by Charlie Barnett | Jul 1, 2022 | Charlie's Blog, News
The new Civil Rights musical that I started in April of 2020, When We Get There, has finally found its way to the stage, with two readings in New York’s West Village on June 27 and 28. I wrote the music and lyrics for the show, and my collaborators Richard Lasser and Robert P. Young III wrote the book. Our phenomenal cast included Q. Smith (from Broadway’s Come from Away), Nik Whitcomb, Amy Gaither Hayes, and the spectacular newcomer Shaakirah Nazim-Harris. Music director Mary Ann Ivan and director Pat Golden worked with brilliance and intensity to bring the piece together, and it paid off. The singing was top-notch, and to my eye, the show burned with drama onstage.
For the two weeks of rehearsals, I was on hand to transpose and revise the music—and to write two last-minute songs we decided we needed. But on performance days, I was in row 10…just watching. It was frustrating because I wanted to be playing, but I was determined to get my head out of the music and to experience the full show. It reminded me, once again, that theater is a collaborative art form, and that having your music interpreted by people with different experiences and sensibilities can bring out qualities and meaning in the work that you didn’t even know was there.
People keep asking what’s next for this show, and I’m afraid I don’t know the answer yet. We are hoping for a workshop or regional production, so please feel free to share the show’s website with any theatrical directors or producers who might be interested.
by Charlie Barnett | Jun 4, 2022 | Charlie's Blog, Home Page
Playbill’s notice re: When We Get There
by Charlie Barnett | Jun 2, 2022 | Theatre, Uncategorized
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
by Charlie Barnett | Feb 25, 2022 | Charlie's Blog, Home Page, News
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.
by Charlie Barnett | Jan 30, 2022 | Home Page, News
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.
