November 5, 2009 – 8:30 am
We just have to crow about this for a moment: this is a huge honor. It’s one of those awards for which you cannot apply; you simply receive a mysterious phone call out of the blue from Michael Kerker at ASCAP, saying “please post 6 of your songs online, a variety of work from different projects, and I can’t tell you anything else!” in a conspiratorial tone.
Then, a few days later, he calls back sounding much more jovial, and says we’ve been selected to receive the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award. We go online to find out more, and see that the list of past recipients reads like a Who’s Who of young writers working on Broadway: Adam Guettel, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jeanine Tesori, Larry O’Keefe, Andrew Lippa, John Bucchino, Michael Korie…we are unbelievably honored to be in this select company. The award was conceived of by Richard Rodgers’s daughter Mary Rodgers, whom we’ll get to meet at the awards ceremony December 9. Woohoo!!
Richard Rodgers
November 5, 2009 – 8:00 am
Northern and southern California unite in the Antarctic! We are incredibly happy to report that La Jolla Playhouse has officially joined with TheatreWorks to co-commission ERNEST SHACKLETON LOVES ME, the solo show for Val we are writing with Joe DiPietro. We’ve had a long and fruitful history with TheatreWorks, and are delighted at the chance to work with La Jolla as well. LJP is a high-profile regional theater that is often considered a “testing ground” for New York; among the productions that originated at the Playhouse before finding success on Broadway are BIG RIVER, The Who’s TOMMY, Matthew Broderick’s revival of HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING, JANE EYRE, DRACULA THE MUSICAL, THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, Billy Crystal’s 700 SUNDAYS, and JERSEY BOYS. We’ll be working closely with Associate Producer Dana Harrel at LJP, and Director of New Works Meredith McDonough at TheatreWorks.
It’s likely that we’ll be at La Jolla for a week or so in April 2010, as we continue on the developmental process toward production. As we find we do our best work in response to audiences, there will probably be an opportunity to attend a reading or two at that point…we’ll keep you posted and hope to see you there!
A cove in beautiful La Jolla
November 5, 2009 – 7:30 am
We’ve just been notified that Birmingham-Southern College will be producing STRIKING 12 this season, with 12 actors + 6 onstage musicians. One of the first college productions of our show, it’s also certainly one of the largest/most ambitious. We wish we could see it ourselves, but unfortunately can’t travel to Alabama. If you’re in the area, we hope you’ll check out the show and tell us all about it!
BSC's STRIKING 12 set
November 3, 2009 – 3:24 pm
In time for our upcoming run of STRIKING 12 at Arena Stage, the excellent team at PS Classics will be printing up more copies of the CD – and inside will be special cards to allow you to download the new songs we’ve written for the show since that CD was released. We’ve been wanting to make those songs available for a while – and now is the perfect opportunity.
Brendan will be mixing those new songs from live tracks from last year’s Zipper Factory Theatre show on December 30, 2008, in time for this December 2 release. If you already own the CD, you’ll be able to buy the download card separately.
In addition, the fine folks at Warner/Chappell, in conjunction with Alfred Music, are publishing our first-ever song folio, also to be available this December – we should have them available at Arena. 8 songs from STRIKING 12 will be included, in full old-fashioned piano/vocal sheet music style.
November 3, 2009 – 3:14 pm
Each time we play a concert, we generally do a CD giveaway – and recently, we’ve been offering a free download of a song cut from SLEEPING BEAUTY WAKES to *everyone* who signs up on our email list. We’ve been telling people that if they’re already on the list, they can go ahead and sign up anyway for the free download…and we just want to make sure those folks aren’t slipping through the cracks. (When we add a new group of names to our list our e-blasts, it may not be recognizing the ones that are already in there…)
Anyway, if you have signed up at a show for the free download and have not received it, please email us@groovelily.com and we’ll take care of it right away – thanks!
November 3, 2009 – 2:45 pm
Really looking forward to these! Both the Fairmont Opera House and the Historic Holmes Theater are places we played at 2 years ago, in the middle of winter…and if we enjoyed them then, with every molecule of our bodies frozen as we hauled equipment to and fro, then a mild autumnal return will be no less than terrific. Fairmont and Detroit Lakes are both lovely and warm (the people, I mean – they have to be!) – and we can’t wait to visit them again, and these beautiful venues, in a few weeks.
Fairmont Opera House
Historic Holmes Theater
October 28, 2009 – 6:40 pm
The movie came out yesterday on Blu-Ray and DVD, and the first few minutes are watchable here, including our opening song. It’s the first time we’ve seen it in its full-on animated glory, and we are pretty thrilled.
October 17, 2009 – 2:02 pm
We are quite honored to be invited to take part in this high-profile event. Past “sneak peek” shows featured in this series have included Broadway hits AVENUE Q, THE DROWSY CHAPERONE and NEXT TO NORMAL; we’d be thrilled to follow in their footsteps.
Broadway Close Up
The prospect of this exciting November 16 show, where we’ll play 3 songs from SLEEPING BEAUTY WAKES and hear “sneak peeks” from 4 other upcoming shows, has prompted Gene to remove his djembe from storage, so that we may present a slightly more “unplugged” version of the band. Our wonderful collaborator Rachel Sheinkin will be there with us as well to talk with the audience. Read More »
