heatre’s
The 5th Avenue T
NEXT
Fest
THE 5TH AVENUE’S NEXTFEST
is a festival of new musicals at all stages of
development—from first read-throughs of text and
music to fully staged studio presentations—with
each weekend featuring a presentation of a musical
in development. Here are a few of the projects we’re
working on this summer from July 20 to August 15,
and why we think they are exciting.
PAINT YOUR
WAGON
By Lerner & Loewe
New Book by Jon Marans
4-Week Development Lab
The 5th is creating a brand new script for Lerner and Loewe’s
incredible score— a score that includes “They Call The
Wind Mariah,”“A Wandrin’ Star” and “I Talk To The Trees.”
Pulitzer Prize nominated playwright Jon Marans has been
commissioned to write the book for this fresh, gritty adventure
about a group of people from around the world who risk
everything to strike it rich in the California Gold Rush.
The Scoop:
“The 5th is known for inventing new musicals—now
we are reinventing a classic! Jon Marans has written a
story that is as much about the formation of a new, broader
American family as it is about the Gold Rush. Combined with
new, soul-stirring bluegrass arrangements of these amazing
melodies, Paint Your Wagon will feel fresh and vital.”
FOURTH ESTATE
(from our inaugural Seattle Writers Group)
Book by Andrew Russell
Music by Richard Gray
Reading
This gripping thriller unpacks government secrets,
questions American history, and celebrates the power
of the press by imagining Dorothy Kilgallen, Jack Ruby,
Laura Poitras and Edward Snowden together onstage.
The Scoop:
PERSUASION
(from our inaugural Seattle Writers Group)
Adaptation from Jane Austen
Book by Harold Taw
Music by Chris Jeffries
Reading
Can a second chance at love be sweeter than the first?
Persuasion is a Cinderella story about Anne Elliot’s fight
to earn an even happier ending. Jane Austen’s final novel,
soars to life in this ravishing new musical about love
The Scoop:
“Intellectually and conceptually daring, this show
clashes together the social paranoia in post-Kennedy
assassination America with the current terror of privacy
invasion in the digital age, told through a unique, eversurprising theatrical style.”
“Who doesn’t love Jane Austen? This delightful new
musical is just a romp! It’s a grown-up love story that
explores the high stakes of a second—and perhaps—final
chance at love. With creative and comic language it jumps
into an old-fashioned world with vigor.”
Ian Eisendrath Alhadeff Family Director of New Works
David Armstrong Executive Producer & Artistic Director
FIXING EINSTEIN
(from our inaugural Seattle Writers Group)
SINGLE GIRLS
GUIDE
Reading
Book by Gordon Greenberg
Music by Tommy Newman
Book by Lauren Goldman Marshall
Music by Ian Williams
Victoria, a cutting-edge neuroscientist facing a
degenerative illness clones herself, intending that
her clone will carry on her work and care for her
dysfunctional family while she enjoys her final days. Her
clone, Vicki, has her own ideas about living…
The Scoop:
“These writers have uniquely quirky and relevant
voices, and are tackling a futuristic premise in a
very tangible way. Adding this sci-fi dynamic to suburban
struggle allows us to look at domestic issues, disease, and
human worth in a whole new light.”
Retreat & Reading
Sophie Kinsella meets Helen Gurley Brown in a musical
celebrating love and the joys of living on your own
terms. Filled with the bright spirit of the mid-1960s, this
fizzy riff on Sex and The Single Girl echoes the eternal
questions of marriage, sex and being single.
BEATSVILLE
Book by Glen Slater
Music and Lyrics by Wendy Wilf
Reading
Greenwich Village, 1959: playground of goateed artists,
turtle-necked poets, and bongo-playing jazzbos. When
hopelessly square Walter accidentally kills a cat and
hides it in a lump of clay, the beatniks declare “Dead Cat”
a masterpiece and Walter a genius. More “sculptures”
bring more acclaim—and more bodies…
The Scoop:
“We have never heard a jazz score for the theater
as authentic and hip as Beatsville. Adapted from a
horror flick, this show has enough camp to match Little
Shop of Horrors and enough true bebop jazz to keep us
snapping our fingers the whole time.”
Bill Berry Producing Artistic Director
NEXTFEST IS NOT OPEN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC.
Festival passes are a benefit of an Artist’s Circle
Membership, offering access to behind-the-scenes
interviews with writers, sneak peeks, special
concerts, cocktail events, and panels.
Special Thanks
to the following NextFest Creators
for their leadership support:
Beth & Buzz Porter ~ Ann Ramsay-Jenkins
Cynthia Stroum ~ Bonnie & Jim Towne
The Scoop:
“This show is part 1940s movie, part Carrie
Bradshaw. It has great playfulness, great characters, and
enough social impact to matter. This ‘60s musical offers
such incredible possibilities for story, style, and music.”
To learn more about Artist’s Circle Membership, please
call 206-625-1418 and ask for the Circles Office.
To learn more about these and other NextFest musicals,
including a lab presentation of Something Wicked
(based on the Ray Bradbury novel) and a pitch session
for Clowntown, a new musical from the circus team that
brought you La Reve, please visit:
www.5thavenue.org/new-works-program#nextfest-2015
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