I’m Just Like My Country -- I’m Young, Scrappy, and Hungry

I think about history a lot, and most of that thinking is about American musical theatre history. That's why I wrote my history book, Strike Up the Band, and why I created our YouTube History of Musical Theatre, on New Line's YouTube channel.

Back in 2014, on a whim (or possibly because I was reeeeeally stoned), I re-sorted the list of New Line shows into chronological order by when the shows originally debuted, to get a look at how our company has explored the history and evolution of the American musical theatre. It's cool to see how the art form has changed and reacted to world events over the twentieth century, but also how wide-ranging New Line's programming actually is. 

It's worth noting that never, in twenty-seven years, have we ever violated our mission to produce adult, socially and politically relevant musical theatre. Even shows usually dismissed as shallow, like Anything Goes or Grease, reveal surprising new depth and sharp social critique when treated with some respect and thoughtfullness by the New Liners.

I've added to that 2014 list all the shows we've done since I wrote that post. Here's the updated list...

The Zombies of Penzance (1879)
The Threepenny Opera (1928)
Anything Goes (1934)
The Cradle Will Rock (1937)
The Nervous Set (1959)
The Fantasticks (1959)
Camelot (1960)
Anyone Can Whistle (1964)
Man Of La Mancha (1965)
Cabaret (1966)
Hair (1967)
Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris (1968)
Zorba (1969)
Celebration (1969)
Company (1970)
Grease (1971)
Two Gentlemen Of Verona (1971)
Jesus Christ Superstar (1971)
Pippin (1972)
The Rocky Horror Show (1973)
The Robber Bridegroom (1974)
Chicago (1975)
I Love My Wife (1977)
The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas (1978)
Evita (1978)
Sweeney Todd (1979)
Tell Me on a Sunday (1979)
March Of The Falsettos (1981)
Sunday In The Park With George (1983)
La Cage aux Folles (1983)
Into The Woods (1987)
Assassins (1990)
Kiss Of The Spider Woman (1990)
Return To The Forbidden Planet (1991)
Attempting The Absurd (1992)
Passion (1994)
Rent (1994)
Breaking Out In Harmony (1994)
Hedwig And The Angry Inch (1994)
The Ballad Of Little Mikey (1994)
Songs For A New World (1995)
In The Blood (1995)
Floyd Collins (1996)
Bat Boy (1997)
Woman With Pocketbook (1998)
A New Brain (1998)
Sweet Smell of Success (1998)
Urinetown (1999)
Reefer Madness (2000)
The Wild Party (2000)
Bare (2003)
She’s Hideous (2003)
The Amberklavier (2004)
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2005)
High Fidelity (2006)
Johnny Appleweed (2006)
Bukowsical (2006)
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (2006)
Jerry Springer The Opera (2007)
Love Kills (2007)
Yeast Nation (2007)
Passing Strange (2008)
Cry-Baby (2008)
Next To Normal (2009)
American Idiot (2009)
Lizzie (2009)
Bonnie & Clyde (2011)
Night Of The Living Dead (2012)
Hands On A Hardbody (2013)
Heathers (2013)
Atomic (2013)
Be More Chill (2015)

Note the obvious pockets of creativity in the 60s and 70s, and then starting again in the mid to late 1990s. Also notice the absence of shows from the 40s and 50s – the Rodgers & Hammerstein era. Notice that once we get to the nineties, none of these shows follow the R&H structure anymore. Admittedly, other shows did follow the R&H rules during this period, but look at how many didn't. We're in a post-R&H era. Woo-hooo!

For many years, we've kept an online History of New Line, with full production details and links to the individual shows' webpages. We do this partly because we hope other adventurous companies like ours might get some cool ideas about shows to produce by seeing what we've tackled (I look at other companies' schedules all the time. That's how I found Night of the Living Dead); and to make it easy for them to find good, show-related resources once they are producing a show. But also because no other company has ever done what we're doing. (So far.) No other company is devoted solely to socially and politically relevant, alternative musical theatre. Some companies do some of this work, some do quite a bit, but as far as we know, nobody else does only this. And we want there to be a record of our adventures

