A History of New Line Theatre

Passing Strange (2011)

2011-09-22T11:12:00.000-05:00

Book and lyrics by Stew
Music by Stew and Heidi Rodewald
Setpember 22 - October 15, 2011
Washington University South Campus Theatre

THE CAST
Narrator – Charles Glenn
Youth – Keith Parker
Mother – Talichia Noah
Sherry/Renata/Desi – Jeanitta Perkins
Edwina/Marianna/Sudabey – Andrea Purnell
Franklin/Joop/Mr. Venus – John Reed II
Terry/Christophe/Hugo – Cecil Washington Jr.

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Director – Scott Miller
Costume Designer – Amy Kelly
Scenic Designer – Todd Schaefer
Lighting Designer – Kenneth Zinkl
Stage Manager – Trisha Bakula
House Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Box Office Manager – Vicki Herrmann
Lighting Technician – Trisha Bakula
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Jill Ritter Lindberg

THE BAND
Piano/Conductor – Justin Smolik
Guitar – D. Mike Bauer
Guitar – Aaron Doerr
Bass – Dave Hall
Percussion – Clancy Newell

THE REVIEWS
Four Stars! “New Line Theater Founder and Artistic Director Scott Miller has chosen the ideal show to launch their new season, a production that totally matches the charter of his young, energetic and sometimes feverish theater. It’s called Passing Strange, and it is the familiar story of a young man in a search for himself and his future. . . . The energy and emotion of this production is potent. This cast displays enormous versatility and talent, and an obvious passion for the material. It is very involving for the audience. New Line knows what it’s doing and it shows. This is a terrific little show about a very personal journey that makes a night at New Line a very charged & involving experience.” – Harry Hamm, KMOX

“New Line’s season opener rocks. Literally. Never letting you forget you’re watching a play, Passing Strange challenges the preconceptions about what a musical is – a musical for people who don’t think they like musicals. It’s a high-octane, allegorical, semi-autobiographical account of a musician, Mark Stewart, who goes by the single name Stew and his journey of self-discovery. . . It’s a brilliant show with memorable performances and amazing songs. Actually, I’m buying the cast recording the second I post this entry. In short, go see it. I’m not kidding.” – Andrea Torrence, St. Louis Theatre Snob

“Passing Strange is its own show, and an excellent one. . . It’s an exciting mélange of musical styles, with seven outstanding performers sizzling across the stage. . . It’s an interesting, fast-paced evening of musical theater with an exciting score, typical of the off-beat, difficult-to- characterize New Line productions.” – Joe Pollack, St. Louis Eats and Drinks

“This production by New Line Theatre provides a passionate experience, emboldened by excellent performances and top notch direction, and driven by superb work from the musicians playing the tuneful score. . . Passing Strange is a must-see for all young artists, but it’s equally worthy of attention by the entire theatre-going crowd, since it’s incredibly captivating and involving, and filled with great music.” – Chris Gibson, BroadwayWorld

“New Line Theatre has once again put a strong cast and a surprisingly good story on stage and makes us fall in love with musical theatre we may not be familiar with. In other words, Passing Strange is no Sound Of Music and the audience is better for it. . . You won’t find a more daring, unexpected or entertaining evening of theater anywhere else in St. Louis.” – Steve Allen, Java Journal

“The musical Passing Strange takes the audience on a wild ride through sex, drugs and rock and roll. . . In director Scott Miller’s very capable hands, the show is poignant at times, angry at others, sometimes warm and very often hilarious.” – Christopher Reilly, The Patch

“New Line rocks on in Passing Strange! Theater artists are almost useless in isolation. It takes at least a few people to put on the simplest and smallest of shows. That’s true even when a theater artist has a big personality and big hand in the work on stage. Stew is that kind of theater artist, and so is Scott Miller. Stew (aka Mark Stewart) wrote (and won a Tony for writing), co-composed (with Heidi Rodewald) and originally starred in Passing Strange, the exhilarating, hard-rocking musical that just opened here at New Line Theatre. Miller, who founded New Line in 1991 and remains its artistic director, has directed every show that it has staged, including this one. You can see their influences in this production, shimmering with Stew’s wit and shaking with Miller’s style. But it wouldn’t matter if not for the other artists who contributed their talents, notably the band and the ensemble.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Passing Strange is an intoxicating, invigorating and beguiling piece as whimsical in its writing as in its lively and spirited music. . . A critical smash [on Broadway] but lukewarm box-office draw, it closed after just 165 performances. Perhaps if the incomparable Charles Glenn had been belting out Stew’s free-wheeling tunes as the Narrator on the Great White Way, as he is in New Line Theatre’s sparkling presentation, it might still be playing there. Glenn has a masterful, multi-textured voice, an instrument he utilizes with utmost finesse under Scott Miller’s loving, carefully crafted direction. From the high-flying starting number, “We Might Play All Night,” to the bouncy, jaunty “Blues Revelation” to the beautiful ballad “Amsterdam” and the scintillating show tune, “The Black One,” Glenn takes control of this breezy romp and fills its two hours and 30 minutes with bravado and syncopated gusto.” – Mark Bretz, Ladue News

“New Line is off to a flying start with the first local production of the musical Passing Strange . . . it has a marvelous score that comes to life with irresistible energy in the New Line production. Director Scott Miller is completely in tune with the show’s quest for artistic identity. . . There’s more in Passing Strange than I could take in, in one sitting. I hope this show won’t be a stranger to St. Louis theatres.” – Gerry Kowarsky, Two on the Aisle

“In his program notes, director Scott Miller offers that he opted for a technically minimalist production to allow for the 'rich, rowdy music and lyrics.' Set by Todd Schaefer and costumes by Amy Kelly do their duty to stay out of the way. The little that’s present does a lot to gently accentuate the show and its cast – a swirling psychedelic blue brick road underlies the journey, actors clothed in gray basics become colorful characters as they toss around bright accessories. Most importantly, Miller’s minimalism accentuates the talent of his cast. With little to distract in the intimate theatre, the space is quickly filled with the finest wrist flick or arched brow. The actors also have all the room they need to play, and easily fill the stage as they acid trip in LA and riot in Berlin.” – Emily Piro, KDHX

“Passing Strange, Stew and Heidi Rodewald’s hybrid musical/rock concert experience, challenges the notions of identity and theatrical conventions even as its hero confronts the stereotype of the rock & roll bohemian as a strictly white creation.” – The Riverfront Times

“Everyone around me was raving about the singing, the story, everything. . . Overall, there is a lot to like here.” – Rosiland Early, St. Louis Magazine

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
Passing Strange deserves a place beside other great autobiographical works of art, like Federico Fellini’s 8½ , Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories, Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz, and Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George. Like the others, Passing Strange traffics in surrealism and symbolism and metaphor, but unlike the others, this story is built not on images, but almost exclusively on music – rock, punk, acid rock, funk, gospel, R&B, Latin, and a little Kurt Weill and Burt Bacharach thrown in too. Here, the visuals are as minimalist as possible to make way for the rich, rowdy music and lyrics.

Constructed on the classic Hero Myth, the script calls the story’s hero just “Youth,” not “the Youth,” as if he’s standing in not only for the writer as a young man, but also for that whole period of life between childhood and adulthood, when choices are made and life’s puzzles are teased out. Late in the show the narrator says, “You know, it’s weird when you wake up that morning and realize that your entire adult life was based on a decision made by a teenager. A stoned teenager.” Like Pippin, the story of Passing Strange is episodic, exploring religion, politics, hedonism, and domesticity, but unlike Prince Pippin, this Youth finds what he’s looking for – or at the very least, he finds the road toward his destination.

Writer-composer Stew (née Mark Stewart) told NPR, “It’s what I like to call autobiographical fiction, in that every single thing that’s happening on the stage, I can point to something in my life, some kind of corollary, you know, that corresponds in some way. Did the things that happened in Amsterdam in our play happen to me? Some of them, but not all. It’s really just about the costs of being a young artist. It's a 46-year-old guy looking back at the things that he did and the values he had in his 20s, sort of when you're making that decision to really be an artist, you know?” Or as the Youth puts it, "I illuminate with fiction the darkness truth cannot explain.”

This is a memory play, like The Glass Menagerie or Long Day’s Journey Into Night, so these characters exist only in Stew’s memory, fictionalized both by the years and by intention. Some may see the show as a “black musical,” but race is only one of its topics. The African American Stew created the show with a white co-composer, white director, all white designers, and his all-white band (aside from him), The Negro Problem.

Stew tells us that the Youth’s journey is about finding The Real, but he doesn’t explicitly define it for us. He only tells us that “The Real is a construct.” Well, time is a construct too. Race is a construct. Theatre is a construct. Most importantly, our lives are a construct. We create them. We build them over time, moment by moment. We fashion them as we live them, very much as a product of our own ideology, personal history, and social circumstances. And when we realize that The Real is a construct for each one of us, that necessarily means that your Real will always be different from my Real, because each of us is coming from a different place and heading toward a different destination.

We each have our own Real to find, our own Tao. Passing Strange is Stew’s Real and tonight he shares it with us.

And it’s alright… cue music…

Bare (2011)

2011-06-02T13:54:00.000-05:00

Book by Jon Hartmere & Damon Intrabartolo
Music by Damon Intrabartolo
Lyrics by Jon Hartmere
June 2-25, 2011
Washington University South Campus Theatre

THE CASTJason – Jacob Golliher
Peter – Mike Dowdy
Ivy – Terrie Carolan
Nadia – Charlotte Byrd
Matt – Jonathan Foster
Lucas – Rahamses Galvan
Diane – Nyssa Duchow
Priest – Zachary Allen Farmer
Sr. Chantelle – Nikki Glenn
Claire – Alison Helmer
Zack – Chance Kilgour
Kyra – Andréa Kimberling
Rory – Sarah Porter
Alan – John Michael Rotello
Tanya – Michelle Sauer

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Director – Scott Miller
Asst. Director – Aleena Yunuba-Hammack
Costume Designer – Thom Crain
Scenic Designer – Todd Schaefer
Lighting Designer – Kenneth Zinkl
Stage Manager – Trisha Bakula
Props Master – Alison Helmer
House Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Box Office Manager – Vicki Herrmann
Lighting Technician – Trisha Bakula
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Jill Ritter Lindberg

THE BAND
Piano/Conductor – Justin Smolik
Lead Guitar/Flute – D. Mike Bauer
Rhythm Guitar – Aaron Doerr
Keyboard – Sue Goldford
Bass – Dave Hall
Percussion – Clancy Newell

THE REVIEWS
“New Line Theatre's current production of bare is a devastatingly powerful presentation that features a strong and talented cast performing at an exceptional level under director Scott Miller's sure hand. . . New Line Theatre's powerful and provocative production of bare: a pop opera is must-see theatre, providing the kind of experience that absolutely defines modern musical theatre, mixing catchy, open-ended compositions with an undeniably important subject matter. Make an effort to see it soon!” – BroadwayWorld.com

“This month, the truth serum seems to come to us in live theater, in the form of the very entertaining teen-angst musical Bare. . . director Scott Miller draws both actors, and the entire cast, to performances that are strikingly real and compelling, in spite of all the possible pitfalls of the high school drama at hand. It’s another remarkably solid cast for a New Line show. . . Bare is full of great story telling and fun music, rich characters and very fine performances.” – Richard Green, TalkinBroadway.com

“A 4.5 on a scale of 1-to-5. It’s smart, humorous and sophisticated, all elements readily observable in the regional premiere mounted by artistic director Scott Miller in New Line Theatre’s engaging and accessible presentation. . . Miller keeps the production moving briskly while also consistently bringing out the work’s sophistication, including guiding his players successfully through its complicated score. Really, there’s little bare about this rendition past its title. Quite the opposite, it’s an engaging evening of entertainment.” – Mark Bretz, Ladue News

“A Must-See. The 20-foot cross looming over the stage at New Line Theater was ominous, both in the minutes before the show began, and during the production. And it was hard to tell if it was intended to stretch wide, hugging the cast in an embrace, or to stand distant, arms akimbo in rebuke. Such thematic dualism reoccurs throughout Scott Miller’s production of bare.” – Darren Orf, St. Louis Magazine

“Go to New Line and plunge into this sad, dense, haunting pop opera. Yet for all its complexity, it’s emotionally bare. Created by composer Damon Intrabartolo and lyricist Jon Hartmere Jr., bare enjoys a cult following but not the kind of fame associated with, for example, Spring Awakening. But its similar story is equally powerful, conveyed not only by the director Scott Miller and the actors but through Intrabartolo’s romantic pop score, performed with passion by conductor Justin Smolik and the New Line Band. . . bare addresses a wealth of teen problems – substance abuse, pregnancy, questions of sexual identity, teen suicide – but it's no after-school special. It offers no answers, beyond an assertion that honesty is healthy and secrecy can be lethal.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“The cast of New Line Theatre's production of bare is strong in terms of both acting and vocals. . . bare is an original show with complicated musical structure. The fine cast is able to produce some unique harmonies and chords that at first sound discordant. It is to their credit and director Scott Miller’s casting that they are able to pull it off. . . bare is a show that explores a myriad of problems facing young people and their struggle to learn from and overcome the obstacles they face. It's definitely a show worth seeing.” – Christopher Reilly, The Patch

“It’s a strong, intelligent, interesting show that has played here and there around the country for more than a decade. This is its St. Louis premiere. . . Given the story and the setting, a number of younger actors (many students at Webster University) got the chance, and there are some splendid performances.” – Joe Pollack, St. Louis Eats and Drinks

“The cast of New Line’s bare brings more power than is probably needed in the small space but the show’s powerful message comes through loud and clear. The cast is a good one and this cult musical makes an impressive local debut. . . It’s all tied together with the great touch of New Line’s artistic director Scott Miller. And the flawless work by the band led by Justin Smolik adds to the lovely evening. . . It’s an adult production with some very provocative scenes and music that may not be to everyone’s taste, but bare really makes for a delightful evening of musical theater.” – Steve Allen, Java Journal

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
I have been continually blown away by the sophistication, craft, and complexity of the bare score. The harmonic language is so unique, living entirely in the musical vocabulary of pop music and alternative rock, but crafted with a confidence and fearlessness and freshness that is very exciting.

Unlike most conventional musicals, in the bare score phrases aren't always in multiples of four bars; many songs do not end on the tonic chord the way almost all Western music does; there are lots of ambiguous open-fifth chords, missing the note that makes a chord sound either major or minor, happy or sad; and this music often screws around with the rules of harmonic progressions, surprising our ears but never so much that our ears rebel. To the untrained ear, the score sounds like great pop music. To the trained ear, composer Damon Intrabartolo’s music is just as unique and surprising as the music of Bill Finn (Falsettos, Spelling Bee, A New Brain) or Tom Kitt (High Fidelity, Next to Normal).

Structurally, Intrabartolo and lyricist Jon Hartmere use the vocabulary of opera – arias, recitative, leitmotifs and themes, choral work, lots of complex counterpoint – but all within the harmonic and melodic world of American pop and rock. It's a neat trick they’ve pulled off, giving these young characters the right musical voices while giving their drama a powerful underlying musical structure.

But none of this is why bare is so special or why it resonates so powerfully with so many tens of thousands of young people across our country. Perhaps the reason for its power and its popularity is its honesty. Since the 1960s, the true test of rock and roll is authenticity. And bare has that in spades. It is truthful about being young in America at this moment in time like very few other musicals are – with the possible exception of the extraordinary American Idiot. Even at my age, I see myself in almost all these characters and their potent, painful emotions.

A few years ago I was noticing that we were producing fewer specifically gay-themed shows than we had in the past, and I wondered if maybe the gay community had come so far that gay Americans don’t need “gay theatre” the way they did in the 1990s. After all, gay marriage is slowly spreading across the country now, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is ending, and there are many other positive signs.

But at the same time, every five hours an American gay teenager kills himself and twenty others try. And just last month, Tennessee passed a new law literally forbidding teachers to even acknowledge that gay people exist.

Things are better today than ever before, but there are still miles to go before we sleep. Maybe bare can help a little.

Two Gentlemen of Verona (2011)

2011-03-03T22:15:00.000-06:00

Music by Galt MacDermot
Lyrics by John Guare
Book by William Shakespeare and Mel Shapiro
March 3-26, 2011
Washington University South Campus Theatre

THE CAST
Proteus – Zachary Allen Farmer
Valentine – Eeyan Richardson
Julia – Jeanitta Perkins
Silvia – Taylor Pietz
Launce – Joel Hackbarth
Speed – Mike Dowdy
Lucetta – Terrie Carolan
The Duke of Milan – Tom Conway
Thurio – Aaron Allen
Eglamour – Michael Jones
Milkmaid – Kimi Short
Ensemble – Mara Bollini, Rahamses Galvan, Emily Ivy, Michelle Sauer, Kimi Short

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Director – Scott Miller
Choreographer – Robin Michelle Berger
Costume Designer – Thom Crain
Scenic Designer – Todd Schaefer
Lighting Designer – Christopher MWaller
Stage Manager – Trisha Bakula
Props Master – Alison Helmer
Specialty Prop Design – Pat Edmonds
House Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Box Office Manager – Vicki Herrmann
Lighting Technician – Trisha Bakula
Specialty Prop Design – Pat Edmonds
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Jill Ritter Lindberg

THE BAND
Piano/Conductor – Justin Smolik
Guitar – D. Mike Bauer
Bass – Dave Hall
Percussion – Clancy Newell
Trumpet – Cliff Phillips
Reeds – Marc Strathman

THE REVIEWS
“New Line Theatre’s Two Gentlemen of Verona is an enthusiastic, gutsy, spirited, humorous and totally entertaining show. New Line’s cast is the ultimate in professional silliness. Shakespeare has never been this much fun!” – Harry Hamm, KMOX

“It's a happy romp! It's a silly, illogical, lovely tale! And it's a hit! It's New Line Theatre's immensely enjoyable new offering, the musical comedy version of Two Gentlemen of Verona. . . The New Line cast is uniformly fine. There simply isn't a weak spot. It's full of New Line veterans brimming with talent and with that special kind of family love that Scott Miller has magically fostered in his company over the years. They all perform with such joy and confidence and generosity of heart. . . as a whole package – the show, the cast, the band, the production values – it all makes New Line Theatre's Two Gentlemen of Verona the most purely enjoyable evening of theatre I've had in a long, long time.” – Steve Callahan, KDHX

“New Line Theatre and director Scott Miller's current production of Two Gentlemen of Verona not only rocks, but it's hilarious as well, aided greatly by the spectacular efforts of an enthusiastic cast and a crack band. I honestly can't recall when I've ever witnessed an audience laugh at and enjoy Shakespeare more; the resident Bad Boy of Musical Theatre has come through again. . . I really love the way director/music director Scott Miller makes the most of each comic moment, not milking it, but mining it for the richest results. . . New Line Theatre's production of Two Gentlemen of Verona is brilliantly executed and funny as hell. This terrific presentation continues through March 26.” – Chris Gibson, BroadwayWorld.com

“Director Scott Miller's production just goes to show what you already know: That Shakespeare is so strong, a smart production can take his work in almost any direction, and it will flourish. Just take a look. . . We can identify with unfamiliar times, places or situations when theater artists help us draw fresh, imaginative connections. Miller, who often stages shows that aren't obvious or easy, not only seems to know that's possible, he appreciates how those unsuspected links can pay off in enormous theatrical pleasure. And that's exactly what Two Gents delivers.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“This winsome work by MacDermot, Guare and Shapiro is a delightful romp that is much more than the sum of its parts. Scott Miller’s inspired version directed for New Line Theatre features an exuberant and engaging cast that thoroughly enjoys itself and infectiously spreads that fervor throughout its audience. . . With Miller’s flamboyant and spirited approach, though, it’s easy to sit back and enjoy these musical Gentlemen. A 4.5 on a scale of 1-to-5.” – Mark Bretz, The Ladue News

“New Line Theatre pushes the proverbial envelope to dimensions other theatres simply do not. If you want to see a show and feel like you're in New York or Chicago, go see a show at New Line. Go see Two Gentlemen of Verona. It'll be the most fun you have at the theater this year.” – Christopher Reilly, The Patch

“The familiar New Line crew never fails to disappoint, and the ensemble members are always completely engaged and energetic. . . I was struck with how familiar the songs sounded and then I remembered, oh yeah, Galt MacDermot did the music for this. He also composed the music for Hair, and the music for Two Gents is very reminiscent of that (with a little Spanish spice thrown in) – engaging, groovy, and the New Line Band was tight and handled it well. . . After a while, you forget that it's Shakespeare. And I mean that in a good way.” – Andrea Torrence, St. Louis Theatre Snob

“This is one you don’t want to miss. It’s really a piece of history and the infrequency of productions of Two Gentlemen of Verona makes it a true must-see.” – Steve Allen, Java Journal

“Mardi Gras in St. Louis turned cold and blustery, but spring is very much in the air, thanks to this bright, funny, beautiful show. And if you were expecting another New Line musical with a dark, cold edge to it, you'll be very pleasantly surprised by this thoroughly light-hearted adventure. Producer/director Scott Miller must be in love – or, at least, in love with this show.” – Richard Green, TalkinBroadway.com

“It’s like the counter-culture that invaded the musical a few years earlier in Hair has now been integrated into the fabric of society. . . The New Line production is so much fun that no one with the least curiosity about this show should pass up the rare opportunity to see it.” – Gerry Kowarsky, Two on the Aisle

“It's bright and breezy in its current production by New Line Theatre. It opened last night and will run delightfully through March 26. . . Scott Miller's direction is solid, and Robin Michelle Berger did some charming choreography, well-handled by the cast. The acting also is strong. . . a highly enjoyable evening.” – Joe Pollack, St. Louis Eats and Drinks

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
It’s easy to say in hindsight, but maybe Two Gents was the perfect Shakespeare play for the composer of Hair to tackle. After all, this play was Shakespeare’s Rent, youthful, raw, rowdy, messy, rude, and certainly flawed. And composer Jonathan Larson said that he intended Rent to be the new Hair. It’s the flaws that give Hair, Two Gents, and Rent -- and our June show, bare --their rawness and rough edges. They don’t feel manufactured or focus-grouped. They possess that same authenticity that the best, most lasting rock and roll has. The same is true of lots of recent musicals, like Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, American Idiot, Love Kills, Passing Strange, and others.

Like the brilliant filmmaker Tim Burton, Shakespeare wasn’t always the best storyteller in the world. He borrowed plots, he relied on improbable coincidences, mistaken identity, and other devices we’d find amateurish in anyone else’s hands. Just as Burton’s real artistry is in his visual language, Shakespeare’s real artistry is in the complex psychology of his characters, maybe even more so than in his amazing language. He was the first theatre writer to delve deep down into the complexities of human emotion and motivation, and he got it so right in most of his plays that we continue to perform them hundreds of years later.

Two Gentlemen of Verona was Shakespeare’s first play, and though he’s not at the top of his game here, he’s still Shakespeare, and that’s enough. The musical’s original director Mel Shapiro and playwright John Guare fixed some of the play’s problems, and together with composer Galt MacDermot, they fashioned a new work, one still very organic to Shakespeare’s play but with a contemporary sensibility that brings this rarely produced work to vivid, modern life. Its 1971 cultural vibe brings so much more complexity and high stakes to the story, adding to the original plot a pregnancy, a decision about abortion, and the Duke’s habit of sending Silvia’s boyfriends not just away, but literally off to “the Vietnam meat grinder,” as they used to call it.

It’s true that Two Gents as a play doesn’t have the artistry or polish of Hamlet or The Tempest, but there is much that’s wonderful here. Critic Paul Friswold wrote about our other Shakespearean rock musical, Return to the Forbidden Planet, “This is no parlor trick of a musical; there’s a rich vein of Shakespeare’s favorite ingredient – the wondrous depths of the human heart – that elevates the show from cunning stunt to artful meditation on the destructive nature of power and the redemptive power of love.” The same is true here.

Our hope with this production is to get back to the original spirit of Shakespeare’s plays – rowdy, sexy, dirty, funny, popular, irreverent, rule-busting, and most of all, deeply, crazily human.

I Love My Wife (2010)

2010-09-30T03:52:00.000-05:00

Book and Lyrics by Michael Stewart
Music by Cy Coleman
September 30-October 23, 2010
Washington University South Campus Theatre

THE CAST
Alvin – Todd Schaefer
Cleo – Emily Berry
Wally – Jeffrey M. Wright
Monica – Sarah Armstrong
Harvey – Zachary Allen Farmer
Quentin – Troy Turnipseed
Stanley – Joel Hackbarth

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Director – Scott Miller
Assistant Director – Alison Helmer
Costume Designer – Thom Crain
Scenic Designer – Todd Schaefer
Lighting Designer – Kenneth Zinkl
Stage Manager/Props Master – Trisha Bakula
House Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Box Office Manager – Vicki Herrmann
Lighting Technician – Trisha Bakula
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Jill Ritter Lindberg

THE BAND
Piano/Conductor – Justin Smolik
Keyboard – Sue Goldford
Bass – Dave Hall
Guitar/Banjo – Michael Mason
Percussion – Clancy Newell

THE REVIEWS
“New Line Theater bows I Love My Wife, an often hilarious musical spoof of the so-called ‘free love’ era and how two married couples discover the truth about ‘four play.’ New Line Theatre always does great work. When they perform, you’re always up close and personal. Sometimes the performers are only three to four feet from where you’re sitting, so you really get involved in the show. I Love My Wife also happens to be a very funny show. . . enjoyable and a nice start to New Line’s 20th season.” – Harry Hamm, KMOX

“New Line, the little cutting-edge theater that could, is opening its 20th season with I Love My Wife. . . Leave it to Miller to rediscover this little gem. I Love My Wife turns out to be a clever, musically sophisticated and ultimately sweet show, intimate in every sense of the word. . . New Line has done well with Hair, which it has mounted several times. It’s also staged strong productions of Grease and Chicago, the beat musical The Nervous Set, the slacker musical High Fidelity and Return to the Forbidden Planet, set either in the 1950s or the future, maybe both. Put them all together, and it's an era-by-era look at changing American mores. Miller’s anthropological twist on musical theater gives New Line a distinctive point of view, brainy and bold. I Love My Wife is an apt addition to that repertoire.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“The swingin’ 70s were a nonstop, hedonistic thrill ride. Marriages were open, key parties were de rigueur, love was American Style – everybody got laid all the time and twice on Sunday. But all revolutions come to an end, especially sexual ones. The Michael Stewart and Cy Coleman musical I Love My Wife takes you back to the final spurts of the musky 70s with a jazzy tale of wife-swapping, sex and romance, and explores how maybe all that free love came with a hidden cost – and we ain’t talkin’ about herpes.” – Paul Friswold, The Riverfront Times

“This is a production that nobody who cares about musical theatre should miss, because if there ever is another local production, the passionate advocacy of the current production will be hard to match.” – Gerry Kowarsky, Two on the Aisle

“With their funky and fun production of I Love My Wife, New Line Theatre begins their 20th season with a trip back to the swinging seventies, when the last dying embers of the sexual revolution were still smoldering in the suburbs. It was a time when collars were broad, chests were hairy, and polyester was the fabric of choice. And though the obvious reference point for some might be Paul Mazursky's 1969 film Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, the two are actually quite dissimilar, except for the fact that two couples wind up sharing the same bed. But, I Love My Wife is more concerned with friendships and making connections. New Line's presentation of this perfectly charming adult comedy is superbly cast and directed, and well worth your time and attention.” – Chris Gibson, BroadwayWorld.com

“Those who lived through the 1970s will nod familiarly at most of the lines and lyrics in I Love My Wife. Those too young to remember will understand why certain styles, certain moments, certain memories will bring goofy looks to their parents’ faces. . . but it's an accurate view – and spoof – of an era that generated a movie called Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, that still was enjoying the drug culture and sexual freedom that started in the 1960s. . . The tale of a husband’s desire to join the sexual revolution he fears has begun without him, using his friend’s wife to help him get up to date, is bright and tuneful, well-paced under Scott Miller’s on-point direction. . . It’s powerful, and it’s fun.” – Joe Pollack, St. Louis Eats and Drinks

“Top-notch performances highlight this New Line production . . . I Love My Wife is a nifty little musical that is given a first-rate production by the folks at New Line Theatre. Because of the subject matter, I would consider it adults only but you’ll have a lot of fun and a lot of laughs at this one.” – Steve Allen, Java Journal

“Interesting and hilarious. Now, it's not as though there's a detailed plot for this show, but under Scott Miller and Alison Helmer’s direction, watching it all unfold and seeing how these individuals respond to the opportunity is an entertaining ride, well worth the price of admission. This show may be set in the 70s, but the themes are still relevant.” – Andrea Torrence, St. Louis Theatre Snob

“New Line Theatre jazzes up I Love My Wife. . . Having showcased their badness with Love Kills and The Wild Party, Scott Miller and his New Line Theatre, self-christened the Bad Boy of Musical Theatre, have decided to back off and just be a little naughty with their current offering.” – Bob Wilcox, KDHX

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
It’s 1977. There’s no internet. No cell phones. No cable TV. Only three networks. And America is having a nervous breakdown.

I Love My Wife is a sex farce. But it’s also a lot more. This is a story about searching for meaningful human connection in the midst of massive cultural change, a theme as relevant now as it was thirty years ago. There were several musicals in the 1970s that were about this – Company, Follies, Pippin, The Me Nobody Knows, The Rocky Horror Show, A Little Night Music, Mack and Mabel, Runaways, and others.

I think this show is telling us that as fun as Free Love might have sounded, as exciting as the Sexual Revolution might have seemed, those were dangerous times emotionally, and only a really solid relationship, like a good marriage or a lifelong friendship, could be sturdy enough to get you through it. The 1970s were wild waters to navigate. It was only allegory in Rocky Horror but it was true in real life – the Sexual Revolution wore people out and left them feeling empty and alone.

By the end of the decade, Cosmopolitan magazine reported that “so many readers wrote negatively about the Sexual Revolution – expressing longings for vanished intimacy and the now elusive joys of romance and commitment – that we began to sense there might be a sexual counter-revolution under way in America.” In 1982, New York magazine published an article called, “Is Sex Dead?” Esquire published “The End of Sex,” which said, “As it turned out, the Sexual Revolution, in slaying some loathsome old dragons, has created some formidable new ones.”

Musicals are about emotion, but in this show (as in Company) most of the emotions are suppressed, hiding out in the subtext of the dialogue. These characters often say one thing and mean another. They fight about one thing but they’re really fighting about something else. Likewise, most of the songs don’t reveal character as much as provide social and historical context.

Working on this show is unusually interesting for me because I was born in 1964, right on the cusp between the Boomers and Generation X, and I want to understand the culture that shaped me as a child. I remember the 70s, but only from a kid’s perspective. So it’s been a lot of fun for me to rediscover this crazed decade and to understand the culture I remember, now from an adult point of view. I loved The Mary Tyler Moore Show when I was a kid, but now I understand how precisely it tapped into the cultural zeitgeist and how remarkably bold its statement about women was. It was a fascinating, disorienting time in our history.

Of course, we live in times just as turbulent now. Maybe if we take another look back we can understand where we are today.

Evita (2010)

2010-07-08T03:51:00.000-05:00

Book and Lyrics by Tim Rice
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
July 8-31, 2010
Washington University South Campus Theatre

THE CASTEva Perón – Taylor Pietz
Juan Perón – Todd Schaefer
Che – John Sparger
Agustin Magaldi – Zachary Allen Farmer
Perón’s mistress – Terrie Carolan
The People of Argentina – Aaron Allen, Terrie Carolan, Tyla Daniels, Mike Dowdy, Zachary Allen Farmer, Macia Noorman, Jeanitta Perkins, Eeyan Richardson, David Sajewich, Michelle Sauer, Kimi Short, Christopher Strawhun

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Director – Scott Miller
Assistant Director – Jake Fruend
Choreographer – Robin Michelle Berger
Costume Designer – Thom Crain
Scenic Designer – Todd Schaefer
Lighting Designer – Kenneth Zinkl
Sound Designer – Robert Healey
Stage Manager/Props Master – Trisha Bakula
House Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Box Office – Vicki Herrmann
Lighting Technician – Trisha Bakula
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Jill Ritter Lindberg

THE BAND
Piano/Conductor – Chris Petersen
Guitar – D. Mike Bauer
Bass – Dave Hall
Percussion – Clancy Newell
Trumpet – Cliff Phillips
Reeds – Robert Vinson

THE REVIEWS
“Simply put, New Line Theatre’s current production of Evita absolutely rocks! Employing a more intimate staging and utilizing stripped down orchestrations acts to reinvigorate the work, personalizing the story and adding a real edge to the music. This is one of the chief reasons I'm always drawn to New Line’s productions; they don't conform to the norm, offering regular theatre goers the opportunity to witness creative and imaginative takes on new works as well as more familiar ones. If you're already a fan of Evita (or musical theatre in general), or if you've only seen the misguided movie version with Madonna in the lead role, and you've been turned off to the subject as a result, then you owe it to yourself to check out New Line's darkly engaging presentation. . . Scott Miller’s direction is impeccable. The story moves along at a whirlwind clip, with seamless transitions allowing the action to flow unabated. The cast is sharp and focused throughout, and the ensemble singing is gorgeous.” – Chris Gibson, BroadwayWorld.com

“Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber come in for their fair share of criticism, but future historians may judge them a little more kindly than we now suspect, if this new Evita is any guide. True, we already know that Lloyd Webber can give us lovely musical passages. And here, director Scott Miller's excellent New Line chorus and band, featuring a fiery leading lady, sets our hearts marching into battle. . . . It's a perfect show for this moment in (North) America.” – Richard Green, TalkinBroadway.com

“I was intrigued because Scott Miller is the one director I can think of who would find the politics in Evita more interesting than the style. What New Line gives us is an Evita where the incrusted style has been stripped away and the politics have been beefed up. . . I really admire what Scott Miller and New Line found in Evita, and I’m afraid the standard version is going to disappoint me even more when I see it next.” – Gerry Kowarsky, Two on the Aisle

“A 4.5 on a scale of 1-to-5. Having neither the space nor the quantity of musicians to present the full orchestration of Lloyd Webber's music, New Line Theatre artistic director Scott Miller wisely focuses instead on a sextet of players who provide passionate, intense support for the performers on stage. Aided by the delicious support of choreographer Robin Michelle Berger, who accentuates the array of musical motifs with an eclectic mix of terpsichorean moves, the result is an engaging and absorbing account of not only one man’s (lyricist Rice) interpretation of a time and place but a riveting theatrical experience. . . Miller’s Evita is visceral, raucous and always entertaining, bringing out the best in Lloyd Webber’s complex and diverse score and underscoring Rice’s sophisticated and compelling lyrics in clever fashion.” – Mark Bretz, Ladue News

“New Line Theatre, a company that regularly turns its shoestring budget into vivid ribbons of musical theater art, is probably best known for offbeat, counter-cultural work. Shows like Bat Boy, Love Kills and Return to the Forbidden Planet seem to define the distinctive New Line brand, partly because they suit artistic director Scott Miller’s sensibilities and partly because New Line is the only place in town you’re apt to see them. But there's another important thread that runs through New Line's history: stripped-down performances of big-name musicals. In seasons past, New Line has produced shows like Camelot, Man of La Mancha, and Cabaret – shows that we associate with lush productions at the Muny, the Fox or Stages St. Louis. Evita, the latest New Line production, belongs to this adventurous tradition.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Only two nights remain to see the New Line production of Evita, and it's worth trying to get there. Every performance for the last week has been sold out, so it may not be easy, but I highly recommend it. With John Sparger a wonderful, sardonic, sarcastic Che and Taylor Pietz a more-than-tyrannical Evita, this is a splendid production, and director Scott Miller’s direction is spot-on. His ideas work well, and his casting eye and ear have put together an exciting chorus that never falters. . . Robin Michelle Berger's choreography is splendid. . . The chorus is rich and powerful. Pietz, in a half-dozen different gowns along the way, works hard, but I thought Sparger's lounge-lizard approach to the role of Che, a counterweight to Pietz' Evita and as a realistic response to her pie-in-the-sky political platitudes, dominated. . . Todd Schaefer's set, Thom Crain's costumes and Kenneth Zinkl’s gave Evita a smooth and polished look, a strong contrast with the edgy score. The story of power, and its corruptive qualities, is as strong as it ever was.” – Joe Pollack

“Evita, the celebrated 1978 musical by lyricist Tim Rice and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, is what might be considered a big undertaking for any theatre company, so, not a lot of small groups in the St. Louis area have attempted to mount a production. But one such has taken on the challenge: New Line Theatre. What results is a impressive and entertaining.” – Laura Kyro, KDHX-FM

“Taylor Pietz is a riveting Evita. . . . The ensemble is just as impressive as the principals. Each member’s many expressions manage to create a real human being with a back-story. We see a spectrum’s worth of feelings for Eva, from affection to unabashed adoration. How hopeful they look in ‘A New Argentina,’ too.” – Peter Filichia, TheatreMania.com

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
Why do we tell stories anyway? It’s how we work out who we are as individuals and as a society. As Stephen Sondheim has said, art makes order out of the chaos of our world. It boils down and focuses, editing out the extraneous, allowing us to see more clearly the world around us and our place in it. We use storytelling to work through our problems, our fears, our dreams, our ambitions.

