I just finished recording this song from my new musical Joe Schmoe Saves the World.
Singer-songwriter Kelsey Jessup and singer/actress Ana Nogueira lend their kick-ass voices to “Say Something.”
I can’t wait to share more as the show comes together.
What do you think?
Almost as embarrassing as your naked adult ones.
Don’t miss out on tickets! Call 818-754-8700 to reserve now!
People are sometimes impressed that I can play piano and sing at the same time. Being that I don’t find it very difficult, I’m not very impressed that I can do that.
I am impressed whenever I consider myself – or anyone else – to be funny in a song. “A Little Priest” – From Sweeny Todd – was the first time, I can recall, where I thought – these are just jokes! One after the other! A song had never made me laugh out loud like that before. I think rhyming while being funny is very impressive.
But even more than that – I think playing an instrument and simply telling jokes is downright genius. The juxtaposition between the structured nature of music and the unexpected nature of joke telling just tickles me.
It might seem easier than the other two above, but the timing for comedy and the timing for music don’t always line up the way you’d want them to, so the fact that these two men do it and do it so well…I’m very impressed.
Come see me be funny away from the piano in The Kid with the Keys next Sunday, September 16th 2012 at Sterling’s Upstairs at the Federal in North Hollywood. Call 818-754-8700 for reservations.
Last Friday I went to the Hollywood Bowl for the very first time. I know, I know – I’ve lived in LA for ten years, shame on me, blah blah, shut the fuck up.
It was the annual John Williams event, where Maestro Williams conducts the LA Phil as they play any number of his greatest hits, including of course the themes to Star Wars, Superman, the Olympics, and E.T. In fact, as it’s the 30th Anniversary of E.T., Spielberg lent the Bowl a remastered version of the last reel of the film, so they played it while the LA Phil scored it live. I mean….
I love John Williams. No. I fucking love John Williams. His contribution, not only to film music, but to popular concert music at large cannot be understated. Kids as young as 3 or 4 left the Bowl singing his tunes. His mastery of creating palpable tension and release through music is admirable, as is his ability to create countless memorable earworms. Seriously – that shit is witchcraft. How does he do it time and time again!?
What stuck me this time around was his love themes, of which he played (I think) a few, but one in particular that I recognized outright. It was the love theme from Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark.
What struck me most about hearing this theme was the churning I felt inside. It got me all twisted up. It’s not an “easy” melody. You’ll notice, for example, how the melody never quite rests on the “home” note. (Warning: music theory coming up…) The opening figure dances around the 3rd and 5th scale tones, leaning back and forth on half-steps. Translation: you get a sense of yearning, while never fulling feeling entirely happy or satisfied. It’s almost tragic.
And then (at :29) notice how the strings are so fragile and frightened to enter. I mean – is this not love?? Doesn’t it toss and turn you about, and make you feel melancholy and frightened, and yet make you yearn for more and more?
I’m not sure I’ve heard a musical theatre love song that quite captures that same essence. The closest I can think of in recent years would be “The Word of Your Body” from Spring Awakening. Otherwise, musical theatre love songs tend to be too pat, and, as anyone who’s experience love will tell you, love is anything but obvious.
Styles change, tastes change, but one thing that doesn’t change and has never changed through out our history is human emotion. So moving forward, I challenge myself, and all Millennial composer/lyricists, to capture love in its true, complicated form.
As I’ve just recently purchased an iphone, I’ve begun to listen to a lot more music than I usually get to do. One thing in particular that I’ve been able to use it for is for my pre-show warm up. I have a “Prince of Atlantis” playlist that includes Adele, Josh Pyke, Imperial Teen, Snow Patrol, and so on.
One song that has been making a strong impact on me in general is Sara Bareille’s “Uncharted” off her album Kaleidoscope Heart. For me, this song sums up many key points about acting in that poetic way that only music and lyrics can.
No words, My tears won’t make any room for more,
And it don’t hurt like anything I’ve ever felt before,
this is no broken heart,
No familiar scars,
This territory goes uncharted…
This is every moment in a play. It’s brand new. The first time. You may have walked into this room before, spoken with this person, but these circumstances are brand new, and it’s important!
I’m going down,
Follow if you want, I won’t just hang around,
Like you’ll show me where to go,
I’m already out of foolproof ideas, so don’t ask me how
To get started, it’s all uncharted.
This is the idea of not-knowing. In line with this being the first time, there’s also an element of taking an action, and not really knowing how it’s going to turn out. Or not even really knowing how to go after what you want, but trying anyway.