A few years ago, the local theatre reviewers created the St. Louis Theater Circle Awards, and they honored New Line with a special award for our body of work over the years. It was a very nice compliment, a real honor coming from the people who see almost all the theatre in town (some of them, for many years), and it was way better than "winning" something "over" someone else. It was one of the few times I've spoken in public without being nervous and without notes. I knew what I wanted to say:

In 2014, American Theatre magazine (which I've been subscribed to since high school) did a really long, really smart, really wonderful feature story about New Line, our work, our history, and our relationship to our art form, as it continues to evolve. I could not imagine a cooler portrait of our company. American Theatre has run short items about our shows before, but never anything like this. And it's not just complimentary, it's really respectful. It takes us New Liners and our work seriously. It treats us like we have something of value to say with our work, and with our approach to contemporary musical theatre. That's very cool validation.

In 2015, our own Riverfront Times also did a very cool feature story about New Line and our relationship to our art form, again a really nice validation that what we're doing is interesting and worthwhile and important. As much as we struggle from show to show, this kind of recognition and respect is so nice.

We're all incredibly psyched about the season ahead -- the world premiere of The Zombies of Penzance in October; an all new, more intimate look at the classic La Cage aux Folles in March; and the new sci-fi rock musical Be More Chill next June. All three shows are going to be loads of fun, all three will surprise the hell out of you, all three have genuinely amazing casts, and we're cautiously optimistic that all three shows will sell really well.

Season ticket sales are going great this year -- to order yours, click here.

Yet, as much recognition as we get, as successful as our shows are, it's always still hard to balance the budget (we had to raise ticket prices for the coming season, for the first time in six years). Ticket sales cover 40-45% of our budget -- the rest is grants and donations. If you'd like to contribute to New Line and join us on our adventures, click here. If you'd like to sponsor a show, click here.

But, despite how hard it is, all in all, things are good. The adventure continues and awesome people keep wanting to work with us. And that's pretty much all I need.

But if you wanna throw $10,000 our way, we would not object...

In a couple weeks, we start rehearsals for The Zombies of Penzance. I. Can. Not. Wait.

Long Live the Musical!
Scott

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story

More than anything else, Assassins is about a battle for control of the storytelling. Every moment in the show is about that.

And isn't that a metaphor for all our lives?

On one team, Balladeer, as a stand-in for American pop culture and entertainment throughout our history, simplifying and misrepresenting the truth. His music is pure Americana, but his lyrics are shallow, simple-minded. Storytelling is central to any culture, but the Balladeer's songs show us how American culture distorts the complexity and nuance of the truth.

On the other team, the Assassins, all presented without judgment, allowed to tell their own stories and make their own cases, in their own voices. And with each assassin's song, the musical form matches both the period and the personality of the assassin.

With two exceptions, the entire score is written in styles appropriate to each assassin’s time, and all in traditional American song forms. For Sondheim, those forms include not only folk songs and cakewalks, but also John Philip Sousa marches, barbershop quartets, show tunes, even 1970s pop ballads. The exception to this is “Another National Anthem,” the one song in which the overall dramatic situation of the show actually changes. Appropriately, this is the one song that is not a period piece and not a traditional American song form; it is pure Sondheim, full of rich dissonance and interesting melody. It is in “Another National Anthem” that the assassins first reject the Balladeer’s American Dream and realize that there is safety – and power – in numbers.

The other exception is "Something Just Broke," which wasn't in the original version, doesn't follow the rules of the rest of the show, and interrupts the amazing original transition from Oswald's shot through to the finale. Can you tell I don't like it?

But it's “Another National Anthem” that shares the now famous theme with Hamilton, "Who lives, who dies, who tells your story."

The assassins onstage literally solicit the audience to become assassins. Led by Byck, they tell us that they’ve tried the traditional American Dream, the one proffered by the Balladeer, and it doesn’t work. They’ve found a better American Dream, another national anthem. They sell it to us, asking us to pass on their message, singing over and over, “Spread the word.” They know that we (the audience) all have unrealized dreams just like they do; they know that we all want the same thing, and they know how to get it now.

In a way, it becomes the most optimistic song in the show, precisely because the assassins have found the answer. But it's also infused with great anger, carried to enough of an extreme to justify their extreme acts. Byck compares the fairy tale of the American Dream to Santa Claus, and we realize how meaningless the Balladeer’s empty optimism is to them. For these assassins, the American Dream really is as silly as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.

