I remember in college walking down the hallways of UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall and hearing the ethnomusicology majors practicing their bizarre semi-tones. These “notes in between the notes” left me fascinated and a little unsettled. I preferred my more easily digested 12-tone scales, based comfortably around middle-A being tuned to the frequency of 440hz.
But according to an interesting article in The Daily Beast, it turns out that’s a relatively recent standardization of Western music, and – according to musical conspiracy theories (yes, there really is such a thing) – was propagated by the Nazis in order to move people towards “greater aggression, psycho social agitation, and emotional distress predisposing people to physical illness.”
Next Monday, Tony Award-Winning Composer/Lyricist William Finn will host an evening of songs at 54 Below featuring the music of Brett Ryback.
The concert, titled Songs by Ridiculously Talented Composers and Lyricists You Probably Don’t Know But Should will take place next Monday, December 16th, at 9:30pm at 54 Below.
Performers will include Elizabeth Stanley, Alysha Umphress, Taylor Trensch, Rebecca Naomi Jones, and many more.
Following the concert, there will be an open-mic, where I will feature some BRAND NEW, NEVER BEFORE HEARD MUSIC.
Come see us! Tickets are $30-40, with a $25 Food/Drink Minimum.
(If you subscribe to my mailing listbefore next Monday, I’ll send you a code to get $5 off the cover charge in the main dining room!)
My day off from MURDER FOR TWO at New World Stages is Tuesday – which is an odd day off for a stage actor, Monday being the typical day, or sometimes Sunday.
Typically, I’ll spend the day at home – writing, catching up on TV, drinking beer, and cooking for the week.
If you’re the cast of the INTO THE WOODS movie, however – you apparently spend your day off filming a music video with Paul McCartney at Abbey Road. Which, y’know, six of one…
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.
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).
For those unacquainted with the show, Darling is a dark deconstruction of the Peter Pan story as told from the perspective of the “Wendy” character. The show has gone through many different incarnations, and the current version resembles Peter Pan mostly in broad, thematic ways.
However, when first conceived, the show borrowed a lot more from the original J.M. Barrie story – including the characters John and Michael Darling. Also, in the original stages of conception, it was not immediately apparent that Ryback and Oliver would work exclusively on either Book or Music/Lyrics.
Thus – this sketch of a song meant to be sung by John to his younger brother Michael was created by me. I pulled it out of the drawer and recently set it to music for my concert The Kid With the Keys, which premiered this fall in Los Angeles.
Be sure to tell me what you think in the comments below!
I saw a screening of Les Miserable at the end of November, and I was swept away by the film. It was the first time I saw a Movie-Musical and thought: this works. There’s still new ground to be broken, I’m sure, but I think Tom Hooper has truly found a right combination of musical theatre style and cinematic story-telling.
I really hope this lays the groundwork for original Movie Musicals to see the light.
And Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman deserve all the praise they’re getting.
Anyway. This clip has nothing to do with any of that, but it’s been making the rounds on Facebook this morning, and it’s hilarious to watch. And damn if some of those voices aren’t SPOT. ON.
Check out this web parody I wrote/directed/played Ben Affleck in.
Click on the image to watch, and then click “Funny!”
And be sure to share it with all your friends!!
Major credit goes to:
Cast:
Matt Abshire
Elijah Alexander
Jamison Jones
Joe Komara
Dan Kozlowski
Jayden Maddux
Lesli Margherita
Vanessa Mizzone
Lauren Rubin
Brett Ryback
Adam Shapiro
Writer/Director: Brett Ryback
Producer: Lauren Bass
Co-Producer: Christian Barillas
Editor: Jordan Bass
DP: Nick Barr
Asst. Camera Op: Joseph Schmitz
PAs: Edgar Solis, Christopher Solis
I don’t know about you – but my two new favorite pilots are Ben and Kate and The Mindy Project.(FOX ftw!)
Aside from Mindy Kaling who is just plain awesome, her show in particular also features some great music from the teasers to the pilot itself. Jessie J’s “Domino” anybody?
According to this great breakdown of the music on the show, music supervisor Kevin Edelman confirms that Mindy was the final word on all the music in the show – a lot of which was her idea to begin with. I’m particularly in love with the opening bars of M.I.A.’s “Bad Girls” which they use throughout the pilot.
But even more exciting is Jesse Novak– brother to producer B.J. Novak (The Office) and the composer for the show. It’s his first time composing for a TV show and based on his commercial work, I think it means exciting things, especially in a world where most TV music is (frankly) kinda stinky.
