Florida Rep New Play Festival My new play "Love, the Cracksman" had a fantastic reading at Florida Rep Theatre's New Plays Festival in Fort Myers, FL. The Cast The funny boys. Lovers. Me at the talkback. Me and the director, Stefan Novinski. This was the first public reading and it couldn't have gone better. I was happy and relieved to hear wave after wave of laughter throughout the show. The reading was directed by my good friend Stefan [...]
Maurer Productions Nabs Three Perry Awards A little while back I wrote about the Perry Awards and how Maurer Productions OnStage received 8 nominations for their production of Around the World in 80 Days. This production was special to me because it was the first show of mine to be produced within twenty minutes from where I grew up. I've been produced all over the world. The USA. Canada. England. India. Turkey. Bangladesh. And the foothills of the Himalayas. But it [...]
Around the World in 80 Days at The Matrix Theatre Well look what's happening in my backyard: Lost Dog Productions is producing Around the World in 80 Days at the Matrix Theatre in Hollywood, California. I went to the opening the other with an old friend of mine from university and had loads of fun. It was the first time I had ever been to the Matrix Theatre. It's a cute theatre. Wide. A very wide stage. You could get all [...]
Tom Jones - I Won't Break Your Heart Again Paul has a brief hiatus from The Voice so he and I went back into the studio to record another demo for Tom Jones the Musical. In a nutshell, here's how we work: I write the music and lyrics and record a rough demo I take it to Paul, who listens to it maybe twice He arranges the song in a few hours I sit and watch Here's a video of our [...]
Pendragon Theatre I got an email the other day from an old friend of mine and sent this picture with the caption, "Where I am today." I'm not sure if he lost a bet but I was glad he was there. Bucolic Lake Saranac. Turns out it was a production of Around the World in 80 Days at the Pendragon Theatre in "It's So Far North It Might As Well Be Canada" Lake Saranac, NY. From reading a review of the [...]
Around the World With Long Beach Playhouse Long Beach Playhouse is in the midst of a lovely run of my play Around the World in 80 Days. Long Beach Playhouse is in the midst of a lovely run of my play Around the World in 80 Days. When I wrote the play, I wanted it to be a show that both adults and kids could enjoy. I grew up on the Marx Brothers and Monty Python, so I wanted to [...]
80 Days Rolls On (Thank God) The Alley Theatre in Houston, TX recently closed its amazingly successful run of my play Around the World in 80 Days. (Directed by my dear friend Mark Shanahan. He likes it when I mention him). It's always sad to see a run come to an end. Fortunately I have more productions this month. Long Beach Playhouse Port Gamble Theatre Company in Port Gamble, WA is producing Around the World in 80 Days April 1 [...]
The Making of Tom Jones [embedplusvideo height="360" width="669" editlink="http://bit.ly/1Xovyvk" standard="http://www.youtube.com/v/puUnDk8P2P8?fs=1" vars="ytid=puUnDk8P2P8&width=669&height=360&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=" id="ep8316" /] My good friend Paul Mirkovich and I are in the midst of recording songs for our new musical Tom Jones, based on the novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding. Not based on Tom Jones the Welsh singer. Writing songs always scares me. It's a bit out of my comfort zone. I never know if they're good or plain old crap. I felt [...]
Tom Jones - The Musical The other day I wrote about how my friend Paul Mirkovich and I are recording mock-up demos for our musical Tom Jones. It's been a long time in the making and I'm excited to finally record the songs. The plan is to do these mock-ups so Paul's band can hear them and then we'll record with the band. The idea we've come up with is to keep the story in the 1600s but with modern [...]
Tom Jones the Musical I was commissioned to adapt the novel Tom Jones into a musical. Many years ago. Many. Years. It's not that I've been dragging my feet. It's that I've been waiting on my friend Paul Mirkovich. See, he and I wrote China the Whole Enchilada. I wrote the book, lyrics, and basic melodies. Paul then made the songs much better. Much. better. The show ended up receiving Outstanding Musical at the New York City Fringe Festival. Go [...]
