Entering... Beatsville!

So, today started out being really really lame because I was having a personal problem that turned out to be based on a horrible, horrible miscommunication so at least that ended well (with a clarification of that miscommunication). But there were some non-personal-problem aspects of the day that are worth mentioning.

I had work but they let me leave early to attend this musical theater festival of new musicals put on in 45-minute staged readings by the National Alliance of Musical Theater. I first went to one called "Barnstormer," about Bessie Coleman, the first black aviatrix, that was rejected by The Public and in a file I scanned for the digital archiving project I'm working on. The musical was rightly rejected, since it didn't seem very exciting or even that good period. The performers were pretty good and the two main people were charismatic, and there was one funny song by Bessie's sister-in-law that she's staying with who says that "if it isn't in the Bible, it's not in this house."

After that I went to a reading of a show called "Beatsville." It's one of those shows like "Hair" where I was in an unrelated bad mood before going in to it but it was so good I forgot everything I was fretting about. It's a bebop/jazz-flavored musical based on one of my favorite Roger Corman movies, "A Bucket of Blood," about a guy who really wants to fit in with the beatnick scene of the '50s but is hopefully square until he starts making amazing sculptures... by covering dead bodies in clay ("Dead Cat," "Murdered Cop," "Screaming Landlady"). The musical was actually really funny and incredibly entertaining and this was the first reading of it ever. I really really hope it gets productions because I would LOVE to see the whole show. This reading was really well cast as well. (also, pretty much the main actress in the cast was a jazz soprano from... Wasila, Alaska!) I'm listening to the CD they gave out and I think the cast I saw was better at the beatnick energy/it's better live... and the songs were differently paced (not faster or slower, different for each song oddly) at the reading. But it's still good.

For the uneducated, Roger Corman is the king of the "B" movie and his autobiography is titled How I Made 100 Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime. His daughter went to Harvard-Westlake and he was the topic for my final paper in Ted Walch's cinema studies course junior year. He also made the movie "Little Shop of Horrors," (in a 2 day shoot!) which inspired the hit musical. So obviously I'd love love love to see another successful Roger Corman musical -- especially based on this particular movie! I was sad to see this reading end. Definitely one of the highlights of my NYC stay/gap year so far.

I wish there were a way to post music on this blog... maybe I'll put one of the songs into a file on Final Cut and upload it as a "video"? I'm just so pleased to know about this musical!

(and on the CD are Sara Ramirez and Brian D'arcy James, which is awesome)