So why Evita?

Because even though it’s set in Argentina in the 1930s and 40s, and written in the 70s, it is so much about this time and place it’s almost hard to believe. In this election year, we can so easily see Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, and Glenn Beck (among many others) in the story of Eva Perón. A people divided, passionate opposition versus devout – dare I say, mindless? – adoration. Just listen to Che’s first song, “Oh, What a Circus,” and you may well hear echoes of the current political wars in Washington. Listen closely to “Perón’s Latest Flame” and you’ll hear the sexist flames that were thrown at Hillary Clinton in 2008.

Eva Perón was a genius at public speaking. But she was not interested in appealing to the intellect; she wanted to stir emotion. That’s also true of current politicians like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, and it’s more true than ever of political media celebrities like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and the rest.

In exploring Eva’s obvious sex appeal, we can see that same strange combination of sex object, political figure, and savior (“a fantasy of the bedroom and a saint”) that has made Sarah Palin such a popular figure today. One news commentator wrote during Eva’s famous Rainbow Tour, “She was better at being brilliant with short, evasive phrases, and circling the question without actually answering it.” That’s exactly the charge leveled against Palin today. Likewise, in the extreme rhetoric, the demonization of opponents, and dubious claims about what The People want, it’s hard not to hear Glenn Beck warning us breathlessly about phantom communists, socialists, and Marxists in the White House.

So just as we live in a divided country at present, we offer you a “divided” story. The brilliance of Tim Rice’s narrative structure lies in the dichotomy between the cold, political, Brechtian world of Che’s narrative and the passionate, romantic, melodramatic world of Eva. With few exceptions, these two central figures exist in opposing styles and theatrical philosophies, as different as their political and social philosophies. This show requires something of you – to listen to both sides and form your own opinion. Was Eva a saint or a villain? The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

If we try, maybe we can find that truth in the real world too.

The Wild Party (2010)

2010-04-22T03:51:00.000-05:00

book, music, and lyrics by Andrew Lippa
based on the poem by Joseph Moncure March
April 22-May 15, 2010
Washington University South Campus Theatre

THE CASTQueenie – Margeau Baue Steinau
Burrs – Jeffrey Pruett
Black – Keith Parker
Kate – Deborah Sharn
Mae – Emily Berry
Delores – Mara Bollini
Oscar D'Armano – Mike Dowdy
Eddie – Zachary Allen Farmer
Madelaine True – Nikki Glenn
Phil D'Armano – Joel Hackbarth
Lois – Theresa Hermann
Nadine – Macia Noorman
Max – Eeyan Richardson
Ellie – Michelle Sauer
Sam – Troy Turnipseed
Jackie – Aaron VanderYacht

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector – Scott Miller
Assistant Director – Alison Helmer
Choreographer – Robin Michelle Berger
Dance Captains – Michelle Sauer, Theresa Hermann
Stage Manager – Trisha Bakula
Costume Designer – Thom Crain
Lighting Designer – Shannon Fedde
Scenic Designer – Todd Schaefer
Props Master – Trisha Bakula
House Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Box Office Manager – Vicki Herrmann
Lighting Technician – Trisha Bakula
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Jill Ritter

THE BAND
Piano/Conductor – Scott Miller
Guitar – D. Mike Bauer
Bass – Dave Hall
Percussion – Clancy Newell
Trumpet – Cliff Phillips
Reeds – Marc Strathman

THE REVIEWS
“They call themselves the bad boy of musical theatre in St. Louis and they are – this is a very adult show. . . If you like shows like Cabaret and Chicago, you’ll like The Wild Party. . . You’re going to see really good, well done adult theatre at New Line that nobody else really attempts here in St. Louis. . . It’s a good strong cast with a couple of really, really, really strong individual performances.” – Harry Hamm, KMOX-FM

“Andrew Lippa’s musical adaptation of Joseph Moncure March’s epic poem, The Wild Party, is a brilliant work, especially if you’re anything like me, and you like your entertainment on the dark side. It’s a decadent jewel gleaming with sinister possibilities, and thus, far removed from the current trend toward sunny shows with predictably happy endings. Though set in 1928, it manages to perfectly capture the current mood of cynicism that seems to have run rampant through our country over the course of the last fifteen years. New Line Theatre’s current presentation of The Wild Party is a deliriously engaging experience, easily making it one of the best productions of the year so far.” – Chris Gibson, BroadwayWorld.com

“Imagine a strobe-light flashing rapidly; or a coin flipping in the air, heads becoming indistinguishable from tails as it spins. Likewise, the flashing strobe creates an effect somewhere between bright light and pure dark, as the transitions themselves become a blazing, third state of energy. So it is with Scott Miller’s fantastic new production of Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party… Thanks to the cast’s combined expertise and with the help of director Miller, they turn in a solid-gold hit. It’s almost like the American answer to Cabaret, leading us up to the edge of the Great Depression. But, like America itself, it keeps its brave face on, dancing right to the bitter end. Don’t miss this excellent show.” – Richard Green, TalkinBroadway.com

“With so much blood and tawdriness as its inspiration, you’d think The Wild Party would celebrate the ugly side of humanity; it definitely doesn’t shy away from sin and vice and everything nice, but there’s a morality at the center of the play shining out from beneath the filth. . . By the end of the night, Queenie wonders how everything ended so poorly between her and Burrs; how did ugliness supplant their love? When was the first unkind word spoken? When was the first blow struck? When did it all turn to shit? These are the questions not just of a failed relationship, but of the end of any gilded age. The Wild Party shows you in lurid detail the dying moments of just such a relationship and an age, and it’s difficult if not impossible to ask the same questions of the first decade of the 21st century when the lights come back up.” – Paul Friswold, The Riverfront Times
“A large number of fine performances, spot-on, rapid-fire direction by Scott Miller and plenty of sex make the show fast-moving, highly entertaining and oh, my goodness, bawdy and naughty. In other words, while there’s no real sex and no nudity, there’s a great deal of simulated sex that follows a large amount of foreplay, including much kissing while groping, stroking, squeezing, rubbing and other touchy-feely stuff. Not for the children and the easily embarrassed. “ – Joe Pollack, St. Louis Eats and Drinks

“If you like your tragicomedies with a dash of self-analysis and a heaping helping of sex, you’ll want to RSVP in the affirmative to The Wild Party, produced by New Line Theatre. . . The play is a good fit for director Scott Miller and New Line, which bills itself as The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre.. . . ‘People die and parties fail,’ Queenie notes in her finale. But even though her party ended badly, The Wild Party does not, leaving its audience entertained and with enough food for thought to last until the next New Line musical.” – Nancy Fowler Larson, St. Louis Beacon
“A fascinating and absorbing show that capably showcases Lippa’s talent for interesting lyrics and lively music. New Line artistic director Scott Miller’s direction is disciplined, focused and consistent throughout, and he benefits from some exemplary technical support as well as solid portrayals by his large cast. The result is an ambitious and laudatory effort that is richly rewarding. . . The subject matter is definitely adults only material, but The Wild Party tells an interesting story in lively and engrossing fashion.” – Mark Bretz, The Ladue News
“The Wild Party takes you on a wild ride. . . In 1928, writer Joseph Moncure March sketched the New York demimonde in an epic poem, The Wild Party. He might as well have wrapped it up in a package for Scott Miller, artistic director of New Line Theatre, to open 82 years later. . . Few musicals are so graphic as this one, which is absolutely not for the family. This time, Miller has spilled everything onto his stage: bootleg, blood and other bodily fluids. From the first scene, we can almost predict the outcome. Someone’s bound to slip and get hurt.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
At first, I saw a strong parallel between The Wild Party and the many scandals and embarrassments of the last ten years in America (Enron, AIG, wars and tax cuts that weren't paid for, dishonest political debate, really disturbing reality TV, screaming pundits on cable TV) – lots of selfishness, immorality, irresponsibility, disregard for others, lies, betrayals. A me-first attitude that ignores all the obvious ramifications down the road.

But I also see another, perhaps more interesting parallel – the death of civility. There's such a nastiness in our national discourse now, arguably going all the way back to 1994 and the Gingrich Revolution. Before that, politicians compromised and cooperated. In the 1980s, President Reagan and Democratic Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill would go to battle over some issue, work until they found a compromise, then have a drink together when it was all over. Not anymore. Can you imagine current Congressional Republicans kicking back with President Obama after the healthcare bill passed?

The Wild Party seems to be metaphor or microcosm for those moments in American history when anger and fear supersede reason and decency. It happened during the Depression and during the 1960s. In recent days, protesters in Washington, DC have actually spit on members of Congress, calling them "nigger" and "faggot." Is that all that far from Burrs calling Queenie a "lazy slut"? It's not a surprise that Andrew Lippa wrote The Wild Party during the latter years of the Clinton presidency.

This isn't as dark a show as Love Kills, because at least in The Wild Party, there is some self-awareness, some clarity, maybe even redemption of sorts, at the end. As the show ends, Queenie asks the partygoers – and the audience – “How did we come to this?” But the real question is will we ask ourselves that after we leave? And if we do, what will we do with the answer?

If there is a message here (I keep telling the cast that this is a fable at its heart), maybe it's that those darker impulses and emotions are inside all of us, and we're not always conscious of when they take us over. It requires real effort and vigilance to keep those dark forces at bay, to keep them from destroying the people around us and ourselves (a message this show shares with Bat Boy). It's not always easy to be civil, but when we give up trying, we get America in 2010...

We're all so sure.
We're all so wise.
No limits, no boundaries, no compromise;
Laughing at our neighbors,
Smiling through a hiss,
How did we come to this?

Love Kills (2009)

2009-10-01T20:03:00.000-05:00

the world premiere
book, music, and lyrics by Kyle Jarrow
arrangements by Nathan Leigh
October 1-24, 2009
Washington University South Campus Theatre

THE CASTCaril Ann Fugate – Taylor Pietz
Charlie Starkweather – Philip Leveling
Sheriff Merle Karnopp – Zachary Allen Farmer
Gertrude Karmopp – Alison Helmer

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector – Scott Miller
Assistant Director – Matt Saltzberg
Stage Manager – Trisha Bakula
Set Designer – Frank Bradley
Costume Designer – Darren Hansen
Lighting Designer – Kenneth Zinkl
Sound Designer – Matthew J. Koch
Lighting Technician – Trisha Bakula
Props Master – Trisha Bakula
House Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Box Office Manager – Vicki Herrmann
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Jill Ritter

THE BANDGuitar/Conductor – Mike Renard
Bass – Dave Hall
Percussion – Mike Schurk

REVIEWS
“Love Kills is a gripping and fascinating evening in the hands of director Scott Miller and New Line Theatre. . . Love Kills is not a comforting evening, not by a long shot. Identify too much with one couple or the other and you’re bound to feel bad about yourself. But Jarrow keeps feeding you moments in which you want the four of them to achieve everything they desire, even when the characters are at cross-purposes. The end result is much like navigating love – how do you give yourself to someone else and hold on to yourself at the same time? Life is long; if you’re lucky, long enough to figure it out.” – Paul Friswold, The Riverfront Times

“I make it a point to seek out productions by New Line Theatre because I know I’ll see something edgy and original, and with the world premiere of Kyle Jarrow’s provocative work Love Kills they’ve, once again, fulfilled that desire. Jarrow’s musical meditation on the relationship between Charlie Starkweather and Caril Fugate, who embarked on a killing spree in Nebraska during the late 1950s, is an intriguing piece that succeeds in confounding expectations. The question as to whether or not Caril Fugate actually participated in the murders is one of the issues raised by Jarrow, and if there’s any truth to be gleaned from the facts presented in this dramatization, then New Line’s compelling production will provide you with the opportunity to judge for yourself. . . [Scott] Miller, who’s also the artistic director of New Line, likes to color outside the lines, and his determination here reveals his passion for bringing fresh and challenging new musicals to the St. Louis region. This might be considered a risky choice, but I’m glad he and the company were willing to take it on, because I might not have gotten the chance to experience it otherwise. . . If you’re looking for something outside the norm, then you should definitely check out New Line’s production of Love Kills.” – Chris Gibson, BroadwayWorld.com

“Watching their story unfold through a raw punk-flavored rock score and fine acting on the parts of all four cast members is sublime. The bad boy of musical theatre is gloriously back! . . . Composer Kyle Jarrow defines Love Kills as an ‘emo rock musical,’ and in the sense that it is highly charged and personal, that’s fair. Scott Miller directs with passionate intensity, and it’s among the finest work I’ve seen from this company, which is saying a lot. This isn’t the world’s best musical, but I defy anyone to leave it without much to ponder and plenty to talk about. I hope audiences will give it the attention it deserves.” – Andrea Braun, KDHX-FM

“To open its 19th season New Line Theatre has the good fortune to host the world premiere of Jarrow’s rock musical Love Kills, which tells the grisly story of the multiple spree killings of Starkweather and Fugate in one act and a tidy 95 minutes. . . . New Line’s effort, under the expert guidance of artistic director Scott Miller, features a quartet of terrific performances by Miller’s carefully chosen cast and excellent singing . . . Miller keeps a tight focus on the gritty story throughout, demonstrating a precise ability to handle such sobering drama. . . Given the subject matter, Love Kills is surprisingly fresh and provocative material that immediately grabs audience interest . . . New Line’s world premiere offering of Love Kills provides a memorable evening of pathos and pulsating music that will give you reason to ponder the varying effects of love and violence in surprising fashion.” – Mark Bretz, Laude News

“I had a wonderful surprise at New Line’s production of Love Kills, a world premiere. . . The show bowled me over. It has a very well-crafted story and a powerful score, with more variety than might be expected from a rock score.” – Gerry Kowarsky, Two on the Aisle, KDHX-TV

“New Line Theater’s Love Kills is a strange but effective view of a killer and his paramour, and how they became who they are.” – Harry Hamm, KMOX-AM

“Scott Miller directed effectively on what is almost a bare stage, and the trio of Mike Renard on guitar, Dave Hall on base and Mike Schurk on drums was first-rate. An interesting evening and a look at what came out from under a Nebraska rock.” – Joe Pollack, St. Louis Eats and Drinks

“Love Kills, directed by Scott Miller, is performed without an intermission, but you won’t even notice because the story is engaging and moves along at a quick pace. It will leave you with plenty to talk about: What would you do in the name of love?” – Gabe Hartwig, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

BEST MUSICAL OF 2009: “I’d like to congratulate both Stages and New Line Theatre for their amazing productions in 2009, especially New Line’s Love Kills, one of the best musical versions of a dramatic (and real-life) story I’ve ever seen.” – Andrea Braun, Playback STL

TOP TEN SHOWS OF 2009: “It would have been easy for Kyle Jarrow to score his tale of killer Charlie Starkweather and Caril Fugate’s incarceration, Love Kills, to a more conventional and period accurate 1950s flavored beat, but that would have softened his characters and weakened the emotional impact overall. Jarrow opts instead for a harder edge that suits the material much better, after all, Charlie isn’t Danny Zuko, he’s a murderer. New Line Theatre brings this dark vision to life under Scott Miller’s taut direction, but it’s the grounded performance of Alison Helmer along with Zachary Allen Farmer’s quiet intensity as Merle, the sheriff, that really makes this piece cook.” – Chris Gibson, BroadwayWorld.com

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
What do we do when children kill?

Both impulse control and empathy are located in the frontal lobe of the brain, and that area does not fully develop till around age 23. Recent research on human brain development also suggests that if a child doesn’t get enough physical affection in the early years, the frontal lobe does not develop at all. And when a person has neither empathy or impulse control, it’s a whole lot easier to kill.

Great. So what do we do with that information? Obviously, violent criminals have to be locked up. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try to understand them, their motivations, their thought processes, and even the psychological or physical damage that may have led them to this point. That’s why we wanted to produce Love Kills. Sometimes the job of theatre is to ask big questions without insisting on any particular answers.

So why choose a story set in 1958 if we want to talk about violence today? Because just like today, the end of the 1950s was a tumultuous time, a turning point in American culture and politics. Just one year after the Starkweather murders, Allen Ginsberg wrote in The Village Voice, “No one in America can know what will happen. No one is in real control. America is having a nervous breakdown.” Sounds like 2009, doesn’t it?

For the last fifty years, American politics has been entirely about a battle between the 1950s (conservatism) and the 1960s (liberalism). In this last election, McCain (the 50s) lost decisively to Obama (the 60s), but one look at cable news tells you the fight isn’t over yet.

Charlie Starkweather was right at the heart of all this in 1958 – he represented everything adults feared about the coming 1960s: rock and roll, drugs, teen sex, teen movies, fast cars, “juvenile delinquents,” in fact, all of teenage culture. To some extent, Love Kills is about this big, ongoing cultural battle, with Charlie and Caril (and their music) representing the chaos and anarchy of the coming 1960s, and Merle and Gertrude as defenders of what’s right and decent and worthy of Eisenhower’s (smothering but ordered) 1950s. Charlie and Caril were the real-life demons that terrified adults in movies like The Wild One and Rebel Without a Cause.

But why is that terror still with us? Because we’re not just afraid of crime anymore – we’re afraid of our children, of healthcare, hip-hop, terrorism, the media, race, sex, swine flu, France – you name it, we fear it.

And more than anything else, we still fear and fetishize the Other, first the Communists in the 50s, then the juvenile delinquents, then the Blacks, then the hippies, then the gays, then the rappers, then the Mexicans, then the “terrorists” (i.e., all Arab men), and now some even fear our Black President. But none of it is rational, and all of it will lead to more violence.

If we want to live in peace, we must confront our fear, examine it, name it, and conquer it. Sometimes it’s important to face our demons and stare them down.

Welcome to the jungle.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2009)

2009-07-16T20:02:00.000-05:00

book by Rachel Sheinkin music and lyrics by William Finn
conceived by Rebecca Feldman and The Farm
July 16-August 8, 2009
Washington University South Campus Theatre

THE CASTLeaf Coneybear – Aaron Allen
Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre – Emily Berry
Douglas Panch – Brian Claussen
Chip Tolentino – Mike Dowdy
William Barfée – Nicholas Kelly
Marcy Park – Alexis Kinney
Olive Ostrovsky – Katie Nestor
Mitch Mahoney – John Rhine
Rona Lisa Peretti – Deborah Sharn

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector – Scott Miller
Choreographer – Robin Michelle Berger
Stage Manager – Trisha Bakula
Costume Designer – Amy Kelly
Set Designer – Todd Schaefer
Lighting Designer – Kenneth Zinkl
Lighting Technician – Trisha Bakula
Props Master – Trisha Bakula
House Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Box Office Manager – Vicki Herrmann
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Jill Ritter

THE BANDPiano/Conductor – Chris Petersen
Cello – Ethan Edwards
Second Keyboard – Joel Hackbarth
Percussion – Clancy Newell
Reeds – Robert Vinson

THE REVIEWS
“Laughter rocked the house and spontaneous applause broke out often. A standing ovation ensued, and the audience left The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee in great good humor.” – Andrea Braun, KDHX-FM

“An over the top delight. New Line Theatre’s current production is a perfectly cast show filled with moments of high hilarity. . . I can’t remember when I’ve laughed so hard and so long at a show. New Line’s presentation of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is priceless entertainment.” – Chris Gibson, BroadwayWorld.com

“All of the stress and self-doubt of puberty are relived in delightfully meticulous and humorous detail in director Scott Miller’s uproariously magnificent production of this surprise Broadway hit from 2005. Miller has assembled a smart and energetic cast who throw themselves hilariously into their squirming roles, while also managing some poignant moments as well. Indeed, this version plays even better than did the touring show at The Fox a year ago, as Spelling Bee is a small musical that is most effective in a cozier venue. . . New Line’s Spelling Bee is what e-n-t-e-r-t-a-i-n-m-e-n-t is all about and a positive life lesson to boot.” – Mark Bretz, Ladue News

“Life may be pandemonium, as the lyrics goes, but Miller’s direction is quite disciplined, and his cast is top-notch.” – Peter Filichia, TheatreMania.com

“This Spelling Bee radiates the goofy, familiar charm of a sketch comedy show that you try not to miss. You know the players; the fun lies in seeing what they’ll do this time. . . It’s just a sweet, imaginative look at pressure and how we badly we sometimes handle it. The adults laughing in the audience may have more finesse than the kids portrayed on stage – but we wouldn’t laugh if we didn’t know exactly how they feel.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“[Bookwriter] Rachel Sheinkin and [composer] William Finn celebrate the pariah in devastatingly funny songs. Scott Miller’s production is exceptionally fine, exploiting the large laughs of the precociously confident William Barfée (Nicholas Kelly), a mucously enhanced young man who lauds his magic spelling foot in a Busby Berkeley-esque fantasia (courtesy of choreographer Robin Michelle Berger). Miller just as deftly develops the quieter moments, such as parolee-cum-rules enforcer Mitch Mahoney (John Rhine), who sings of wanting to beat the children to teach them real pain, but instead hugs and comforts them. Because that’s all anyone can do: Say ‘good job,’ and hope the vulnerable are resilient enough to take the punches when they come.” – Paul Friswold, The Riverfront Times
“A charming evening of song, wit and wisdom by New Line Theatre . . . The delightful production is more effective on the smaller stage, with its more intimate atmosphere, than it was when a touring company played the Fox a few years ago. Scott Miller’s direction is crisp and on the mark . . . Spelling Bee is a great deal of fun.” – Joe Pollack, St. Louis Eats and Drinks

“Sabotage, the casting off of perfection, and the tender beginnings of love stir the emotional pot of act two. In the end, only one speller emerges victorious, but everyone who came to see the play also wins, in terms of money and time well spent for a night’s entertainment.” – Nancy Larson, St. Louis Woman
TOP TEN SHOWS OF 2009: “Director Scott Miller crafted a hilarious production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee that had me rolling in the aisle. The cast, consisting of: Nicholas Kelly, Alexis Kinney, Katie Nestor, Deborah Sharn, Mike Dowdy, Aaron Allen, Emily Berry, John Rhine and Brian Claussen were all impeccable, and that’s not an easy task given William Finn’s catchy, but challenging score.” – Chris Gibson, BroadwayWorld.com

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
Spelling Bee is an unusual show. Even for us. It’s a musical unlike anything you’ve seen before. And it wasn’t created the way most musicals are created.

It all started in 2002 with director Rebecca Feldman and her New York-based improvisational group, The Farm, who created a comedy called C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E at the Present Company Theatorium in New York. Playwright Wendy Wasserstein made the trek to the Lower East Side theatre, in a rat-infested former chop shop, to see her weekend nanny perform in this sketch comedy show about a spelling bee. C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E was the brainchild of Feldman, who had never lived down misspelling bruise as bruze in a childhood bee.

Wasserstein loved the show and saw something in it for her friend, composer William Finn (Falsettos, A New Brain, Romance in Hard Times, Muscle), who did not bother to actually go see the show but watched a tape of it on his bed, falling asleep in the middle. But he still loved it. He was drawn to the concept of a spelling bee as a metaphor for human experience. “Sometimes you get the easy word, and sometimes you don't,” says the composer. He puts it best in one of his lyrics for the show: “Life is random and unfair.” With Finn now contributing the soul of the show, the central theme emerged: America’s obsession with Winning – one of the main drivers of the current Wall Street meltdown.

In 2004, now with a revised script by Finn’s former student Rachel Sheinkin, the show was workshopped and then produced by the Barrington Stage Company in Sheffield, Massachusetts. In February 2005, it opened off Broadway, and in May transferred uptown to Broadway, where it ran 1,186 performances, closing in 2008. Spelling Bee was honored with six Tony nominations and won two of them. The show also won three Drama Desk Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, and two Theatre World Awards.

Finn says about these characters, “These kids who feel like freaks when they arrive at the bee find others who are just like them, and they realize they’re not going to be alone for the rest of their lives.” He says that whenever he speaks to teenagers, he tells them they will be appreciated as adults for the very qualities that render them nerds in high school. He goes on, “Inevitably the cutest girl or the handsomest guy raises their hand and says, ‘But I’m happy here.’ And I say, ‘Well, I’m not really talking to you. I’m addressing everyone else’.”

Tonight we salute all the wounds, past, present, and future, that make us the neurotic, needy, crazy, beautiful people we all are.

Enjoy.

Return to the Forbidden Planet (2009)

2009-04-30T20:01:00.000-05:00

by Bob Carlton
based (loosely) on The Tempest by Wm. Shakespeare
April 30-May 23, 2009
Washington University South Campus Theatre

THE CASTDr. Prospero – Zachary Allen Farmer
Capt. Tempest – Michael Amoroso
Miranda – Tara Lawton
Cookie – Ted Drury
Science Officer – Nikki Glenn
Bosun – Philip Leveling
Ariel the Robot – Scott Tripp
Ship’s Engineer – Mike Dowdy
Weapons Officer – Tawaine Noah
Navigation Officer – Kimi Short

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Director – Scott Miller
Choreographer – Robin Michelle Berger
Set Designers – David Carr and Jeffrey Breckel
Lighting Designer – Hans Fredrickson
Costume Designers – Betsy Krausnick, Thom Crain
Sound Designer – Robert Healey
Id Monster Designer – Pat Edmonds
Props Master – Trisha Bakula
Lighting Technician – Melissa Blair
House Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Box Office Manager – Vicki Herrmann
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Jill Ritter

THE BANDPiano/Conductor – Chris Petersen
Bass – Dave Hall
Lead Guitar – Mike Renard
Rhythm Guitar/Trumpet – Patrick Swan
Percussion – Mike Schurk
Reeds – Marc Strathman

THE REVIEWS
“Remember the halcyon days when we were terrified of the Russians, they were terrified of us, and Shakespeare wrote his first intergalactic R&B hit, “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World?” Sweet fancy Moses, those were the days. Wait, that never happened. Or did it? Yup, looky here: Return to the Forbidden Planet. It’s sweet Billy Shakes vs. Golden Oldies vs. Space Age Love Songs. Just what Dr. Tempest ordered.” – Calendar Pimp, The Riverfront Times

“New Line Theatre presents a lot of intriguing work, but now and then it gets everything so right that you’re ready to see the show again before you’re out of the theater. Hair was like that; Bat Boy, too. And so is its new production, Return to the Forbidden Planet – a smart, giddy, musically ingenious spoof written by Bob Carlton and directed by Scott Miller.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Bob Carlton’s whimsical take on The Tempest as refracted through a 1950s sci-fi prism features a galaxy’s worth of fantastic rock & roll songs, punning wordplays on snippets of Shakespearian monologues and intentionally ‘Pigs in Space’ costuming (courtesy of Betsy Krausnick). But this is no parlor trick of a musical; there’s a rich vein of Shakespeare’s favorite ingredient – the wondrous depths of the human heart – that elevates the show from cunning stunt to artful meditation on the destructive nature of power and the redemptive power of love. . . Smart show, smart cast, smart director with an understanding of what’s going on under the notes and behind the dialogue – this is what audiences deserve.” – Paul Friswold, The Riverfront Times

“New Line artistic director Scott Miller meticulously blends the comic sensibilities of his talented cast with the brisk, jaunty style of the New Line band to make this foray into outer space a campy and delightful journey. There are stars aplenty in this cosmos.” – Mark Bretz, Ladue News

“The most delightful musical to hit St. Louis in many years. . . a wondrous evening of musical theatre.” – Joe Pollack, KWMU-FM

“Irresistible. Under the guidance of director Scott Miller, New Line Theatre is presenting a thoroughly engaging and enjoyable production . . . This is a fun show, and director Scott Miller has assembled a talented cast and crew that seems to be having a blast” – Chris Gibson, KDHX-FM

“Forbidden Planet plays for laughs, which it receives in abundance. . . [Director] Miller takes chances, and they nearly always pay off.” – Andrea Braun, The Vital Voice

“I’ll tell you one show in 2009 that thrilled me and delighted me. I went back to see Return to the Forbidden Planet three times, and I’ve heard it said that when a theatre critic goes back for fun, that’s a good sign. I thought it was absolutely brilliant. . . It was exhilarating, it was really was.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on KDHX-FM

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
Return to the Forbidden Planet is wacky and chaotic on the surface, but it’s also really smart, retaining the serious themes of its earlier versions, William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and the 1956 film Forbidden Planet.

Just like the film and the play, Return to the Forbidden Planet is about the idea of expanding human consciousness with technology (or Jedi-like magic in the original play), unknowingly releasing the dangerous power of the human id, and thereby butting up against that timeless and universal truth, that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Today, more than ever before, we are developing many new technologies that literally expand the boundaries and power of human consciousness, through the internet (and its various applications, Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube, and so many others), the iPhone, the Blackberry, and more devices coming every day. Dr. Prospero’s discovery and use of “telegenesis” is a clear metaphor today for the creation of blogs, viral videos, online discussion groups, social networking sites, and much more. Not only does human consciousness now extend beyond our physical selves, it extends around the globe. A blogger’s voice, his thoughts and ideas, are instantly materialized in every corner of the planet, and we’re getting closer and closer to those ideas being instantaneously translated, so that even language will no longer be a barrier.

We’ve only begun to understand what this revolution means. It will change the world as much as electricity and television have. Moore’s Law says that the microchip doubles in capacity every eighteen months (this pattern has held since 1958). With that in mind, imagine what technology will look like in twenty-five years, and Dr. Prospero’s Id Monster suddenly seems a bit less ridiculous.

Return to the Forbidden Planet has at the center of its tale the biggest of all moral questions: should we restrict or block science, even when it crosses into moral gray area? Dr. Prospero’s discovery seems to him a giant step forward for humankind, an expansion and extension of human consciousness greater than any that has come before. But he doesn’t foresee the inherent downside, that he would greatly intensify the mind’s power without also greatly increasing the mind’s ability to control itself. It’s a problem illustrated by the old joke, “Don’t think about an elephant” – it’s nearly impossible to do because the mind is hard to consciously control. In any arena, increasing power without increasing control usually leads to disaster, and it’s a problem we keep bumping up against as we continue to evolve.

Decades ago, we discovered nuclear power, but we still can’t control or contain it. The world’s greatest fear today is that Iran or North Korea or, worse yet, a band of rebel terrorists, will use a nuclear bomb. We increased our power without sufficient control. We invented the internet, wildly expanding the reach of human consciousness, but with it came online predators, the loss of privacy, and the erosion of the idea of copyright. Again, we increased our power but we still can’t control it (though some believe the internet should never be controlled). And two of the newest technologies, gene mapping and embryonic stem cell research already scare people who foresee cloning and “designer babies.” This is the real issue at the heart of Return to the Forbidden Planet, and it’s why this remains a fascinating story.