I won’t go as a passenger, no
Waiting for the road to be laid
Though I may be going down,
I’m taking flame over burning out
This, for me, is the idea of taking risks. Not just kind-of-sort-of going after your objective, or making a safe choice, but REALLY going after your objective, and REALLY making a choice. Jumping with out a net. Deciding it’s better to go big and feel utterly vulnerable than play it safe and easy.
Compare where you are to where you want to be, and you’ll get nowhere
And finally, the truest of truisms in this whole song – and the rhythm in which it’s sung…ugh ::kisses fingers:: – this is the idea of not aiming for results. In life, in acting, you have to live in the process. Only in the looking for something will you actually find it.
So thank you, Sara, for this incredible lesson on acting, and, of course, life.
You’re my hero.
Milwaukee Chamber Theatre and the Skylight Opera Theatre will co-produce a reading of The Tavern Keeper’s Daughter with book, music, & lyrics by B.T. Ryback. The reading will be directed by Ray Jivoff as part of the the Montgomery Davis Play Development Series, and will take place Monday, Feb. 27, 2012 at 7:30 pm in The Skylight Bar & Bistro, 2nd Floor, Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway. The reading is free with donations kindly accepted.
More about TKD: Returning home to Milwaukee from WWII, Lenny, a young Polish marine, finds himself arranged to marry the tavern keeper’s daughter from the bar across the street. Wanting more than a small town life, he runs off to New York City, where he meets Wanda, a spunky young woman trying to make something of herself in the Big Apple. Together they embark on a hilarious and heartwarming journey of self-discovery and romance, complete with a kooky, chorus-dancing gypsy, two mischievous gangster brothers, and the villainous godfather of the Polish mafia. The Tavern Keeper’s Daughter is a brand-new, throw-back musical that celebrates that home is what you choose to make of it.
BOSTON, MA – Retrop Productions and Emerson College’s RareWorks Theatre Company, in association with Kurt Deutsch, President and Founder of Sh-K Boom Records, are pleased to announce their collaboration with Ryan Scott Oliver and BT Ryback on the new musical Darling. A private workshop of this new piece will be presented at Emerson College in December, with a developmental production occurring in early Spring of 2012.
Jacob Porter, President of Retrop Productions, remarked on the collaborative opportunity: “Having [Ryan Scott Oliver] and [B.T. Ryback] present for the developmental process will be a beneficial learning experience for the entire Emerson student community and will provide the authors with information that will aid the creation of this daring and bold new work.” Nick Medvescek, Producing Director for RareWorks Theatre Company, adds “this production allows us to link our student community to industry leaders and rising talent.”
Darling, A New Musical will be directed by Michael Bello, a senior BFA Musical Theatre Major at Emerson College. Bello has previously worked as an assistant director at Theatreworks in Palo Alto, CA and for Mary Zimmerman at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston. Bello believes that “bringing a new musical, like Darling, to Emerson will provide every student involved with a unique and educational challenge to work on a piece unlike any other student organization musical.”
Darling is presented in association with Kurt Deutsch, President and Founder Sh-K-Boom Records, a Grammy Award winning label that bridges the gap between rock and theater music. Deutsch is looking forward to this exciting collaboration at Emerson, and stated that “there is nothing like being part of the creation of a new musical and working with two of the most exciting young musical theatre writers. I think that Darling represents where the future of musical theatre is going deeply rooted in traditional storytelling through music but by someone whose influences range from Sondheim to the popular music of today.”
Ryan Scott Oliver, composer and lyricist for Darling, speaks on behalf of the creative collaboration with book-writer BT Ryback: “We’re really looking forward to our work with the Emerson team this year. To be able to not only read thru the material but then have the opportunity to revise it and have it up on its feet in production is an exceptional opportunity. The university setting is a blessing to workshop a show like Darling, and Brett [BT Ryback] and I are anxious to see our show take her next step forward.”
This exciting collaboration highlights the importance of developing new musical theater within an educational environment; providing both student and professional theatre artists with the opportunity to work, learn, and grow in a creative and stimulating climate.
More about Darling
Darling, with music and lyrics by Ryan Scott Oliver, and book by B.T. Ryback, follows upper crust teenager Ursula Morgan in 1929 Boston as its society boils in the weeks before the Crash. Neglected by her excessive, self-absorbed parents, Ursula encounters Peter, a charming rent-boy of uncertain age, on the run from the Captain of Police who pursues him for a heinous crime he may or may not have committed. When she is offered the
opportunity to run away with him, she takes it and finds herself swept into a seedy underground of jazz, sex and a mysterious white powder called Fairy Dust.