As the Balladeer spouts his homespun clichés about a country built on dreams, we see how little this means to this group of people consumed by despair, grief, rage, and feelings of abandonment. For most of us in the audience, it will be the first time we’ve looked at the American Dream in such a harsh light, and realized how irritating it must be to the disenfranchised members of our society who can never have what we tell them they should have.

Are we, as an audience, complicit in that?

These assassins are newly empowered. They have taken over the Balladeer’s role – that of passing on stories – and they literally chase the Balladeer off the stage in the middle of the song, silencing the only voice in the show still in favor of "old-fashioned American values."

The Assassins become a new voice of authority and they take control of the show as they realize that they have even greater power as a group than as individuals. They see the Balladeer’s and America’s Great Lie – that the mailman, the delivery boy, even the usherette can have the American Dream if only they try hard enough. These assassins have listened to that lie for too long, and have seen it for what it is – a con..

They decide it’s time for them to be heard. They have learned how to get their message across. The Balladeer tells them their acts have meant nothing, but it’s not true. They know that now...

They may not want to hear it,
But they listen,
Once they think it’s gonna stop the game...
No, they may not understand
All the words,
All the same, they hear the music...

The ballpark is mainstream society; the game is the American Dream. Though the assassins can’t get into the ballpark, they can certainly interrupt the game.

With their newfound confidence, they pick up on one of the Balladeer’s themes – that you have to keep on trying. Maybe they can’t have the prize they were promised, but there are other prizes to be had. For those who wanted fame, they got it. For those who wanted to effect political change, they at least called attention to their cause.

For those who wanted to “connect,” they have done just that. They have become a new voice of America: “We’re the other national anthem.” They realize that they really can effect change. They sing, “There’s another national anthem and I think it just began...” Their anthem is playing now. It’s their turn.

They have changed who tells their story.  The genius of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman.

New Line has produced Assassins three times, in 1994, 1998, and 2008. It's a genuine masterpiece, though I didn't love the changes the revival made, like adding a devil figure, which totally lets the assassins off the hook. And yes, I wish we could leave out "Something Just Broke." But it's truly one of the greatest works of our art form in the last fifty years.

As much as we know Lin-Manuel Miranda loves Sondheim, it's not a stretch to think that the themes of Assassins were in the back of his head when he tackled Hamilton. The two shows are companion pieces in so many ways, both about storytelling, about point of view, moral gray area, both about America itself.

See why I love musical theatre?

Long Live the Musical!
Scott

Nothing's as Amazing as a Musical

I've written nine musicals -- book, music, and lyrics -- and all but one have been produced. My earlier shows are respectable efforts, but I wouldn't want any of them to be produced today. After all, I wrote my first show the summer before senior year in high school (more about that here). It wasn't bad for a seventeen-year-old with no training, writing his first musical, but that's not really saying much.

But I really like my later shows, particularly three of them (Attempting the Absurd, In the Blood, and Johnny Appleweed), and I've often thought what a shame it is that I spend a year or two writing a show, pour my soul into it, and then it runs for four weeks and disappears forever. After all that work. But I knew none of the theatrical publishers would publish my quirky little shows which have never run in New York.

I've also been thinking a lot lately about how to augment my income. It's hard out there for a freelance artsy to pay the rent. I've been working on a new musical theatre analysis book (this will be my fifth of that kind), and I'm getting close to finishing, so I've begun thinking about getting it published. The publisher who put out my first four books isn't adding any more theatre titles for the foreseeable future. The publisher who put out my last book was a bit of a nightmare.

And then someone pointed out to me that you can self-publish on Amazon. I looked into it, and found it's really easy and it's literally free! I also saw that you can choose from a dozen different sizes, which made me think... I could publish music books!

So I sat down and went through my computer files, to see what there was that I had already written that was worth publishing, and that might make me some money. I ended up deciding to publish the script and music for three of my most recent musicals, two of my non-musical scripts, a collection of my songs from all my shows, and one novelty book that I've been wanting to get published for several years.

