'Twas a Year Full of New Line 2018

'Twas a year full of New Line, rambunctious and swell,
And the New Liners kept themselves busy as hell:
A reading, a classic, a new show, and then,
An old show that substitutes zombies for men.
The new shows were cool, and the old shows seemed new,
A year full of crazy surprises for you,
'Cause that is exactly what New Liners do.

The year started off with a reading, one night
Of a Gilbert and Sullivan cheeky rewrite,
With zombies and daughters (as hunters of such);
And response was so warm and it cheered us so much!
The feedback was helpful, and rewrites ensued,
To strengthen the women (though they remained "food"),
Resulting in opera deliciously rude.

In spring we launched Cole Porter's Anything Goes,
A show that we proved hardly anyone knows;
We merely let loose all the rich social satire,
Freeing what drives this convention defier;
Darker and wilder, and funnier too,
Not quite the show that most folks thought they knew;
But our secret is simple -- we show you what's true.

Our next show did not depict humans or beasts,
But focused on intrigue and love among yeasts,
Who lived microscopic, but yearned for much more
(Like power and sex) on the deep ocean floor.
A canvas surprisingly complex and vast,
And tellingly human (though more protoplast),
And just a few billion years back in the past.

And then we returned to our wild "zomberetta,"
Of ghoul-hunting daughters and zombie vendetta;
Response was much warmer than we'd ever dreamed
(Though Gilbert and Sullivan sure would have screamed).
Our zombies could sing and (a bit) they could dance;
The idea was full crazy, but we took a chance
On the dreaded but comic Zombies of Penzance!

And now there's a Zombies cast album, full score,
Plus the script, so our dead are "preserved," and what's more,
You can purchase these things on the Amazon site,
And then re-live our Zombies (if "re-live" is right),
And laugh your ass off, but get no sleep that night;
Nah, the zombies will pass by your house... well, they might...

So now we look forward to 2019,
A singing computer chip, aging drag queen;
Two tales of outsiders (and some Mountain Dew),
And both with the lesson to be the true you.
Yeah, Be More Chill opens on Broadway this spring,
But we still have a Be More Chill June opening!
We rock, and that's why -- it's a New Liner thing.

Happy Holidays! Long Live the Musical!
Scott

P.S. If you're a glutton for punishment, here are my year-end poems from 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017.