NY Times: Rock on, Ax Murderer: 40 Whacks, Many Songs

By Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times
September 25, 2009

Though ax-assisted patricide and step-matricide are rightly condemned in most polite societies, it sure is hard not to like “Lizzie Borden,” a rock musical being presented with wall-rattling glee at — ah, savor the incongruity — the Living Theater.

Carl Skutsch

Jenny Fellner in the title role of “Lizzie Borden,” a rock musical at the Living Theater that speculates on reasons for a rampage.

The show, a collaborative effort by Tim Maner, Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer and Alan Stevens Hewitt, has been around in one form or another since 1990. It is part of a long line of efforts to wrest entertainment out of the story of Borden, the O. J. Simpson of 1892, acquitted of the bloody murders of her father and stepmother in Massachusetts but still widely suspected. It’s a good match of genre and subject: hard rock for a crime of frenzied fury.

Four women perform the show under Mr. Maner’s direction, and their fine voices sell it. Jenny Fellner is Lizzie; Lisa Birnbaum is her strident sister, Emma; Marie-France Arcilla is a luscious neighbor, Alice; and Carrie Cimma, in a cocksure performance that ties the whole thing together, is the Bordens’ Irish maid. The four use way too many microphones in a tiny theater that requires none, but the excessive volume is part of what makes the piece work: it frees you somehow from taking any of it too seriously.

Some people are still debating Lizzie Borden’s guilt, but not the creators of this show. They assume she did the deed, and the scene in which she does it is a nutty high point. The musical starts with a factual framework but layers on assorted speculation, about lesbianism, incest and such.

The show struggles to establish and maintain a tone — is it high camp, low parody, operatic drama, or what? — but the four women are deliciously watchable. And what other show in town can say that its high point is a song (“Why Are All These Heads Off?”) about decapitated pigeons?

Victoria Clark and Christopher Ashley to Direct NAMT Musicals

By Adam Hetrick, Playbill
August 19, 2010

Tony Award-winning actress Victoria Clark and Tony Award-nominated director Christopher Ashley will stage new theatre projects during the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals in Manhattan this fall.

The 22nd annual festival, which allows theatre writers the chance to have excerpts of their works showcased before an audience of theatre professionals, will run Oct. 21-22.

Clark, a Tony winner for The Light in the Piazza, will direct The Trouble with Doug, authored by Will Aronson and Daniel Maté. Xanadu and Memphis director Ashley is slated to direct Heartbreakers by Robert Cary, Benjamin Feldman and David Gursky. Eric Stern will musical direct.

Also announced are Peter Flynn, who will direct the Georgia Stitt-John Jiler musical Big Read Sun; Dominic Missimi will stage The Bowery Boys by David H. Bell, Jeremy Cohen and Aaron Thielen, with music direction by Brad Haak.

The Giver, penned by Nathan Christensen and Scott Murphy, will be directed by Pam Berlin, with Vadim Feichtner as music director; Victoria Bussert will helm Steven Cheslik-deMeyer, Tim Maner and Alan Stevens Hewitt’s Lizzie Borden with musical direction by Matt Hinkley.

Sharon Rosen will direct Play It Cool by Martin Casella, Larry Dean Harris, Phillip Swann and Mark Winkler, with music direction by Joe Baker; and Daniella Topol and Jerry Dixon will co-direct Scott Ethier and Jeff Hughes’ Red Clay.

Founded in 1985 and based in New York City, The National Alliance for Musical Theatre is a national service organization dedicated exclusively to musical theatre. Kathy Evans is the executive director for the organization.

For more information visit NAMT.

NAMT Festival to Showcase Lizzie Borden, The Bowery Boys and Play It Cool

By Adam Hetrick, Playbill
July 7, 2010

Big Red Sun, Lizzie Borden, Play It Cool and Red Clay are among the eight musicals that will be presented during the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s annual festival of musicals in Manhattan this October.

The 22nd annual festival, presented for industry members, will run Oct. 21-22. NAMT offers theatre writers the chance to have their works showcased before an audience of theatre professionals from New York and around the country. All production costs are underwritten by NAMT.

Veteran Broadway performers annually gather to appear in the festival. While the event is produced for industry members, day-of tickets are made available to the general public.