A New Line Cabaret IV: Night of the Living Show Tunes (2009)

2009-01-05T20:01:00.000-06:00

a world premiere revue
January 5-6, 2009
Sheldon Concert Hall

THE CAST
Mara Bollini, Nikki Glenn, Joel Hackbarth, Amy Kelly, Nicholas Kelly, Khnemu Menu-Ra, Katie Nestor, Talichia Noah, Jeffrey Pruett, John Rhine, Todd Schaefer, Deborah Sharn, Kimi Short, Margeau Baue Steinau, Scott Tripp, Jeffrey M. Wright

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Director – Scott Miller
Lighting – Trisha Bakula
Pianist – Scott Miller

THE REVIEWS
“Scott Miller and the ‘New Line All-Stars’ put together a really fun show last night. Yeah, it’s a musical theater revue – one with some really funny, smart material, a lot of it drawn from shows that New Line has staged in their entirety. . . The stately hall and the offbeat material made a great combination, elegant but relaxed – you know, like you have style, but you’re used to it.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“A special evening of song designed, in part, to raise funds for the New Line Theatre scholarship fund, took place over the course of two nights in the shimmering acoustic surroundings of the Sheldon Concert Hall. Artistic Director Scott Miller tickled the ivories in expert fashion as a parade of local talent favored the audience with an eclectic mix of tunes culled from a wide variety of shows. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, and it definitely piqued my curiosity about some of the more obscure material that was presented.” – Chris Gibson, KDHX-FM

Hair (2008)

2008-09-11T20:00:00.000-05:00

Book and Lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado
Music by Galt MacDermot
Sept. 11-Oct. 18, 2008
Washington University South Campus Theatre

THE CAST
George Berger – John Sparger
Claude Bukowski – Todd Schaefer
Sheila Franklin – Ryan Ferris-Hanson
Woof – Aaron Lawson
Hud – Khnemu Menu-Ra
Jeanie – Robin Michelle Berger
The Tourists – Zachary Allen Farmer, Todd Micali
The Tribe – Robin Michelle Berger, Wayne Easter, Zachary Allen Farmer, Ryan Ferris-Hanson, Nikki Glenn, Rachel Hanks, Aaron Lawson, Terry Love, Khnemu Menu-Ra, Todd Micali, Talichia Noah, Todd Schaefer, John Sparger, Marcy Wiegert

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Director – Scott Miller
Stage Manager – Trisha Bakula
Lighting Designer – Kenneth Zinkl
Set Designer – Todd Schaefer
Costume Designer – Thom Crain
Sound Designer – Matthew J. Koch
Set Painters – The Osage Tribe
Props Master – Vicki Herrmann
Lighting Technician – Trisha Bakula
House Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Box Office Manager – Vicki Herrmann
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Jill Ritter

THE BAND
Piano/Conductor – Chris Petersen
Bass – Dave Hall
Trumpet – Cliff Phillips
Lead Guitar – Mike Renard
Rhythm Guitar – Justin Schulz
Percussion – Mike Schurk

THE REVIEWS
“This is New Line’s third production of Hair in less than ten years, and you know why from the moment you smell the incense. Director Scott Miller has a wonderful feeling for this material; his production delivers the hippie world with sensual precision. It comes through in the exotic aroma, in the eye-popping set designed by Todd Schaefer, in the era-exact costumes by Thom Crain and the dreamy sound of Chris Petersen’s six-man rock band. Most of all, it comes through in the cast, an ensemble known as the Tribe.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Hair at New Line Theatre is unexpectedly, beautifully, joyfully, mournfully, tragically relevant again. Gerome Ragni and James Rado have turned out to be poet-prophets and their book and lyrics are given life by Galt MacDermot’s eclectic rock score. . . I’m happy that New Line chose to produce Hair because I’d never seen it live; I am sorry that it can’t just be a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the show but that it still has so much relevance. See it to celebrate, to mourn, and finally to celebrate again for there is hope and light and no matter how hard ‘they’ try, they cannot ‘end this beauty’.” – Andrea Braun, PlaybackSTL

“Here we are in a similar, but I would say even darker place – at least America still had Posse Comitaus and Glass-Steagall back in 1968. Hair shows us, forty years later, both where the hippies went wrong and where they were right on. And that to abandon the project of striving for equality and justice (even if it doesn’t involve spliffs and paisley) would damn us to our own Greek tragedy. I can’t tell you exactly what happened when the Osage Tribe gathered on stage to sing ‘Let The Sun Shine In,’ but it felt an awful lot like the Holy Ghost, or someone like him, was in the house.” – Stefene Russell, St. Louis Magazine
“Scott Miller knows this material well, and his skilled direction keeps the action flowing and the actors focused. The tribe is well cast, and seem completely comfortable with one another. And they make a marvelous sound harmonizing together on this catchy score. Thom Crain’s costumes add a nice air of authenticity. Chris Peterson’s work on piano and conducting the small ensemble is impeccable. The band provides a solid pulse to this electrified revival meeting.” – Chris Gibson, KDHX-FM

“Hair is not so much a musical as it is an invocation, a sort of vision quest designed to shake you out of your torpor and make you think. Let’s describe it as ‘a group of people with strange clothes and a shared faith in nebulous concepts who make strange proclamations about society’s ills’ – are we describing hippies, the religious right, the secular left or the military’s press conferences on the war in Iraq? Regardless of what you think you are, Hair challenges your perceptions. A kaleidoscopic, mandala-esque painting on the stage provides a locus for the characters to dance and sing and poke fun at the world outside the theater. And there is a lot of fun” – Paul Friswold, The Riverfront Times

“Much smoke is blown, and much adolescent naughtiness is waved like a banner. But just to see the glowing idealism on the faces of fine actors like Khnemu Menu-Ra, Aaron Lawson and others is somehow astonishing in this age of bitter disappointment and gloom, and to hear the folksy and dramatic songs of Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Galt MacDermot raised so beautifully is a great pleasure. . . . For the generation of psychedelic awakening and sexual revolution, this lock of Hair is a sentimental touchstone and a heart-warming bit of modern Americana.” – Richard Green, TalkinBroadway.com

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
It’s 1968. Or maybe it’s 2008. America is in turmoil. The White House routinely lies to Americans, the CIA and FBI are secretly but consciously ignoring the laws that govern them, and many people worry about the state of our democracy. The country is divided over an unpopular war half a world away, which we’re continuously told we’re winning. They repeatedly tell us they have the enemy “on the run” and that there is a “light at the end of the tunnel.” There are anti-war protests and demonstrations across the nation and on college campuses.

On the warfront, the Department of Defense keeps changing the rules on our military personnel, extending tours and requiring additional tours. They started the conflict with too few forces but have been adding troops without a real end in sight. What does winning mean? When can we leave? Is it even possible to leave behind a functioning democracy? And the Russians invade one of their neighboring countries.

Our national cynicism grows and political satire finds new popularity on television. Many pop music artists and filmmakers also turn their artistic attentions to politics and social issues. The President is extremely unpopular but is not up for reelection. The Democratic presidential primary essentially boils down to the anti-war candidate versus the hawk. The Republicans nominate a candidate that the party’s base does not trust. But most surprising of all, with all this unrest and cynicism comes a renewed faith in the average person’s ability to change our country through the political process. Young people, now a significant voting block, are wildly energized about the election and they line up enthusiastically behind an unlikely presidential candidate, a young, handsome, charismatic Democrat trumpeting a new kind of politics, who is rumored to have taken illegal drugs in his youth. But because of what he represents, some fear for the candidate’s life.

American Catholics are at odds with the Pope over birth control and other social issues. Organized religion in general is experiencing a decline in popularity, as many American turn to alternative philosophies and spiritualities, especially those from Eastern cultures. And there is a growing movement to legalize marijuana.

Many of America’s bigger cities are still largely segregated, despite well-meaning legislation. Race re-takes center stage, as racial violence continues and gun sales skyrocket. White America is repeatedly shocked by sentiments and movements in the black community that have been there for years, apparently invisible to the mainstream. In other words, white people find out what black people talk about when the white folks aren’t there…

Arthur Schlesinger writes in Esquire, “At periodic moments in our history, our country has paused on the threshold of a new epoch in our national life, unable for a moment to open the door, but aware that it must advance if it is to preserve its national vitality and identity. One feels that we are approaching such a moment now.”

High Fidelity (2008)

2008-06-12T20:00:00.000-05:00

the American Regional Premiere
Music by Tom Kitt Lyrics by Amanda Green
Book by David Linsday-Abaire
based on the novel by Nick Horbny
June 12-July 5, 2008
A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre, St. Louis

THE CAST
Rob – Jeffrey M. Wright
Laura – Kimi Short
Dick – Aaron Lawson
Barry – Zachary Allen Farmer
Liz/Jackie – Nikki Glenn
Ian – Robb Kennedy
Anna/Alison – Katie Nestor
Marie LaSalle – Margeau Baue Steinau
TMPMITW/Bruce Springsteen – Todd Micali
Futon Guy/Skid – Patrick Donnigan
Klepto-Boy – Joel Hackbarth
Hipster/Neil Young/Skid – Andrew T. Hampton
Charlie – Mary C. Crouch
Penny – Amanda Densmore
Sarah – Lori White

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector – Scott Miller
Choreographer – Robin Michelle Berger
Stage Manager – Trisha Bakula
Lighting Designer – Michael Bergfeld
Set Designer – David Carr
Costume Designer – Amy Kelly
Sound Designer – Steve Massey
Props Master – Vicki Herrmann
Set Construction – John and Suzanne Carr
Lighting Technician – Trisha Bakula
House Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Box Office Manager – Vicki Herrmann
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Michael C. Daft

THE BAND
Piano/Conductor – Chris Petersen
Bass – Dave Hall
Lead Guitar – Mike Renard
Percussion – Mike Schurk
Rhythm Guitar – Jim Shiels
Keyboard – Marc Strathman

THE REVIEWS
“In the spirit of author Nick Hornby, I’m presenting the top five reasons you should go see New Line Theatre’s production of the musical High Fidelity, in reverse order. Number five, because it features catchy songs from composer Tom Kitt and lyricist Amanda Green. Number four, because David Lindsay-Abaire’s script captures the novel’s flavor better than the film adaptation did. Number three, because this is the midwest premiere, and you’ll want to see this in it’s purest form before it gets de-fanged for mass consumption. Number two, because it features a terrific cast, and a crack band. And number one, because New Line has put together an incredibly entertaining show that deserves your attendance.” – Chris Gibson, KDHX-FM

“A 5 on a scale of 1-to-5. Sweet and charming while also faithful to its raw rock roots, New Line’s rendition of High Fidelity soars on the energy of its solid music and consistent comedy. Highlights abound throughout, from the entertaining and pulsating opening number, “The Last Real Record Store on Earth,” to the poignant ballad, “Laura, Laura”. . . New Line’s High Fidelity can be cherished as fondly as Rob’s coveted collection of old 45s. What a rewarding sound it is.” – Mark Bretz, Ladue News

“The stars are in perfect alignment for the regional premiere of Tom Kitt and Amanda Green’s musical, based on the novel by Nick Hornby. Director Scott Miller has put together a fine cast of actors and singers (in an interesting new venue), to stage the lives of young men in a used record shop, and the women who love them. Individually, and in delightful groups, they blaze through a series of power ballads, make-up songs, break-up songs and more, covering musical idioms from the soulful sixties to the acrid eighties. . . Critics of the recent movie and the subsequent Broadway musical seemed to seize upon the mere quirkiness of these slacker-esthetes, adrift in a sea of post-adolescent angst, as the main thrust of the evening. But the intimate confines of the Hotchner studio theater at Washington University serve them well, helping us focus on small tragedies and moderate evils, raising them to a grander scale. A bigger stage, or a more dazzling theater would merely wage war on an intimate story like this. Instead, in these pleasant, bare-bones surroundings, High Fidelity finds a perfect setting.” – Richard Green, TalkinBroadway.com

“New Line’s version is brimming with joy, the lyrics are sharp and funny, and the music is riddled with in-jokes and references to the actual pop songs that substitute for Rob’s emotional life. It’s a very, very good show. . . New Line Theatre brings the show to a college campus black-box theatre, an ideal reflection of the show’s youthful feel and self-absorbed hero. The tough little coming of age story is now allowed to shine, and it’s very bright indeed. . . The music is sharp and clever, and the New Line Band performs it all quite rockingly. . . The tough little coming of age story is now allowed to shine, and it’s very bright indeed.” – Paul Friswold, The Riverfront Times

BEST SHOW of 2008: “Based on a novel by Nick Hornby, this stylish musical didn’t last long on Broadway, but its first incarnation beyond the Great White Way was a smashing success under the inspired direction of Scott Miller. Superbly capturing the essence of Hornby’s characters, led by music-store-clerk-turned-owner Rob, the energy and passion of Miller’s cast was infectious and immensely appealing. Jeffrey Wright showed us Rob’s vulnerability and sweetness beyond the rock ‘n’ roll sass, and his easy-going musical style delightfully conveyed the show’s triumphant spirit.” – Mark Bretz, Ladue News “Theater Year in Review”

“High Fidelity started out as a delightful novel by Nick Hornby, then turned into a cute movie starring John Cusack. But it’s not an obvious candidate for the musical stage. That’s because when we think of musicals, we tend to think of flashy extravaganzas. New Line Theatre, however, specializes in small, smart shows instead. Maybe that’s why its production of High Fidelity pays off: The whole thing is built to scale. . . High Fidelity makes for appealing entertainment.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
High Fidelity is not a love story. It’s not about two people finding happiness. It’s about one guy growing up.

But it’s also about experiencing music autobiographically, about using music to connect to others, about the way it makes your personal pain somehow transcendent. What better form in which to tell that story than a rock musical? And what better way to construct that score than in the musical vocabulary and language of these guys’ lives? This is an original score that delivers dramatically but is also peppered with musical references to some of the great rock and pop artists of our time, the muscular American sound of Bruce Springsteen, the raw rage of Guns N' Roses, the intellectual playfulness of Talking Heads, the fierce defiance of Aretha Franklin, the smoky groove of Percy Sledge, the driving cynicism of Billy Joel, the naked emotion of Ben Folds. This is a show that uses music as carefully and artfully as it uses dialogue to tell its story, comically, emotionally, often ironically.

But New York wasn’t kind to High Fidelity. Ben Brantley wrote in The New York Times, “The seeming credo of this production at the Imperial Theater can be found early in its lyrics: ‘Nothin’s great, and nothin’s new, but nothin’ has its worth.’ This declaration is sung by the show’s hero, the romantically bereft Rob, as he describes his uneventful life as the owner of a vinyl record store in Brooklyn. . . And that’s a problem.”

No, the real problem is that Brantley couldn’t see that this lyric reveals the complex central conflict of the story, an entirely interior conflict. It’s not that Rob’s life is uneventful; it’s that his life is too self-involved, too stagnant, and lacking in the joy that comes from a giving, two-way, adult relationship. The “nothing” refers on the surface to Rob’s outer life, but even more to his inner life. He is emotionally empty, running on the fumes of a once satisfying (though arguably immature) relationship. The “nothing” that his and Laura’s relationship has become has the comforts of familiarity and minimal effort, but it can’t sustain them. Rob doesn’t have enough self-knowledge initially to assess his own problem, so we have to read between the lines, as we do routinely with the best plays and movies. Why should that be too much for a musical to ask of its audience – or of its critics?

That High Fidelity’s opening number ends with all the guys singing “I wouldn’t change a thing” tells us exactly what this show is about: the stagnation of a generation. And could there be a more powerful or clearer metaphor than a guy surrounded by used LPs? Rob’s story is the story of millions of people on the cusp between the Baby Boomers and Generation X, caught among powerful cultural forces, the expectations of previous generations, and world-shaking changes in technology. This is not a show about nothing. It’s a complex story about some very complicated people, and we think that’s something worth sharing.

We hope you agree.

Assassins (2008)

2008-03-06T19:59:00.000-06:00

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by John Weidman
Based on an idea by Charles Gilbert Jr.
March 6-29, 2008
Ivory Theatre, St. Louis

THE CAST
Lee Harvey Oswald – Aaron Allen
Sam Byck – Brian Claussen
Leon Czolgosz – Christopher “Zany” Clark
Sara Jane Moore – Cindy Duggan
Charles Guiteau – Zachary Allen Farmer
Squeaky Fromme – Amy Kelly
John Wilkes Booth – Matthew Korinko
Giuseppe Zangara – Scott Tripp
John Hinckley – Jeffrey M. Wright
Balladeer, Proprietor – Andrew Keller
Emma Goldman, ensemble – Alison Helmer
David Herold, ensemble – Aaron Lawson
Billy Moore, ensemble – Kimi Short
Bartender, ensemble – John Sparger

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Director – Scott Miller
Stage Manager – Trisha Bakula
Set Designers – David Carr and Jeffery P. Breckel
Lighting Designer – Stephen J. Moore
Costume Designer – Russell J. Bettlach
Props Master – Vicki Herrmann
Gun Wrangler – Trisha Bakula
House Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Box Office Manager – Vicki Herrmann
Lighting Technician – Trisha Bakula
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Michael C. Daft

THE BANDPiano/Conductor – Chris Petersen
Bass – Dave Hall
Guitar/Mandolin/Banjo – Mike Renard
Percussion – Mike Schurk
Reeds – Marc Strathman

THE REVIEWS
“[New Line Theatre’s] Assassins is essential theater for people who disdain musicals because they think they’re too pretty, too silly or just dumb. This ugly, serious, very smart production adds up to one of the most challenging theater pieces to play here in ages. . . But underneath all the entertainment lurks a serious question: How did picking up a gun turn into a way to say, ‘Here I am’? And how do we make that change? We have no answers on this stage – just acute questions that deserve to be raised.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“[Director Scott] Miller’s direction is subtle but tight. He moves his players around the stage, and even the auditorium, with grace and authenticity. Russell J. Bettlach’s costumes evoke the eras in which they lived. The assassins remain on stage when they aren’t directly involved in the action. They sit quietly in nine chairs on a simple set surrounded by a few props, including an ominous package that Oswald believes are curtain rods until Booth reveals the rifle beneath the wrappings. The rest of David Carr and Jeffrey P. Breckel’s set is simple with an ingenious, large wooden piece to serve various purposes and three graphics hanging above. Stephen Moore’s lights deserve special mention because they are key to the various moods of madness, elation, fear, and sorrow that this roller coaster of a show evokes. On stage, excellent support is provided for the voices by the New Line Band.” – Andrea Braun, KDHX-FM

“Seated like the sides of a parenthesis in the middle of the stage are nine dysfunctional figures. Collectively, they slump their shoulders, keep their eyes to the ground and convey the impression of the misfits that they are. All presidential assassins or would-be assassins, they come together here, in a breezy one-act musical, to tell us why they did what they did, not for forgiveness. With a book by John Weidman and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Assassins crackles with energy, comedy and sassy class.” – Mark Bretz, Ladue News
“If you’re looking to add another notch to your Sondheim gun belt, here is an infrequent opportunity to see a cynical, unsettling entertainment by the defining theater composer of our generation.” – Dennis Brown, The Riverfront Times
DIRECTOR'S NOTES
A few months ago Benazir Bhutto, the former and possible future prime minister of Pakistan, was assassinated. In 2005, televangelist Pat Robertson publicly called for the assassination of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Also in 2005, a would-be assassin tried to kill George W. Bush while in the former Soviet Union. Wikipedia lists forty attempted assassinations of world leaders since 1990.

In other news… this month the Supreme Court will finally tackle the question of whether the Second Amendment to the Constitution gives implied gun ownership rights to individuals or only the rights it specifically spells out to state-run militias (i.e., the National Guard). The last time the Court addressed this issue was in 1939 (U.S. v. Miller) when it ruled that the amendment was intended by the framers only to allow states to raise militias without federal interference and had nothing to do with private ownership of guns. It’s hard to watch Assassins today without that issue in our minds, plagued as we are with 30,000 deaths and 100,000 injuries from guns every year. Why do Americans love guns so much?

And why are we so fascinated by American political assassination? Why are so many people convinced that Kennedy’s assassination was a conspiracy? Why are there so many books about Lee Harvey Oswald and John Wilkes Booth? Part of the answer may be the never ending human quest to understand ourselves and our world – the same reason we make theatre. Can we learn about our own demons by studying these assassins? Part of the reason is that we all agree on certain things in civilized society, like that we won’t kill each other. When that compact is broken, particularly in such a high profile way, it makes us wonder which compact will be broken next. Can we still rely on the other things we’ve all agreed to?

Or is there an even darker fascination at work here, a uniquely American obsession with violence and the power it brings, which usually manifests itself harmlessly enough in ultra-violent video games and Rovian politics, but also sometimes in political doctrines like “preemptive war”?

Perhaps our fascination with political assassination comes from the knowledge that such a tiny moment, such a small, individual act can literally change the world in an instant. How can that be possible? And if it is possible, can we believe in the sureness of anything? Though these nine assassins are the show’s protagonists, still, in a moralistic sense, these assassins are villains and the audience – the American people – are the real protagonists. Or are they? What does it mean for a piece of theatre when the villains are the heroes and the heroes aren’t on stage for most of the show? What does it say about America?

But Assassins isn’t a show about right and wrong; it’s about why. It's about hearing the other side of the story, getting closer to these assassins than we normally would, standing in their world for ninety minutes, and realizing, perhaps to our horror, that they’re not that different from us…

Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll (2007)

2007-09-27T19:59:00.000-05:00

a world premiere revue
Conceived and Directed by Scott Miller
Featuring songs from Rent, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Avenue Q, Songs for a New World, Hair, The Rocky Horror Show, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Naked Boys Singing, Company, Nine, I Love My Wife, Oklahoma!, The Last Five Years, No, No, Nanette, The Wild Party, The Nervous Set, Reefer Madness, Johnny Appleweed,
September 27-October 20, 2007
Ivory Theatre, St. Louis

THE CASTAaron Allen
Kiné Brown
Zachary Allen Farmer
Nicholas Kelly
Matthew Korinko
Aaron Lawson
Khnemu Menu-Ra
Isabel Pastrana
John Rhine
Michelle Sauer
Kimi Short
Scott Tripp

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Director – Scott Miller
“Call from the Vatican” Choreography – Robin Michelle Berger
Stage Manager – Trisha Bakula
Technical Director/Set Designer – Todd Schaefer
Lighting Designer – Kenneth Zinkl
Costume Designer – Russell J. Bettlach
Props Master – Vicki Herrmann
Lighting Technician – Trisha Bakula
Sound Technician – Matthew J. Koch
House Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Box Office Manager – Vicki Herrmann
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Michael C. Daft

THE BAND
Piano/Conductor – Chris Petersen
Bass – Dave Hall
Guitar – Mike Renard / Ken Apperson
Percussion – Kevin Neyer

THE REVIEWS
“New Line Theatre, whose fans followed the company around town for years, opens its 17th season in a new venue with a revue that stirred up controversy before the show even opened. The dustup, which centered on a clause in the contract to sell a church and turn it into a theater, died quickly. As it turns out, Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll makes a strong season opener. . . There’s no plot. Still, Scott Miller, who conceived and directed the show, plays songs from different eras off each other, adding unexpected context and resonance. . . Overall, Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll makes for an entertaining evening that shows off New Line’s sensibility, performers and new home.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“The four final numbers in the first act, from Avenue Q, Naked Boys Singing, Tomfoolery and I Love My Wife, were a perfect blend and an ideal example of using satire to make a political – or sexual – statement. . . Good voices and ensemble work from all the performers; Matthew Korinko and Isabel Pastrana, plus pianist Chris Petersen, left fine impressions. Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll, fast-moving, tuneful entertainment at the Ivory Theatre.” – Joe Pollack, KWMU-FM

“Miller keeps the two-act, two-hour show moving at a brisk and enjoyable pace for the most part, and he’s assembled a strong cast that is comfortable and engaging delivering tunes from myriad works. . . Miller’s energetic troupe delivered the goods with fun and flair.” – Mark Bretz, Ladue News
“After a little controversy about whether it was suitable fare for a theater built in a former church, the verdict is in. Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll is not obscene! (What a relief.) The good thing is that The New Line Theatre and its fearless Artistic Director, Scott Miller, received thousands of dollars worth of free publicity during the mini-squabble, and hopefully it will sell more tickets to this worthy musical review about three aspects of life in which most adults participate in at least 2 out of 3.” – Harry Hamm, KMOX-FM

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
Humans tell stories to try to understand themselves and the world around them. And what topic is more confusing, more mysterious, more in need of understanding than sexuality? From The Trojan Women to Romeo and Juliet to Dracula to Rent, many of our most lasting stories have tried to explain sex. Americans today seem to be more afraid of sex than ever, because sex keeps changing. When it is no longer exclusively about procreation, when sex has also become recreation, entertainment, commerce, art, how do we make sense of it?

And then there are drugs. From Sleeping Beauty to A Midsummer Night’s Dream to The Wizard of Oz to Hair to Requiem for a Dream, we have always been fascinated by altered consciousness. But it scares the Powerful because it can’t be controlled – just like rock and roll, only fifty years old yet already the most powerful cultural force in the history of humankind.

How do we grapple with all this? We tell stories.

But we live in a time when people with power want very much to “clean up” and dumb down American culture, to make everything safe for kids and palatable for adults who are afraid of their own complexity. For centuries there has been adult culture and child culture, each designed to deliver what its audience needs. Children learn about sharing, cooperation, and courage from their stories. Adults learn about complexity, the darker human urges, the destructive power of sex and love, the corrosion that comes with power. Unfortunately, these new American Crusaders would rather adults don’t learn about these things and instead live in happy, passive ignorance.

But some of us want to understand more. Some of us want to learn as much truth as we can in the time we’ve got. And some of those truths come in the “dangerous” form of films like Pink Flamingos and Blue Velvet, novels like The Story of O and The Subterraneans, and musicals like Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Rocky Horror Show, and Hair.

Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll isn’t the kind of show most of us are used to. The continuity of the show comes not from plot, but from exploration and emotion. If it has models, they are probably Songs for a New World, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, and a show I saw at the Rep years ago, Songplay. In certain ways, this is an abstract show, not dealing in concrete reality but exploring very real truths about ourselves and each other. This is not a musical but it’s more than just a concert.

Even the comedy songs have surprising depth. “Perky Little Porn Star” describes the singer’s unhappy, repressive childhood which led him into the porn industry. We can laugh at his jokes, but there is some very painful truth there. “Nobody Needs to Know” is the song of an adulterous husband blaming his wife for his infidelity. “Maybe I Like It This Way” offers us a woman in an abusive relationship who knows she won't leave her abuser.

These songs have been removed from their original context to reveal truth even more universal than we imagined. Here, “Gethsemane” from Jesus Christ Superstar is sung by an ordinary man whose struggles seem to him just as insurmountable, just as overwhelming as those of Jesus. Instead of seeing the human in the divine as we did in Superstar, here we see the divine in the human.

And after all, isn’t that the point of telling stories?

Urinetown (2007)

2007-05-31T19:58:00.000-05:00

Music, and Lyrics by Mark Hollmann
Book and Lyrics by Greg Kotis
May 31-June 23, 2007
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CASTOfficer Lockstock – Matthew Korinko
Little Sally – Amy Leone
Penelope Pennywise – Deborah Sharn
Bobby Strong – Khnemu Menu-Ra
Hope Cladwell – Isabel Pastrana
Mr. McQueen – Aaron Allen
Senator Fipp – Nicholas Kelly
Joseph Strong / Hot Blades – Scott Tripp
Tiny Tom – Zachary Allen Farmer
Soupy Sue – Michelle Sauer
Little Becky Two Shoes – Katie Nestor
Robbie the Stockfish – Cale Haupert
Billy Boy Bill – Aaron Lawson
Josephine Strong – Leah Myers Giessing
Officer Barrel – Joseph Garner
Caldwell B. Cladwell – Jeffrey Pruett

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Director – Scott Miller
Assistant Director – Trisha Bakula
Choreographer – Robin Michelle Berger
Set Designers – G.P. Hunsaker, Jeffery Breckel
Asst. Technical Director – Robert Strasser
Lighting Designer – Seth Ward Pyatt
Costume Designer – Russell J. Bettlach
Scene Painter – David Carr
Props Master – Vicki Herrmann
Lighting Technician – Ember Hyde
Concessions/House Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Box Office Manager – Vicki Herrmann
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Michael C. Daft

THE BAND
Piano/Conductor – Chris Petersen
Bass – Dave Hall
Percussion – Mike Schurk
Trombone – Jim Shiels
Reeds – Marc Strathman

THE REVIEWS
“An exhilarating, don’t-miss experience. . . Urinetown plays like a tale of class warfare as performed by the Marx Brothers, and [director Scott] Miller doesn’t let politics get in the way of the laughs. The cast is first-rate, and Robin Michelle Berger’s choreography is gloriously in step with the story. So put your pennies together for the funniest, most tuneful show in town.”
– Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“If you ever take a reviewer’s advice, let this be it: GO SEE THIS PLAY. Seriously. . . I have enjoyed quite a bit of theatre over the years and this is in the top 10.” – Kirsten Wylder, KDHX-FM

“New Line Theater’s production of this biting satire of politics, capitalism, corporate greed, environmental crises and, most importantly, of musical theater itself, was first-rate, particularly the extremely talented cast.” – Amy Burger, PlaybackSTL

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
What is Urinetown? It’s an anti-musical, a musical that pretends to operate on the Rodgers and Hammerstein model but instead tears that model apart. Every rule of the classic “integrated book musical” (shows like My Fair Lady, Oklahoma!, Carousel, Beauty and the Beast, The Full Monty, Wicked) is not just rejected here but actively mocked. And after more than sixty years of that model, isn’t it about time?

In this world of MTV and YouTube, shouldn’t we move forward rather than stand stuck in the conventions of the 1940s? Sure, Rodgers and Hammerstein were groundbreakers in 1943, but this is 2007.

But Urinetown is not just a show that breaks rules; it’s a show about breaking those rules. If this is a show that means to tear down the R&H model and leave it in rubble, then that must be our charge as well. Since it’s our job as theatre artists to understand what the authors meant to say and then figure out the clearest way to say that, that means our production must break the rules of musical theatre as well. As Stephen Sondheim says, Content Dictates Form.

So we ask lots of the same questions we always ask, like “Must the playing space be limited to a stage?” (We think not.) And even beyond those questions, we’ve created staging for this show that purposefully yanks the audience out of the “reality” of the story (whatever that means in the case of Urinetown) and continually reminds them that this is just a show, a fake, that these are just actors. Tonight we do not ask our audience to “suspend disbelief” like other shows do. The constant (and often hilarious) acknowledgement of the artificiality of our performance is utterly forbidden under the old R&H rules, but if you really think about it, this approach is a much more honest one. A show is artificial, after all. The actors aren’t these characters. And by acknowledging all that, we eliminate the Big Lie of the Fourth Wall.

In Urinetown, we’re not trying to lure you into getting emotionally involved with these characters. No, our aim is to get you to sit up and think about what’s happening. You probably won’t get wrapped up in Hope and Bobby’s romance because this show doesn’t care about that; instead you’ll realize how silly the conventions of old-fashioned musicals are, how corrupt the relationship between government and business is, how foolish and selfish The People can be, and how overly seriously we all tend to take ourselves in the Grand Scheme of Things.

This show works on so many levels at once – as comedy, as love story, as political theatre, parody, deconstruction. But the real surprise and joy of Urinetown is that the authors aren’t just smartass comedians; they are also supremely talented theatre writers with something interesting to say about how we tell our stories, how we record our world.

Some people won’t like our approach. They’ll wish they were seeing The Pajama Game at the Muny. (Then again, you did buy a ticket to a show called Urinetown!) But our job isn’t to make the audience comfortable; it’s to give the audience an adventure. And whatever else it may be, we think our Urinetown will be an adventure.

Grease (2007)

2007-03-01T19:57:00.000-06:00

Book, Music, and Lyrics by
Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey
March 1-24, 2007
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CAST
Danny – Brendan Allred
Sandy – Beth Bishop
Cha-Cha / The Radio – Mara Bollini
Marty – Kiné Brown
Miss Lynch – Cindy Duggan
Sonny – Joseph Garner
Patty – Erin Marie Hogan
Vince Fontaine – Matthew Korinko
Jan – Katie Nestor
Eugene – Chris Owens
Frenchy – Isabel Pastrana
Johnny Casino / Teen Angel – Jeffrey Pruett
Kenickie – BC Stands
Doody – Scott Tripp
Rizzo – Lainie Wade
Roger – Jeffrey M. Wright

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector – Scott Miller
Assistant Director – Khnemu Menu-Ra
Choreographer – Robin Michelle Berger
Fight Choreographer – Nicholas Kelly
Dance Captain – Jeffrey Pruett
Set Designer – G.P. Hunsaker
Lighting Designer – Kenneth Zinkl
Costume Designer – Russell J. Bettlach
Sound Designer – Steve Massey
Props Master – Vicki Herrmann
Asst. Technical Director – Robert Strasser
Lighting Technician/Food Wrangler – Trisha Bakula
Concessions/House Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Box Office Manager – Vicki Herrmann
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Michael C. Daft

THE BANDPiano/Conductor – Chris Petersen
Bass – Dave Hall
Guitar – Mike Renard
Percussion – Mike Schurk
Reeds – Marc Strathman

THE REVIEWS
“Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey’s Grease is one of my favorite shows, and I’ve seen several different versions over the last few years. Having seen the movie when I was a teenager, I’d always preferred productions that included songs from the film. But, ever since I saw New Line Theatre’s raw, original take, I’ve become something of a purist.” – Chris Gibson, BroadwayWorld.com, reviewing the national tour in 2009

“Witty entertainment with something to say about teen sexuality, peer pressure and the erotic power of pop music. It must have been there all along, hiding under layers of poodle skirts and Clearasil.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“New Line opts to go back to basics and present the play more as it was originally conceived complete with raw language and frank sexuality. This is a horny and vulgar Grease that flips the bird at convention. It’s a daring approach that pays off for the most part… While I’ve always enjoyed the movie, it focused less on the other characters and plot elements and became more of a star vehicle. What New Line is presenting is more of an ensemble piece and, thankfully the cast delivers an entertaining night of theatre with attitude.” – Chris Gibson, KDHX-FM

“The best thing about the current production of Grease by the New Line Theatre is the tight, driving band led by Chris Petersen. The night I was there, a good chunk of the audience stood around after the show to listen to Petersen channel Jerry Lee Lewis as the band wound things up. There is nothing dull on that bandstand.” – Bob Wilcox, West End Word

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
Don’t be fooled into thinking Grease is just some silly spoof of the Fifties, a lightweight excuse to play some fun music. No, Grease on stage is as different from its movie version as Hair and Rocky Horror are from theirs. Grease originally took its inspiration from Hair and other alternative theatre pieces, and in its original form, Grease was raunchy, loud, vulgar, intentionally unpolished, a giant Fuck You to mainstream Broadway aesthetics. But more than anything else, Grease was Authentic. It understood the raw, untrained sound of early rock and roll, and the special energy of horny kids.

This was no cotton-candy musical comedy. It was smart, sly, insightful social commentary about one of America’s defining moments, a moment when our country moved from the repressed 1950s into the sexually adventurous 1960s, a moment when rock and roll – the first art form made exclusively for teenagers – was giving birth to the Sexual Revolution. Grease isn’t a story about young love, and its main characters are not really a teenage boy and girl. No, this is a show about sex in America. And the main character is rock and roll.

Critic Michael Feingold wrote in his introduction to the first published Grease script in 1972:

Grease does not discourse about our presence in Saigon. Nor does it contain in-depth study of such other 50s developments as the growth of mega-corporations and conglomerates, the suburban building boom that broke the backs of our cities, the separation of labor’s political power from the workers by union leaders and organization men. Grease is an escape, a musical designed to entertain, not to concern itself with serious political and social matters. But because it is truthful, because it spares neither the details nor the larger shapes of the narrow experience on which it focuses so tightly, Grease implies the topics I have raised, and many others. So I think it is a work of art, a firm image that projects, by means of what it does contain, everything it has chosen to leave out. And between the throbs of its ebullience, charm, and comedy, it conveys a feeling, about where we have been and how we got to where we are, that is quite near despair, if one wants to dwell on it.

Because they lived it, the creators of Grease understood that wild, thrilling, disorienting moment in our cultural history, that brief window in the mid-20th century when death and despair were not hanging over America's collective head, after the tumult of the Depression, two World Wars, and the Korean War – and before Vietnam, race riots, Watergate, and the energy crisis. This was a very special, very rich time in America that created some of the most influential culture in the history of the world.

Johnny Appleweed (2006)

2006-10-12T19:57:00.000-05:00

the world premiere
Book, Music, and Lyrics by
Scott Miller
Oct.12-Nov. 4, 2006
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CAST
Johnny Appleweed – John Sparger
Mark Dodger – Aaron Allen
Suzanne Moon – Ember Hyde
Jesus Christ – Matthew Korinko
Fannie Mae Butcher – Kimi Short
Carla Roe – Alice Kinsella
President John J. Birch – Brian Claussen
The Happy Stoner – Kimi Short
The Philosophical Stoner – Matthew Korinko
The Professional Stoner – Brian Claussen
A Monk – Matthew Korinko
Mom and Dad Dodger – Alice Kinsella, Brian Claussen
Mrs. Birch – Alice Kinsella

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Director – Scott Miller
Set Designer – G.P. Hunsaker
Asst. Technical Director – Robert Strasser
Lighting Designer – Ken Zinkl
Costume Designer – Russell J. Bettlach
Props Master – Vicki Herrmann
Lighting Technician – Trisha Bakula
Concessions/House Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Box Office Manager – Vicki Herrmann
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Michael C. Daft

THE BAND
Piano/Conductor – Chris Petersen
Bass – Dave Hall
Guitar – Mike Renard
Percussion – Mike Schurk

THE REVIEWS
“This smart, engaging musical satire clearly intends to reclaim American mythology for folks whose political sentiments are proudly left of center. . . With book, music, lyrics and direction by Scott Miller, Johnny Appleweed has the energy and wit of the early Saturday Night Live. Indeed, there’s a gloriously irreverent sketch-comedy sensibility at work. . . Even if you don’t share its attitudes about marijuana, the state of American democracy or the current occupant of the Oval Office, Johnny Appleweed is likely to win you over. It’s a giddy delight.” – Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“It may just be that producer/director Scott Miller has wasted his greatest talents on highly authentic revivals of other people’s shows these last sixteen years. It may be that all that time, he should have been writing musicals about other people just getting wasted. . . Johnny Appleweed is full of excellent melody and excellent humor carried through by highly proficient performers, in this latest entry in the St. Louis Political Theatre Festival. . . The physical direction sparkles, and the band led by Chris Petersen is agile and compelling. The songs are beautiful, and the jokes are nearly all sure-fire. . . It’s quite stupendous.” – Richard Green, TalkinBroadway.com

“It’s hard to believe that Johnny Appleweed is a musical – thankfully, it doesn’t resemble any of your typical Broadway fare. . . Without ruining the end, I’ll just say that it’s magical. In more ways than one. But the idea that was handed to me in the most obvious way during this musical was about popular culture. Too many people regard potheads as complete idiots, but this depiction of them was brilliantly intelligent. I really liked everything that they had to say. Maybe we should start listening to those potheads.” – Kaylen Hoffman, PlaybackSTL

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
The early years of the new millennium were a fascinating time for our world, a time of lingering fear, of battling world views, of killing to answer killing, of lies “for the greater good.” In some ways, these years were a dark time for America, as truth quickly became subjective, as patriotism was questioned, as political agenda supplanted morality. It was the kind of time that King Arthur always feared, when Might defined what was Right instead of being used to defend what was Right.