But this was a bigger job than I thought. All those scripts were already in the computer, so I just had to reformat and clean them up. But only my last score was done on the computer -- all my earlier scores are in pencil on music manuscript paper. So for two shows I had to input the entire scores into the computer. It was time-consuming, but I'm so glad I did it.

So here's what I've put up on Amazon lately, in addition to my four analysis books, my book about Hair, and my musical theatre history book. I can't describe the thrill of seeing my music in a published book!

Attempting the Absurd -- Meta before meta was cool. This is one of the first truly postmodern meta-musicals (written 1986-1992, debuted 1992), about a young man named Jason who has figured out that he's only a character in a musical and doesn’t actually exist; and his special knowledge has persuaded those around him that he's off his nut. Jason is a fictional character in the real world, but all the people around him are real people in a fictional world. So he sets off on a quest to find The Answers To It All, with his musical comedy sidekick, Chaz. Along the way the two find love (both gay and straight), community theatre friends, a little jail time, and ultimately irrefutable proof that Jason is right after all. Love and a copy of the script to Attempting the Absurd conquer all, and all ends as it should, with a happy, full company reprise. Songs include “I Love You,” “Being in a Musical,” “The City,” “Waltz for Chaz,” “Worse Things,” “The Optimistic Song,” “Old-Fashioned Musicals,” “The Big Finish,” and lots more. Both the script and the vocal selections are available on Amazon now!

In the Blood -- My 1995 vampire musical, part romance, part Gothic horror, part comedy. The show explores the unlikely romance between the vampire Zachary Church and Adam Graham, a hematologist with HIV, in the early years of the AIDS pandemic. If vampires are the only ones who can't be affected by the AIDS virus, do they have some responsibility to pass on their immunity? And for someone with AIDS, what price is too high for acquiring that immunity? When Adam asks Zach to turn him to vampirism so he won't die, Zach is torn. He has vowed never to make another vampire, never to subject anyone else to the horrific loneliness he has known for so long. Ultimately, Zach has to choose between condemning Adam to the tormented life of a vampire or watching him die, knowing he could've saved him. This was definitely the most serious show I've ever written, and the most sophisticated score. Both the script and the vocal selections are available on Amazon now!

Johnny Appleweed -- My 2006 stoner political satire, the first musical ever to make a serious case for the spiritual, existential, and psychological properties of marijuana. Through the lens of this pot-friendly worldview, the show takes aim at issues like American party politics, the War on Terror, the (undeclared) war on America's poor, the American culture of violence, gay marriage, the legalization of marijuana, sexual oppression, and increasingly rabid American religious fanaticism, all through the eyes of the laid-back, neo-mythic purveyor of pot, Johnny Appleweed, an itinerant philosopher-stoner, who argues that only through the mind-expanding properties of marijuana can we truly see the Larger Truths, so that we can finally solve our problems and move our civilization forward. A heady mix of Hair, The Daily Show, the films of Kevin Smith, Waiting for Godot, and The Wizard of Oz. Songs include “The Ballad of Johnny Appleweed,” “The Scheme of Things,” “Fucking Up America,” “Cannabis Dei,” “Weird Isn’t Weird,” “Jesus On the Tube,” “I Tapped That Ass,” “What Would Jesus Do?”, “A Great Big Cloud of Smoke,” and more.  Both the script and the vocal selections are available on Amazon now!

Astro Turf -- This is a twenty-minute one-act musical I wrote as a special project for a history of astronomy class at Harvard University in 1984. Five major astronomers, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, and Johannes Kepler, come together and present in song their views on the nature of motion and the creation of the heavens. Both my professors loved it. Owen Gingrich (professor emeritus of astronomy and the history of science, Harvard University), wrote, "This is really quite super! There is obviously a lot of research and thought here, and a lot of very subtle points! Bravo!" My other prof, D.W. Latham (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), wrote, "A magnificent survey of the history of astronomy, so detailed, so insightful. They’re all excellent, but the Kepler piece is simply brilliant!" All five songs are in the vocal selections, now available on Amazon!

