by Charlie Barnett | Aug 12, 2023 | Charlie's Blog, Events, Home Page, News
I’m pleased to announce that my new comedy, The Spectre of Death, will be performed by the Crowded Kitchen Players at Between the Lines Studio Theatre in Allentown, Pennsylvania from September 22 through October 1. It’s a play about a fading ’80s metal-band star and his unexpected daughter. Though it’s not a musical, I did have to write one song for the performance: the fictional mega-hit “We Are Going to Rock You…to Death!” I can’t wait to see what this talented troupe does with the script.
by Charlie Barnett | Apr 20, 2023 | Charlie's Blog, Events, Reviews
Thanks to critic Kathy McAuley for her kind and clever writeup of our Allentown table read of The Last Days of Cleopatra.
“It was all over the top – sort of like a party,” actress Sharon Ferry told McAuley. “I liked the sense of fun; it was so spirited, no subtlety, just flat out fun.”
by Charlie Barnett | May 15, 2020 | Charlie's Blog, Events, News, Theatre
My stage play about George Gershwin’s friendship with Arnold Schoenberg — Twelveness — has been produced as an audio performance by the Crowded Kitchen Players of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The show is available at https://crowdedkitchen.podbean.com/
I am extra-ordinarily proud of this. And especially now in our time of quarantine, this can be a nice way to spend 90 minutes.
Here are the deets:
May 3, 2020
Legendary American pianist and songwriter George Gershwin and Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg volley tennis balls, music theory, and musings on the meaning of art on a Beverly Hills tennis court and over dinner and drinks in a series of entertaining and provocative conversations that may never have taken place. But, they should have.
This play takes place largely in the last months of 1936 and early 1937. George Gershwin would die on July 11, 1937 from an undiagnosed brain tumor. He was 38 years old.
Arnold Schoenberg was famous for his serial compositional technique, the twelve tone row. He would live, teaching and composing, until 1951.
Written by Charlie Barnett
Produced and Directed by Ara Barlieb and Pamela Wallace 2020
Featuring Dan Ferry as George Gershwin, David Oswald as Arnold Schoenberg, Trish Cipoletti as Ginger Rogers, Syd Stauffer as Gertrud Schoenberg
Music by Charlie Barnett
(Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes)
by Modern Songbook Records | Sep 19, 2019 | Charlie's Blog, Events, Theatre
Doug Bradshaw, Jennifer Schwed, Charlie Barnett and Millie Scarlett
Living in Washington DC, it is easy to get inured to treasures that we drive and walk past every day. Last night at the National Archives, we put on a reading of ten of the songs from 19, our musical about Alice Paul and the struggle for women’s suffrage one hundred years ago. We all had a chance to, once again, see our Constitution, and of course, the 19th Amendment. It is right there. The real thing. The Archives had an extensive and thoughtful exhibit on suffrage in America. What a great city to live in.
by Modern Songbook Records | Nov 24, 2017 | Charlie's Blog, Events, News
My jazz band, Chaise Lounge, loves to play with orchestras! On February 18, we will be playing a concert of originals, swing standards, and tangos with the Pan American Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. The program is called “Fusion of the Americas: Jazz Meets Tango,” and it is the world’s first opportunity to hear us performing jazz versions of Astor Piazzolla classics like “Libertango” and “Oblivion,” as well as tangofied American-songbook staples like Irving Berlin’s “Let’s Face the Music and Dance.” If you’ll be in the area, you can get tickets here.
by Modern Songbook Records | Oct 24, 2017 | Charlie's Blog, Events, News
I wrote previously about 19, The Musical, a show I’m scoring about suffragist Alice Paul and the fight for votes for women. I’m pleased to report that the first act is being staged at a workshop in Northern Virginia in a couple of weeks. The evening will include light hors d’oeuvres and a Q&A with my talented collaborators, the writers, directors, and lyricists Jennifer Schwed and Doug Bradshaw. For more information, visit throughthe4thwall.com.
