Drawing My Own Conclusion with Andrew Lippa’s New Musical

As the Marketing Associate, one of my first assignments was to write for this very blog. I was asked to write about one of our newest musicals: THE MAN IN THE CEILING. The fear of failure paralyzed me. Doubt started creeping into my head: “Can I do this?” “Where do I begin?”

I felt anxious and scared about producing something worthy of placement on our blog. “What if I failed?” The answer to that became clearer as I got closer to the story and the music.

I began researching THE MAN IN THE CEILING’s creators: Andrew Lippa (Music & Lyrics) and Jules Feiffer (Book). I needed to know who they were and what motivated them. An article I cam across written by Lippa, titled “7 Pieces of Advice for Writers,” addressed overcoming fear and trusting your art. “Let the piece become what it wants to be…be ready to tell this story in a new way.”

TRW Big Fish 2015

High School Musicals That Deliver!

Originating on Broadway and the West End, TRW School Editions keep the magic of the original material in an adaptation expertly crafted to suit the school producing environment. TRW has a school edition to perfectly showcase your theatre department. TRW School Editions are musicals you’ll love with Production Resources that will get you and your students ready for opening night! You’ll receive brand-new pristine materials, authorized logo art, stellar customer service and expert guidance each step of the way from the most experienced and dedicated team of theatre educators and professionals. With most titles, you’ll have access to state-of-the-art resources and tools featuring ShowReady™ Rehearsal Tracks, StageTracks™ Performance Tracks, ProductionPro digital production notebook…

TRW - Addams Family Musical

Favorite “Pulled” Performances

Who doesn’t love Wednesday Addams? I was smitten from the moment she ruined the summer camp play in Addams Family Values. When the Addams clan made the jump to the theatrical stage, Andrew Lippa’s song of teenage emotional blossoming rocketed from Chicago, to Broadway, to any mix-belters’ repertoire book you could find in any audition holding room. “Pulled” is a very difficult song to sing. I think much of the role is difficult to sing, but that’s exactly what makes a great performance all the more delicious. The most climatic moments of the song lie right on the female passaggio (or break between chest voice/head voice) which means it takes not only a brassy belt or a gorgeous head voice but a marriage of the two. But musicals are about so much more than a great voice singing a song on stage.

The Showtunes of Love

It’s that magical time of year when we have to find just the right gift for our special someone for Valentine’s Day or you celebrate the 15th of February and treat yourself to bags and bags of clearance candy. No matter which day you choose to celebrate, both days are about that one special word: Love. Those of us that have a fondness for musical theatre know there’s no shortage of romantic songs that grace our stages. Here’s a little sampling of some favorites that leave us with the warm and fuzzies.

The Making of Young@Part®

The Young@Part® collection is comprised of 45 to 75 minute adaptations of popular musicals from the TRW catalogue designed to provide a rich dramatic and musical experience for elementary and middle-school aged kids. On the verge of launching two new Young@Part® titles, we sat down with Fred Stuart, Chief Creative Officer at TRW, to learn about the thoughtful development process that goes into each carefully crafted show.

5 Reasons To Produce BARE

BARE is a show I have always been a fan of. Is it a “pop opera” or a “musical”? Who’s to say. These days it seems the show has become a one name diva, like Cher or Madonna. Okay, perhaps that is a bit extreme, but the show holds a special place for me. See that photo above? Circa 2007, I was rocking the Catholic school uniform on stage myself. October in the USA is LGBT History Month and we just celebrated National Coming Out Day on October 11th. This is the perfect opportunity for me to ramble about reasons you should be producing this show.

You could cast this show however you’d like. As far as I recall, there isn’t anything specific in the material that would prevent casting an actor from any background. The only thing that comes to mind is a lyric Ivy sings about “blue eyes” to Jason.

Get Inside the BIG FISH score with Andrew Lippa

Broadway composer and lyricist Andrew Lippa recently took time to make an engaging, informative and inspiring video guide to the musical score of BIG FISH. Whether you have already licensed this brilliant show, or are considering it for your next musical, you can spend a few minutes with the composer, as he offers us a very accessible tour of the themes and styles of this magical musical.

Click the video below and share Andrew’s approachable, charming, humorous and very effective exploration of how music and words combine to move this irresistible story ever forward. If you are planning a production of the show, this is an invaluable tool. If you haven’t booked your production of BIG FISH yet, this quick master class with a gifted Broadway writer will inspire you to bring this beautiful new Broadway show to your community.

Choosing Your Next Round of Shows

Selecting your next show or full season, is an exciting, inspiring time for your whole organization. Careful consideration of a title’s audience appeal, technical and design requirements, casting challenges and other concerns make choosing shows an art unto itself.

While the need to consistently achieve high ticket sales is a common theme, artistic directors and producers try to select titles that will connect with their communities as well. Considering stories that will take their communities on new musical adventures together. In the educational and community theatre arena, the experience of the student or volunteer actors and techies is as important as the outcome of the show.

We’ve selected nine Broadway musicals, available for licensing for 2015-16, that can help inform your choice.

Tips, Tools & Tricks from Three Spamalot Directors

Getting in the driver’s seat for a production of MONTY PYTHON’S SPAMALOT, the Eric Idle and John Du Prez penned Tony Award®-winning Best Musical, is a true opportunity to give your cast, crew and audiences the theatre experience of a lifetime. Since launching the wide-release of SPAMALOT over a year ago, there have been hundreds of productions around the world by groups from community, high school and university theatres to high profile professional companies to a new West End production, still lighting up the stage in London. SPAMALOT is a ticket sales machine wherever it is produced for the sheer excellence of a show that has become a beloved musical classic, that never existed in the shadow of its wonderful and iconic cinema source material Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

“Up, Up, and Away:” in a Musical Lawnchair?

The thought of attaching some balloons to your lawnchair and flying away was once the legend of just a few, strange folks out there who dreamed of soaring above their mundane existences. No more. According to a new USA Today article, the Lawnchair Flight Phenomenon is growing!

Over the weekend, July 13-14, a pair of lawnchair aviators took off from their home of Bend, Oregon. According to USA TODAY, about six hours into their flight, Kent Couch and Fareed Lafta started to descend from an altitude of 10,000 feet because of the weather.

About 90 volunteers and several hundred onlookers counted down and then cheered as the pair lifted off from Couch’s Shell gas station. The duo safely cleared a two-story motel, a coffee stand and a light post.