But it was also a time of Light, when patriots across our country rose up decisively and reclaimed from our past the most sacred of all American traditions – political dissent. Much like John Adams and Thom Paine, these Americans fought fiercely for their country, this time in the pages of newspapers and magazines, on websites and in blogs, on television and radio, even in feature films. It was a time of genuine courage, when ordinary men and women were no longer afraid to Speak Truth to Power, to say that war is always wrong and that, though killing is sometimes necessary, it is never Right. It was a time when humans began finally to understand that the search for Truth is never over and that there is no single path. Minds opened, hands reached out, and bullies were finally and rightfully ridiculed in the most public of terms.

It was a time when Americans realized their government had been taken from them, had been slowly and subtly removed from the hands of the citizenry, by a dangerous few who believed we weren’t smart enough or tough enough to know the Whole Truth, that we couldn’t be trusted to make the right choices. So like their forefathers, Americans rose up in stark defiance, with public protest, impassioned debate in the halls of Congress, and perhaps most potent of all, political satire. After all, what robs a tyrant of his power more quickly than to be made the object of ridicule?

After golden eras in the 1770s, 1860s, 1930s, and 1960s, political satire returned home to our fruited plain, in theatre, film, television, and books, the sharpest knife in the arsenal of political discourse. And so the absurdity and danger of a government without oversight loomed over us for only a moment in history, until pens could be sharpened and presses could be fired up. As it was conceived and as it has always been, the people of these United States are still the best check and balance on tyranny ever conceived on earth. As long as we pay rapt attention and never divert our eyes, no one can ever dismantle the great experiment that is America.

We have the power. We are the government. We make the laws. And as long as we never forget that, then government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Jesus Christ Superstar (2006)

2006-06-01T19:56:00.000-05:00

Book and Lyrics by Tim Rice
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
June 1-24, 2006
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CAST
Judas/Jesus – John Sparger and Khnemu Menu-Ra
[These two actors alternated in the leading roles.]
Mary – Kimi Short
Caiaphas – Kevin Collier
Annas – Aaron Allen
Pilate – Christopher “Zany” Clark
Herod – Charles Glenn
Peter – Adam Leong
Simon – Joy Ducree
Apostles/Press/Others – Sarah Armstrong, Kiné Brown, Joy Ducree, Joseph Garner, Charles Glenn, Alison Helmer, Ember Hyde, Adam Leong, Uchenna Ogu, B.C. Stands, Scott Tripp

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector – Scott Miller
Assistant Director – Chris Owens
Choreographer – Robin Michelle Berger
Fight Choreographer – Nicholas Kelly
Costume Designer – Thom Crain
Set Designer – Todd Schaefer
Lighting and Sound Designer – Florian Staab
Asst. Lighting Designer – Seth Pyatt
Props Master – Vicki Herrmann
Audio Engineer – Steve Massey
Lighting Technician – Trisha Bakula
Concessions/House Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Box Office Manager – Vicki Herrmann
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Michael C. Daft

THE BANDPiano/Conductor – Chris Petersen
Bass – Dave Hall
Trumpet – Carl Nelson
Guitar – Mike Renard
Percussion – Mike Schurk
Reeds – Marc Strathman

THE REVIEWS
“Director Scott Miller has brilliantly reimagined the early Andrew Lloyd Webber triumph for the here and now. . . Lloyd Webber’s unforgettable music and Tim Rice’s witty lyrics benefit mightily from Miller’s chamber-musical approach. Without the customary bombast, it’s possible not only to hear the show, but to listen to it. . . [The two leads] bring superlative showmanship to the proceedings without forsaking emotional truth. And their singing is at once convincingly anguished and gloriously theatrical. . . Smart, engaging and ultimately poignant, this Superstar is a winner.” – Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Director Scott Miller promised to bring something new and different to his New Line Theatre production of Jesus Christ Superstar, and he did. . . There is excellent work throughout the cast, and Miller’s casting choices are exemplary. . . A superior production. . .” – Joe Pollack, KWMU-FM

“This production rocks the house. If your soul needs re-charging plug in to the Art Loft for some soul food. Be warned, as I said, it’s apparently not for everyone, but then what is anymore? Take an open mind and a need to groove.” – Kirsten Wylder, KDHX-FM

“A climax that was shocking both in terms of the action itself and in terms of what impact it brought to the production as a whole. . . Miller’s modernization concept gives the production a thought-provoking aura. The production also avoids the tendency of the final scenes to feel interminable.” – Backstage

“New Line Theatre’s minimalist approach focuses audience attention appropriately on the music, which is well-sung by the ensemble and backed up by a great band.” – Deanna Jent, The Riverfront Times

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
Why set Jesus Christ Superstar in the present? First, because that’s what the show’s creators intended back in 1970. Second, because it’s a very complicated story about subversive politics, power, and empire, and setting it in the present hopefully makes all the players and all their agendas clearer and easier to understand. It shows us the important political and social parallels to our world today, helping make this ancient story come alive for us in 2006. Whether or not you believe Jesus was the Son of God, it’s hard to argue that he wasn’t a great philosopher who changed the world. But he was also a rebel, a radical political activist, and that side of his life is often ignored or forgotten today – even though it holds great relevance for us.

When lyricist Tim Rice wrote Superstar, he said in many interviews that the story he was telling was not about God or religion or divinity. It’s about political activism – the eternal battle between grass roots movements and entrenched governmental authority. Jesus Christ Superstar isn’t about Jesus’ teachings on morality, but instead about how his radical populist agenda challenged and terrified those in power – and brought danger to his followers. Also, Superstar was meant to be the story of Judas, not Jesus, and why Judas felt he had to betray his friend. The entire show is one possible answer to that question, a question Christians have wrestled with for centuries. Even the show’s title refers not to Jesus himself, but to Judas’ perception of Jesus’ mistake in allowing himself to become a “star” at the expense of his message.

We’ve also attempted in this production to use everything we know now about the historical Jesus in order to tell this story as truthfully as possible. Scholars all agree now that Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute; she was probably a rich girl from a town that was a hotbed of subversive political activity. She was probably very smart and opinionated and one of Jesus’ closest confidantes. Most scholars agree that Jesus had a lot more than twelve disciples and that many of them were women. Also, Bible scholars now know that the Jewish temples of Jesus’ time and the early Christian church used cannabis extract in their anointing oils (so the THC would absorb into the skin) and in their incense during religious rituals, the smoke helping the devout to experience religious visions. Politics, religion, sex, money, power, even drugs. The world of Judas and Jesus is not so different from ours.

Though some of our choices with Superstar may seem surprising or “radical” to you, every choice was made to tell this story as clearly, as fully, and as honestly as possible, and to be true to the writers’ intent. After all, radical actually means “of or pertaining to the root or original; fundamental.” This is one of the greatest stories ever told, but not only for religious reasons. Jesus’ movement provided the template for every great political movement that came after, including the American anti-slavery movement, the women’s suffrage movement, the Civil Rights movement, the feminist movement, the gay rights movement, and so many more.

Originally Superstar was written to illuminate the politics of the 1960s, but now it can also illuminate the politics of a new millennium. We hope you see new things in this classic show tonight and we also hope you find in it new insights into the tumult of our times.

Bat Boy (2006)

2006-02-23T19:56:00.000-06:00

Book by Keythe Farley & Brian Flemming
Music & Lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe
Licensed under agreement with Weekly World News
Feb. 23-March 18, 2006
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CASTEdgar – Todd Schaefer
Dr. Thomas Parker – Matthew Korinko
Shelley Parker – April Lindsay
Meredith Parker – Deborah Sharn
Sheriff Reynolds – Brian Claussen
Ron/Mayor Maggie – Stephanie Brown
Deputy Bud/Daisy/King of the Forest – Aaron Allen
Mrs. Taylor/Rev. Hightower/Roy – Nicholas Kelly
Rick/Lorraine – Jeffrey Pruett
Ruthie/Ned/Impassioned Female Soloist – Christine Brooks

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Costume Designer – Thom Crain
Set Designer – Todd Schaefer
Lighting Designer – Kenneth Zinkl
Props Master – Kimi Short
Specialty Props – Pat Edmonds
Lighting Technician – G.P. Hunsaker
Sound Technician – Steve Massey
Box Office Manager – Vicki Herrmann
Concessions/House Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Michael C. Daft

THE BAND
Piano/Conductor – Chris Petersen
Guitar – Mike Renard
Bass – Dave Hall
Percussion – Joshua Costello

THE REVIEWS
“New Line’s artistic director, Scott Miller, has brought Bat Boy back in all its screwball glory. It is a moment to savor… Bat Boy is just as much fun as it was the first time around… This is musical theater for audiences who think that musical theater can’t be hip. They’re in for a very smart surprise.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“New Line Theatre scores another hit this season with its wacky musical, Bat Boy: The Musical… Congratulations are in order for Miller and his amazing cast/crew for putting the fun back in musical theater. This production will definitely be in contention for my best show of 2006. Kudos to New Line Theatre!” – Jim Campbell, Playback STL
“Part spoof, part fantasy, part plea for tolerance and understanding and love, part rowdy and raucous musical comedy, Bat Boy adds up to outstanding entertainment, and the New Line Theatre production brings the evening to exciting, high-powered life.” – Joe Pollack, KWMU-FM

“Snatched directly from the headlines of your friendly neighborhood grocery-store tabloid, Bat Boy is raucous entertainment with a social message occasionally emerging from pun-strewn humor. The New Line Theatre production scores nicely, with Scott Miller’s direction gathering up almost all the loose ends.” – Backstage

“Some shows are just too much fun to let slip away. In that vein, nearly the entire cast of New Line’s 2003 Bat Boy has returned to sink their teeth into this show (and into American life) one more time. They do a spectacular job with a silly comedy full of deep meanings, under the highly organized direction of Scott Miller… as always, it comes down to great singing and great comedy. This show has more than enough of each to draw us out of our own mid-winter’s bat cave, foraging for fun.” – Richard Green, KDHX-FM

“You’ve read about him in the Weekly World News; now see the Bat Boy live in this energetic New Line Theatre production… Director Scott Miller’s slick staging keeps the story in sharp focus, maintaining a difficult balance between the script’s campy comedy and its genuine emotion.” – Deanna Jent, The Riverfront Times
DIRECTOR'S NOTES
It’s rare that a piece of theatre becomes more relevant the older it gets but sadly, Bat Boy is doing just that. Prejudice and intolerance in America just keeps getting stronger and more pervasive.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, all of America was saddened to see that almost all the people left behind in New Orleans were poor African Americans. No one had even considered that most of them did not own cars and therefore couldn’t get out of the city by themselves. As days went by with no hope of rescue, most of us felt nothing but shame for our country. As far as our government was concerned, these Americans apparently didn’t matter.

In December, the rabid right-wingers declared that there was a War on Christmas. Why? Because too many of us were acknowledging other religious and cultural traditions by offering friends and family the more inclusive “Happy Holidays.” To so many religious conservatives, the act of including Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, or other winter rituals in our good wishes was the worst kind of blasphemy. It seems only Christmas is worthy of mention in America, even for non-Christians.

And still today, some in Congress and the White House want to amend our Constitution to make gay marriage illegal, forever enshrining their prejudices and demoting ten percent of Americans to second-class status. None of the people “protecting marriage” can ever explain how two women getting married endangers a straight couple’s relationship, but that doesn’t slow them down. Sounds like the kind of hysteria surrounding Edgar in Bat Boy.

And in the Southwest, there are now vigilantes aggressively going after undocumented immigrants from Mexico, forgetting that almost all our ancestors came to America from other lands, all with the same dream of liberty, peace, and hope for the future. And of course, we’re told these immigrants are to blame for a whole litany of America’s ills.

And then there’s Iraq, a country we invaded for less than legitimate reasons, and upon which we’re now trying to impose our culture and our governing system without bothering to understand at all their culture and their desires for their country. Apparently, nobody really understands morality and justice except us. Again, it sounds a lot like the townspeople in Bat Boy.

But maybe Bat Boy's greatest strength is that though it’s about all these important issues, it never bludgeons the audience with them (though, as you may know from our other shows, we’re not entirely opposed to bludgeoning now and then). I’ve always believed theatre to be potentially one of the most powerful forces for change because it can address issues without an audience noticing. It can personalize and humanize. It can get people thinking without them realizing it. It’s sneaky that way. Kinda like a hopped-up kid creeping up on a defenseless little bat boy in a cave. But I digress…

We hope you enjoy getting to know the bat boy tonight as much as we have enjoyed it. He may have fangs, big pointy ears, and an unfortunate taste for fresh blood, but the world could use a few more like him. And instead of demonizing all who are different from us, we would do well to consider that maybe they aren’t the monsters, after all…

A New Line Cabaret III: When Musicals Attack (2006)

2006-01-09T19:56:00.000-06:00

a world premiere revue
featuring songs from Cop Rock, Bat Boy, Urinetown, Johnny Appleweed, Avenue Q, A New Brain, Mame, Ragtime, The Last Five Years, Floyd Collins, Pump Boys and Dinettes, Spelling Bee, The Wild Party, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and other shows
January 9-10, 2006
Sheldon Concert Hall

THE CAST
Aaron Allen
Isaac Bondurant
Brian Claussen
Thom Crain
Alison Helmer
Ember Hyde
Nicholas Kelly
April Lindsey
Mo Monahan
John Rhine
Todd Schaefer
Deborah Sharn
Kimi Short
Angela Shultz
Victoria Thomas
Scott Tripp

THE STAFF
Director - Scott Miller

The AmberKlavier (2005)

2005-10-25T19:55:00.000-05:00

the world premeire
book, music, and lyrics by
Eric Dienstfrey
October 25-26, 2005
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CAST
The Cook – Christopher Manelli
Amber – Amy Schwarz

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector – Eric Dienstfrey
Graphic Designer – Alissa Umansky

The Fantasticks (2005)

2005-10-13T19:55:00.000-05:00

Music by Harvey Schmidt
Book and Lyrics by Tom Jones
based on Les Romanesques by Edmond Rostand
Oct. 13-Nov. 5, 2005
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CAST
El Gallo (“The Cock”) – Matthew Korinko
Luisa, The Girl – Christine Brooks
Matt, The Boy – Clark Sturdevant
Bellomy, The Girl’s Father – Thomas Conway
Hucklebee, The Boy’s Father – Steve Callahan
Henry – Nicholas Kelly
Mortimer – Aaron Allen
The Mute – Adam Leong
Lodevigo – Nicholas Kelly
Socrates – Aaron Allen

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector – Scott Miller
Fight Choreographer – Nicholas Kelly
Costume Designer – Thom Crain
Set Designer – Todd Schaefer
Lighting Designer – Kenneth Zinkl
Props Master – Kimi Short
Lighting Technician – Ember Hyde
Box Office Manager – Vicki Herrmann
Concessions/House Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Graphic Designer – Kris Wright
Photographer – Michael C. Daft

THE BANDPiano/Conductor – Chris Petersen
Harp – Sue Taylor

THE REVIEWS
“At New Line Theatre, the audience is used to surprises. . . this time, the surprise lies in the voices - the best that New Line has ever showcased. They make the familiar, unassuming musical sound, of all things, lush. “ – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“This was a night that I was glad to enjoy the simplicity of theater the old-fashioned way. In an age of spectacle, The Fantasticks is fantastic in its smallness. . . New Line’s Fantasticks is not a musical to blow you out of your seat. Rather, it is an experience in the goodness of the human heart, and does in fact speak of timeless themes relevant to our selfish modern world. . . listeners should take some time next weekend to enjoy the simple bliss that is The Fantasticks courtesy of the New Line Theater. “ – Doug Storm, KDHX-FM

“Less is more with The Fantasticks, and that makes it an ideal show for artistic director Scott Miller’s New Line Theatre. The Fantasticks accommodates just two musicians, harpist Sue Taylor and pianist Chris Petersen, whose soft, subtle renditions of the jazzy tunes of lyricist Tom Jones and composer Harvey Schmidt nicely complement the low-key action on stage. Under Miller’s sure and steady direction, his ensemble delivers the wit and charm of this gentle show in a way that reminds us of why The Fantasticks was performed a staggering 17,162 times in a tiny theater in New York for 42 years (!) beginning in 1960.” – Mark Bretz, Ladue News

“New Line’s The Fantasticks is a good illustrator of why it’s sometimes okay to just let a piece be what it is, whether that be simple or grandiose, fluffy or deep, comedy or tragedy. It also shows why the best shows mix these labels up, or, rather, have a little of everything. Sometimes it’s worth just seeing a good play done well. You might get your thoughts provoked, or you might not, but the enjoyment makes it all worthwhile.” – John Shepard, Playback St. Louis

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
When New Line produced both Camelot and Man of La Mancha, people kept asking us why we would do such old-fashioned shows. Of course, the answer was that both shows still seemed as relevant as anything currently on stage, still addressing important political, social, and human rights issues we grapple with every day.

Now comes The Fantasticks and the questions persist. But once again, the answer is obvious. Like Into the Woods, written decades later, this Beat Generation fable presents a traditional Happily Ever After in Act One, and then deconstructs it, even mocks it, in Act Two.

In Act One of The Fantasticks, Matt and Luisa find a traditional, Broadway musical, Happily Ever After. But it’s tainted, predicated on a deception – like too much of mainstream American life. In Act Two, the disillusionment sinks in and they find that a relationship cannot be built on false romanticism. The Happily Ever After they had been promised all their lives runs smack up against the reality of Life. Like many young people today, they are surprised to find that Marriage is Hard. All the lovely lies of the American establishment, the Happily Ever After that the movies and TV promise, that mythical American Dream that only a few Americans actually get to enjoy, is revealed to be a fake. Like the musicals that would be written in the years to come, Act Two of The Fantasticks tells us that life is complicated, difficult, confusing, but that it is possible for clear-eyed realists to navigate this decidedly un-musical-comedy terrain if they can just see the world truthfully.

Despite its magic, its minimalism, its fable style, The Fantasticks looks at real life and real love like few shows do. And in a time in America when human interaction is trivialized, digitized, and commercialized beyond recognition, The Fantasticks urges us not to get caught up in the myth they’re selling so hard and to take a good close look at what matters most in this world – people. In this time when we can do our banking, our shopping, our bill paying, our movie-going, even our porn, all by interacting only with computers, this is a story we need to hear. And that’s why you’ll see very little set or props or costumes tonight – this is a show about people. We need to reshape our society back into one that values human connection above all else. Is it any wonder we go to war this easily when most of us are so disconnected from the rest of humanity?

Journalist Linda Elerbee once wrote this: “Will Durant said civilization is a stream with banks. He said the stream is sometimes filled with blood from people’s killing, stealing, shouting and doing the things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, rear children, sing songs, write poetry and whittle statues. He said historians (and journalists) are pessimists because they ignore the banks of the river. But the story of civilization, he said, is the story of what happened on the banks. Sixteen years ago, I saw The Fantasticks for the first time. This week, I will see it for the sixteenth time. Why? Because at least once a year I need to be reminded about the importance of what goes on on the banks, and how to get back to them. Deep in December, it’s nice to remember. The rest of the time, it’s necessary.”

Kiss of the Spider Woman (2005)

2005-05-26T19:55:00.000-05:00

Music by John Kander Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Book by Terrence McNally
based on the novel by Manuel Puig
May 26-June 18, 2005
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CASTLuis Molina – Scott Tripp
Valentin Paz – Nicholas Kelly
Aurora, the Spider Woman – Stephanie Brown
Warden – Richard Strelinger
Molina’s Mother – Mo Monahan
Esteban – G.P. Hunsaker
Marcos – Drew Somervell
Marta – Sarah Armstrong
Gabriel – Aaron Allen
Aurelio/Amnesty International Observer – Terry Love
Prisoners – Aaron Allen, Jun Cai, Terry Love, Lewis Perdun, John Russell, Scott Tripp

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector – Scott Miller
Choreographers – Robin Michelle Berger, John Ricroft
Set Designer – Todd Schaefer
Lighting Designer – Elizabeth Heilich
Costume Designer – Thom Crain
Dance Captain – Lewis Perdun
Props Master – Kimi Short
Lighting Technician – Ember Hyde
Box Office Manager – Vicki Herrmann
Concessions/House Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Graphic Designer – Kris Wright
Photographer – Michael C. Daft

THE BANDPiano/Conductor – Chris Petersen
Guitar – Mike Renard
Trumpet – Carl Nelson
Reeds – Lou Goldford
Bass – Dave Hall
Percussion – Joshua Costello

THE REVIEWS
“Director Scott Miller has cleared the bases with a rousing grand slam of an interpretation of this fabulously rich musical. It’s a gritty and glorious salute to the combined genius of Kander, Ebb and McNally, with appropriate respect to Puig, and his cast is clearly equal to the task.” – Mark Bretz, Ladue News

“Over the years, New Line has done well with other shows by John Kander and Fred Ebb (Cabaret, Chicago). But this production demonstrates that New Line’s artistic director, Scott Miller, has an affinity for their viewpoint that transcends the ‘greatest hits’ approach. The story of Molina and his revolutionary cellmate, Valentin (Nicholas Kelly), combines left-wing politics, imaginative musical numbers and a seedy, ripped-stocking glamour. That’s the New Line aesthetic in a nutshell. It’s a great fit.... It adds up to a fascinating evening of unusual theater... the New Line production never relinquishes the play’s central point. That deals with questions of personal loyalty and overriding social good. It won’t make theater-goers feel comfortable. But Miller and his company can feel proud to address a play so hard to take and make it pay off on its own terms.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Director Scott Miller knocked the casting ball out of the park by bringing together a top-notch and very talented group of actors... Miller should be doubly proud: first, for what he has accomplished this season with New Line Theatre, but also for being able to bring all of these fine actors together for a truly extraordinary performance.” – Jim Campbell, Playback St. Louis

“Kiss of the Spider Woman is one of New Line’s best productions.” – Bob Wilcox, KDHX-FM

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
We’re in Buenos Aires. It’s 1976. President Juan Peron returned to Argentina a few years ago after eighteen years in exile, but he died soon after. His second wife Isabel took over the presidency, but she was removed from power in March of this year by a military junta under General Videla. Now, no one is safe. You keep hearing about people disappearing – liberals, leftists, union leaders, journalists, artists, students, even priests – and sometimes just ordinary people who are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

You know one of those.

This is no time for heroism or idealism in Argentina; this is a time for keeping your mouth shut. Anyone suspected of favoring these groups or their ideas is in danger of arrest. All cultural life is now subjected to strict censorship. The government has taken control of the labor unions. People are being kidnapped on the streets and never heard from again. The prisons are overflowing with political prisoners and you hear stories of the most horrific torture. There are no trials or even any pretense of legal process. You’ve even heard rumors that there are concentration camps like the Nazis had.

Lately, the mothers and grandmothers of those who’ve been “disappeared” – los desaparecidos – are standing up to the government. Every Thursday, they assemble in the Plaza de Mayo in front of the Presidential Palace, demanding information on their missing children. So far, nothing has happened to these women, but you wouldn’t dare join them.

You’ve heard so many stories on the streets about the prisons, coming from the few Argentines who’ve actually been released. They say some prisoners aren’t allowed to lie down on their cots during the day, and the strain of this can cause paralysis or atrophy of the legs. They’re not allowed any contact with family or friends, and most prisoners are afraid to write to loved ones, for fear they too will be targeted. They say the prison guards stage fake escapes and executions with mannequins to scare the prisoners. Newspapers and radios are banned insider the prison, and only books written before the French Revolution are in prison libraries – so prisoners “don’t get any ideas.”

You’ve heard stories about prisoners being experimented on with tranquilizer darts, tortured with cattle prods, having the soles of their feet beaten with batons, having metal buckets placed on their heads and then the buckets hammered with clubs, having electrical wires applied to breasts, vaginas, anuses, penises, tongues, and other body parts. There are even rumors that in some cases, prisoners’ bellies are slit open and then they’re dropped in the river as “fish food.” Some are thrown out of airplanes fully conscious. And at the end of a prisoner’s term, he or his family has to pay the state back for the cost of his imprisonment or he won’t be released.

The people of Argentina keep hoping the international community will step in and stop the horrors, but it appears that the United States actually supports Argentina’s military government. Amnesty International has sent representatives but they have no real power.

It’s like a bad dream and everyone in the country is just waiting to wake up. But the dream just goes on and on…

The Robber Bridegroom (2005)

2005-03-03T19:55:00.000-06:00

Book and lyrics by Alfred Uhry
Music by Robert Waldman
Based on the novel by Eudora Welty
March 3-26, 2005
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CAST
Jamie Lockhart – Michael Heeter
Rosamund Musgrove – Leah Schumacher
Salome Musgrove – Ember Hyde
Clement Musgrove – Thomas Conway
Little Harp – Gregory Paul Hunsaker
Big Harp – Drew Somervell
Goat – Jeffrey Pruett
Raven – Jamie McKittrick
Goat’s Mother – Kimi Short
Goat’s Sister, Arie – Christine Brooks
Innkeeper/Thief/Preacher – Richard Ives

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector – Scott Miller
Set Designers – The Company
Scenic Artist – Todd Schaefer
Lighting Designer – Mark Schilling
Costume Designer – Thom Crain
Props – Richard Ives
Puppet Design – Pat Edmonds
Box Office Manager – Vicki Herrmann
Lobby/Concessions Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Graphic Designer – Kris Wright
Photographer – Michael C. Daft

THE BANDFiddle – Matt King
Guitar – Mike Renard
Banjo – Michael Mason
Bass – Dave Hall

THE REVIEWS
“Scott Miller has a hit on his hands! The New Line Theatre has opened The Robber Bridegroom, and you definitely must see this show. Sweet and charming and outrageous and corny and violent and sexy and utterly engaging, this wonderfully imaginative piece is based on a novel by Eudora Welty... It’s delightful, it’s charming, and it’s absolutely Edenically innocent.” – Steve Callahan, KDHX-FM

“God Bless New Line Theater and Artistic Director Scott Miller for having the sense to put on a show as interesting as The Robber Bridegroom. New Line Theatre, the self-proclaimed Bad Boy of Musical Theater, lives up to the title yet again with their most recent production… By challenging the way we look at musicals, [New Line] makes them more accessible to the common man, while giving theater snobs something to love in the process. For those that fall somewhere betwixt the two, you’re in luck, as New Line’s players will indeed entertain.” – Tyson Blanquart, Playback St. Louis

“The Robber Bridegroom suits Miller’s smart, no-frills aesthetic – and boasts the added advantage of unfamiliarity. It’s one show that nobody’s seen ‘too many times.’ Yet it’s a charmer. . . But The Robber Bridegroom is a fairy-tale for grown-ups. The four-man band serves up the blue-grass score (by composer Robert Waldman and lyricist Alfred Uhry) in likeable, familiar, laid-back style. But catch the lyrics to songs like ‘Two Heads’ or ‘Poor Tied Up Darlin.’ There’s no latent message here. Violent, sexual and avaricious impulses are right on surface of this story, in which civilization and self-control are as easy to rip off as Rosamund’s dainty frocks. “ – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Director Scott Miller scores a triumph with his delightful production that smartly captures the free spirit and charming effervescence of this romp through the woods.” – Mark Bretz, Ladue News

“The indomitable Mr. Miller [as director] has taken what he’s got and whipped his cast into a proper frenzy of comic cataclysm.” – Richard Green, Talkin’ Broadway.com

“A bright, charming production by New Line Theatre. . . Highly entertaining.” – Joe Pollack, KWMU-FM

DIRECTOR'S NOTESHang on. We’re going for a crazy ride tonight. The Robber Bridegroom is a very funny show, chock full of cheap gags and lots of silliness, but it’s also a difficult one, a story built on some of the ugliest aspects of human nature, including a really awful, sexist view of women. From today’s perspective, it might make us a squirm a little. But all great social satire does. If we don’t stare our problems in the face, how can we ever solve them?

The Robber Bridegroom is one of a number of musicals that form an interesting sub-genre, the anti-hero musical. For instance, in The Music Man, Harold Hill swindles a town full of decent, hard-working folks, and we love him for it. In Chicago, both central characters are murderers, but we are utterly seduced by them. In Pal Joey, Joey is a slimy, self-serving, adulterous little twerp, but we find him charming and funny. In My Fair Lady, Henry Higgins is an arrogant, self-involved woman-hater, but we laugh right along with his abuses. Likewise, in The Robber Bridegroom, Jamie Lockhart is a thief and he only enjoys sex if it’s not consensual, but he’s the hero of a musical comedy.

The Robber Bridegroom is set in America's rough-and-tumble past, just about the time our Founding Fathers were creating our new nation. But the folks in the Natchez Trace down in Mississippi weren't drafting a Constitution. No, they were lying, thieving, killing, and screwing. This wasn't the America of waistcoats, powdered wigs, and British tea. This was the real America – rough, lustful, dangerous, and uncivilized.

The Robber Bridegroom is about the two sides of humanity, the “gentlemanly” side and the animal side, about the primal urges that we think we’ve civilized out of ourselves. But if we have, how can we explain our torture of prisoners in Iraq? How can we explain the escalating violence on our streets? How can we explain our overcrowded prisons? How can we explain all the gun owners in America or our collective love affair with The Sopranos? Do we ignore that side of our nature, do we confront it, or do we accept it as part of us?

We can sit back comfortably and believe that because this story is set in 1795, we can dismiss it as a less evolved time and place. But its parallels to today are obvious. When it was written, America was still grappling with the war crimes committed by American soldiers in Vietnam. Now we have other disturbing parallels. Perhaps The Robber Bridegroom illustrates one of the big lessons we’re learning right now in the world – morality and survival aren’t always compatible.

You can watch the show from a modern feminist perspective and be appalled that Rosamund wants to be with the Bandit of the Woods, but how many of us know women like her, who only like “bad boys,” who are attracted to men who treat them badly, who stay in unhealthy relationships? It’s real. And maybe if we recognize that we haven’t really come all that far since the days of the earliest American settlers, we can at long last do something about it.

It’s okay just to sit back and enjoy The Robber Bridegroom and not think about any of this for a couple hours. But don’t think we have nothing to learn from these crazy, nasty, desperate, deeply human characters on stage.

We have met the enemy and he is us.

She's Hideous (2004)

2004-10-12T19:54:00.000-05:00

the world premiere
book, music, and lyrics by
Eric Dienstfrey
October 12-13, 2004
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CAST
The Artist – Colin DeVaughan
Wanda – Amy Schwarz

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Director – Eric Dienstfrey
Sound Designer – Nathan Ruyle
Graphic Designer – Alissa Umansky

Man of La Mancha (2004)

2004-09-30T19:54:00.000-05:00

Book by Dale Wasserman
Music by Mitch Leigh
Lyrics by Joe Darion
inspired by The Adventures of Don Quixote
by Miguel de Cervantes
Sept. 30-Oct. 23, 2004
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CASTMiguel de Cervantes/Don Quixote – Todd Schaefer
Escalante/Aldonza – April Lindsey
Manservant/Sancho Panza – Brian Claussen
Governor/Innkeeper – Brad Slavik
Duke/Sansón Carrasco – Aaron Benedict
Scorpion/Anselmo – Isaac Bondurant
Casildera/Fermina/Moorish Dancer – Christine Brooks
El Médico/Barber/Paco – Thom Crain
Belerma/Antonia – Megan Iverson
Mother Bane/Housekeeper/Maria – Mo Monahan
Lobillo/Pedro – J Reese
Judas/Padre/Tenorio – Jason Weitkamp

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector – Scott Miller
Fight Choreographer – Nicholas Kelly
Set Designers – The Company
Scenic Artist – Todd Schaefer
Lighting Designer – Elizabeth Heilich
Costume Designer – Thom Crain, Todd Schaefer
Box Office Manager – Steve Dohrmann
Lobby/Concessions Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Graphic Designer – Scott Hunt
Photographers – Michael C. Daft, Robert Stevens

THE BAND
Guitar – Mike Renard
Keyboards – Chris Petersen
Bass – Dave Hall
Percussion – Joshua Costello

THE REVIEWS
“Man of La Mancha is in the pantheon of stellar shows in the Broadway musical canon. The New Line Theatre production, directed with keen intuition and appropriate reverence by Scott Miller, beautifully underscores the inherent nobility and passion of the work with a masterful presentation.. . a stunning triumph.” – Mark Bretz, Ladue News

“Director Scott Miller and a talented ensemble meaningfully reinterpret for today this stirring hymn to individualism from the experimental theatre movement of nearly forty years ago. . . The entire company’s approach and embodiment of Wasserman’s and Cervantes’ quest for truth in illusion inspires admiration. With Miller’s moving yet focused direction, each performer contributes talent and conviction throughout. . . New Line proves Don Quixote, the Man of La Mancha is not dead, but lives ‘a life worth living’.” – Nancy Crouse, KDHX-FM

“The layers encasing this performance keep the audience at a shrewd distance, though the intimate staging does not. Todd Schaefer [as Quixote] fiddles with the relationship between actor and role and between actor and audience. . . [The] other performers take a similarly intellectual tack. They don’t sweeten the show, visually or vocally. But they keep it honest for two meaty, intermission-free hours.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“The show is another hit from one of the most stylistic theater companies in St. Louis. For those out there that tend to shy away from musical theater, I highly recommend this production, as it will remove any ill-conceived notions you may have about the genre, and make you think twice about judging a book by its cover. “ – Tyson Blanquart, Playback St. Louis

“Once it begins to roll, it sweeps like an avalanche. . . a great show in every respect.” – Joe Pollack, KWMU-FM

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
St. Louis theatre has rarely been more political than it is right now, with recent shows like the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis’ The Crucible, ECHO Theatre’s Marat/Sade, and now New Line’s Man of La Mancha. In this election year, it becomes clearer than ever that theatre is a place for our community to come together and discuss the issues of our times. When Man of La Mancha opened in 1965, Life magazine’s critic Tom Prideaux wrote:

It is easy to dismiss this play as sentimental. But in a time when men complain about losing their identity, of being mere cogs and numbers in a computerized world, the spectacle of a rampantly individual Don Quixote is welcome. His constant homage to spiritual ideals touches a chord, especially among the young today who are so earnestly and vociferously finding ideals among political realties. The audience’s tears testify to the achingly human ambivalence of Quixote, who is both a criticism and a defense of man’s idealism. In making us love him and recognize parts of him in ourselves, this absurd but magnificent dreamer has revealed deep truths. He has shown to what an important extent all men can, and must, create their own reality – and how inspiring and dangerous it can be.

