One Block From Broadway, 02139

And time is marching on

Almost four months to the day since the last post. TC has been busy; moving to a new house, getting a new job at Harvard. Me, I had another crazy awesome summer working at Charles River Creative Arts Program (CRCAP), writing a ton of songs and music directing Tom Megan's production "The Kid Who Would Be Pope". It was a fun show to do, and it was well reeceived all around.

L&C finished its run on June 22nd, and came back for one more show during ImprovBoston's "Geek Week" a couple of weeks ago.

As I mentioned in the previous post, two new songs were added before the end of the June run, but were never performed, Percent of Your Love (Romp In The Sheets), and I'll Be Redeemed (Hellfire). I was kinda disappointed Redeemed never got performed, but the concensus was that "it's a hard song." The others have all been a bit more "instinctive" to pick up, I guess. Regardless, several people have been talking about sending this show to festivals and getting it more press.

As for where we want to go with the show, there has been talk of formalizing it into a "Noises off"-style scripted show based around Hindenburg (the most well-formed of the three musicals L&C wrote), but it's still just an idea.

In the meantime, here's what I've got lined up between now and next fall:

Directing
Little Shop of Horrors
Fame

Ass. directing
Once On This Island

Writing
Original show based on The Aeneid
Original full-length show for CRCAP
8-9 songs/jazz tunes for a contemporary burlesque show
Several misc. tunes for several misc. ImprovBoston shows

And the most challenging part about all this writing? I'm doing it all solo; music and lyrics. I will not have the lyrical genius of TC Cheever working beside me.

Somewhere amidst all the words and notes, hopefully I'll find time to eat, sleep, and breathe.

The work never stops...

It's not over 'til it's over

Show number three of eight last night. Both of our male actors had conflicts, so last night, it was Ladley & Craig and their all-female revue. It was, at least according to the director, the best show so far. I think we're finally finding our characters, and the show is really in a groove now.

The director asked TC and I to have two new songs ready for the show in two weeks. It's a good thing, too, I've been jonesing for more composing. Now that I've had a break, I'm ready to jump back into the process. We've been getting loads of wonderful comments about the music; last night, it was reported that one of ImprovBoston's board members asked if the songs were "all real Broadway songs that we just appropriated." A fine piece of unsolicited testomonial if I ever heard it.

Songs in the show right now:

The Business We Call Show (a pseudo-opening number)

From Romp In The Sheets:

Romp In The Sheets
Time To Go
Dance In Place
I'd Have To Recommend Love

From Hindenburg!:

Boulevards of Berlin
Professor Von Zeppelin's Wunderbariffical Flying Machine
French Inhale
Oh, The Humanity

From Hellfire!

Chapter One
Waiting At The End Of The World

And a capper song at the end called A Little Tune.

We'll likely be adding one more song to Romp, and two more to Hellfire before this run is over.

Is this thing on?

Yes, yes it is.

Okay, so TC and I have gotten lazy about updating our progress. Really, really lazy. So how does one compress two months (to the day -- check the dates) of progress? Like this:

1.) Opening night is May 4th. We're 16 days away.

2.) We're still writing and learning songs, but we're in good shape. We have one more duet to write and introduce, and re-work a bit of the closing number.

3.) Everything is slowly melding together, and like every other show ever put up, it will probably all come together on opening night, and even then, we'll have stuff to tweak.

4.)This one I am excited about: one thing I've wanted for this project from day one is to have an actual piano on stage to use, and I've got it! I found a lady moving out of Boston, and I'm getting her piano, completely free, moved to the theater next week, to be used for the length of the run.

5.) Holy hell, this is going to be a fun show.

Sure, there's more. And I'm sure TC and I will have plenty more to say when we get closer to opening/after opening.

We're still chugging along, and heading into the home stretch! Stay tuned!

Roadblocks

Soon enough, the process for Ladley & Craig will begin. And this chapter promises to be just as exciting and adventurous as the first.

It's been almost two months since Dickens ended. Life has done an extraordinarily good job of getting in the way for both of us. We're supposed to start rehearsing for this show in March, and the songwriting process has been very slow; much slower than it was for Dickens. We've only finished two songs in addition to the ones we wrote for the abbreviated version of L&C the two of us performed months ago. In an ideal world, we'd be adding to those as well as writing all these new songs.

While the scope of our songwriting goals is well within the realm of possibility, I'm starting to worry, mainly because of the old music adage: "Do you want it done well, or do you want it tomorrow?" I worry that, if things keep up the way they have been, we're going to be throwing these songs together.

While my improv gut says we'll ultimately pull it off, the pragmatic side of me keeps telling me this is Dickens all over again...

End of A Year, End Of A Chapter

Well, that’s it. Dickens is over. It was a thrilling run; we sold out most of the houses, and left a lot of people singing and feeling good when they left the theater. We’re all currently recovering from New Years; I played six shows over the course the day yesterday, and somehow still had energy to go to a party afterwards. Today is a day of recuperation… until I have to go to a tech rehearsal tonight for another show starting up on Friday.