Songs from the Musicals of Scott Miller -- Even though a lot of my early shows aren't strong enough to be produced again, some of the songs in those shows are pretty good! So here's a fun collection of songs from all nine of my musicals, Adam’s Apple (1981), Musical (1983), Topsiders (1984), Astro Turf (1984), The Line (1985), Attempting the Absurd (1992), Breaking Out in Harmony (1994), In the Blood (1995), and Johnny Appleweed (2006). Songs include “Give Me My Cap’n Crunch,” “The Children of Izod,” “Pushers and Dealers Are People Too,” “Zit,” “Cupcakes at Seven,” “Get Screwed,” “Aristotle,” “Married or Gay,” “Cannabis Dei,” “Fucking Up America,” “I Tapped That Ass,” “Crime is Beauty,” “The Christmas Tree Fell Over and Our House is Burning Down,” and lots more. This piano-vocal collection is now available on Amazon!

Head Games -- This was my first foray into writing a non-musical play, but it turned out pretty well. It's been produced here in St. Louis, in Los Angeles, in London, and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. In the show, it’s Michael’s thirty-fifth birthday, and his friends are coming over to celebrate, for better or worse, as he grieves over his advancing age in a youth-obsessed culture, and also over his inability to find a smart gay comedy with nudity to fill his small theatre company’s bank account. And his late-arriving surprise birthday present will just make it all worse. Much worse. Head Games takes pot shots at pop culture at the turn of the new century and at itself, and it doubles back on itself structurally, playing the story out of chronology – so that as Act II opens, you realize that much of what you thought happened in Act I isn’t what it appeared...  The script is available now on Amazon!

A Hot Cup of Murder -- Back in 2000, Harrah's Casino asked us to create a murder mystery show to perform in their banquet hall, as an extra incentive to get groups to come to the casino. I created a political family, the Seaborns, holding their first political fundraising dinner, when the candidate drops dead in his dinner about ten minutes into the show. And hilarity ensues. We ended up doing only one performance, for complicated reasons, but the audience loved it, and now I'm finally able to share my script, which is now on Amazon!

It's so cool that all this stuff has now been published. I don't know that I'll make much money on this, but I love that it's out there. And who knows, maybe it will lead to further productions of one or more of these shows.

Beyond all this, there was still one more project I had been thinking about for several years, a musical theatre novelty book -- something none of the established theatre publishers was interested in. Now, as part of my adventure in self-publishing, this project is finally real.

It's a Musical!: 400 Questions to Ponder, Discuss, and Fight About -- This quiz book is filled with 400 questions designed to make the serious musical theatre fan think about musicals, on Broadway and across the country, how they operate, how they interact with each other and with the Real World, how they are related, how they have and haven't changed over the years, what they have been and what they are becoming in this new Golden Age of the American Musical Theatre. Por ejemplo...

What theatre song always puts you in a good mood?

Name a strong black leading character in a musical.

Quote one dialogue line from a musical that totally encapsulates that show.

What's your favorite Act II opener?

Name a theatre song in which the singer is lying.

What musical would be hardest to explain to someone who knew nothing about it?

What's your favorite Kander & Ebb vamp?

You can flip through this book, land on any page, read a question, and test yourself on your knowledge, insights, and opinions about musicals. Or you can make it a game with your similarly obsessed friends. Or you can use it to humiliate posers who only pretend to know our beloved art form. Your choice. But wield your power carefully. The primary purpose here is just for serious, hardcore, musical theatre fans to have lots of musical theatre fun with other serious, hardcore, musical theatre fans. Or with themselves. But remember -- alone is alone, not alive.

It has also occurred to me that this book would be a useful teaching aid for theatre teachers, to get their students thinking more substantively about our art form. It's a Musical! is now available on Amazon too!

I can't tell you how satisfying it is to know my work won't die, that my songs will have some further life. It's a real gift Amazon has given me. They've taken away the gatekeepers, and they're allowing me to tap into a fast-growing market of musical theatre freaks, in a way that most regular publishers would consider not worth the risk.

I realized a long time ago that the true joy of making theatre is the act of sharing, connecting to an audience and telling them a great story. Now my sharing can expand beyond the walls of the Marcelle Theater, and beyond the local fans of New Line Theatre. Amazon has super-charged my sharing power and I am very grateful.