Founded in 1985 and based in New York City, The National Alliance for Musical Theatre is a national service organization dedicated exclusively to musical theatre. Kathy Evans is the executive director for the organization.

The 2010 NAMT Festival of New Musical Selections follow:

Big Red Sun
Book and lyrics by John Jiler
Music by Georgia Stitt
“A teenage boy unearths a dark family secret as he searches for his long-lost father through the bewildering landscape of post-WWII America… where innocence has vanished, and the simple melodies of Kern and Berlin have been replaced by the dizzying energy of jazz and the birth of rock-and-roll.”

The Bowery Boys
Book and lyrics by David H. Bell
Music by Jeremy Cohen
Co-created by Aaron Thielen
“A musical that follows the journey of Dick, a streetwise kid, and his gang of bootblacks trying to ‘make it through the day.’ The backdrop of the show is Five Points New York in 1876, where Dick rescues a young English girl, who through a series of unfortunate circumstances, is abandoned by her devious step-father and his compatriots. The show follows Dick and the boys trying to protect Mary and reunite her with the only family she has left, her Grandfather. Loosely based on the writings of American writer Horatio Alger, this musical deals with the great distance between the American mythology and the much darker and more ominous truth about life in the tenements of the time.”

The Giver
Book and lyrics by Nathan Christensen
Music by Scott Murphy
Based on the book by Lois Lowry
“12-year-old Jonas lives in a perfect world, without pain, conflict or loneliness. But after being assigned to carry the memories of life before ‘Sameness,’ an ability learned from a mysterious man called the Giver, Jonas must choose between his perfect community and a world that contains both beauty and pain.”

Heartbreakers
Book by Robert Cary and Benjamin Feldman
Music by David Gursky
Lyrics by Robert Cary
Based on the MGM motion picture written by Robert Dunn, Paul Guay and Stephen Mazur
“Sexy female con artist Max Connor marries eligible bachelors, refuses them sex, and then discovers them in bed with a younger woman—leading to hefty annulment settlements. But the ‘other woman’ is actually Max’s daughter Page, who’s in on the con. Then Page breaks the cardinal rule: she falls in love.”

Lizzie Borden
Music by Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer and Alan Stevens Hewitt
Lyrics by Cheslik-DeMeyer and Tim Maner
Book and additional music by Maner
“A rock roadshow retelling of the bloody legend of America’s first and favorite axe-wielding double-murderess and Victorian hometown girl, Lizzie Borden. Featuring four fierce rocker girls and a live band, this driving musical reveals why Lizzie took up that axe and how she became an American folk hero.”

Play It Cool
Conceived by Larry Dean Harris
Book by Martin Casella and Larry Dean Harris
Lyrics by Mark Winkler
Music by Phillip Swann
Additional Music by Jim Andron, Michael Cruz, Marilyn Harris, Emilio Palame, Joe Pasquale and Larry Steelman
“Everyone’s got a secret at Mary’s Hideaway, an underground nightclub in sexy, sultry, repressive 1953 Hollywood. Inspired by film noir and driven by a sizzling jazz score, this story of five very ambitious people is about finding the courage to be who you are. You just need to…Play It Cool.”

Red Clay
Music by Scott Ethier
Book and lyrics by Jeff Hughes
“Set in the six months leading up to Rosa Parks’ historic ride on a Montgomery bus, Red Clay uses a new jazz and gospel-infused score to tell the story of the ordinary Americans who changed this nation in extraordinary ways.”

The Trouble With Doug
Book and music by Will Aronson
Book and lyrics by Daniel Maté
“The Trouble With Doug is a contemporary comedic reimagining of Kafka’s Metamorphosis in which a happy, healthy young man transforms inexplicably into a giant talking slug. Thrust together awkwardly under the same roof, Doug, his family, and his fiancée all struggle to understand and respond to this strangest of crises.”

Musicals previously presented in NAMT’s Festival of New Musicals include Vanities, Ordinary Days, Dangerous Beauty, Emma, The Gypsy King, The Story of My Life, Tinyard Hill, The Drowsy Chaperone, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Children of Eden, I Love You Because, Songs for A New World, Striking 12, Summer of ‘42, Ace, Children of Eden, Harold and Maude, Honk! and Meet John Doe.

For more information visit NAMT.