TC and I both learned a ton from this show, and we can apply plenty of it to Ladley & Craig. TC can lay out what he learned for himself.

The one biggest lesson I learned: Sheet music. I know this may seem obvious to just about every veteran out there. When I wrote my first musical back in Cleveland, the entire cast was made up entirely of improvisers (not that our Dickens cast didn’t have a fair share of them as well), so for that Cleveland show, the melodies were generated mostly by the actors themselves, and we just solidified it after so many repetitions (just another example of improv becoming formalized) The melodies were never written down. This time around, I tried to do the same thing, but the music was more complex and intricate, both melodically and harmonically. We started rehearsing in October, and after a couple of weeks, people starting saying “It would really be helpful if we had some sheet music.” It was a huge “duh” realization that fortunately, I only need to make once.

Everything else that happened during the process, while new and sometimes difficult, felt very natural. It all leads me to believe that I’m heading down the right road professionally.

Soon enough, the process for Ladley & Craig will begin. And this chapter promises to be just as exciting and adventurous as the first.

Brightly Whimsical

We have a review-- sure, it's just in time for our last two shows, one of which is sold out, but hey-- it's a review, and a largely positive one at that!

http://www.pmpnetwork.com/ReviewsData/Play_Reviews.htm

What the Dickens?!? cast & band

What the Dickens?!? cast & band
Originally uploaded by chaostheory.

Seated in front is Bobby Smith (Tiny Tim). Standing above him from left to right, the first four faces are the band: Brian Church (bass), Adam Brooks (keyboards, and Musical Director, and Composer), Mark Nathanson (drums), Aaron Gelb (guitar, sax, bass clarinet). Then we have Deana Tolliver (Sally), David Marino (Linus), Casey Williamson (chorus & Ghost of Holidays Past), Maitland Lederer (chorus & Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come), Lindsey Strube (Lucy), Joy Begbie (Ghost of Christmas Present), Patrick French (Pigpen), Jacey Bokuniewicz (Marcie), Cliff Zawasky (CB), Will Luera (chorus & Philanthropist), Kathleen Brophy (Peppermint Patty), TC Cheever (writer/Director), Sara Faith Alterman (Red Haired Girl) and Shala Donnelly (Stage Manager).

Opening Night

Well, we're finally here: tonight, at 7:30 pm, the doors will open and magic will happen.

We had an open dress rehearsal for a modest audience of friends last night. With the obligatory number of screw-ups aside, the show is rock solid. Everybody sounds fantastic during the songs -- it was an extra challenge for me to work out sound levels for this show: for eachnumber, I have to be loud enough to that the actors can hear me, but soft enough so that, during the numbers with the entire band, the actors can be heard clearly over the music. It all came through in fine style.

The past week has been insane busy for me: today is the last day of finals week at Berklee, I had my production of Crazy For You go up this past weekend (when I could have been doing work for school).

I'm working on school stuff all through today, and tonight I celebrate by christening this show.

I am so ridiculously proud of everyone. To be able to put together a show as personal as this one is a first for me, and as trite as it sounds, there's a lot of love in this show from every single person in the cast. I told him last night, but it's worth reiterating, modesty aside: TC and I put on one hell of a show.

We hope to see you there!

Opening soon!

We're almost ready to open! Rehearsal tonight with the full band, dress rehearsal tomorrow night, open dress rehearsal on Wednesday night, and we open on Thursday! Here's the full scoop:

Charles Dickens. Charles Schulz. Two great Americans.

Except for Dickens.

More importantly, two men responsible for two of the greatest and most
beloved Christmas stories of all time: A Christmas Carol and A Charlie
Brown Christmas. Leave it to ImprovBoston to take these two great
stories, toss them into a blender with a little eggnog and rum, and
frappe to create the Sixth Annual ImprovBoston Holiday Spectacular:
What the Dickens?!?

An original musical with music & lyrics by Adam Brooks and TC Cheever,
What the Dickens?!? parodies the holiday television classic by
dropping the characters into Dickens' immortal Christmas story. Toss
lightly with love and you have a holiday recipe that has a good beat
you can dance to.

What the Dickens?!? has mature content and is not intended for younger
audiences.

Showtimes:
December 21 @ 8pm
December 22 & 23 @ 8pm & 10pm
December 29 @ 8pm & 10pm.

Tickets $15, available online at http://www.improvboston.com where you can also find directions to the theater and more information about ImprovBoston.

Tickets On Sale!

Tickets for What The Dickens?!?, ImprovBoston's Sixth Annual Holiday Spectacular, are now on sale-- online! Just click here!

And click here for the ImprovBoston newsletter interview with composer Adam Brooks!