So stop by my Author Page on Amazon (remember, go to smile.Amazon.com, and New Line gets donations off your purchases!) and take a look at all my books. If you love musicals, there's lots there you'll be happy you found...

Long Live the Musical! (And Amazon!)
Scott

My Kind of Town

Every so often I like to point out how incredibly exciting, varied, and interesting the St. Louis musical theatre scene is.

It's always been important to me not only to promote New Line and our work, but also the art form itself, and the rest of the St. Louis theatre scene. We keep pages on our website listing all the theatre companies in town, and all the upcoming productions of musicals in town.

Keeping in mind we're already halfway through the summer, here's a list of musicals coming up locally.

July 6-14 – H.M.S. Pinafore, Union Avenue Opera
July 9-16 – Jersey Boys, The Muny
July 13-21 – Altar Boyz, Silhouettes Production Company
July 18-25 – Annie, The Muny
July 18-29 – Footloose, Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre
July 20-28 – Dames at Sea, Alfresco Productions
July 20-Aug. 19 – Mamma Mia!, Stages St. Louis
July 24-29 – It Shoulda Been You, SCC Center Stage Theatre
July 26-29 – Sweeney Todd, Ignite Theatre Company
July 27-28 – West Side Story, COCA
July 27-Aug. 2 – Gypsy, The Muny
July 27-Aug. 5 – Legally Blonde, Hawthorne Players
Aug. 2-18 – The Robber Bridegroom, Stray Dog Theatre
Aug. 3-5 – Honk!, Insight Theatre Company
Aug. 3-11 – Into the Woods, Curtain's Up Theater Company
Aug. 4-12 – Meet Me in St. Louis, The Muny
Aug. 8-19 – The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Act Two Theatre
Aug. 10-26 – The Light in the Piazza, R-S Theatrics
Aug. 17-25 – Lost in the Stars, Union Avenue Opera
Sept 5-30 – Evita, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis
Sept. 7-Oct. 7 – Oklahoma!, Stages St. Louis
Sept. 12-16 – Bye Bye Birdie, Ignite Theatre Company
Sept. 18-30 – Love Never Dies, Fox Theatre
Sept. 20-30 – Newsies, Looking Glass Playhouse
Sept. 27-Oct. 20 – The Zombies of Penzance, New Line Theatre
Oct. 5-14 – Bells Are Ringing, Alpha Players
Nov. 2-11 – Annie, Act Two Theatre
Nov. 7-25 – Aladdin, Fox Theatre
Nov. 8-Dec. 16 – All is Calm, Mustard Seed Theatre
Dec. 11-16 – Les Misérables, Fox Theatre
Dec. 22-23 – Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Fox Theatre
De. 26-Jan. 6 – Anastasia, Fox Theatre
Jan. 25-Feb. 10 – Avenue Q, Playhouse @ Westport Plaza
Jan. 29-Feb. 10 – Fiddler on the Roof, Fox Theatre
Feb. 14-17 – James and the Giant Peach, East Central College
Feb. 28-March 23 – La Cage aux Folles, New Line Theatre
March 1-3 – Rock of Ages, Fox Theatre
March 5-10 – Bat Out of Hell, Fox Theatre
March 12-17 – Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Fox Theatre
March 26-April 7 – Waitress, Fox Theatre
April 4-20 – Dreamgirls, Stray Dog Theatre
April 23-May 5 – Miss Saigon, Fox Theatre
May 14-26 – Come From Away, Fox Theatre
May 30-June 22 – Be More Chill, New Line Theatre

And that's only the musicals!

Pretty cool list for a mid-sized Midwestern city! I think there's only one repetition in the whole list. A while back I wrote a blog post about why St. Louis theatre is so amazing. This list is one of the reasons. We have a ton of cool companies doing very cool work. What more could we ask?

And I could not be more exciting about New Line's upcoming season -- the truly crazy world premiere of The Zombies of Penzance; a somewhat more serious take on the big-hearted, classic musical La Cage aux Folles; and the new sci-fi rock musical Be More Chill. You can buy season tickets here. I cannot wait to share all three of these musicals with all of you! I love my job.

The American musical theatre is in a new Golden Age, and so is the St. Louis theatre scene. A new adventure begins...

Long Live the Musical!
Scott