You’d almost think Prideaux had written this in 2004, about the new influx of idealistic young people into the political process, and about the human disconnection of our increasingly digitized world. But it’s more than that.

In the last few years, our government has imprisoned American citizens without charge and refused them access to legal counsel or contact with loved ones. Our government now has the power to enter and search our homes without our knowledge or consent. Our government can check our library records to see if they think we’re a threat to national security. Our soldiers have tortured prisoners in foreign prisons.

Man of La Mancha speaks to these times.

This show is not the old-fashioned musical people think it is, and we’re here to prove it. It came from the experimental theatre movement of 1960s New York, and it’s about the disillusionment and forced conformity that so many young people were battling in the sixties, and still today. It’s about fighting for a better world, refusing to let others tell us how to see the world, about rising up against the over-reaching of our government and of religious extremists – both Christian and Muslim – and about changing the world simply by living a moral, engaged, courageous life.

Don Quixote the novel was written in 1615 and Man of La Mancha was written in 1965, but few pieces of theatre are more clearly about our world right now, right here. It is an election year and we must, each of us, stand up and make our voices heard. We hope this show will inspire you to do just that.

Maybe Don Quixote is crazy, but he may also be right.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2004)

2004-07-29T19:54:00.000-05:00

Book by John Cameron Mitchell
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Trask
co-produced with the
Washington Avenue Players Project
July 29-Aug. 21, 2004
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CASTHedwig – Todd Schaefer
Yitzak – Stephanie Brown

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Director – Scott Miller
Lighting Designer – Florian Staab
Costume Designers – Todd Schaefer, Thom Crain
Sound Designer – Florian Staab
Lighting Technician – Thom Crain
Box Office Manager – Steve Dohrmann
Lobby/Concessions Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Graphic Designer – Kris Wright
Photographers – Michael C. Daft, Robert Stevens

THE BANDPiano – Chris Petersen
Guitar – Mike Renard
Bass – Dave Hall
Percussion – Joshua Costello

THE REVIEWS
“What’s a girly boy to do when his sex-change operation is botched? Form a rock & roll band! Todd Schaefer shows off an amazing voice in this confessional concert piece, which features a kick-ass band and great cross-gender supporting work from Stephanie Brown.” – Deanna Jent, Riverfront Times
“Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a challenging piece of theater, to audiences and to the St. Louis theater community as well… the sort of theatre St. Louisans should be exposed to.” – Joe Pollack, KWMU-FM

“Mr. Schaefer’s [Hedwig] gains the edge by having the stamp of a Scott Miller production: clearly thought-out; artistically consistent; and faithful to playwright Cameron Mitchell’s intent… The New Line/WAPP version gives us a Hedwig whose gifts are also indisputable – and whose past, present, and future are even richer, thanks to greater artistic virtuosity.” – Richard Green, KDHX-FM

“Hedwig is genuinely worth seeing more than once from different points of view. In fact, the book by John Cameron Mitchell and the music and lyrics by Stephen Trask are so intellectually and musically compelling that a first viewing creates an appetite for a second. One interpretation sparks interest in another.” – Gerry Kowarsky, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Todd Schaefer projects a bittersweet and melancholy portrayal of Hedwig, describing the tragic tale of the unhappy and lonely soul, underplaying the anger and focusing instead on the character’s confusion and angst. He is nicely complemented by Stephanie Brown’s taciturn twist on Yitzak, both carping and retreating from Hedwig’s futility. Scott Miller’s direction wisely emphasizes the strengths of the musical score, which offers a number of superior rock anthems, from the pulsating opening number, ‘Tear Me Down’ to the plaintive ‘Origin of Love’ and the lovely ballad ‘The Long Grift,’ which offers some sweet harmony by Schaefer and Brown.” – Mark Bretz, Ladue News
DIRECTOR'S NOTES
While it’s true that the central character of Hedwig and the Angry Inch is an East German, transgendered, “internationally ignored song stylist,” stuck in the early 70s world of glam and punk, still her story is one of the sweetest, most emotional, most deeply moving of just about any musical you can think of. This is a love story, but not an immature, fantasy love story that has nothing to do with real life, like those in Brigadoon, Hello Dolly!, Li’l Abner, or No, No, Nanette.

No, this is a love story that everyone can relate to, about the search for The One, the person that completes you, and the realization that our romantic views of love may be less based in reality than we’d like to believe. Real love is difficult, messy, complicated. Not everyone ends up with The One. The real search, the real journey, is an interior one, a search for wholeness and completeness inside. For anyone who’s ever thought they’d found The One, only to find out later how wrong they were, this is a story for you. And it’s also a story for those of us who sometimes feel like the world is just batting us around like a piece of paper caught in the wind, without purpose, without sympathy, without respite.

Tonight, Hedwig stands before you, emotionally naked, exposed more than any physical nakedness could expose her. She tells us her crazy, outrageous, tragic, hopeful story, partly to exorcise her own demons and find her own way, but also partly to tell us all that we are not alone. We all go through the same battles in life. Some do it in comfortable homes, some in one-room apartments, some in a Kansas trailer park. But the battles are the same.

Like a musical New Line did a few years ago, Songs for a New World, this is a show about surviving, about finding yourself with your back to the wall, all options seemingly exhausted, and then you rise up anyway, find your way back, and come out alright in the end.

Though the show’s influences vary from Plato’s Symposium to Marlene Dietrich to David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, its story is really a simple one. It’s a story that belongs to all of us at one point or another in our lives. So tonight, we do what theatre does best: we come together in a darkened room and share our lives in hopes that it will make our journeys a little easier.

Reefer Madness (2004)

2004-06-03T19:54:00.000-05:00

Book by Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney
Music By Dan Studney
Lyrics by Kevin Murphy
June 3-26, 2004
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CASTJimmy Harper – Percy Rodriguez
Mary Lane – Amanda Butcher
The Lecturer, et al. – Thomas Conway
Jack – Jeffrey Pruett
Mae – Susan Arnold Marks
Sally – Lainie Wade
Ralph – Nicholas Kelly
Ensemble – Gypsy Brown, Colin DeVaughan, Kirstin Kennedy, Leah Schumacher

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Director – Scott Miller
Choreographer – Robin Berger
Dance Captain – Jeffrey Pruett
Technical Director – Pat Murphy
Set Designer – Justin Barisonek
Lighting Designer – Peter Gilchrist
Costume Designer – Thom Crain
Sound Designer – Pat Murphy
Props Master – Jeff Schoenfeld
Box Office Manager – Steve Dohrmann
Lobby/Concessions Manager – Ann Stinebaker
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographers – Michael C. Daft, Robert Stevens

THE BAND
Piano – Kad Day
Guitar – Jim Shiels
Bass – Dave Hall
Percussion – Joshua Costello

THE REVIEWS
“When it comes to goofy fun, Reefer Madness has kilos to spare.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“The New Line cast is bursting with energy and talent. . . the excellent band and the bright performances will ensure that you’ll have a high old hoot of a time at New Line’s Reefer Madness.” – Steve Callahan, KDHX-FM

“Kevin Murphy’s sly lyrics and Dan Studney’s music are the highlights of New Line Theatre’s mostly hilarious telling of this cautionary tale. . . Robin Berger’s choreography is humorously snappy; combined with the fun songs, they happily critique the silly things Americans fear.” – Deanna Jent, The Riverfront Times

“New Line Artistic Director Scott Miller has a reputation in St. Louis for taking chances with unconventional shows. Witness New Line’s production of Batboy: The Musical last season. He comes up swinging again with Reefer Madness, the rock musical based on the 1936 government scare-film of the same name. . . As with most New Line Theatre shows, Scott Miller has a point to make, and Miller gets his point across wonderfully with this production.” – Tyson Blanquart, Playback St. Louis
“New Line Theatre’s production is an amusing, tongue-in-cheek treat under the clever, droll direction of Scott Miller. The music to Reefer Madness has an ingratiating and appealing quality, with clever lyrics by Kevin Murphy and plenty of upbeat music by Dan Studney, both of whom collaborated on the book.” – Mark Bretz, Ladue News

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
America really does suffer from Reefer Madness.

Of course, the title doesn’t just refer to the “madness” that the myths say comes from pot, but also the “madness” in mainstream America which swirls around the drug problem, making it impossible to solve or even discuss rationally. It’s true that many Americans are genuinely addicted to dangerous drugs, but America, as a society and as a government, continues to react to this problem so hysterically and so irrationally that real solutions are impossible.

And that’s what this show is laughing at.

People have been using marijuana and hashish, both products of the cannabis plant, all over the world for thousands of years. Some anthropologists believe cannabis was the first crop humans ever cultivated. Cannabis is a weed that grows everywhere on Earth except the Arctic Circle. Evidence of the cultivation of marijuana reaches back as far as 2737 B.C. China. In 2300 B.C., the Chinese emperor and physician Shen Nung first recorded the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes. It has been used recreationally as far back as 1000 B.C.

But in America, throughout the twentieth century and now into the twenty-first, drugs laws have been made and used to control minority populations more so than to solve any drug problem. Originally, the first anti-marijuana laws in America were quite openly designed to rid America of the “problem” of Mexican workers who had immigrated to the U.S. Later the target was black jazz musicians, then the Beats, then the hippies, then rock musicians and their fans, now the hip-hop community. America’s jails are clogged with non-violent drug offenders. America’s War on Drugs has failed, mainly because the people running that war don’t understand what or why they’re fighting.

Study after study – most commissioned by the government – has proven conclusively that marijuana is not addictive, that it is not dangerous (in fact, it’s far less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco), and that it is not a “gateway drug” leading to other drug use. In fact, to this day, no violent crime in America has ever been linked to marijuana. Ever. Some of these studies concluded that the laws against marijuana are more dangerous and more the cause of violence and crime than the drug itself. Of course, many of those studies were silenced or destroyed by the very people who commissioned them because of their conclusions.

As rational, responsible citizens, we have to ask some questions about America’s ubiquitous War on Drugs: Do we really know that marijuana is part of the “drug problem” in America? Who is telling us this and can we trust them? Have they lied to us before? Is this just like Prohibition, and weren’t lots of people needlessly killed when alcohol was criminalized and went underground? Did we not learn our lesson during Prohibition about criminalizing pleasure in the United States? Have we ever seen that work? And most importantly, should the American government really be waging “war” on its own citizens?

Reefer Madness exposes the hysteria and insanity that still swirls around America’s perception of recreational drugs. Who knows, you might even change your mind… or yours…. or YOURS!

The Nervous Set (2004)

2004-03-04T19:53:00.000-06:00

Book by Jay Landesman and Theodore Flicker
based on the novel by Jay Landesman
Music By Tommy Wolf
Lyrics by Fran Landesman
Arrangements by Tommy Wolf and Chris Buckley
March 4-27, 2004, ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CASTBrad – Jeffrey Pruett
Jan – Kirstin Kennedy
Yogi – Thom Crain
Bummy – Michael Deak
Danny – Nicholas Kelly
Sari – Danna Dockery
Max – Mark Moloney
The Beats, the Squares, and the Smart Set – Isaac Bondurant, Danna Dockery, Josh Goldwasser, Sarah Lynn Griffin, Rich Ives, Susan Arnold Marks, Mark Moloney, Leah Schumacher

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Director – Scott Miller
Assistant Director – Jerry McAdams
Technical Director – Pat Murphy
Set Designer – Justin Barisonek
Lighting Designer – Peter Gilchrist
Costume Designers – Thom Crain, Todd Schaefer
Props Master – Kimi Short
Music Arrangers – Tommy Wolf, Chris Buckley
Box Office Manager – Steve Dohrmann
Graphic Designer – Kris Wright
Photographers – Michael C. Daft, Robert Stevens

THE BAND
Piano – Kad Day
Bass – Terry Kippenberger
Percussion – Joshua Costello

THE REVIEWS
“Many times, I’ve traveled thousands of miles and spent hundreds of dollars to see obscure musicals, but catching The Nervous Set at New Line turned out to be the most valuable theatrical pilgrimage I’ve ever made.” – Peter Filichia, TheaterMania.com

“God bless Miller for letting us see this odd bit of history. And bless him for the continuing adventure that is New Line Theatre.” – Steve Callahan, KDHX-FM

“It’s difficult not to get drawn into the idealism and hypocrisy of a group of young, disillusioned, brilliant show-offs. Bitterly funny irony and far-ahead-of-its-time social commentary.” – John Shepherd, Playback St. Louis

“The songs, by composer Tommy Wolf and lyricist Fran Landesman, are the engine of The Nervous Set, driving us through the narrow streets of Greenwich Village and to a few other outposts of greater New York... Today, we’re inclined to see the Beats – with their skepticism about consumerism society and their embrace of ‘far-out’ ideas in an era that valued conformity – as cultural heroes. But The Nervous Set reminds us of some of the less attractive aspects of Beat culture: its thoughtless sexism (men pursue ideas, women work to support them and lie down to please them), its arrant homophobia and its self-destructive addictions.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“In one of the many sprightly songs that provide the best reason for seeing the 45th-anniversary revival of the jazz/beat musical The Nervous Set, the leading man exudes, ‘We just have one life/Let’s make it a fun life’.” – Dennis Brown, The Riverfront Times

“It was a pleasure to hear Fran Landesman’s glorious lyrics and Tommy Wolf’s music.” – Joe Pollack, KWMU-FM

“New Line artistic director Scott Miller’s forte is musical theatre and that strength is apparent... Jeffrey Pruett (Brad), Michael Deak (Bummy), and Nicholas Kelly (Danny) shine... This Nervous Set is jittery for good reason...” – Mark Bretz, Ladue News

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
Welcome to the world of the Beats, a generation of young people in post-World War II, pre-Vietnam America, swimming in disillusioned angst and apathy. This very special show is both a ground-breaking jazz musical and also a clear-eyed social document, a record of a time and place that should never be forgotten, when America had lost its way and lost track of what's important. It's a truthful evocation of the Beat Generation, with all its warts and contradictions, all its nihilism and its earth-shattering realignment of modern literature. People know about the hippies, but how many know where the hippies came from? The Nervous Set shines the light once again on some of America's true cultural giants.

Jack Kerouac (fictionalized in the show as “Bummy”) once said of the Beats in New York, “We are living at just the right time – Johnson and his London, Balzac and his Paris, Socrates and his Athens – the same thing again.” This show is set at a thrilling moment in American culture. At the same time that Kerouac was changing the course of the American novel and Allen Ginsberg (“Danny” in the show) was doing the same with poetry, other revolutions were also taking place. Jackson Pollock was changing American painting with his wild, visceral new abstract style. Charlie “Bird” Parker was changing music, with the invention of “Bop,” a fierce, aggressive new kind of jazz improvisation. Lenny Bruce was changing comedy, turning it not only political but arguably dangerous. Sid Caesar was changing the face of the newborn television, inventing live sketch comedy with Your Show of Shows. Off Broadway was being born, and on Broadway, Marlon Brando was inventing an entirely new style of aggressive, emotionally raw, American acting.

Charles Schulz was changing the nature of comic strips, bringing the disillusionment and disenfranchise¬ment of the Beats to the funny papers with Peanuts, his now world famous comic strip that commented on literature, art, music, theology, medicine, psychiatry, and the then taboo themes of faith, intolerance, depression, loneliness, cruelty, and despair. Also in 1950, Aldous Huxley, who had written the revolutionary novel Brave New World years earlier, was taking mescaline for the first time, and he wrote The Doors of Perception, starting (or re-starting) America's drug culture. America, the bland land of conformity was being turned upside-down.

Almost everything in The Nervous Set really happened (even the pogo stick). And now we have the rare opportunity to revisit that amazing time, to get a rare glimpse inside that moment in history from the perspective of the people who were really there. This is no Hollywood fiction. This is how it really happened…

Sunday in the Park with George (2003)

2003-10-09T19:53:00.000-05:00

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by James Lapine
October 9 – November 1, 2003
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CAST
George – Todd Schaefer
Dot/Marie – April Lindsey
Old Lady/Blair Daniels – Mo Monahan
Nurse/Mrs./Harriet Pawling – Kim Furlow
Jules/Mr./Bob Greenberg – Thom Crain
Yvonne/Naomi Eisen – Alison Helmer
Boatman/Charles Redmond – Christopher “Zany” Clark
Celeste 1/guest – Danna Dockery
Celeste 2/Elaine – Elise LaBarge
Louise/guest – Devon Cahill
Franz/Dennis – Jeffrey Pruett
Frieda/Betty – Kirstin Kennedy
Soldier 1/Alex – Vernon Goodman
Soldier 2/Lee Randolph – Tanner Redman
Louis/Billy Webster – Rick Enriquez

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Director – Scott Miller
Assistant Director – Jerry McAdams
Set Designer – Justin Barisonek
Lighting Designer – Mark Schilling
Costume Designer – Betsy Krausnick
Sound Designer – Pat Murphy
Props Master – Kimi Short
Box Office Manager – Steve Dohrmann
Graphic Designer – Kris Wright
Photographers – Michael C. Daft, Robert Stevens

THE BANDPiano – Debbie Bernardoni
Horn – Alison Felter
Reeds – Elsie Parker
Percussion – Adam Kopff

THE REVIEWS
“New Line Theatre’s invigorating and richly rewarding production... is a strong, stirring, delicately textured work of art on its own in this first-rate production.” – Mark Bretz, KDHX-FM

“The ArtLoft has the potential to change with every show. For New Line Theatre’s current production there, Sunday in the Park with George, director Scott Miller and set designer Justin Barisonek exploit that potential with elegance and wit. . . Rarely staged, Sunday is an odd work. Its proportions are unfamiliar; it’s slower and more cerebral than most musicals, and its century-long story arc demands a little patience. But with their apt design and distinctive staging, Miller and Barisonek set a welcoming pace, one that’s a pleasure to keep.” – Judy Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Stephen Sondheim composed his gorgeous score from a palette containing colors of astonishing beauty and texture... New Line’s four-piece band does a Herculean job of conveying the inherent artfulness in this lush score.... Todd Schaefer emanates assurance and authority. In Act II, as Seurat’s great-grandson, he even finds the evening’s underlying conscience.” – The Riverfront Times

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
In 1994, New Line produced Pippin, a show which had a cast of about twenty on Broadway, but we did it with a cast of nine. In 1996, we did Sweeney Todd, a show which had a cast of thirty on Broadway, but we only used fifteen. We did Camelot in 1999, a show which originally had a cast of about sixty, and we did it with a cast of thirteen. We stripped all three shows of their original spectacle, their fancy sets and costumes, all the distractions that took the focus away from the actors, their characters, and the emotional content of the story. After all, Camelot isn’t about costume parades; it’s about a tragic romantic triangle, overflowing with profound emotion. Pippin isn’t about flashy sets and choreography; it’s about a generation of young people growing up without direction, role models, or hope for the future. It’s about a young man contemplating suicide. Sweeney isn’t about giant sets; Sondheim always said he intended it to be a small chamber musical, with actors popping up from behind audience members. So that’s how we did it.

Why re-imagine these shows? Why stray so far from the original concepts? Because the original productions aren’t always the best way to do a show. In each case, I have believed that the show we were working on was underestimated, that people saw flaws in the works that were more a product of how they were produced, not how they were written. And now, why take such a different approach to Sunday in the Park with George? Not just for the sake of being contrary, I promise. As with the others, Sunday is not about stage effects or about how much the actors can look like a famous painting. It’s about the nature of genius, about the hard work that human relationships require, about the way artists see the world and how they take little, ordinary moments in life and turn them into art.

In this show, the painter George Seurat takes small moments of real life and real people and he arranges them and focuses them, finds the beauty and nobility and order in them, and he molds them into a great painting. These lives may seem like they don’t matter, but they do; they are the stuff from which transcendent art is made. Likewise, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine have taken those same small, ordinary moments and molded them into a work of musical theatre that approaches genius, that won a Pulitzer Prize for drama, that touches audiences in unexpectedly profound ways. Seurat and Sondheim both celebrate the small moments. We are all works of art, they seem to be saying. Our lives are worth preserving forever. But it takes a genius to see the radiance and grandeur in our little lives.

We hope that by stripping away the baggage of Sunday in the Park, you’ll be able to focus more on these characters and their relationships, their emotions and hang-ups, their love and pain, and on this glorious music and these amazing lyrics, to really get inside this world and inside the mind of a genius.

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (2003)

2003-06-05T19:52:00.000-05:00

Book by Larry L. King and Peter Masterson
Based on a story by Larry L. King
Music & Lyrics by Carol Hall
June 5-28, 2003
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CAST
Mona Stangley – Deborah Sharn
Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd – Richard Enriquez
Melvin P. Thorpe – Nicholas Kelly
Jewel – Victoria Thomas
Doatsey Mae – Alice Kinsella
The Governor of Texas – Thom Crain
Senator Wingwoah – Chuck Lavazzi

The Ladies of the Chicken Ranch
Durla – Christina Crowe
Dawn – Kim Furlow
Eloise – Heather G'Sell
Linda Lou – Molly McBride
Shy – Taylor Pietz
Ruby Rae – Kimi Short
Angel – Lainie Wade
Beatrice – Jennifer Wells

The People of Gilbert, Texas
Leroy Sliney – Andrew Laudel
Melvin’s Staff – Jeremy Brown, Kimi Short, Chuck Lavazzi
CJ Scruggs – James Bundick
Rufus Poindexter – Alex Foster
Edsel Mackey – Thom Crain
Reporters – Bobby Grosser, Alice Kinsella, Justin LeClaire, Kim Furlow
Ensemble – Jeremy Brown, James Bundick, Christina Crowe, Wayne Easter, Alex Foster, Kim Furlow, Bobby Grosser, Heather G'Sell, Andrew Laudel, Justin LeClaire, Molly McBride, Taylor Pietz, Kimi Short, Lainie Wade, Jennifer Wells, Thomas Witholt

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector – Scott Miller
Choreographer – Robin Berger
Set Designer – Justin Barisonek
Lighting Designer – Jen Goldstein
Costume Designer – Todd Schaefer
Props Master – Kimi Short
Box Office Manager – Steve Dohrmann
Graphic Designer – Kris Wright

THE BANDPiano – Kad Day
Guitar – Dale Hampton
Bass – Dave Hall
Violin – Jessica Blackwell
Percussion – Mike Major

THE REVIEWS
“New Line Theatre’s production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas ultimately provides not only marvelous music and dance but substantial food for thought.” – Deanna Jent, The Riverfront Times

“[Director Scott] Miller, who loves musical comedy, chooses to emphasize the musical over the comic in this production. . . But, having made his decision, he executes it with care and intelligence, delivering a production with charms of its own.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
Remember when we found out Monica Lewinsky had been servicing Bill Clinton in the Oval Office? Remember how outraged people were? Remember the months of hearings about it? Remember when Kenneth Starr published the transcripts, which were put in book stores and became bestsellers? If it was all so distasteful, why were all the lurid details in our book stores? Why did every single newscast every night revisit the sorry affair?

Because Americans are moral and sexual hypocrites, most of us. Even though of us who don’t think we are probably really are, deep down. Americans are terrified of sex. We don’t want to talk about it, don’t want to know about it, don’t want to think about it. Many Americans would probably prefer we all just pretend nobody ever has sex.

At the same time, we’re obsessed with it. We’re constantly talking about it, thinking about it, writing about it. If we weren’t, no one would know who Monica Lewinsky is. Pornography is one of America’s biggest industries. Everyone claims it’s disgusting and immoral, that they would never ever buy or even look at porn. But somebody’s buying it. A lot of it. If it’s not you, it’s probably the person sitting next to you. It certainly wouldn’t be going out on too shaky a limb to suggest that Americans have a distinctly unhealthy and often genuinely comic relationship with sexuality, both their own and that of others.

And that’s what The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is about. Not sex itself, but the terror, hypocrisy, and insanity always swirling around sex in America. The Chicken Ranch had been operating, with the full knowledge of most of the inhabitants of Texas, since the late 1800s. A few politicians over the years had made political points railing against it. But the furor never lasted for long and the Chicken Ranch kept its doors open.

Until 1973, when a little known television reporter, recently fired from the Harris Country sheriff’s department, decided to put the Chicken Ranch on TV. Until then it had been an open secret, an accepted, or at least tolerated, institution, part of the state’s peculiar culture and history. But putting real life on TV always changes it, and once this television reporter sent his exaggerations and misrepresentations out over the public airwaves, everything changed. Rational men became raving idiots. After more than a hundred years, the Chicken Ranch was now a very public and very “dangerous” problem that needed Action taken against it. And in the process, people’s lives were ruined.

The real beauty and intelligence of this show can be seen in the way it pushes its social and political satire to the background, focusing primarily on the real people whose real lives were greatly complicated and in some cases destroyed by the televised circus masquerading as news. These are simple people leading simple lives in 1973, back before “reality TV” had become a parody of itself, back when television was still mysterious in many ways to most Americans, back when its awesome power was only just being discovered.

Back before moral hypocrisy had become the national pastime.

Any grab for power or attention – or ratings – usually leaves victims in its wake. Their story is the one we tell tonight.

Bat Boy (2003)

2003-03-06T19:52:00.000-06:00

Book by Keythe Farley & Brian Flemming
Music & Lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe
Licensed under agreement with Weekly World News
March 6-29, 2003
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CASTEdgar – Todd Schaefer
Dr. Thomas Parker – Jason Cannon
Shelley Parker – April Lindsey
Meredith Parker – Deborah Sharn
Sheriff Reynolds – Brian Claussen
Mayor Maggie/Ron – Stephanie Brown
Deputy Bud/Daisy/King of the Forest – Colin DeVaughan
Mrs. Taylor/Rev. Hightower/Roy – Nicholas Kelly
Rick/Lorraine – Jeffrey Pruett
Ruthie/Ned/Impassioned Female Soloist – Angela Shultz

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector – Scott Miller
Costume Designer – Betsy Krausnick
Set Designer – Justin Barisonek
Lighting Designer – Jessica Carter
Props Master – Kimi Short
Specialty Props Designer – Pat Edmonds
Box Office Manager – Steve Dohrmann
Graphic Designer – Kris Wright
Photographer – Robert Stevens

THE BAND
Piano – Kad Day
Guitar – Mike Renard
Bass – Dave Hall
Percussion – Adam J. Kopff

THE REVIEWS
“So weird. So smart. So shocking. So entertaining. Bat Boy, a hit off-Broadway, has found a worthy roost at New Line Theatre, where artistic director Scott Miller has spent 12 years honing a taste for musicals with just those characteristics. . . this show is in a class by itself – and New Line’s confident production lets it stand on its own webbed feet.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Bat Boy: The Musical has everything anyone needs for a great night of theater: sex, laughs, music, drama and dead cows. . . New Line Theatre’s production of Bat Boy The Musical is profoundly theatrical, asking audience members to imaginatively participate in an unexpected journey that’s thrilling, scary, funny and thought-provoking.” – Deanna Jent, Riverfront Times

“Splendid fun. Todd Schaefer is dazzling in the title role, acting and singing and well, and dominating the stage. April Lindsey, Jason Cannon and Deborah Sharn stand out as his “family,” and the rest of the cast, in a wild variety of roles, costumes and genders, bring West Virginia to madcap life.” – Joe Pollack, KWMU-FM

“This production works on many levels thanks to the exuberant cast. Todd Schaefer is spectacular in the title role.” – Sheila Schultz, KDHX-FM

“One of the best musical theatre scores I’ve heard recently. Miller and New Line never do shows that waste either their time or ours.” – Bob Wilcox, West End Word
DIRECTOR'S NOTES
We knew we had something special when, one day in rehearsal a few weeks ago, we finished the finale and a couple of us had tears in our eyes. We had just run through this genuinely wacky show about a half-boy/half-bat and his quest for love and acceptance among the coal-miners-turned-inept-cattle-farmers of Hope Falls, West Virginia, a musical based on a Weekly World News story, of all things, and we were somehow deeply moved by it all.

But when I saw Bat Boy the first time in New York, I had the same experience. I walked out of the theatre wondering how, amidst all that craziness and bizarre comedy, the authors had gotten me to care about the bat boy. It was one of the funniest shows I had ever seen, and it was also deeply emotional. It was outrageous, sweet, satiric, gentle, smart, innocent, touching, hilarious, a little sad, adjectives that didn’t seem to go together, and yet somehow it formed a perfect evening of theatre. The rowdy satire of “Another Dead Cow” and the gentle kindness of “A Home for You” somehow co-existed beautifully in this strange world the creators had wrought.

I knew that night as I walked home that I had to get the rights to produce this show. It was everything New Line is about. It was about important social issues, it was smart, and it had one of the strongest scores I’d heard in years (which gets the credit for a lot of the emotional impact of the show), but more important than that was its brand of storytelling.

Bat Boy is all about imagination. It demands a great deal of its audience. It asks them to forego the high tech trivialities of most current Broadway shows. It asks them to directly participate in the experience of live theatre by believing in the characters and story without realistic sets and costumes, without special effects, without helicopters or chandeliers, without a budget equal to that of a small town.

In Act II, the King of the Forest sings, “Children, welcome home, to where we all began,” words that not only invite the young lovers back to the roots of humanity, but they also invite the audience back to the roots of theatre, back to Grotwoski’s “poor theatre,” where it’s all about the storytelling, about the one-of-a-kind experience of live actors and a live audience sharing a story. Nothing else is necessary.

Maybe Bat Boy's greatest strength is that though it’s about important issues, it never bludgeons the audience with them (though, as you may know from Anyone Can Whistle, we’re not entirely opposed to bludgeoning now and then). I’ve often said I believe theatre to be potentially one of the most powerful forces for change in America, because it can address issues without an audience noticing. It can get people thinking without them realizing what’s happening. It’s sneaky that way. Kinda like a hopped-up kid creeping up on a defenseless little bat boy in a cave. But I digress…

We hope you enjoy getting to know the bat boy tonight as much as we have enjoyed it. He might have fangs, big pointy ears, and an unfortunate taste for fresh blood, but the world could use a few more like him.

A New Line Cabaret II: Attack of the Show Tunes (2003)

2003-01-06T19:51:00.000-06:00

a world premiere revue
featuring songs from Songs for a New World, Metropolis, The Wild Party, Little Shop of Horrors, The Last Five Years, Follies, Urban Myths, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Robber Bridegroom, Man of La Mancha, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Nine, The Baker's Wife, Guys and Dolls, and other shows
January 6-7, 2003
Sheldon Concert Hall

THE CASTChris Brenner
Colin DeVaughan
Keith Hale
Ken Haller
Alison Helmer
Lisa Karpowicz
Robb Kennedy
Patrick Kerwin
Alice Kinsella
April Lindsey
Mo Monahan
Jeffrey Pruett
John Rhine
Todd Schaefer
Deborah Sharn
Kimi Short
Angela Shultz

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector - Scott Miller

THE REVIEWS
“We’re fortunate to have a professional company in St. Louis willing to take creative risks and facilitate the reshaping of audience tastes.” – Sheila Schultz, KDHX-FM

The Rocky Horror Show (2002)

2002-10-10T19:51:00.000-05:00

Book, Music, and lyrics by
Richard O’Brien
Oct. 10-Nov. 2, 2002
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CASTMagenta/Usherette – Alice Kinsella
Janet Weiss – April Lindsey
Brad Majors – Todd Schaefer
Narrator – Christopher “Zany” Clark
Riff Raff – Alan McCormick
Columbia – Kimi Short
Frank N. Furter – Bryan Shyne
Rocky Horror – Jeffrey Pruett
Eddie/Dr. Scott – Brian Claussen

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector – Scott Miller
Choreographer – Jeffrey Pruett
Lighting Designer – Mark Schilling
Costume Designer – Betsy Krausnick
Set Designer – Todd Schaefer
Make-Up Designers – Luda Chernyak, Todd Schaefer
Props Master – Alison Helmer
Box Office Manager – Steve Dohrmann
Graphic Designer – Kris Wright
Photographer – Robert Stevens

THE BANDPiano – Kad Day
Guitar – Dale Hampton
Bass – Dave Hall
Percussion – Adam J. Kopff

THE REVIEWS
“Rocky reminds us vividly of the emotional power actors can exert when they’re in the same room as their audience, even if they’re kidding around.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“When it comes to challenging St. Louis theater audiences, to stretching them, exposing them to new stimuli, hardly anyone is in a class with Scott Miller. . . Rocky Horror will bring much-needed light and laughter to downtown.” – Joe Pollack, KWMU-FM

“Scott Miller directs the New Line production with a grand sense of theater that showcases the campy wit of the musical while still maintaining a necessary discipline to the process.” – Mark Bretz, Laude News

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
Oh God. Miller’s gonna deconstruct Rocky Horror. I could hear all the New Liners’ thoughts when we announced the show. I even wondered myself if I could write a chapter about Rocky, as I do about all our other shows. Did Rocky have anything in it to write about? And I asked myself – as I expected others would ask me – does it have to be more than just good old-fashioned sex, drugs, and rock and roll? It’s fun, campy, crazy; why ask it to be more than that?

The answer became clear as soon as we started work: Because it is.

To my great surprise, I found that Rocky Horror is a very smart, insightful piece of social satire about a very strange, very interesting time in America – the Sexual Revolution. And it holds lessons for us still today about how America over-reacts to nearly everything that comes down the road, and how much happier we’d all be if we’d just stop doing that.

Rocky uses as its vocabulary a collection of pop culture icons – Charles Atlas and muscle magazines, Frederick’s of Hollywood, old sci-fi movies with scantily clad women, horror movies with barely sublimated sexual fantasies, punk and glam rock with their blurring of gender lines – that represent the history of America hiding sex behind other things, of pretending to be pure and sexless while it’s just as sex obsessed as the rest of the world.

At its core, Rocky Horror is about how America over-reacted to the Sexual Revolution – the Pill, free love, communes, gay rights, wife swapping, sex clubs, and all the other surprises of the sixties and seventies.

Rocky's heroes Brad and Janet embody pre-Pill, pre-Sex Education, American innocence. Their journey dramatizes the fake purity and sex-only-through-metaphor of America in the 1950s, as it met the sexual openness of the 1960s and 70s, resulting partly in renewed repression and fear (Brad) and partly in new sexual freedom and experimentation (Janet). Brad reacts to Frank’s open sexuality the way half of America reacted to the Sexual Revolution, recoiling in fear, retreating into 1950s Puritanism; and Janet reacts as the other half of America reacted, diving head first into the excesses of free love, exploring fearlessly the limits of human sexuality.

