Playbill!
Playbill’s notice re: When We Get There
The Last Days of Cleopatra
In 1961, after a calamitous start in London, the cast and crew of the film Cleopatra move to Cinecittà Studios in Rome to re-start the film. The dazzling Elizabeth Taylor has stayed on in the role of Cleopatra, but she has a new co-star: Richard Burton, a famed Shakespearean actor, who has joined the cast as Mark Antony. With the largest budget in Hollywood’s history and an acclaimed new director, the production seems to be back on track. But the reality is that this esteemed crew is in the process of making one of the biggest film turkeys of all time—while Taylor and Burton strike up a world-famous adulterous affair that ends Taylor’s marriage and drenches the production in scandal. As Taylor learns hard lessons, though, other troupers meet sunnier fates, finding friendship or true love on the set of this colassal disaster.
Here are a few songs from the show.
The Last Days of Cleopatra synopsis
The Last Days of Cleopatra Charlacter Breakdown
The Last Days ofCleopatra 06-01-22
When We Get There: We’re Getting There
In December, after working together online for nearly two years, I finally met one of my two collaborators on the musical When We Get There, which tells the story of a road trip to the fateful 1965 voting rights march in Selma, Alabama. Richard Lasser of Seattle, who wrote the book for the show along with Robert P. Young of Detroit, joined me in New York to meet with two of our production partners. As I’ve mentioned before, this show will have its first reading in New York, with sponsorship from the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning in Queens. Richard and I had dinner with the show’s director, Pat Golden, and our producing partner, Leonard Jacobs. After all this time of working remotely, to meet with these partners face to face gave our show a new sense of reality. Since then, we’ve all been hard at work arranging for a venue and starting to cast this reading, which as of now is most likely to happen in April. Stay tuned for more.
Arranging for the String Queens
The String Queens, a Washington, DC, trio, are on the rise. Since playing at the Biden inauguration last year, the three musicians seem to be everywhere. I was honored to be asked to arrange the orchestral music for their debut concert with the Capital City Symphony in December. Trying to add energy to their already incredibly energetic stage show was challenging, but about as much fun as an arranger can have.
Film Noir: Private
My bucket list of film projects just got smaller: I finally had the chance to score a real detective film noir. Private is a black-and-white two-hander starring its director, Steve Blackwood, and one of my favorite actors, Sandy Bainum. During the course of the scoring, Steve referenced the immortal Bernard Herrmann’s work for Alfred Hitchcock. After being completely intimidated, I found it invigorating to try and find an emotional equivalent to Herrmann’s work in several scenes. Private will be out in festivals later this year.