Saltzman illuminates the self-loathing Hart (Ben D. Goldberg, marvelously invested, if too handsome by half), pulling vintage items from his output with Rodgers (ever-stalwart Brett Ryback) into commentary.” – LA Times
“What Brett Ryback as Rodgers and Ben D. Goldberg as Hart lack in comparable vocal power they make up for in melodic, resonant stylings. And Ryback is so convincing at the onstage piano, that it’s nearly impossible to tell if he’s faking it.” – Burbank Leader
“The singing all by itself is worth the price of admission…It falls to the cast, as brilliant in their character portrayals as they are in their singing, to show us what the party line has withheld.” – My Burbank
The play is set to continue to run through the end of June…however, I will only be in it through June 9th! So before I step out of Richard Rodgers’s shoes, come see Falling for Make Believe at the Colony Theatre!
For tickets call 818-558-7000 ext.15 or visit www.colonytheatre.org. But Hurry – they are seriously going fast!
Rodgers And Me
This April I am stepping into the skin of one of the founding fathers of the musical theatre genre – my genre. The Colony Theatre in Burbank presents the world premiere of Falling For Make Believe, about Lorenz Hart. I will play Richard Rodgers.
As iconic as the man’s music is, the man himself almost disappears behind his work – and it certainly was his intention to do so. He and his estate did (until very recently) their very best to fiercely protect the “Rodgers and…” legacy.
Exactly what he may have been protecting it from is the subject of the play, which opens up a fascinating window to the relationship between two partners who created magic, loved each other dearly, but ultimately couldn’t help the other in the ways they needed.
Come see Falling for Make Believe, by Emmy-Winner Mark Saltzman, directed by Jim Fall (Trick), at the Colony Theatre in Burbank. April 27 – May19th. For more information and tickets, call (818) 558-7000 ext. 15 or visit ColonyTheatre.org
I’ve Always Depended on the Kindness of Alison Fraser
Alison Fraser sings Tennessee Williams?
This sounds like a great idea.
I’ve long been a fan of Alison Fraser’s buzzy, unique sound ever since I heard her in The Secret Garden and Falsettos. I finally saw her onstage not too long ago in Gypsy and then School for Lies (a brilliant David Ives adaptation of Moliere at Classic Stage Company).
And now she’s going to The Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival to perform a one-woman show Only a Paper Moon: A Tennessee Williams Songbook.
As a big fan of Tennessee Williams as well, I SO wish I could see this.
My own experience at the Festival – premiering my one-act play WEÏRD, which won the festival a few years ago – was tremendous. New Orleans is a town with a beautifully unique personality, and being there is like being right in the middle of a Tennessee Williams play.
March 22, 2013 · 11:10 am
DARLING wins New Musical Award
Emily Walton as Ursula
The Weston Playhouse Theatre Company is pleased to announce Darling as the winner of its seventh annual New Musical Award.
Written by Ryan Scott Oliver and Brett Ryback, Darling is a coming-of-age story about teenager Ursula Morgan, who leaves behind her upper-class family and finds herself in the seedy underground of Depression-era Boston — a world of sex, jazz and a mysterious drug called….fairy dust.
The piece, which was featured on the “Bound for Broadway” episode of NBC’s The Apprentice, was nominated for Weston’s prestigious national award by Director of Music at Pace New Musicals Robert Meffe who said of Darling: “The rock score is dark, edgy and contagious… The lyrics are intelligent, surprising and original…The book is a wildly different take on the Peter Pan story that will have audiences trying to uncover the allusions every night.”
The Weston Playhouse New Musical Award, the only one of its kind in the country, has become a highly sought-after prize. It supports new work by writers and composers of notable promise, chosen from a group of national nominations. Winners rehearse their work in Vermont under professional musical direction with a cast of exceptional actor/singers. After performing selections from Darling in concert on the Weston stage on March 2, Oliver, Ryback and their cast return to New York to perform at an invited concert and then to record a demo cd under the supervision of Kurt Deutsch of Sh-K-Boom Records.
Derek Klena as Peter
The Vermont and New York concerts will be led under the musical direction of Chris Fenwick (Giant). The cast of rising Broadway talent includes Derek Klena (Dogfight) as Peter, Emily Walton (Peter and the Starcatcher) as Ursula, Julia Mattison (Godspell), Justin Keyes (How to Succeed…) and Max Chernin (NYMF’s Really Bad Things).
HEY. YOU. Get Offa My Treadmill!
‘Tis the time of year for fatties everywhere to resolve to eat better, exercise more, and finally lose some weight.
Well…
I am a person who eats pretty well, exercises pretty regularly, and doesn’t have too much extra weight on him. I’m basically living at my greatest weight loss potential.
So, every time I see a weight loss ad on TV I hear people like this:
Say things like:
“Oh my god! I have so much energy! I feel so happy and amazing!! I no longer have trouble breathing when I sleep!!!”
I think:
“Fuck. This is as much energy as I’m ever gonna have. This is as happy as I’m gonna be. And I STILL have trouble sleeping through the night!?!?”
Well, no more, my friends. If they’re going to the gym in January – then fuck it, I’m staying on the couch!!
Filed under Comedy, Random Thoughts