Yes, Rocky Horror is more than sex, drugs, and rock and roll. The original stage version was named Best Musical of 1973 in London's Evening Standard annual poll of drama critics, and ran for 2,960 performances. Critic Irving Waddle wrote, “This is theatre made out of the rawest and crudest ingredients, and forming a charge strong enough to obliterate anything standing in its tracks.” Michael Billington wrote in The Guardian, “This show won me over entirely. It achieves the rare feat of being witty and erotic at the same time.” Naseem Khan wrote in The Evening Standard, “O’Brien has created a satirical and affectionate send-up that, unlike Rocky, remains well within control.” The New Statesman wrote, “The intention of course is to celebrate such freaks of pop culture as Hammer films, Alice Cooper, and the sci-fi of Michael Moorcook; and the result has tremendous invention, energy, and glee, right up to the final paean to bisexuality.” The show has since been translated into over a dozen languages and played in more than twenty countries. Maybe it’s not just about America…

Chicago (2002)

2002-06-06T19:51:00.000-05:00

Music by John Kander
Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse
Based on the play Chicago
by Maurine Dallas Watkins
June 6-29, 2002
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CAST
Velma Kelly – Stephanie Brown
Roxie Hart – Alice Kinsella
Amos Hart – Terry Meddows
Mama Morton – Lavonne Byers
Billy Flynn – Michael Brightman
Mary Sunshine – Mo Monahan
Emcee – Jeffrey Pruett
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Ensemble – David Blake, Mara Bollini, Christine Brent, Jeremy Brown, Lisa Doerge, Wayne Easter, Frank Gutierrez Jr., Jodi Hertz, Katie Nestor, Jeffrey Pruett

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector – Scott Miller
Choreographer – JT Ricroft
Assistant Director – Matt Pickar
Dance Captain – Jeffrey Pruett
Lighting Designer – Paul Summers
Costume Designer – Evonne Baum
Set Designer – Justin Barisonek
Hair Design – Lois Bryant
Props Master – Kimi Short
Box Office Manager – Steve Dohrmann
Graphic Designer – Kris Wright
Photographer – Robert Stevens

THE BAND
Piano – Brad Hofeditz
Reeds – Marc Strathman
Trumpet – Chris Miller
Trombone/Banjo – Jim Shiels
Bass – Pete Wahlers
Percussion – Adam J. Kopff

THE REVIEWS
“Smart, steamy and a heck of a lot of fun, marking one of New Line’s strongest efforts” -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Extremely entertaining . . . Because the New Line production is stripped down to its essence, it reveals something that neither of the flashier, more expensive New York productions embodied: likeability. Here, a winning cast captivates (rather than razzle-dazzles) us throughout the evening. . . All in all, this is the most fully realized New Line production I’ve yet seen. . . This is the sort of opportunity that musical theater lovers pray for, and then travel great distances to indulge in.” – Dennis Brown, Riverfront Times
“Chicago is highly enjoyable, with fine musicians and enough talent on the stage to keep things rolling from start to finish.” – Joe Pollack, KWMU-FM

“If you want to see another New Line hit packed with great music, dancing, costumes, and actors, don’t miss Chicago.” – Nicole Trueman, KDHX-FM

“A rousing production . . . a capable cast is given license to gleefully cavort to the infectious, jazzy tone of the show, and New Line’s performers are up to the challenge.. . From the rollicking opening number of “All That Jazz,” featuring Brown strutting stylishly before the ensemble, to the closing “Hot Honey Rag” of Brown and Kinsella, Chicago is a high-camp treat of the first order.” – Mark Bretz, Ladue News
“A showy, brightly produced musical filled with extremely talented actors, singers and dancers, who give it their all.” – Cathy Cohn, The Vital Voice
DIRECTOR'S NOTES
Chicago is set in 1924.And in 2002. It’s about real life murderers Beulah May Annan and Belva Gaertner, and also about O.J. Simpson, Robert Blake, Lorena Bobbitt, Jeffrey Dahmer, the Menendez brothers, Susan Smith, and Andrea Yates.

Chicago the musical wouldn’t exist without an audience. Vaudeville wouldn’t have either. And neither would the gavel-to-gavel coverage of the O.J. trial, or the endless cable news stories about Chandra Levy, or the gruesome details of Andrea Yates drowning her five children, told over and over again on TV in excruciating detail. We ask for it, Chicago suggests. We are to blame. How else can we explain why we sat transfixed watching those planes crash into the World Trade Center over and over and over, or repeatedly watched screaming kids running out of Columbine High School?

Is it a primordial bloodlust that just hasn’t been civilized out of us yet? Is it a violent streak burned into our species millions of years ago that we should just accept as innately human? Or is it something to fight, to overcome, to rise above?

As Arab Americans are now being routinely beaten up and threatened on American streets, we have to ask if September 11th unleashed a new patriotism in America or if it unleashed our only barely contained bloodlust, always simmering just under the surface, ready to boil over. Is Bush’s “War on Terror” really about making America safe again, or is it about finding the bastards who did that to us and tearing them limb from bloody limb? Maybe it’s about both.

Because Chicago is very much about our world in 2002 but takes place in 1924 – and is told entirely in the language of vaudeville acts – one of New Line’s greatest challenges has been in finding a contemporary physical and visual language that is equivalent to 1920s vaudeville. In other words, to make the point that this story lives both in 1924 and in 2002, we had to find a language that lives not just then, but in both times. We found ourselves asking what vaudeville would look like today if it had survived and had more successfully competed with movies and TV. Probably a lot like it did then, but morphed a bit – more sexual, more aggressive, more attention grabbing.

And thinking about all that raised another side issue. Vaudeville was one of America’s most popular cultural forms for almost sixty years (which is why it’s the perfect metaphor for Chicago's murder-as-entertainment), but then it suddenly died. And here we sit today, in the fifty-ninth year of the Rodgers & Hammerstein model, the basis for our modern American musicals. So we have to ask if the Rodgers & Hammerstein-style musical is going to survive. We’re already seeing rumblings of new musical theatre forms in many of the shows New Line has produced – Songs for a New World, Floyd Collins, A New Brain, Assassins, March of the Falsettos – and many of the shows on and off Broadway, like Urinetown, Bat Boy, The Last Five Years, and others. When we think about vaudeville, we sometimes forget it lasted that long and yet disappeared that fast. Could that happen to Carousel and Hello Dolly!, and Phantom of the Opera?

A New Brain (2002)

2002-03-07T19:51:00.000-06:00

Music and lyrics by William Finn
Book by James Lapine & William Finn
Vocal Arrangements by
Jason Robert Brown
March 7-30, 2002
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CASTGordon Schwinn – Mike Heeter
Lisa, the Homeless Lady – Karen Page
Rhoda – Deborah Sharn
Waitress – Kimi Short
Mr. Bungee – Terry Meddows
Doctor – Ken Haller
Nancy, the thin nurse – Kimi Short
Richard, the nice nurse – Nicholas Kelly
Minster – Christopher Brenner
Roger – Todd Schaefer
Mother – Mo Monahan

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector – Scott Miller
Lighting Designer – Mark Schilling
Costume Designer – Betsy Krausnick
Set Designers – Scott Miller, Shawn Donahue
Props Master – Alison Helmer
Stage Manager – Jim Merlo
Light Board Operator – Chris “Zany” Clark
Box Office Manager – Steve Dohrmann
Graphic Designer – Kris Wright
Photographer – Robert Stevens

THE BANDPiano – Scott Miller
Reeds – Marc Strathman
Bass – Dave Hall
Percussion – Adam J. Kopff

THE REVIEWS
“A neurotic, quirky and profoundly life-affirming show” – St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“A delightful, albeit dark comedy. Scott Miller’s inspired direction of this sung-through musical keeps the show galloping at a brisk pace with restful interludes. . . Todd Schaefer, who plays the gay lover of our angst-ridden lead, has an outstanding voice. . . Lovely of voice, Mo Monahan brings enough compassion to the role to mitigate Mother’s overbearing trait. . . Terry Meddow’s energetic portrayal of the bug-eyed Bungee suggests that, despite appearances, it isn’t easy being green. Karen Page gives a stellar performance as the Homeless Lady who shuffles in and out of Schwinn’s consciousness. . . The remaining cast and 4-piece band do an exceptional job with a score, the complexity of which demands consummate skill and precision. . . Oscar Hammerstein gave us ‘a bright golden haze on the meadow.’ William Finn recreated the bright golden haze of the MRI scanner which swallowed him up during a diagnostic exam. Here’s one show you’re unlikely to find on any other stage in St. Louis.” - Sheila Schultz, KDHX-FM

“Scott Miller’s New Line Theatre is all about presentations that are daring, different or deliciously skewering the conventional. . . There’s enough to appreciate in Finn’s inspired whimsy, and New Line’s zestful interpretation by its capable cast under the judicious care of director Scott Miller, to make A New Brain a pleasing, if offbeat and quirky, selection.” - Mark Bretz, Ladue News
“[Composer William] Finn . . . is known for stretching the boundaries of the genre. . . Deborah Sharn is engaging and brings energy and depth to Rhoda, Schwinn’s agent . . . The always excellent Terry Meddows does a fine job as Gordon’s boss, the man-frog Mr. Bungee. The audience most enjoys the entertaining Nicholas Kelly as the self-effacing ‘nice nurse’ Richard. . . I’m glad Finn recovered, and he deserves credit for experimenting with the form.” -- Brian Hohlfeld, Riverfront Times

“Terry Meddows is bright as Mr. Bungee, who owns the TV show, and there is splendid work from Nicholas Kelly as Richard, the night nurse. Deborah Sharn is outstanding as Rhoda, [Gordon’s] good friend, and Karen Page and Ken Haller are often entertaining.” -- Joe Pollack, KWMU-FM

“Gordon’s boss (Terry Meddows), a sardonic sourpuss in a toad costume brings a welcome dash of vinegar. . . And Nicholas Kelly sparkles as the ‘nice nurse’.” -- Judy Newmark, Post-Dispatch
DIRECTOR'S NOTES
As many of your have already figured out. I'm bored with old-fashioned conventional, linear storytelling, where each scene follows logically and inevitably from the one before, We get enough of that on TV and in the movies, Do we really need that in the theatre, too? Is that really the only way, or even the most interesting way, to tell a story? Since TV and movies do naturalism better than theatre, shouldn't theatre focus on what it does best. namely, imagination and emotion?

A New Brain certainly rejects linear storytelling, This show literally puts us inside the mind of Gordon Schwinn, a theatre composer whose brain isn't working right. He has an arterial venous malforntation in his brain which bursts, causing his brain to malfunction in surprising and (for us) very funny ways. Easily two-thirds of the show happens inside Gordon's mind in the fonn of fantasies, dreams, hallucinations, and a coma. As we watch the show, we suffer through the same mind-bending disorientation as Gordon, sometimes confusing, sometimes wildly entertaining, sometimes disturbing, constantly moving in and out of reality. We go on his surrealistic journey with him.

We see how Gordon perceives the people in his life, what he thinks of himself and his career, how he feels about death. all of it. sometimes in explicit terms, sometimes in metaphoric tenns, sometimes in tenns so bizarre and neurotic and outrageous you have to just throw your hands up and laugh.

Most plays and movies are told from an outside, objective point of view. Some are told from the point of view of the central character, But I can't think of many that are told from the point of view of a central character whose brain isn't working right and whose perceptions of the world are hopelessly tangled. (The only one that comes to mind is the brilliant recent film Memento, which A New Brain resembles in some ways.)

Don't expect everything you see tonight to make sense. It won't But when the roller coaster ride is over, the pieces will all fit together, At the end of the show, when Gordon is finally able to write the "Spring: song he's been trying to write since the first scene, you'll see why this journey was one worth taking.

Almost everything that happens in the show actually happened to William Finn, who wrote A New Brain. Three days after winning a Tony Award for Falsettos, Finn collapsed and was rushed to the hospital where he was diagnosed with this life threatening brain disorder, Luckily, he came out of it as healthy and as crazy as ever, and once he was back home, he turned his adventure into a musical. But, as you might guess considering the subject matter, it's a musical unlike any you've seen before.

Especially since the terrorist attacks on September 11, the homeless lady's admonition that "We live in perilous times" is more potent than ever, and the show's warning to live life to the fullest because there's no telling what tomorrow has in store is a lesson we need now more than ever. Maybe in this new world in which we now live, we all need a new brain – a new way of thinking about our lives – and hopefully this show can be our call to action.

The Cradle Will Rock (2001)

2001-10-04T19:51:00.000-05:00

Book, Music and Lyrics by
Marc Blitzstein
October 4-27, 2001
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CAST
Orson Welles/Larry Foreman – Aaron Benedict
Marc Blitzstein – Scott Miller
Moll – Victoria Thomas
Gent/Clerk/Bugs/Reporter – Paul Coffman
Dr. Specialist/Dauber/Dick – Mark Moloney
Gus Polock/Cop/Prof. Scoot – Eric Little
Reverend Salvation/Pres. Prexy – Colin DeVaughan
Junior Mister/Steve/Prof. Trixie – Jedediah Heath Wilson
Editor Daily/Yasha – Terry Meddows
Harry Druggist – Christopher “Zany” Clark
Mrs. Mister – Cindy Duggan
Sister Mister – Molly McBride
Mr. Mister – Thomas Conway
Sadie Polock/Prof. Mamie – Amy Brixey
Ella Hammer – Alison Helmer

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector – Scott Miller
Lighting Designer – Mark Wilson
Costume Designer – Betsy Krausnick
Box Office Manager – Steve Dohrmann
Graphic Designer – Kris Wright
Photographer – Robert Stevens

THE BANDPianist – Scott Miller

THE REVIEWS
“Most Ambitious Production of 2001” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “The Year in Theatre”

“The Cradle Will Rock is one of the most memorable shows I have ever seen. This joint venture is not only brilliant in idea, but also in execution.” – Tony Burnett, Talkin Broadway.com

“An intriguing new production . . . energetic, intelligent . . . passionate, stylized and exciting.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“A spirited, entertaining production . . . absurd and chilling at the same time, the perfect blend of musical form and content.” – Brian Hohlfeld, The Riverfront Times
“New Line’s production of The Cradle Will Rock is a delightful and compelling show, featuring numerous strong performances.” – Mark Bretz, KDHX-FM

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
It’s June 16, 1937.

You arrived around 7:30 tonight at the Maxine Elliott Theatre to see the new musical The Cradle Will Rock, written by Marc Blitzstein and directed by Orson Welles. Welles is that amazing young director who staged the all Black version of Macbeth up in Harlem, the one they called the “voodoo Macbeth.” You can’t wait to see his newest project. You heard they’ve already sold 14,000 tickets in advance for this show.

But when you got to the theatre, it was padlocked and there were armed guards surrounding the building. Nobody seemed to know why. A crowd was gathering and Mr. Welles and the producer John Houseman kept promising the show would go on tonight. While you waited, actors from the show performed outside the theatre, dancing, singing, anything they could think of…

Finally, around 8:00 p.m., the 22-year-old Welles appeared again with Houseman at his side, and they announced that The Cradle Will Rock will be performed after all, at the Venice Theatre, twenty-one blocks uptown. They invited everyone to join them there for the opening night of this remarkable new musical. Like almost everybody else, you decided to make the trek up to the other theatre, and along the way, as hundreds of others joined the crowd, everyone was talking about the show. What’s it about? Why was the theatre padlocked and who sent the armed guards?

You get here to the Venice Theatre and the atmosphere is absolutely charged with electricity. For all you know, the police are going to bust in any minute and raid the place.

You heard on the way up that this musical is about labor unions, and few issues are more timely right now – or more explosive. Last year, there was no hint of any unions at U.S. Steel, but by February of this year, just five months ago, the steel workers unionized. Workers are going on strike all over the country now, and factory owners are calling out police or the National Guard or both to crush these rebellions. You read in the papers that in a lot of these sit-down strikes, people have been killed in the ensuing riots or in suspicious explosions at union headquarters. You read that just two weeks ago, Chicago police killed ten people and injured sixty in a labor riot.

In response to this new national union movement, anti-labor organizations are springing up all over America, with pseudo-patriotic names like the Liberty League, the Citizen’s Alliance, and others in the same vein.

You wonder who would write a musical comedy about all this.

But tonight’s performance promises not only to be the first public showing of a new musical, but also an act of brazen defiance by its creators – and by this audience – a potentially dangerous act if the police do show up and raid the theatre.

Who knows – tonight just might go down in history…

Hair (2001)

2001-07-26T19:50:00.000-05:00

Book and Lyrics by
James Rado and Gerome Ragni
Music by Galt MacDemot
July 26 - Sept. 1, 2001
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE OSAGE TRIBEBradley Calise, Kiné Brown, Joy Ducree, Wayne Easter, Mike Heeter, Justin Heinrich, Mike Howard, Beck Hunter, Tamara Kelly, Terry Love, Mo Monahan, Uchenna Ogu, John Rhine, Nicole Trueman

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Director – Scott Miller
Lighting Designer – Paul Summers
Costume Designer – Justin Heinrich, Bradley Calise
Set Designers – the Osage Tribe
Lighting Technician – Christopher Clark
Box Office Manager – Steve Dohrmann
Graphic Designer – Kris Wright
Photography – Robert Stevens

THE BANDKeyboard – Scott Miller
Lead Guitar – Dale Hampton
Rhythm Guitar – M. Joshua Ryan
Bass – Dave Hall
Trumpet – Carl Nelson
Percussion – Adam Kopff

THE REVIEWS
“New Line’s production . . . forged an intense connection with its audience. . . The finale, ‘Let the Sun Shine In,’ was almost unbearably emotional. and brought the audience onto the stage to tearfully hug and dance with the cast.” – Allison Xantha Miller, American Theatre

“When a director revives a play less than a year after he first staged it, he better have good reason – reasons like style, audience appeal and abundant energy. New Line artistic director Scott Miller has all the reason he needs for this summer’s revival of last summer’s hit, Hair. . . [It] is, above all, an ensemble piece. It emerged from a time when it seemed possible that group efforts to change society could succeed. This play, and New Line’s production of it, succeed on exactly those same terms.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Director Scott Miller’s Osage Tribe is an ensemble cast of frenzied and frolicking psychedelic-perfection. . . The Osage shout, scream, wail, sing, point, dance, laugh, plead, and rage to the audience that is intimately wrapped around the stage like some morphed tribal council in trance. It is wondrous.. . But it is the Osage ensemble that is the real star. Their unbridled energy and communal vocals framed within Miller’s imaginative choreography provide a manic tale that when finished finds you somewhere in between tears and euphoric joy.” – Colin Murphy, The Vital Voice

“Don’t let the language and the nude scene fool you – there’s a lot of innocence and idealism on the stage, and those are two things we need – any time – whether with Hair or without.” – Joe Pollack, KWMU-FM

“New Line Theatre shows off its crowning glory in an open-ended run of Hair.” – Byron Kerman, The Riverfront Times

“Artistically, [Hair in June 2000] was one of the best productions New Line ever staged, and everybody seemed to know it.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
It is 1968 and the youth of America are lost.

Their parents, still celebrating the prosperity that followed World War II, have raised social drinking to an art form, they are bathing in the excesses of capitalistic materialism, and they are showering their children with everything anyone could want – except the nourishment of the soul.

These young people have all the physical trappings of happiness but don’t know who they are, where they belong, what is expected of them. More of them are going to college than ever before, where they learn to think independently, to question the status quo, and to reject their parents’ long-held, arbitrary definitions of morality, success, and happiness. These young people see racism run rampant in America, with lynchings still common in the South. They see American youths shipped off to southeast Asia to fight a war which has nothing to do with America and which appears to be unjust, immoral, racist, and impossible to win. They see disregard for the environment in the unchecked progress of American industry. And they see a culture that now worships at the feet of a new God – consumerism.

What do these kids want? They want to erase all the rules and start over, creating a new society that makes sense, one built on the idea of celebrating all the wonderful, magical, indefinable things that make us human, the things that unite us, the things that join us to the rest of the natural world. They ask why we have such restrictive rules of sexuality. Is it because some long ago culture wanted to control inheritance? Or was it about the perpetuating of a particular ethnic group? Why do we have such restrictive rules about drugs? Is it because once we taste the liberation of mind-expanding substances, we’ll be harder to control? Why do the adults who drink like fishes at cocktail parties so self-righteously condemn marijuana? Why do they so strongly condemn all drugs, when so many other cultures highly value the ritual use of hallucinogenic drugs to achieve a higher level of consciousness and to find God? Why do so many people call themselves people of faith but act in such immoral ways?

Our tribe has not come to insult you or the values you hold dear. Our intention is not to shock or upset – though we may do that too. We have come to celebrate our humanness, the joy of living, our connection to each other and to the world around us, our God given sexuality, and the wonders and mysteries of the human mind and body

We have come to ask you to join us in rejecting violence, hatred, fear, and judgment wherever we find it, to question the way things have always been, to look at the world with fresh eyes and to resolve to change the things that need changing.

Especially here and now, in the year 2001, consider whether we need more guns in the world, whether we value our children enough, whether we value our freedom enough, whether we value our planet enough, and whether people should be discriminated against because of the way they look or who they fall in love with

It is a new age. Everything is ready. It’s time to change the world.

REMEMBERING HAIR

After my first show with New Line, Anyone Can Whistle, I took a psychedelic trip up the Methedrine River to Hair. I could not believe that I got to do this show. I wanted to do this show ever since I was in college. I said that if anyone ever did it, I would be in it. Well, a year before doing Whistle, I was skimming through the Riverfront Times and found that New Line Theatre was having auditions for Hair. I thought the mother ship had landed and it was calling me home. But I was not prepared for the audition at all, so I didn't go.

Then, as Whistle was closing, some of the cast members went into rehearsal for Hair again. I found out that they were making some changes to the show, and that is when I seized the day. I said to Scott, “If you need one more person, I will be glad to be in it.” I could tell that Scott was in serious debate about letting one more person into the show because the other four new people had already had rehearsals with the previous year’s cast. Let me tell you, I was on pins and needles waiting for him to say something about it. Nothing. Didn't hear anything for a while. Then finally I was asked to join the Hair cast, and as professionally as I could, I said, “Yes.” (On the inside I was pissing my pants.)

Later during the run of Whistle, some of the last year’s Hair cast come to see us. I was so nervous because they didn't know anything about me; I didn't know anything about them; I just didn't know what to expect. When I met them, they were so friendly and welcoming of me, I knew everything was going to be all right. I will have to keep it real – I was a little overwhelmed by the words in the songs, but everyone made sure to let me know that if I needed any help, just ask.

Early in the rehearsal process, I felt an immediate closeness among the cast even though we were still getting to know each other. We became such a family even down to the little disagreements we would have. It was funny how one show could bring strangers so close together to form bonds that last a lifetime.

There is a reason that I found New Line and Scott at this point in my life. And I think that the reason is very simple. It was time for me to grow up and realize who I am and who I am becoming. I know that might sound strange, but working with this company, in these two shows, through the allowance of Scott, I will never be the same again. Thank you, Scott!
-- Tamara L. Kelly
Osage Tribe name “Dances with Freedom”

As with every family in the 1960s, our lives were changed by the Vietnam War. What was once a typical family of kids going to high school, school plays, and sports had turned into a life of impending doom. My two older brothers were drafted into the army. Our home was filled with quiet fear of the dreaded phone call that they were “going over.” No one really talked about it until the letters from their friends who were there were sent. Here I was, a little girl, listening to stories of shrapnel imbedded in the arms, legs, and faces of the boys I’ve known all my life. I tried to escape from the nightmare of what was happening around me. But how could I? Dan Rather, war correspondent, was showing me images every night on the news of bloody bodies, stories of torture, POWs, and the horrors of “the real world.” I felt utterly confused, helpless, and totally freaked out that my brothers may be included in the body count of the dead. Children should not believe that war is a part of life. I thought every generation had to have a war. After all, my grandfather was in WWI and my dad in WWII. Doing Hair helped me break out and shout to the world to stop the violence, stop the prejudice. Hair gave me hope of peace and the realization that I can make a difference. I finally can speak out and express the emotions that I kept inside of me, so tormented, at the age of twelve. I am a new person because of Hair. The Osage Tribe has a motto to “Keep It Real.” If we speak out about the injustices of the world, someone will listen. The audience listened, and I felt empowered and it has overflowed into my life and I will never be the same. My brothers, Pat and Dan, never were shipped over. By some miracle of fate, they were saved and I am thankful.
-- Mo Monahan
Osage Tribe name “Mother Nature”

It’s impossible to describe the experience of performing Hair to someone who hasn’t done it. I was highly skeptical of the many people who told me their lives were changed by working on this show – until I worked on it, that is. From the choosing of the tribe name to the overwhelming, almost unbearable rush of emotion in the show’s finale, it is an experience unlike any other. Not only does it bond each member of the tribe to every other member (and this includes actors, director, designers, musicians, box office people), but it bonds each tribe to all the other tribes around the world, past and present. It centers people, changes them, guides them toward balance in their lives, guides them back to paths in their lives they’ve forgotten or abandoned, guides them toward a deeper spirituality, one that may or may not have to do with Christianity. Even the most cynical among us was transformed by Hair. It holds a mystical, primal power that is impossible to explain. Just as it is utterly unique in so many concrete ways, it is just as unique in all the unexplainable ways. And because we closed this second production of the show just nine days before the infamous terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, it shaped profoundly how we reacted to that event as well. We talked a lot about that among the tribe. We felt like we all had an additional shield against the attack on America, a shield the rest of the country didn’t know about – as Hallmarky as it may sound, we had the power and the peace of Hair to get us through that. Michael Butler, the original Broadway producer of Hair, had told me when he flew in to see our show that he believed another 60s era was coming and that the Hair tribes would lead the way. Certainly, when the U.S. declared war on September 11, we all saw parallels to Vietnam and we wondered how he knew.
-- Scott Miller, director
Osage Tribe name “Kerouac”

And what of LSD? Is it just a drug, or the reason a group of children grew flowers in their hair, had stars in the eyes, and thought they could change the world? If they knew then what they know now, would they still have tasted those sweetened drops, or would they have laid down in the transcendental river of reality and let it wash them away – daisies and all?

What a crazy time that was. Whoo! But did we dig it then and do we dig it now? We do. And if I meet up with Scott Miller in St. Louis, I definitely will say thanks for letting me put the flowers back into my hair and keep the starlight in my eyes for two summers now. And I’ll probably let him know that I dig all of the time he spent researching those cats and their message, so we could stay true to their power. Boom boom, beep beep.

And so maybe they really will change the world after all – just not as quickly as they had hoped because they didn’t foresee the need to hand the daisy-powered baton to the next generation. And so maybe the journey of these past two summers of love are not at the beginning or the end, but just another piece of that movement. And maybe when Scott and the rest of the tribe look in the mirror, they’ll notice the stars and they’ll keep on passing out flowers and won’t put them down for a long time to come.

Our destination is the same – our journey is where it’s at and we all know where it’s at. Let the sun shine in. Peace and love.
– Uchenna Ogu
Osage Tribe name “Marrakesh”

Yes, Hair changed my life.

Now that I have that out of the way, I figure I’m faced with two choices. I could either: A) spend the rest of this essay attempting to articulate just how Hair has made me a more caring yet carefree person with an amazing renewed spirit, blah, blah, blah; or, B) I could describe a single incident that kinda sums up all of those things in a nice neat package. While A is a tempting, I think I’ll keep it simple for this assignment and go with the answer I always chose when I couldn’t come up with something better on high school history tests: B.

“Can I have your headband?”

It seemed like an innocent enough request from the sweet, smiling, grandma-type standing in front of me after our final Hair performance, September 1, 2001. Following nearly every show, the scene was similar – people pouring out of their seats to fill the stage floor, dancing with the cast, hugging, crying and telling their own stories of the Johnson/Nixon Era. But this woman’s agenda was different. She tapped me on the shoulder, turned me around to face her and grabbed my hands. She just stared at me with wet eyes for what was beginning to be an uncomfortable amount of time. She said nothing. She followed it up with a surprisingly strong hug and finally the question – “Can I have your headband?”

Playing Claude in our production, I found that people had strange reactions to me after the show. Having just seen Claude murdered in the jungles of Vietnam, only to appear once more as a ghostly vision, some people were hesitant to talk to me. Some wouldn’t even make eye contact. But there were others still who only wanted to tell me about their personal Vietnam experiences – the political atmosphere in the late 60s and early 70s, the horrible memories of the draft, and the young people they lost to Vietnam.

But this woman wanted my headband – a simple, red, western patterned handkerchief that I had folded to tie around my head. It was used to reflect the fashion of the period, but mostly I tied it on to hold my wig tightly in place. “I would love for you to have it.” I said, and walked with her on my arm to the backstage area. Along the way, she told me how much she enjoyed the show, how it made her feel and about the 19-year-old son that she lost to Vietnam. As she took the headband from me, she again grabbed my hands and said, “My son used to wear a headband just like this, and I wanted to keep it to help me remember.”

My mind went numb. Nothing I could’ve said would have made a difference anyway. It just sent a breaker of emotion that started at the base of my neck, up and over my head like a hood. I had no use for the headband any longer. The show was over and it was time to move on. I just thanked the woman for coming to the show, hugged her and zombied upstairs to the dressing rooms.

As I stripped out of my character’s final soldier’s dress uniform and began putting on my “real world” clothes of jeans, tennis shoes and a t-shirt, it smacked me hard. The idea that Hair wasn’t just some relic of 60s flower power. Its effects have reached way beyond that. This show that seems so dated on the exterior, but it’s still having a profound effect on every member of its audience and anyone involved in its production. This woman’s simple request broke through my opaque walls and the sun came piercing through. Taking stock, re-prioritizing, and connecting with people in ways I had long forgotten – it’s all in my future now. I’m following the river in my heart. Down to the gutter. Up to the glitter. Into the city where the truth lies. Thank you Hair. Thank you God. And thank you to the nameless woman who showed me the way.
-- Mike Heeter, “Claude”
Osage Tribe name Capt. Britannica

Anyone Can Whistle (2001)

2001-06-14T19:50:00.000-05:00

Book by Arthur Laurents
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
June 14-30, 2001
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CASTMayoress Cora Hoover Hooper – Lisa Karpowicz
J. Bowden Hapgood – Troy Schnider
Nurse Fay Apple – Chelsea Phillips
Comptroller Schub – Michael Brightman
Treasurer Cooley – Paul Coffman
Chief of Police Magruder – Christopher Clark
Cora’s Bodyguard – Greg Coleman
Mrs. Schroeder – Cindy Duggan
Baby Joan Schroeder – Jeannie Skala
Dr. Detmold – Terry Meddows
Townspeople/Cookies – Kiné Brown, Greg Coleman, Cindy Duggan, Justin Heinrich, Alison Helmer, Tamara Kelly, Terry Meddows, Uchenna Ogu, Jeannine Skala

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector – Scott Miller
Choreographer – JT Ricroft
Lighting Designer – Tim Lord
Set Supervisor – Christopher Clark
Miracle Rock & Puppet Design – Todd Schaefer
Costume Designer – Russell J. Bettlach
Hair Design – Ren Binder
Box Office Manager – Steve Dohrmann
Graphic Designer – Kris Wright
Photography – Robert Stevens

THE BANDPiano – Neal Richardson
Trumpet – Carl Nelson
Percussion – Adam Kopff

THE REVIEWS
“Instead of bringing serious matters to the foreground, as he often does, director Scott Miller went all out for entertainment and let the issues emerge from a framework of farce. The resulting show offered much to enjoy on the surface without obscuring the depth.” – Gerry Kowarksy, The Sondheim Review
“The best reason to see Anyone Can Whistle, the appealing mess of a show that New Line Theatre is staging at the ArtLoft is simple. You’re not likely to get another chance. . . Still, anything by Stephen Sondheim has an element of fascination, thanks to his enormous influence on modern musical theatre. New Line’s artistic director Scott Miller, who has staged a number of Sondheim shows, directs this one with verve and intelligence. . . Miller and choreographer JT Ricroft make the most of the ArtLoft’s flexible space.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“It’s a chance to see what the young Sondheim was capable of doing. There are a few excellent songs and some imaginative staging by Miller, and some of the comedy, led by Michael Brightman as Comptroller Schub, is delightful.” – Joe Pollack, KWMU-FM

“[Director Scott] Miller and choreographer JT Ricroft stage the musical numbers with brio – nicely adapting to the ArtLoft’s shallow stage and making intriguing use of aisle space.” – Cliff Froehlich, The Riverfront Times
DIRECTOR'S NOTES
When Anyone Can Whistle opened in 1964, it was so bizarre in its style, so savage in its satire, so outrageous in its social commentary that it ran only nine performances. It attacked the commercialization of religion, which still persists today, the gender and racial stereotypes that go unchallenged still today, and the blatant corruption and profiteering of politicians, which is worse today than ever. In short, it attacked the way its audiences lived their lives. No wonder it closed in a week. Musicals didn’t do that in 1964.

But the truth is those lives deserved attack, and our lives today deserve the attack even more. How is it that we condone the fact that religious titans Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Jesse Jackson are millionaires and live in mansions? What would Jesus or Gandhi have said about that? How do we condone the outrageous black stereotypes that still pervade television and movies? What would Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr. have said about the over-sexed, drugged-out, brainless comedies full of negative stereotypes that African American writers and actors are churning out week after week? How do we condone the fact that the president of the United States, a card carrying member of the oil industry, wants to drill in the Arctic National Preserve, so he and his friends can make money? Is he all that different from Mayoress Cora Hoover Hooper?

Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents address these outrages by shining the harsh light of satire on them, exaggerating them and making the insanity and insidiousness of these practices crystal clear to us all. Cora’s fake miracle gets us thinking about Dubya and his oil buddies. The black woman Martha’s stereotypical “black” dialect and her musical references to Porgy and Bess make us recognize how readily we accept black stereotypes in everyday life – still today – without even realizing it. June and John’s gender bending shows us how silly and out-dated gender roles are in our society and how far we haven’t come since the 1950s. Fay’s sex-only-by-disguise points up the hypocrisy and hang-ups Americans have over sexuality. The Cookies themselves show us how quickly we label any deviation from the norm as a sickness or disability of some sort.

Yes, this show may offend you a little, but if that’s the only way to get us all thinking about what’s wrong with our culture, then so be it. Our world is a mess and if we can laugh tonight at how ridiculous we all are, maybe tomorrow morning we can start making changes. Anyone Can Whistle creates a strange relationship between the observers and the observed. You sit watching the kooky inhabitants of Cora’s town but Anyone Can Whistle is also watching us, noticing every prejudice, every injustice, every ridiculous and selfish move we make in our everyday lives. And at the end of Act I, we’re forced to ask the literal question: who’s watching whom?

So why is the show called Anyone Can Whistle? I think it’s because this show is about the choices we make every day, about whether we do what we’re told or just go on our merry way, living life in our own quirky fashion. Whistling is a symbol of freedom, abandon, fun, and stubborn nonconformity. Most people don’t chase after those things. But anyone can.

REMEMBERING ANYONE CAN WHISTLE

Like several other shows we’ve done, Anyone Can Whistle scared the shit out of me until the second week of the run, when our audiences finally started laughing their heads off. But I’ve become a fear junkie – if it doesn’t terrify me, if it doesn’t challenge me, if it doesn’t ask things of me that have never been asked before, it isn’t really fun. I didn’t know if my ideas for Whistle would work and if audiences and reviewers would understand and embrace my take on this very bizarre absurdist musical. That first week of performances, I honestly thought I might be the only person on earth who thought this show was really funny. I asked for ridiculous, over-sized, manic performances, and the actors trusted me and gave me those performances. The audiences barely laughed that first week, but the actors still trusted me. We got mixed reviews, but they still trusted me. They trusted me and I trusted the material and that’s the only way to do theatre.

Anyone Can Whistle represents everything New Line Theatre is about – rule-busting, aggressively screwing with audience expectations, refusing to do what’s been done before, tackling difficult material that scares everybody else, demanding that audiences think and participate in the experience of live theatre. And the truth is that even if all our audiences had greeted our show with only mild chuckles – or even outright hostility – I still would have been proud of us. This show was good and the hell with anybody who says differently. They haven’t taken the time to really see all the treasure that is there, and it’s their loss. And not only was the show good, it’s also important. As I said in my program notes, maybe if we can see how ridiculous our world is, we’ll be motivated to make it better. Theatre is not just about entertainment; it’s about coming together as a community to discuss the things that need discussing. If we can’t make a difference, if we can’t make people think, if we can’t change the world, why are we wasting our time?
– Scott Miller, director

When Scott cast me in Anyone Can Whistle, I must admit to having been both excited and disappointed. I was disappointed because I had hoped to snag the leading role of Hapgood. It was a reality shock to me that I had to face the fact that at 36, I was probably too old now to play the “ingénue” roles, such as Hapgood; but felt surely I was not ready to begin playing the older, character roles; the roles I refer to as “The Mr. Mooney” roles. The shock of being cast came because I really didn't think I would get cast in any role! Although I gave what I thought was a good audition, I had some conflicts with the rehearsal schedule, and felt that it would prevent my being cast in such a large role as Comptroller Schub. But cast I was. And what a phenomenal role it turned out to be for me. I didn't know that I had it in me to play this guy the way I played him. I had a blast! Looking back, I would have never even considered playing Hapgood if I had known what fun it could be to be Mr. Mooney! I learned a great deal from doing this show, but what I learned the most is that the largest role is not always the best role!
– Michael Brightman, “Comptroller Schub”

I really never thought I would write a piece like this about a professional theatre director. Contrary to popular belief, working with professionals doesn’t always mean you get a professional environment. It was for this reason I took a very long hiatus from musical theater after doing a full summer run of Oklahoma! in Florida. I was burned out, empty, and felt that the creative atmosphere of theatre was gone. The creative process, which I had embraced during my undergraduate studies, was displaced by budgets, production schedules, and directors who espoused logic but failed to convey art in their productions, much less protect their actors. I was also tired of this kind of direction from almost every single director I worked with: “If I’m not telling you that you’re doing anything wrong, you’re doing okay.” Who really wants to be just okay?

This brings me to Scott Miller. A mutual friend encouraged me to give New Line Theatre a go. I walked into the audition and proceeded to sing a song that didn’t sound too hard on the ears, and performed my greatest acting coup ever by convincing Scott and JT that I was a comedic actor. The fools! What separated the New Line experience for me was it felt like a return to my undergraduate years. It felt safe to experiment, play, and try different things night after night. If we went too far, Scott was there to catch us. If we weren’t going far enough, he would encourage us to go further.

I will carry two memories away from the show. The first memory is when the audience seemed to have finally gotten the show and they were responding with smiles and loud guffaws. It proved that the critics were wrong and somehow a lot of people in the past missed the genius of Sondheim and Laurents in this piece. What is the second memory? Scott Miller trying to find ways to get me in trouble by wondering out loud which female cast member was in my sights for that night.
– Paul Coffman, “Treasurer Cooley”

“What the hell have I gotten myself into!” Those were the first words I mumbled to myself as I was leaving the first read-through of Anyone Can Whistle. I could not believe that a director could read that script and still want to so passionately perform it in front of a viewing audience.
When I got home I read the script again, discussed it with my family and my friends, still not getting an answer that satisfied me as to why I should continue with this production. Finally, I got the courage to e-mail Scott about it. (Some courage, e-mail.) I had no idea what his reaction would be; after all, this was my first production with New Line. But this play sparked such a fire in me, I had to say something.

The next day I checked my e-mail. There it was, the response. I was so nervous to open it because I thought, he's going to think of me as a trouble maker and kick me out of the show. So, I opened it.

The message started off with some background knowledge about the play, which I already knew from reading the information I had received at the read-through. As I continued to read on, I got to the last couple of lines which read, “Theatre is not always meant to be comfortable. Sometimes it is uncomfortable and that is why we do it, to challenge ourselves as well as the audience.” After reading that, I had no doubt in my mind that I would do the show.

The funny thing about this situation was that I knew that about theatre. I have even done a “heated” play before about the struggle in Ireland during the World Wars. That did not affect me like Whistle. Then I thought about it. Whistle was directly making fun of all the racial stereotypes that were placed on us back then in the 60s that we still have yet to overcome today.

Once I got past that, I really began to play with the script as far as character choices were concerned. I will admit that I was still nervous about the show. Every rehearsal Scott would say, “I reeeeally need you guys to go to the extreme. Nothing can be too much for this show. Don't focus on the offensiveness; I know it is offensive; just play past it and accept it.” When Scott said that, I began to trust him because he trusted Sondheim, and that was all I needed to worry about.

When that show opened, we did not at all know how that audience would respond to the show. Scott was even a little nervous, but once we opened, I think all of a sudden it just clicked for everyone. It was so AWESOME!!! From the characters, to the pace, to the lines, to the music! Don't get me wrong; I felt good about it in rehearsal, but the audience really made the difference, especially in this show. I am glad that I stuck with it.
-- Tamara L. Kelly

Cabaret (2001)

2001-03-15T19:50:00.000-06:00

Book by Joe Masteroff
Music by John Kander
Lyrics by Fred Ebb
based on Berlin Stories
by Christopher Isherwood
March 15 – April 7, 2001
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE CAST
Cliff Bradshaw – Todd Schaefer
Ernst Ludwig – Christopher “Zany” Clark
Fraulein Schneider – Mo Monahan
Fraulein Kost – Deborah Sharn
Herr Schultz – Arthur Schwartz
Sally Bowles – Robin Kelso

The Kit Kat Klub
Emcee – Christopher Crivelli
Hansel/customs officer – Jim Hannah
Bobby – Bruce Ortiz
Victor – Terry L. Love
Rosie – Nicole Trueman
Lulu – Beck Hunter
Frenchie – Bradley Calise
Texas – Stacey Guenther

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Director – Scott Miller
Assistant Director – Michael Leicht
Choreographer – JT Ricroft
Lighting Designer – Mark Schilling
Set Designer – Todd Schaefer
Costume Designer – Betsy Krausnick
Stage Manager – Amy Francis Schott
Master Electrician – Tim Lord
Box Office Manager – Steve Dohrmann
Graphic Designer – Kris Wright
Photography – Robert Stevens

THE BANDPiano – Brad Hofeditz
Trumpet – Paul Hecht
Trombone – Terry Kippenberger
Bass – Dave Hall
Percussion – Adam Kopff

THE REVIEWS
“A small spotlight falls on a door, slightly ajar. A hand reaches out, showing off black-polished nails. The index finger beckons seductively. Then the middle finger signals. With that opening moment, director Scott Miller condenses his entire approach of Cabaret – tempting, vulgar, shrewdly theatrical and admirably economical. It’s one of the most powerful productions that Miller’s company, New Line Theatre, has ever staged. . . [The band’s] raw sound suits the mood that Miller and choreographer JT Ricroft evoke in steamy Klub numbers like ‘Money’ and ‘Two Ladies,’ visually exciting and metaphorically explicit. We’re in a very sick world. . . Christopher Crivelli’s venomous performance as the Kit Kat emcee sets the standard for this show – leering, cold, totally in control. Robin Kelso plays the English star of the club, Sally Bowles, with a lot of flair both in her ‘onstage’ scenes (more pose than talent) and her ‘offstage’ scenes (more pose than heart). Yet her winning, tiny smile, coupled with occasional bursts of warmth, complicates the character. You can’t dismiss her, and you can’t trust her. It’s a provocative combination. . . But the cold heart of the play lies in the Kit Kat Klub ensemble, whose entertainments reveal a morally bereft world-view that still can frighten us. And should.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“I’m sitting in the front row of the most remarkable production to hit St. Louis this season. . . We’re close enough that this once familiar musical is transformed into something quite unlike any production of it you may have seen. It’s Cabaret . . And it’s one of the best things I’ve seen the New Line Theatre do. . . Director Scott Miller has made his New Line Theatre a St. Louis institution, and I’m happy to see that it has so vibrantly survived the loss of the St. Marcus. It is very much at home in the Art Loft Theatre on Washington. Besides his deep understanding of musical theatre, Miller’s chief gift, I think, is for the gathering of outstanding talent.” – Steve Callahan, KDHX-FM

“A must-see for anyone who is interested in theatre in St. Louis.” –Gerry Kowarsky, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Cabaret, at the New Line Theatre, is a flawed but noteworthy production of the groundbreaking musical, which is as fresh and provocative as it was when it was created in 1966. The production is at its strongest in the musical numbers, all staged deftly on the tiny clublike stage by director Scott Miller and choreographer JT Ricroft. Vocally, the cast is first-rate [and] the band excellent (the accordion is a nice touch). . . In the opening number, ‘Wilkommen,’ the over-rouged, zombielike Kit Kat girls and boys, and their Emcee (Christopher Crivelli) perform enough pelvic thrusts and simulated oral sex for several productions. We’re supposed to be shocked, shocked, but the gestures are so mechanical and contrived that they become boring and meaningless. Perhaps that’s what director Miller intended: Sex has become common currency, as devalued as the German mark.” – Brian Hohlfeld, The Riverfront Times
DIRECTOR'S NOTES
Why is New Line Theatre, a company known for presenting world premieres and St. Louis premieres of new works, producing a thirty-five-year-old musical?

That’s simple. Because it still matters. Because there are some lessons in life so important we must revisit them from time to time.

So what does Cabaret have to teach us in 2001? That it’s not okay to ignore what’s going on around us, that we cannot allow our world to be less than it should be, that we should never keep quiet, that it’s important to participate, that we have a responsibility to each other and to our community, that any discrimination, any indignity, any prejudice, no matter how slight must be brought out into the light of day and condemned.

What would have happened in Germany in the early 1930s if more people had voted? What would have happened if people like Sally Bowles had paid attention to what was happening in the Reichstag? What would have happened if people like Fraulein Schneider had stood up and said loudly and decisively that they will not accept intimidation, that they will not be bullied, that they will not go along in the name of self-preservation? What would have happened if the people of Germany had listened more closely to the Nazis and then stood up and denounced Adolf Hitler for the madman he was?

Would things have been different? I really don’t know.

But there was some moment, some point of no return, when the Germans could have gone down a different road and saved the world from the horrors that should not have been inevitable.

Cabaret is about that moment, a time when it wasn’t yet too late, when Germany wasn’t yet locked into the path that would lead to the murder of millions of Jews. But the people of Germany couldn’t see what we see. They didn’t know how their choices, their fears, their apathy would lead to bigger things. People like Fraulein Schneider and Fraulein Kost were busy just trying to survive. People like Sally Bowles were busy having too good a time.

The extermination of the Jews started small, in tiny, daily indignities, in little, nearly unnoticeable acts of prejudice, in seemingly innocent jokes, in the words people chose. Could the same thing happen today? Of course it could. Right wing political leaders in America today say pretty much the same things the Nazis said about gays, women, family, religion, culture, education, and patriotism. It may not seem dangerous right now, but it didn’t seem dangerous in Germany in 1930 either.

We have an obligation to learn from what happened in Germany. We have an obligation to make different choices. If we don’t do it today, it may be too late tomorrow.

REMEMBERING CABARET

What an incredible experience this was for me. I had the distinct pleasure of being involved with one of the most talented group of people I have ever worked with – their creativity; their openness and responsiveness made Cabaret an event in my life that I will never forget.

I was given the role of the Emcee. It was a role of a lifetime. Now, I am keeping this all in its proper perspective. This is a professional company that uses this small space in downtown St. Louis. This is certainly not the big league. However, given the quality of the production, it very well could have been.

I auditioned for Scott Miller, and all the while I was thinking about Joel Grey in the movie. Mind you, I had not seen the stage revival. I was cast, and soon after, we had our first rehearsal. At that time, JT Ricroft, our choreographer extraordinaire, came to me and said, “In this number (Two Ladies), we would like for you to drop your pants and show your bare butt to the audience. Oh, and you need to grab each other’s crotches in one part of the song as well.” Okay, this was not the Joel Grey Emcee. I think I just entered a new dimension, and I am in for a wild ride. And I was right.

Scott’s vision of this production took all of us into the dark, deep, and seedy side of Berlin in the early 1930s. He opened doors for all of us, digging into our fantasies and stretching us all in body and mind. This was an amazing group of actors that just clicked. The result was an outstanding production which left a lasting impression on us all, one that we will rarely be able to duplicate in our lifetimes.

Scott knows how I feel about him as an artist and as a person. He gave me the ability to create and to stretch myself as an actor beyond what I thought I was able to accomplish. The fulfillment is one that I will keep with me forever. For the past twenty years I had dreamed of playing this role, and Scott allowed this small dream to be realized.

I personally have to thank Scott for his artistry in making this a special experience for me, and I know I can speak for the rest of the cast as well. New Line is a great venue for pushing the limits of theater. And with Scott at the helm, I know the St. Louis audience will experience the very edges of theater for years to come. I can’t wait to be part of the next New Line experience.
-- Christopher Crivelli, “Emcee”

Betsy, the costumer, was at rehearsal to take measurements for the costumes. She entered the room just as we were beginning to run the opening number, “Wilkommen.” I hadn’t seen Betsy in quite some time, so I went over to say hello and tell her how happy I was to see her. I knew she was there for costuming, but she had no idea why I was there. Actually, she thought I was in the show. As the number progressed, I noticed a look of horror on her face. At first I thought she wasn’t feeling well, until she leaned over and asked me a question, somewhat in confidence: “What sick mind created that number?” After showing a guilty grin and feeling satisfied that I had received my first confirmation that the number was going to work, I looked at her and simply smiled. No words were necessary. Ahhh, my work is complete.
– John Ricroft, choreographer

Life is a grope-fest, ol’ chum. That’s right. Grope-fest. I’ve never before been rubbed on, rubbed myself on, and groped so many so often. When J.T. began to teach us the choreography for the opening number, “Wilkommen,” everyone was a little hesitant at first. After a shy crotch grab here, and a nipple tweak there, the awkwardness dissolved. By the end of the run, grinding on someone was second nature. I’ve also never before or since had the pleasure to work with such a talented group of people, across the board. Every single actor with whom I shared the stage had something unique and amazing to bring to the production. The direction, choreography, the band – it was all pretty amazing. From on stage to behind the scenes. And speaking of backstage, one of my favorite backstage antics had to have been the “boy ballet” – Terry would partner Bruce during “Why Should I Wake Up?” It was really quite lovely.
– Stacey Guenther, “Texas”

I remember staging the opening number, “Wilkommen.” I knew I wanted to make a statement during the first few minutes. How can I capture the audience’s attention and accurately portray the decadence of that time and place that’s so important to the story? Simulated Sex on Stage! Yeah, that’s the ticket! So, I asked the chorus to break up into groups of twos and threes, so that we had three clusters around the stage. I then asked each group to come up with three “positions” that would present a graphic picture and I gave them fifteen minutes. During this time, I began to feel concerned about two cast members (Bruce and Steve) who were rather young, and were off on their own. They were talking to each other quietly and looking somewhat confused. I began thinking, would they be able to create something that fit the rest of the group? I went to each group and asked them to strike each position on count. Group 1, GO! Great job! Group 2, GO! Again, perfect. Okay, now it’s Bruce and Steve’s turn to show their stuff (no pun intended). I was fully prepared to witness something that would need some help and be adjusted. I just knew that they weren’t going to be able to come up with something. Group 3, GO! Much to my surprise, they did just fine. All I remember is during the two other groups’ turns at displaying their “acts,” there was tons of laughter and joking. Once Bruce and Steve began, I heard complete silence. The room was speechless and shocked. Mouths were open in amazement. It was perfectly clear that Bruce and Steve knew exactly what they were doing…
-- John Ricroft, choreographer

A New Line Cabaret (2000)

2000-09-18T19:49:00.000-05:00

a world premiere revue
September 18-19, 2000
Sheldon Concert Hall, St. Louis

THE CAST
Karl Berberich
Chris Brenner
Colin DeVaughan
Cindy Duggan
Lisa Karpowicz
Robin Kelso
Robb Kennedy
Mo Monahan
Angela Shultz
John Rhine
Johanna Schloss
Leo Schloss
Deborah Sharn
Kimi Short
Keith Thompson

THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Director - Scott Miller
Lighting Designer - Amy Francis Schott

Hair (2000)

2000-06-08T19:49:00.000-05:00

Book and Lyrics by
James Rado and Gerome Ragni
Music by Galt MacDemot
June 8 - July 1, 2000
ArtLoft Theatre, St. Louis

THE OSAGE TRIBEDavid Aikman, Kiné Brown, Bradley Calise, Karl Brian Clark, Alexis D. Coleman, Ken Haller, Justin Heinrich, Beck Hunter, Robin Kelso, Terry L. Love, Mo Monahan, Uchenna Ogu, John Rhine, John Sparger, Nicole Trueman

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector – Scott Miller
Lighting Designer – Paul Summers
Costume Designers – Justin Heinrich, Bradley Calise
Set Designer – Karl Berberich
Stage Manager – Amy Francis Schott
Box Office Manager – Steve Dohrmann

THE BANDPiano/Conductor – Scott Miller
Lead Guitar – Dale Hampton
Rhythm Guitar – M. Joshua Ryan
Bass – Darin Johnson
Trumpet – Paul Hooper
Percussion – Adam Kopff

THE REVIEWS
“A gripping production from New Line Theatre. . . The in-the-round presentation, with actors running through the audience, suits director Scott Miller’s intense style. His production moves with the studied emotional focus of a dream – or a memory. . . And this production perfectly captures the deep, genuine anger that the Vietnam War provoked at home. ‘Three-Five-Zero-Zero,’ a song in which the hallucinating Claude envisions his hippie friends falling in battle, is a stunning depiction of how immediate the threat felt to people a world away from the war.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“New Line Theatre’s production of Hair, which opened last weekend in the A.E. Hotchner Drama Studio on the Washington University campus, may pull you into a gallop down memory lane (if you’re older) or (if you’re younger) may cause an attack of envy because your parents lived in much more interesting times than you do. Whatever the effect, a strong, musical cast make the book, music and lyrics seem as fresh and fun as they were in 1968.” – Harry Weber, The Riverfront Times

“At once historical and iconoclastic, this classic hippie postcard from the summer of love remains as brittle and quirky as ever, but the New Line production reveled in the shaggy spirit, and proved largely enjoyable.” – Brian McCary, KDHX-FM

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
It is 1969 and the youth of America are lost.

Their parents, still celebrating the prosperity that followed World War II, have raised social drinking to an art form, they are bathing in the excesses of capitalistic materialism, and they are showering their children with everything anyone could want – except the nourishment of the soul.

These young people have all the physical trappings of happiness but don't know who they are, where they belong, what is expected of them. More of them are going to college than ever before, where they learn to think independently, to question the status quo, and to reject their parents' long-held, arbitrary definitions of morality, success, and happiness. These young people see racism run ranlpant in America, with lynchings still common in the South. They see American youths shipped off to southeast Asia to fight a war which has nothing to do with America and which appears to be unjust, immoral, racist, and impossible to win. They see disregard for the environment in the unchecked progress of American industry. And they see a culture that now worships at the feet of a new God – consumerism.

What do these kids want? They want to erase all the rules and start over, creating a new society that makes sense, one built on the idea of celebrating all the wonderful, magical, indefinable things that make us human, the things that unite us, the things that join us to the rest of the natural world. They ask why we have such restrictive rules of sexuality. Is it because some long ago culture wanted to control inheritance? Or was it about the perpetuating of a particular ethnic group? Why do we have such restrictive rules about drugs? Is it because once we taste the liberation of mind-expanding substances, we'll be harder to control? Why do the adults who drink like fishes at cocktail parties so self-righteously condemn marijuana? Why do they so strongly condemn all drugs, when so many other cultures highly value the ritual use of hallucinogenic drugs to achieve a higher level of consciousness and to find God? Why do so many people call themselves people of faith but act in such immoral ways?

Our tribe has not come to insult you or the values you hold dear. Our intention is not to shock or upset -though we may do that too. We have come to celebrate our humanness, the joy of living, our connection to each other and to the world around us, our God given sexuality, and the wonders and mysteries of the human mind and body.

We have come to ask you to join us in rejecting violence, hatred, fear, and judgement wherever we find it, to question the way things have always been, to look at the world with a fresh eye and to resolve to change the things that need changing.

Especially here and now, in the year 2000, an election year, consider whether we need more guns in the world, whether we value our children enough, whether we value our freedom enough, whether we value our planet enough, and whether people should be discriminated against because of the way they look or who they fall in love with.

It is a new age. Everything is ready. It's time to change the world.

REMEMBERING HAIR

Hair was the first show I have ever done where I really felt as though I was saying something important; and, perhaps even more importantly, it was the first show I have done where I really believed in what I was saying. Though the show is over thirty years old, any criticisms about the show being “dated” have never held much weight with me. While the main conflict (Vietnam) is no longer being fought, the scars of that war live on to this day, just as many of the other issues in the show do (racism, acceptance of those different from you, the ridiculous and arbitrary way society stigmatizes all recreational drugs). As I became more and more involved in the show, everything we were fighting for in the show became more important to me, and I actually began to understand how it must have felt when people began reaching out to one another in the sixties, with the hopes that they would actually make the world a better place.
– Bradley Calise, “Margaret Mead”

My relationship with Miller began just over ten years ago. I was a bright-eyed, clean shaven optimist a year out of college who thought, after one too many drinks most likely, I was to be an actor. Miller cast me in my first St. Louis show, Deathtrap, a play he was producing for another company while finding his way with New Line. It was only my second show, but he gave me a shot as the manipulative Clifford, and my acting career was on its way.

The next seven years snaked me from local to regional stages, to national tours, and finally landed me in L.A. for a spell struggling in film and television and honing my extracurricular skills. I retired from acting at the ripe old age of thirty and moved back to St. Louis. And there I found a thriving theatre community with New Line as one of the major players.

Chances are I would’ve stayed from the footlights, happily grinding the stone at a warehouse, had it not been for an audition notice in the RFT – HAIR, the Tribal Love Rock Musical from the late ’60s to be produced by New Line and directed by Miller. A show I had always wanted to perform, but never had the opportunity. I couldn’t pass on at least auditioning.

Whether Miller had been drinking or smoking too much on the evening of his final casting, he graced me with the role of Berger – a decision that will forever bond me in his creative and artistic debt. A role that enabled me to exorcise some demons within. A show so powerful as to compress yet amplify scores of emotions for those who experience it.

Hair is a show in which the Whole is certainly nothing without its Parts, but also where the Parts are nothing unto themselves until summed. Yes, we all know “Aquarius” and the title song “Hair,” and most of us recognize “Easy to be Hard.” But the book itself is a series of mostly non-linear nonsequitors strung out in a drug-induced mélange thinly plotted against the political and cultural climate of the times. Or is it?

The rehearsal process was none as I had ever encountered. At times frightening – at others liberating. The story line was confusing; the characters sporadic. A lead role was changed with less than a week before curtain. I admit I was unsure of how the final outcome would translate, but my faith in Miller never waned. On final dress, everything made sense. The power of the music and the message of the show, under the eccentric guidance of Miller, came searing through in synaptic waves. We all felt it. We all got it.

Nearly every night after rehearsal, a small group would get together for drinks and eats. I thought it important for the Tribe to bond off-stage as well as on. And although the participants shifted from night to night, Miller and I were steadfast. This gave us a wonderful opportunity, outside of rehearsals, to discuss and dissect not only the show, but a multitude of topics relating in large and small or none at all ways. And through this discovery and revelatory process, Miller was able to instill acceptance and trust and fuel me to portray what I hope was a truthful performance.

As for the show itself, he brought out the passion and power that it truly possesses. He dug to the core and revealed the moral meaning behind it all. Propelled by an improvisationally talented group of musicians, a subtle yet dramatic lighting design and the freedom of a skeletal set, Miller brought Hair to life and drove it marching and protesting into the hearts/minds/souls of those in the seats. And as with all the pieces I’ve seen New Line produce and Miller direct, he gave audiences the Truth. Not one person who experienced this show, be him spectator or performer, walked away unaffected.

Did I experience change? Certainly. Will I perform again? Hard to say. But Hair definitely puts a helluva capper on a spotty, sporadic decade of performing. I am emphatically proud of that show and am honored to have been a part of it.

And although New Line revived the show the following summer, there were changes in my life that made me unable to get on the bus. A month after we closed Hair, I became a father. Unfortunately, the geographical location of my baby boy, Nicholas, was not in St. Louis. Therefore, a move by me was imminent. It’s possible I could’ve worked out the logistics to allow me to perform in Hair 2001, but there was another reason that kept me away.

As I’ve said, I always wanted to do Hair. And truth be told, I’d always wanted to perform the role of Berger – that free-spirited, make love not war, primordially driven wild man. And in the summer of 2000, I accomplished just that. But to do so, I had to confront a lot of characteristics and behaviors, emotions and issues I had experienced in the not so distant past. Hair 2000 was in no small part a huge therapy session for me. I learned a lot that summer – about myself, and about others. And I have Miller and the entire cast (and, of course, Hair) to thank.

But to reprise the role of Berger for another production would’ve tainted the seminal experience I had had. It would’ve been too painful, and I would not have been able to do the character, and ultimately the show, justice. The tools I had used to embody him were no longer available to me, and my performance would’ve been merely perfunctory. And to me, that is unacceptable.

However, I was able to come back and see Hair 2001 as an audience member. And Berger, Claude, the entire tribe and band were a treat to behold. They had taken it to yet another level. And that made me smile immensely.

I may never have the opportunity to work with Miller and New Line again, but I cherish the moment when I did. They do important work for the St. Louis community. They bring forth Honesty and Integrity with each production they stage. Support this company. Support the Arts. Without them, we are pedestrian. Without them, we are empty.
Peace and Love,
John Sparger
aka Sparger Berger
Hair 2000

I could scarcely contain my surprise when Hair really came together, and I do mean in a big way. Not only were our audiences totally digging our performances, but as a group, our Tribe was bonding in a way that no one expected. The myth that “doing Hair will change your life” was really true. I cried myself nearly to sickness and shrieked myself hoarse each night because the show and the pain of experiencing that life had become so real to me. I wasn't just playing Jeanie; I was her, and these were my dear friends who were being sent to fight a war, many never to return. And while I often can't verbalize the power this show has on those of us who are lucky enough to bring it to life, I choose to think of our Tribe as messengers. Messengers who had only one month to share our knowledge with as many people as we could.
– Beck Hunter, “Jeanie”

Scott Miller cast me in his 2000 New Line Theatre production of Hair as Claude despite the fact that I'm twice the age of the character and have short hair. The hair, as it turns out, was not such a big deal. Since Claude returns at the end of the play as a short-haired specter in an Army uniform, wearing a wig was very appropriate to play him. Now, I know nothing about wigs. Where would I go, then, to find a wig that would not only look good but would stand up to a punishing evening on stage?

Obviously, to a drag queen.

My friend, Michael, is well known in the St. Louis drag community as his alter ego, the ultra-glamorous Erica Fox. Since Erica had won the Miss Missouri Entertainer of the Year award on more than one occasion, I knew Michael/Erica would be my first choice as wig guru/gura.

“Sure, Ken, come on over!” Michael said when I called to ask his help. “I'm sure we can find something that'll work for you.” When I arrived at his apartment, Michael had three or four wigs out on the kitchen table for us to consider. He gave me an appraising look and said, “I think this is the one for you.” He picked up a center-parted, shoulder-length chestnut number and arranged it on my head. He stepped back and looked. “That's it!” he exclaimed, sweeping up the other wigs and putting them back in their boxes. “That's the wig for you.”

“Really?” I asked, looking at my reflection in a hand mirror, unused to seeing my face framed by so much hair since I had been, well, Claude's age.

“Yes, really,” he said, scooping it off my head. “Now, let me show you how to clean it.” Clean it? There are instructions for how to clean it?

“First,” he said, turning on the faucet in the kitchen sink, “fill the sink with warm water. Then add a capful of . . .”

“Shampoo?” I interrupted.

“No. Mr. Clean.” He reached under the sink and poured the cleaning fluid into the sink.

“Mr. Clean!?!” I said, more loudly than I'd intended.

“Hon,” he said, turning with a Bob Fosse hip-pop, the wig draped over his right hand, “this wig is made out of the same stuff as this floor,” his left hand pointing at the linoleum. He turned back to the sink, demonstrating as he talked. “Place the wig in the water and gently swish it back and forth. Now run your fingers through it. As you lift it out, gently squeeze the water out. Do not wring it out! Now, to give it a really nice sheen, put fresh water in the sink and add a capful of. . .”

“Uh, conditioner?”

Michael gave me one of those how-could-someone-so-stupid-be-a-doctor looks. “No,” he said slowly, “Murphy's Oil Soap.”

“Murphy’s Oil Soap!?!”

“Do you want my help or not?”

“Sorry.”

He repeated the process with the furniture polish and concluded, “You dry it like this,” taking the wig outside, holding it over his head, and slinging it forward and around with the force of a lesbian softball pitcher. He turned and looked at me sternly. “You never use a hair dryer. Why?”

“Uh, it would melt?”

He smiled. “Now you're getting it.”

I followed Michael's regimen faithfully, subjecting the space-age polymer hairpiece to harsh chemicals before each weekend of our run, and, like the phoenix, it rose in glory each time.

While I'm sure the wig fooled no one into thinking I had seriously long hair, and while I'm sure no one thought I was really in my twenties, it all worked. When Claude returned to the stage in the final scene, dressed now in an army dress uniform, hair now in a buzz cut (my real hair, dyed to match the wig), I could hear people in the audience gasp, and as I sang the plaintive last reprise of “Manchester, England” in counterpoint to the protest song of the Tribe, I could hear them start to cry.

But that's New Line. While some people need chandeliers, roller skates, and helicopters, New Line just needs an authentic, aging hippie and a linoleum wig to create magic.
-- Ken Haller, “Claude”

I put Hair into our season without really knowing much about it, aside from its more famous songs and its movie version, which I knew was very different than its stage incarnation. Luckily, early in the rehearsal process, I discovered online a discussion list about the show that included among its subscribers members of the original Broadway cast and Michael Butler, the show’s original Broadway producer. Thank God for them. Learning the music was easy enough (though I’m glad I didn’t have to memorize any of those list songs). But once we started blocking the show, I was lost. The script didn’t make sense. There were virtually no stage directions. I found the archives of the discussion list and read every post. I started asking lots of questions. And slowly the show started making a little bit of sense. Their best advice was to Trust the Show. The rehearsal process became a kind of spiritual journey, a test of my trust. I did as they asked. I stopped worrying about the show. I stopped wondering how we would pull it off. I had trust. And I think it was that trust that kept the actors from freaking out completely. Despite the fact that they didn’t think it could ever come together, they saw no worry in me. And sure enough, once we the put the show on its feet and once we got it in front of an audience, almost everything started making sense. We found all the emotion, all the spirituality, all the genius of this wild and weird show. But I owe Michael Butler, Nina, and others on that Internet list a great debt of gratitude. Hair changed my life.
--Scott Miller

Out on Broadway 2000 (2000)

2000-03-09T19:44:00.000-06:00

a world premiere revue
conceived by Scott Miller
featuring songs from Rent, Grease, A New Brain, Songs for a New World, Jesus Christ Superstar, Ragtime, Little Shop of Horrors, Newsies, Cabaret, Guys and Dolls, Faust, Follies, Fiddler on the Roof, The King and I, and other shows
March 9 - April 1, 2000
St. Marcus Theatre, St. Louis

THE CASTChris Brenner
Tracy Collins
Robb Kennedy
Keith Thompson
Eddie Webb

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirector – Scott Miller
Lighting Designer – Amy Francis Schott
Costume Consultant – Tim Kent
Box Office Manager – Steve Dohrmann
Graphic Designer – Tracy Collins
Pianist – Scott Miller

THE REVIEWS
“At least the quirky little [St. Marcus] theater is going out in style. Scott Miller's revue, which presents musical theater songs in a gay context, has graceful, small-scale proportions, just right for this theater in terms of music, voice and staging. Furthermore, the show's message – a plea for tolerance, particularly in regard to sexual orientation – is a fair summation of the point that many St. Marcus shows have made. . . Miller even works in “Danny Boy.” But the ensemble rendition changes the terms so drastically that “Danny Boy” gains fresh meaning, tender and powerful. The song underscores the value of shows like this one: They reveal the familiar in a fresh light. Audiences need places that offer us that perspective.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Out on Broadway 2000, Scott Miller's beguiling assemblage of show tunes, looks like a lot of fun to do. . . This show makes you want to dish about the wise and witty performances of each singer.” – Sally Cragin, The Riverfront Times

“The gimmick sometimes works too, culling surprises from familiar lyrics when placed in a new context. I discovered I'd never really listened to the lyrics of ‘Far From the Home I Love,’ from Fiddler on the Roof, until I heard it in Out on Broadway 2000.” – Bob Wilcox, KDHX-FM

“New Line Theatre's Out on Broadway 2000 gender-reversed Broadway and cabaret standards and provided dreamy entertainment. All that was missing was the clink of ice cubes and a blue haze of cigarette smoke.” -- The Riverfront Times, “Best of 2000”

DIRECTOR'S NOTESWhen we put together the first Out on Broadway in March 1996, we had no idea that there would be such enormous public demand for more performances that we’d have to bring it back in August of that same year. We never thought there’d be a cast album. And we certainly never thought we’d be doing a sequel four years later.

But here we are.

So much has changed since 1996. Will and Grace is on television every week, getting great ratings, and three more shows with gay lead characters are planned for next season. And for good or bad, gay Americans are every bit as visible as straight Americans on Jerry Springer and the other talk shows.

Gay marriage has become one of the top issues in the country, with the Vermont Supreme Court ordering the state legislature to give gay couples equal rights, with Californians voting on a referendum against equal marriage rights for gay couples on March 7, and with the Hawaii gay marriage case still rumbling despite setbacks. In contrast, a study just released says 2.5 million gay Americans are currently in heterosexual marriages.

The issue of adoption for gay couples is coming before courts around the country. Anti-gay discrimination in groups like the Boy Scouts is being actively challenged in the courts, and in some cases, is being condemned.

As the presidential races heat up, gay issues are on the agenda everywhere you look. Both Al Gore and Bill Bradley are actively courting gay voters. And even the most conservative Republicans are being forced to acknowledge us and address our issues.

And yet, Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered in Wyoming just for being gay. Billy Jack Gaither was murdered in Georgia for the same reason. And they’re not the only ones.

One of the purposes of the original Out on Broadway was to tell gay teens and closeted gay men and women that it’s okay to be gay, that they can be gay and still be proud of who they are, that being gay is not a sickness. With all the increased visibility for gay Americans, perhaps that’s not as necessary today as it was four years ago.

The other purpose of the original show was to demonstrate how alike gay and straight people are, and how alike gay and straight love is. That is still necessary because, even though we are all alike deep down, the world still does not treat us alike. It’s amazing how easy it was for most of these songs, originally written for straight characters, to work in a gay context – but they do, precisely because gay people think and feel most of the same things as their straight friends and families. And that message can’t be spread far enough or fast enough.

So enjoy the show. Laugh along with us, cry along with us, but most importantly, remember that we are your brothers and sisters, parents, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Remember that many of us want to marry. Some of us want to have kids. And all of us want the respect we deserve.

Floyd Collins (1999)

1999-11-04T19:44:00.000-06:00

Music and Lyrics by Adam Guettel
Book and Additional Lyrics by Tina Landau
November 4-20, 1999
St. Marcus Theatre, St. Louis

THE CASTFloyd Collins – Troy Schnider
Homer Collins – Eric Whitman
Nellie Collins – Kimi Short
Lee Collins – Steven R. Johnson
Jane Collins – Mary “Mo” Monahan
William “Skeets” Miller – Dan Sattel
Bee Doyle – Karl Berberich
Ed Bishop – Michael Deak
Jewel Estes – Colin DeVaughan
H.T. Carmichael – Patrick Kerwin
Cliff Roney/Reporter – Chris Brenner
Dr. Hazlett/Reporter – Keith Hale
Reporter – John Rhine

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirectors – Scott Miler and Alison Helmer
Assistant Director – Kevin Corlett
Lighting Designer – Mark Schilling
Costume Designer – Elizabeth Krausnick
Set Designer and Scene Painter – Karl Berberich
Set Construction Assistant – Adam Lewis
Stage Manager – Amy Francis Schott
Sound Technician – Chris Clark
Box Office Manager – Steve Dohrmann
Graphic Designer – Tracy Collins

THE BAND
Piano – Neal Richardson
Violin – Bill Bauer
Guitar/Banjo – Kathy Schottel
Percussion – Adam Kopff

THE REVIEWS
“New Line Theatre . . . continues the hot streak that began last season with Camelot and Into the Woods. Scott Miller's productions always are small in scale, but the imaginative scope of these recent shows has impressive depth. . . It offers perspective instead of self-indulgence, imagination instead of ego. It's a compelling musical and one that is well-suited to the New Line Theatre's stripped-down style.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis-Post Dispatch

“Adam Guettel, the composer and lyricist, and Tina Landau have turned this dark, sad tale into a remarkable piece of musical theater that, although hardly flawless, is consistently interesting both in its music and in the way the story is told. . . New Line Theatre has fielded a strong cast whose vocal abilities are generally matches for Guettel's often demanding music. . . and what a pleasure it was to hear natural, unamplified voices.” – Harry Weber, The Riverfront Times
“Scott Miller's New Line Theatre company, in the small cave of the St. Marcus Theatre, is shouting out a beautiful exploratory cave call: they have been delving into the subterranean recesses of musical theatre for some years, and now they've opened a fine production that epitomizes their own search. . . The cast abounds with strong performances.” – Steve Callahan, KDHX-FM

DIRECTOR’S NOTES
Raucous comedy. Great tenderness. Muscular, powerful music. Simple folk ballads. Family, faith, metaphysics. It's all there in Floyd Collins, one of the most spectacular first efforts in the history of musical theatre.

The critics have gone wild over this show. New York's Newsday called it “one of the three or four truly great music theatre scores of the last decade.” Entertainment Weekly said, “The melodies soar... In Adam Guettel a vital new musical theatre writer has emerged.” New York Magazine said, “This is the original and daring musical of our day.., a powerhouse.” Variety said it was “easy to admire.., sometimes ravishing.” The San Diego Union Tribune called it “a daring and original piece of musical theater.” The Los Angeles Times called it “plaintive, often inspired...Adam Guettel is a composer for the new century.”

With Floyd Collins, composer-lyricist Adam Guettel (rhymes with kettle) has clearly established himself as the most likely candidate to lead the next generation into the musical theatre terrain that Stephen Sondheim has explored for the last forty years. Floyd Collins is a musical full of a complexity and sophistication worthy of Sondheim, yet also full of the emotional force that this story demands; because, though it is a story about media exploitation, greed, glory, and prejudice, at its core, it is even more about family and faith. It is one of those musicals, like West Side Story, Company, and Ragtime, which could only have been written by Americans. There is a brashness, an openness, and a muscularity in Floyd Collins that is uniquely American.

Guettel and his bookwriter Tina Landau have tackled a most unlikely subject for a musical. Most of the story takes place after Floyd has been trapped a hundred feet underground. How do you make a musical about a character who can't move? The answer is twofold. First, they realized the most compelling story here is an internal one; the almost supernatural connection between Floyd and Nellie, the powerful brotherly bond between Floyd and Homer, Floyd's indomitably American spirit, and his blind optimism in the face of incredible obstacles. Second, Guettel separated the two worlds – above ground and underground – by giving them each their own sound. Above ground, the music is an only slightly altered bluegrass Kentucky folk sound; rollicking, simple, honest. Below the surface is Floyd's world, and it has its own music. Here is where Guettel uses the sophisticated, complex sounds that owe something to the work of Stephen Sondheim; full of soaring, gorgeous melodies; unusual, quirky rhythms; and fascinating, interconnected musical themes that weave together to create a beautiful musical tapestry.

Guettel and Landau have written a musical about a real American hero, still today considered the greatest cave explorer in American history. And they've done it with such care and such skill that it ends up being one of the greatest musicals you'll ever see. We just hope we've done this magnificent work justice.

REMEMBERING FLOYD COLLINS
Several years after college I found myself far from the theatre, doing graphic design in a retail music store, when one of my coworkers, a former university music instructor, got a call from a local theatre company desperate to replace the lead in an upcoming production of Brigadoon. Aware of my background, he gave them my name; two weeks later I was performing my first role since college. That was the spark. Three more lead roles built my confidence enough that I sought out professional theatre companies, not for the money, but for the challenge. I was tired of being a big fish in a little pond, but the old fears returned. Was I good enough? I had to give it a shot, and another local actor suggested New Line Theatre. I knew nothing about them, but I trusted him and soon learned they were about to hold auditions for Floyd Collins. In my wildest dreams I never imagined a St. Louis company would take on a show this personal and this excruciatingly difficult. I clearly remember my only request on the audition form: “I just want to sing.” They cast me as Floyd, and, along with music director Neal Richardson, pushed me harder and farther than I ever dreamed. To this day I’m still shocked they had the guts to take on a show like this, but you have to realize New Line does it time and again over and over. Scott simply does what inspires him. It’s truly remarkable. The fact that he’s willing to cast someone he’s never seen before, and has the wherewithal to pull it off, astounds me. So, do I have what it takes? Who knows, that’s for others to decide, but I’ll never stop seeking out challenges and working hard. I have New Line Theatre to thank for this outlook, and Floyd Collins and many future productions to look forward to because of it.
– Troy Schnider, “Floyd Collins”

For me, the most wonderful moment of doing this show was standing backstage late in the second act while Floyd sings his last song and realizes he's going to die in the cave. For me, that was the emotional high point. When Troy would sing the line: “Will my mama be there waiting for me?” I would get shivers and have a huge lump in my throat the whole time I was saying my closing monologue. Floyd Collins was far and away the most touching show I've ever experienced. I will always cherish the memory.
– Dan Sattel, “Skeets Miller”

During the rehearsal process for Floyd Collins, Scott did a tremendous amount of research about this true story. In fact, Scott, Alison, Troy, and Amy traveled to Kentucky and saw the actual area where the show is set. They even brought back pictures and souvenirs of their trek to Floyd country. All of this reminded the cast that our characters were real people, and we got to know them a little better. But the biggest reminder happened on opening night. A group of actual cavers attended and sat in the front row with their cave helmets on. We thought that was kind of a strange thing to do and were poking fun at them backstage. During intermission, Scott talked to these folks and found out how much of a folk hero Floyd Collins is to cavers everywhere, even seventy-five years after his death. In a sense, it was like having friends of Floyd in the audience. That was pretty cool. Oh yeah, the cavers liked the show.
– Steve Johnson, “Lee Collins”

I never want to yodel again in my life. I don't think Scott would ever be happy with music that was simple and easy. And because of this, I don't think his performers would either. I have wanted to try other theater groups, but I don't. I keep thinking, “But they won't be like New Line’s shows.” I believe in what Scott does and the education in theater that he has given me. Also [I’m thankful] for the wonderful opportunities for personal growth and growth as a performer. I can never be grateful enough for all the true friendships I have made through New Line. I am proud to say that I am a part of New Line and will always be. Thank you Scott Miller.
– Chris Brenner, “Cliff Roney, Yodeler”

It was in the fall of 1999. Floyd was upon us and I took the job as set designer. I tried different ideas. In a small theatre like St. Marcus, there isn't much room for anything extensive. So I had to wing it. I needed this unit set to be a cave, a forest, a gathering area. I knew it would get done. I just couldn't calculate how well. I was in a bit of a panic. I needed to catch a vacation. I needed to really focus. I took a trip to Springfield. I knew how the set would be built, but the detail was crucial. That first night in Springfield was to be the time of clarity. I lay on my back on my friend’s floor (a bit sauced), watching a candle flicker light on the ceiling. I felt something on my side. I look down to my chest, and in the little light that was in the room, I noticed two long antennae sweeping the air. I froze. “I hate cockroaches,” I thought. All the lights go on and my friend is grabbing a shoe to kill this bug. In a flash, I realized what was on me... a cricket! I shouted, “No! Don’t kill it!” Floyd talked to crickets! It jumped off of me and disappeared into the house. In the instant I saw that cricket, I saw the detail of the set. In my head it was complete (crazy, huh?). That was a great spiritual moment for me. I believe in many Eastern beliefs and one belief is that crickets are fortune tellers, prognosticators. I had a moment of connection with something else, somewhere else. And the energy used me to create the right set. It turned out to be one of my favorite works of art to date. (Thank you, Mark, for the perfect lighting.) Floyd and my time doing that show really helped me deal with problems I had been struggling with, [helped me] shine in the face of adversity.
– Karl Berberich, set designer, “Bee Doyle”

During rehearsals for Floyd Collins, Troy, Alison, and I drove to Kentucky to see Floyd’s cave. The lady at the Floyd Collins Museum told us where the cave was in which Floyd had been trapped. We drove down the road and found a small sign by the side that said “Sand Cave.” There were no arrows, no map, no directions. We started down the dirt path, and after a few wrong turns, we finally found it – Floyd Collins’ Sand Cave, where Floyd was trapped and died, where people had argued over rescue theories, where thousands of gawkers and onlookers had assembled seventy-four years before. We found the tiny passage through which Floyd had squeezed. It was utterly magical and emotionally overwhelming. I felt like I was about to cry. I couldn’t believe we were there. It was the feeling you get standing in a beautiful cathedral. We then drove up the road further to find Floyd’s grave, and an elderly couple who had been driving by stopped when they saw us in the graveyard. The man had been a cave guide many years before and had carried Floyd’s coffin when they had moved it to that cemetery. They told us so many great stories and then told us how to find the unmarked Crystal Cave, which Floyd had opened to the public before his death in 1925. The next day, we found the small dirt road they had described, behind a locked gate. We parked and walked several miles down this road, not knowing for sure if it was even the right road. We found a couple buildings which we thought might be a house and a ticket office Floyd had built. While Alison and Troy took pictures, I found a path and ventured down it. I came across homemade stairs and a railing leading down to an entrance into a hill. I had found Crystal Cave and I screamed myself hoarse running back up to them. The entrance was sealed behind a big iron door, but when Troy pushed on the door, it opened, and to our great surprise we were able to walk inside the first chamber of Floyd’s cave, to stand on the floor he had smoothed, to breathe the air he had once breathed. It was an experience I’ll never forget.
– Scott Miller, director

What I remember most about the show is reuniting with Scott, and working with him for the first time in years. Whenever I've worked with Scott, it's always been an educational experience for me because he is so knowledgeable about the material he covers for any show he does. This was the first musical I had done since I graduated college. Since then I have concentrated mostly on music-writing, singing, and acting from time to time in various film and TV projects. So this was a welcome change of pace for me, as well as a sort of homecoming, since the musical stage is my first love. I remember everyone involved in Floyd Collins being a bit overwhelmed at first by the complexity of the material. Not just the score, but the story behind it too. This show is also a fine example of the type of material that Scott chooses for New Line, and why I believe the company has survived, and will thrive in the many years to come. New Line's productions do more than entertain people like other theatre companies or shows, where you leave the theatre afterwards, and within fifteen minutes forget what you just saw. New Line challenges the audience, and gives the audience something to think about after they leave the theatre. I'm not familiar with many other theatre companies, besides perhaps the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, that sets the bar so high in the choosing and executing of material, whether it's a popular classic, a lesser known piece, or a world premiere of an original work; where the result is a growing and learning experience for the artists onstage and behind the scenes as well as quality entertainment for the audience. Here's to ten--and hopefully many more--years for New Line! I hope that I'm lucky enough to be a part of your process again and again in the future.
– Eric Whitman, “Homer”

The Ballad of Floyd Collins – A Parody
(To the tune of the theme song for The Beverly Hillbillies,
with parody lyrics by Scott Miller.)

Come and listen to a show about a man named Floyd,
So damn weird that you’ll prob’ly get annoyed,
All about Kentucky and a fella in a cave --
Not so very happy but it surely is brave.
(spoken)
Brave theatre. Dissonant music. Hard to understand.

At the openin’ of the show, this Floyd goes down,
Crawling on the stage, kinda squirmin’ all around,
First ten minutes, he gets trapped real tight,
And he doesn’t move a muscle for the rest of the night.
(spoken)
Long night. Just sits there. No choreography.

And that's about the size of it, the whole friggin' show,
All in all, about as fun as choppin' off your toe.
Lots of heavy drama and some really long songs,
A-weepin' and a-wailin' where the comedy belongs.
(spoken)
Just a joke or two. That's all we ask.

Now, the first thing you know, they’ll be doing it agin,
Another damn musical about a mortal sin,
More crazy melodies a-dancin’ in your head,
And sure, by the end, well, the hero will be dead.
(spoken)
Stone dead. Depressing as hell…

A New Line Songbook (1999)

1999-10-09T19:44:00.000-05:00

a world premiere revue
Conceived by Scott Miller
featuring songs from Attempting the Absurd, Assassins, Pippin, In the Blood, Company, Sweeney Todd, Passion, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, March of the Falsettos, Songs for a New World, Into the Woods, Floyd Collins, and other shows
October 9, 1999

THE CAST
Karl Berberich, Kevin Collier, Cindy Duggan, Keith Hale, Alison Helmer, Rebecca Hunter, Lisa Karpowicz, Keith Price, Angie Reinert, John Rhine, Dan Sattel, Deborah Sharn, and Kimi Short. Hosted by Steven R. Johnson

THE ARTISTIC STAF
Director - Scott Miller
Lighting Designer - Amy Schott

Into the Woods (1999)

1999-06-11T19:43:00.000-05:00

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by James Lapine
June 10 - 26, 1999
St. Marcus Theatre, St. Louis

THE CAST
Narrator/Mysterious Man – Steven R. Johnson
Cinderella – Sarah Laak
Jack – Adam Eisen
Jack’s Mother – Cindy Duggan
Baker – Robb Kennedy
Baker’s Wife – Deborah Sharn
Cinderella’s Stepmother – Rebecca Hunter
Cinderella’s Stepsister, Florinda – Christina Rios
Cinderella’s Stepsister, Lucinda – Johanna Schloss
Steward – Justin Heinrich
Little Red Ridinghood – Kate Novak
Witch – Laura Beard Aeling
Cinderella’s Mother/Granny/Giant’s Wife – Mary “Mo” Monahan
Wolf/Cinderella’s Prince – Karl E. Berberich
Rapunzel – Kimi Short
Rapunzel’s Prince – Sean Pritchett

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirectors – Scott Miller & Alison Helmer
Music Director – Scott Miller
Set Designer & Scene Painter – Karl Berberich
Costume Designers – Theresa Doggett & Tim Kent
Lighting Designer – Jamie Brink
Lighting Technician – Sara Epstein
Stage Manager – Amy Francis Schott
Box Office Manager – Steve Dohrmann
Graphic Design – Laura Beard Aeling & Zachary Lips

THE BAND
Piano – Brad Hofeditz
Trumpet – Paul Hecht
Flute – Jessie Poepping
Percussion – Adam Kopff

THE REVIEWS
“With Into the Woods, [Scott Miller] continues his experiments in proportion. His intimate production of Stephen Sondheim’s sophisticated fairy tale reduces the Broadway hit to a nursery scale, befitting both its subject matter and its psychoanalytic viewpoint. The production . . . makes the most of the St. Marcus Theatre, turning its small size into an asset. . . Into the Woods brings together an exceptionally consistent cast.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“You can savor those words and music in what may be New Line’s finest production yet. . . The cast plays with smart assurance, without a weak link in the chain. . . The whole production turns these old tales into adult versions rich in wit, music, and emotion – the most satisfying kind of entertainment.” – Bob Wilcox, The Riverfront Times
DIRECTOR'S NOTESAt each stage of his life, a child may take different lessons from a single fairy tale. Each time he hears in it some new insight or lesson, depending on his needs at that moment in life. Perhaps at one moment, the child will learn that we must follow our parents’ instructions when he reads or hears Little Red Ridinghood. At a later moment, he may take from it the idea that life is full of dangers and adventures, but that no matter how scary it may get, we generally come out all right on the other end of even the darkest moments.

But fairy tales are for children. Well, maybe. Wouldn’t it be foolish to assume that just because we’re adults, we have nothing left to learn? In fact, Into the Woods is a fairy tale for adults. Real fairy tales divide the world into Good and Bad, with no gray area in between. Real fairy tales leave no room for moral ambiguity. Into the Woods takes us, as adults, into the world of fairy tales, and invites us to try to navigate this world. But we know too much and as that world changes us, we change it.

We know that in the real world a wedding is not the end of the story, that it is not a guarantee of happiness. Going into the fairy tale woods with the knowledge we have will shape that world into something very different. We know that the people who claim to be doing good, aren’t always. A child might accept the idea that killing a giant is unambiguously good. But we live in a world with war, abortion, mercy killing, and capital punishment. Killing suddenly isn’t all that clear-cut. Some people would say killing is never good. Others will point out that killing is sanctioned in the Bible. Which are we to believe? There are no easy answers.

Into the Woods is a very special show. In Act I, we are presented with a (relatively) conventional fairy tale that ends with a Happily Ever After. But in Act II, that world of black and white is dissected, deconstructed, examined more closely. We see that getting our Happily Ever After, getting what we want sometimes necessitates acts we may not be proud of, acts that have unforeseen consequences down the road. When we go into these woods, we bring our adult world with us, where people sometimes lie and steal.

We’ve already learned all those lessons about honesty, bravery, and obedience (though we may not always practice them). Into the Woods teaches us lessons--things some of us adults have not yet learned--about consequences, about responsibility to the community. (Maybe Clinton needs to see this show.) “No One is Alone” isn’t just a song that promises support in our time of need; it’s also a song that cautions us to be aware of how our actions affect others, reminding us that we do not live in a vacuum. One line says, “Careful – no one is alone.” It’s this “careful” that raises this show out of the ordinary.

Some people have criticized Into the Woods for being too preachy, for spelling out its lessons too completely. Real fairy tales never explicitly state their morals, leaving that work for the child to do. But this is a fairy tale for adults, and, as we all know, adults are far less perceptive than children.

REMEMBERING INTO THE WOODS

I loved doing this show. Absolute fun. I was nervous about singing, as the only singing I had really done was karaoke, but the company and environment were so incredible that I felt at home. I remember Justin and I had the arduous task of transforming Karl from the Wolf into Cinderella’s Prince. This entailed starting backstage, stripping him of the Wolf vest, racing upstairs, wiping away sweat and make-up, running through St Marcus’ Church, helping him into Prince clothes, and then downstairs for his cue to enter behind the audience. Thanks, Scott. Great idea. Luckily we made it every night. During the run of the show, I developed a wonderful bruise on my left shin and scars on both wrists from falling. It wasn’t so much falling as slamming myself into a wooden riser. The audience reaction was more than worth it, especially one night, when an older couple gasped “Oh dear! I hope he’s all right!”
– Sean Pritchett, “Rapunzel’s Prince”

The show was Into the Woods. I was Cinderella’s Dead Mother, the Giant, and Granny. The cast did a lot of marching through the audience. Lots of bobbing and weaving – single file, so as not to run into each other. I was Granny at the time of The Incident. All I remember is two Princes coming at me at the same time. I tried to “weave” out of the way, but in my struggle to remember those damn Sondheim lyrics, I had forgotten about the ramps which extended out from the stage. Yes, I avoided the Princes, but not the ramps. My feet were caught under the ramp and down I went. I believe St. Louis experienced a 5.3 on the Richter scale that evening. I managed to get myself up and march through the audience, singing and smiling. Instantly, my feet were growing. I decided not to take off my character shoes, believing I would never get them back on. My feet were the feet of the Giant. They became a lovely color of purple. Not to be one to complain or miss a party, I went out after the show with the cast, with the help of Vicadin and a couple of Bud Lights. Later, the x-rays showed I had fractured my feet in 3 places. The irony is that I was given many compliments later in the run regarding the ‘cute’ way Granny was walking because of my injury. And so as the old adage goes – the show must go on.
– Mo Monahan, “Granny, Giant’s Wife, Cinderella’s Mother”

I'm one of those people who starts laughing when things get tense. Or when someone falls. So I got a good laugh the night Mo Monahan fell in a heap during the show in her Granny clothes. Unfortunately, I didn't actually get to see the fall (so I don't have the rights to re-enact it), but I got to witness the aftermath. I found Mo sitting in the bathroom, moaning and actually crying some. Now, of course that's not funny, but I couldn't control my laughter when she explained what was wrong. Here's the direct quote: “I fell... I fell out there... I fell flat on my face... in front of all those people, I tripped and fell... flat on my stupid face!” And while I certainly cared that Mo had hurt herself, I nearly gnawed the inside of my cheek raw trying to keep from cackling loudly, as the show was still in progress. Needless to say, Mo spent the remainder of the run wearing a walking cast on her ankle.
– Beck Hunter, “Cinderella’s Stepmother”

New Line's production of Into The Woods had a beautiful set, an extremely talented cast, superb and imaginative direction, a very good band, a masterful score and script, and an anatomically complete Wolf. Karl, who played the Wolf, would dance and move around the audience area (Scott blocked the show using the entire theatre as a stage) during rehearsals in a very provocative way. He would slither and slink and use pelvic thrusts that we knew would be in audience members’ faces. The Wolf's costume was to have a suggestive bulge in the crotch area and everyone thought the pelvic thrusts would be fun for the audience. When the Wolf's costume was delivered, the bulge was more than a suggestion. It was unmistakable proof of the Wolf's gender. Needless to say, the pelvic thrusts took on a whole new dynamic. The script didn't give us any clues about the Wolf's first name, but if I were to venture a guess, I think it would be Dick.
– Steve Johnson, “Narrator/Mysterious Man”

I loved playing Rapunzel and having long blonde hair. Being of Asian descent, I had never pictured myself as a blonde. I even bleached my eyebrows to be more blonde! What I really enjoyed more than anything about Into the Woods was the environment. The entire theatre was transformed into the woods, and the stage incorporated hills and life-sized trees that came alive! It was a spectacular set, and you couldn't help feeling like you were somewhere else, somewhere where giants lurk, witches live, and the big bad wolf could jump out from anywhere. I have to mention a funny-in-an-odd-sort-of-way thing. One time, when I was trying to ask the costume designer a question, her response (with English accent) as she went by was, “You're not to speak to me while I'm walking!” I could hardly believe my ears! Now I love to tell that story, and you have to laugh.
– Kimi Short, “Rapunzel”

All of us girls were crammed into the rear dressing room of the St. Marcus, a room so cluttered and full of bugs, dead and alive, that I refused to take off my shoes unless I was standing on the towel I brought. Beck told me one night that if she were to die young in some freak accident, she wanted me to create a memorial fund for her which would rehab and redecorate the St. Marcus dressing rooms. As New Line is no longer performing at the St. Marcus Theatre, I'm now glad on two counts that Beck is still alive.
– Johanna Schloss, “Lucinda”

Camelot (1999)

1999-03-12T19:43:00.000-06:00

Book and Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Music by Frederick Loewe
Based on The Once and Future King,
By T. H. White
March 11-27, 1999
St. Marcus Theatre, St. Louis

THE CASTArthur Pendragon – Ted Cancila
Guenevere – Deborah Sharn
Lancelot du Lac – Karl E. Berberich
Merlyn/Pellinore – Steve Johnson
Sir Dinadan – Kevin Collier
Sir Lionel – Keith Thompson
Sir Sagramore – Jesse Lawder
Sir Castor – Jerry Smith
Sir Gawaine/Mordred – Walter Marts
Nimué/Lady Catherine – Kimi Short
Morgan Le Fay/Lady Elaine – Rebecca Hunter
Lady Anne/Tom of Warwick – Sarah Laak
Lady Sybil – Johanna Schloss

THE ARTISTIC STAFFDirectors – Scott Miller, Alison Helmer
Music Director – Scott Miller
Lighting Designer – Jamie Brink
Costume Designer – Elizabeth Krausnick
Technical Director – Karl Berberich
Lighting Technician – Sara Epstein
Stage Manager – Amy Francis Schott
Weapons Designer – Bryan Fick
Box Office Manager – Steve Dohrmann
Graphic Design – Laura Aeling

THE BAND
Piano – Steven C. Showalter
Guitar/Mandolin – D. Mike Bauer
Trumpet – Paul Hecht
Percussion – Adam Kopff

THE REVIEWS
“This show does not look, sound, or feel like any other Camelot [but] . . . this stripped down version has a lot going for it.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“It’s a longish evening, but so full of fine voices and serious, convincing performances, that its command of our attention is unfailing.” – Steve Callahan, KDHX-FM

“The musical’s dark ending doesn’t jar against too light and romantic a tone in the earlier scenes. Elemental passions and their potential for trouble lurk in the first moments, when even wise Merlin succumbs to the seductions of the flesh.” – Bob Wilcox, The Riverfront Times

DIRECTOR'S NOTESWhy Camelot? For a company known for doing Assassins, Sweeney Todd, and Out on Broadway, it seems a strange choice.

Well, I've been answering that question for a year now. And the answer keeps changing. It seems now there are two answers.

First, I'm crazy. And so is everyone who works with me.

Second, Camelot is a near masterpiece. It deals with some extremely heavy issues, all still relevant, with surprising parallels to our current scandal-ridden government [with Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinksy]. And its themes of sex, violence, betrayal, and death are the same themes we've explored in our other work.

What we discovered was that this story and these characters have a complexity and a depth that has been lost or ignored over the years. Going back to the source, The Once and Future King, we found richer, deeper characters than we'd ever seen in this show before, characters the original production no doubt explored fully but that have been forgotten and simplified over time.

Camelot is no fairy tale. It's a fiery, tragic, thought-provoking fable that somehow manages to make us laugh along the way.

But though it's a masterpiece, it's one with flaws and that makes it a tremendous challenge. How do you make an audience care about Arthur who continually refuses to face the obvious dangers that lurk behind every corner of his court? Or Guenevere, who has the gentlest, most caring husband in the world, and leaves him for another man? And what about Lancelot, who sleeps with his best friend's wife?

The answer is to explore why Arthur ignores the signs, what is missing in Arthur and Guenevere's marriage, what Guenevere needs that Arthur can't give her and that Lance can, and how Lance can balance his obsessive love for Arthur and his passionate love for Guenevere. This is a show about passions – Arthur's passion for the philosophy of law and for changing the world, Guenevere's passion for life and romance, Lancelot's passion for Arthur's dream and for Guenevere's love.

Ours is a muscular, aggressive, confrontational Camelot, one that lives not in the world of musical comedy, but instead in the dark world of Arthur, King of the Britons, and his knights of the Round Table. This is one of the greatest legends of the western world. We hope that we have brought to it the power and depth of understanding that it deserves.

As with all our shows, what we're attempting requires more from you, the audience, than most musicals ask, but we hope that the rewards for your efforts will be considerable. Enjoy.

REMEMBERING CAMELOT

For years, I had wanted to do Camelot small. Intimate, close up, psychological, personal. I wanted to get rid of the stupid dances, the idiotic costume parades, all the crap that had nothing to do with the story. The original production had cost over a million dollars and that was in 1960! But the story is really about just three people – people with Shakespearean-sized passions, sure, but at their core, real people with real feelings, real insecurities, and best of all, real contradictions. These are complicated, flawed, fascinating characters. I had played Arthur in high school and knew that there was more in that material than most people saw – or would admit they saw. I was convinced that for Camelot to really work, it had to be small and private. The audience had to feel like eavesdroppers, not spectators at a parade. I asked the three leads to make every scene personal and unbearably vulnerable, to rarely open themselves up physically to the audience (the usual practice in musicals), and above all, to let the show be unashamedly sexual and passionate. I’d like to think all these unusual – some said “radical” – ideas paid off, that our Camelot was not only different, but better. But my greatest joy was hearing audience members leaving the theatre each night, saying that they hadn’t remembered Camelot being that funny. Or sexy. Or sad. The biggest lesson I’ve learned with New Line is that the original production of a show isn’t always the best way to do it. In some cases, the authors were bound by convention, by finances, by audience expectations, by fear – and they didn’t always do their work justice. And sometimes it takes the distance of a few decades to see that.
– Scott Miller, director

I walked into the basement of the St. Marcus Theatre, not having a clue what to expect. Hey, I'm still pretty new to the theatre, and I had no concept of what Professional Non-Equity Theatre was. But I was prepared. I had my sheet music for “If Ever I Would Leave You” under my arm when a large – no, gigantic – man greeted me at the door. Intimidating first impression? Definitely. I filled out my audition sheet, and almost wet myself when I saw that there would be pay involved. Who knew a person could get paid for doing something this fun? Well, I got up there and sang my little baritone heart out, stone cold stiff with fright. The blond guy at the piano, who I gathered was the director, then tested my range and seemed pleasantly surprised at the depth of it, commenting that my range was the one he wished he had. I didn't know quite what to make of this, but stayed around to read anyway (but not dance… hmmm... in Camelot?). They asked me to read for Lancelot. Shocking, to say the least. After all, I was only seventeen. So, I put on my pseudo-French accent after asking if such a thing would be necessary, and went to work. I think the thing that threw me the most was that there was no Arthur to grovel to. Just me, on a bare stage, blind as a bat, on my knees towards the invisible king. I think the scariest part of that audition, though, was the thought that I might actually be cast as Lancelot. Fortunately, as the story goes, a fabulous baritone named Karl came along and snatched the part with one vocal chord tied around his back. I was so relieved to be a knight, I even offered to sing tenor (but that's a whole other chapter).
– Jesse Lawder, “Sir Sagramore”

For me, one of the funniest parts of the show was something the audiences were never aware of. It's at the end of the joust. Kevin Collier's character is killed, carried on stage and then brought back to life by Lancelot. It's a very emotional scene in the show. The funny part was watching Jerry, Walter, Jesse and Keith carry Kevin from the back of the theatre to the stage. Kevin is at least six feet twelve inches tall and weighs . . . a lot. Each night when they struggled to carry him on the stretcher to the stage, my mind would always go back to the night they dropped him on his head during rehearsal. Kevin wasn't too happy about being dropped. In fact, the last time I heard that much cursing from one human being was when my ex-wife was giving birth. Thank goodness Kevin wasn't hurt and there was no permanent damage to the stage.
– Steve Johnson, “King Pellinore”

My favorite memory of Camelot was a moment we had backstage. For the first weekend of the run, all the Lords and Ladies spent their downtime chatting in the green room together. For no known reason, by the second weekend, the women had begun to retreat to our dressing room and left the men in the green room alone. We prided ourselves on having plenty of time to make transitions upstairs through the sanctuary of the St. Marcus to cross over and enter through the back of the theatre. But one night, we were involved in our conversation and hearing a cue, suddenly realized we were in grave danger of missing our entrance at the back of the theatre. Well, the “Queens of the Manor” (and I do mean queens) were quite bitter about their ladies doing their own thing, so they fell into a laughing heap as the four of us burst open the dressing room door looking like a pack of flying nuns in our long Medieval ware and raced up the back stairs, tripping and falling on each other's clothes.
– Beck Hunter, “Morgan Le Fay, Lady Elaine”

I didn't think there was a spot for me in Camelot, but Scott told me about Nimué. He described her as an enchantress that sings this one beautiful song, which was enough reason for me to audition! Steve Johnson played Merlin and it was my job as Nimué to seduce him away. Steve was great to work with on and off stage. Our scene together was short but beautiful, and I enjoyed it very much. Much to my surprise, Joe Pollack complimented me in his review in Backstage, and Judith Newmark gave me a year-end Judy Award as one of the Best Supporting Actresses of the year. I appreciate the compliments very much, but I can't help chuckling about it because I was only onstage for about two minutes! Deborah, Ted, and Karl were terrific and this was their show, but we enjoyed watching and playing our parts in the story. It was always fun watching the invisible horses race towards each other in the jousts and “seeing” Lancelot's victories, especially the time they dropped Sir Dinadan (Kevin) while carrying him back to Arthur. Well, at least it was fun for us!
– Kimi Short, “Nimué”

The very first show I costumed for the New Line Theatre was Camelot. At that time their productions were in the basement of the St. Marcus on Russell Avenue. I remember my first reaction when I descended the steps and walked through the black hanging curtains to the theatre space: this is as low as I can get. The atmosphere was dark and close due to the low ceiling, soft lighting, and the pillars scattered throughout the seating area. However, throughout that first pre-production time and during the performances, I found out that the theatre company isn’t about the space [in which it performs], but the people who make up the company. We all joked about the size of the roaches in the green room (while I kept my feet off the floor), and the dressing rooms were cozy, not cramped. I actually felt comforted when I’d walk backstage by the Christmas lights and the hot, glowing boiler. But I found that the best part of it all was the genuine thanks and gratitude I received from the actors when I costumed them. They treated me and my costumes very well. Even though the company has had to change venues with the closing of the St. Marcus, the same camaraderie has continued. It’s such a warm feeling to get applause from the people I costume, for they know that I do it so they can be better in their roles, and that I do the best that I can do. What more could I ask for?
– Betsy Krausnick, costumer

New Line's production of Camelot was superb, provocative, delightful and yet so remarkably different from any other version I've ever seen of this show. As I sat in the audience that evening, I found it difficult to believe that my adult son, Scott Miller, was directing this highly sophisticated show. It seemed such a short time ago that Scott, my lanky young teenager, starred as the ill-fated King in his high school production of Camelot. My pride in his directing skills almost equaled those I experienced as I watched him perform so many years ago. Anyone who is a mother will understand my feelings ... the rest of you will just have to grin and bear it.
– Joan Zobel, mother of the director

Then there was the time when everyone got late night phone calls.
I had rehearsal one night, around January or February, and my ex-girlfriend was in town from school. She and I were good friends still, and we decided to go out for coffee or something after I got out of rehearsal. So, as I got out, she picked me up and off we went on our way to a fun night. It was, of course, a school night, and I did stay out quite late. I got home around two to find my father and his fiancée not in sight. Well, the way the story goes, they woke up to my empty bed, and happened to find my Camelot cast list. They then proceeded to make calls to at least three people (including the directors, Scott and Alison) wondering if we were still in rehearsal and if they had any idea where I might be. Seeing as how rehearsal got out at ten and it was now two, no one really had much to say on that subject. Needless to say, I had a lot of explaining to do next rehearsal.
– Jesse Lawder, “Sir Sagramore”

In Act II of Camelot, Sarah, Beck, Kimi, and I were offstage a lot (which is generally the case for any woman in Camelot who isn't Guenevere). On one particular night, we apparently had been listening to the same radio station on the way to the theatre, for we all had The Bangles' version of “Hazy Shade of Winter” in our heads. Very softly, almost in a whisper, we sang it and split into the harmonies as though we had rehearsed it for months. We decided we'd make a great girl band. And we ate a lot of grapefruit. In case you were wondering what we did for that hour backstage before the finale....
– Johanna Schloss, “Lady Sybil”