GrooveLily

Wheelhouse vlog #6: 8 counts of Chuck Berry, 8 counts of worm legs.

Valerie — Thu, 17 May 2012 04:52:43 +0000

Wheelhouse vlog #5: first day of rehearsal.

Valerie — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:24:50 +0000

Wheelhouse vlog #4: coffee = rewrites.

brendan — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:59:01 +0000

Wheelhouse vlog #3: I’m serious that I love you.

brendan — Mon, 14 May 2012 04:35:07 +0000

WHEELHOUSE vlog #2: timeless versions of ourselves.

Valerie — Sun, 13 May 2012 05:46:39 +0000

Wheelhouse rehearsals, day 1. Office Supplies in the prop department.

brendan — Sat, 12 May 2012 03:51:30 +0000

Val said it yesterday morning before I drove up here: I can’t believe that people are paying us actual money to write and perform a show about *us*. An autobiographical show. It blows my mind. Doesn’t matter that this show has been in the works since 2005. It’s ACTUALLY HAPPENING.

Now, keep in mind–this show takes the reality of our lives and plays with it a great deal to make it more dramatically interesting–and all of our foibles are turned up to “11″ so that we become INFINITELY more dramatic than we actually are in real life. But by doing so, I think we get to the heart of who we really were during those heady days when we made the exciting mistake of moving into a used RV.

After a “let’s rip each moment apart as we reread the script again” festival, which we seem to do every time we get together, our scenic designer, Kate Edmunds, and our assistant properties master, Shay Henley, walked us through a bunch of proppy and setty stuff. There’s a scene early on where Val “plays” the touch-tones of a phone, while I type on a very clacky computer keyboard and Gene “plays” staplers and various office supplies, and we got to go hands-on with a bunch of potential choices.

These are instruments.

Percussion instruments.

What is that thing? The one that's been painted black?

Also, an old cell phone plays a very important role in the show, so Gene tried out a number of cell phones to see which felt the most “wildly hip 12 years ago” from the batch that the TheatreWorks prop department had on hand.

Something like this.

Val is starting to vlog about her experiences prepping for Wheelhouse. Here’s her first entry:

From Valerie: a free song for you for Mother’s Day

Valerie — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:39:43 +0000

a free song for you for Mother’s Day
(where it says “name your price” just put in zero, or as you wish)

Please stream/download/share, and spread the mother/daughter love

In fond memory of my mom, Gerry Vigoda

Val

Next Milburn & Vigoda concert Aug 27 NoHo Arts

Valerie — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:37:44 +0000

We loved every minute of our evening at MBar – thanks so much to everyone who was there with us, including our fabnastic special guests Matt Wolpe, David Rodwin and Alfred Johnson, and sound engineer Chris Luessmann! We were the kickoff event of the Festival of New American Musicals, which continues through the summer…and we’ve booked our next duo show: Monday, August 27 at NoHo Arts Center.

Leaving today for 2 months in Palo Alto for our WHEELHOUSE premiere…will be blogging about it right here, stay tuned!

Val & Bren playing in LA once more – don’t miss it! Thu, May 3 @ MBar

Valerie — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 21:41:25 +0000

Photo by Mark Kitaoka

Thursday, May 3

Milburn & Vigoda @ MBar

1253 Vine St

Los Angeles, CA 90038

Doors open for food/drinks @ 7 PM

Show @ 8 PM

We’re back, in Hollywood this time, and this show is going to kick even more booty than the last one in January. More musical guests, more behind-the-musical and behind-the-songs-for-movies stories, and mostly this is simply the best way to spend your first Thursday night in the month of May.

From the back of the postcard:

Milburn & Vigoda are a theatrical songwriting team who perform their own stuff–they spent 15 years on the road with their band GrooveLily, and now divide their time between writing musicals (Disney’s TOY STORY: THE MUSICAL, STRIKING 12, SLEEPING BEAUTY WAKES) and songs for movies (TINKER BELL & THE MANY SEQUELS, PLANES 2) and teen pop stars (Zendaya).

Most of the concert will be the duo with special guests, performing their favorite songs (including some good ones that got cut from shows and films); and a little bit will be Valerie’s mind-blowing solo looping vocals and violin.

“To call Valerie Vigoda talented barely seems to do her justice. She has a great voice, is an intelligent lyricist … and an ace violinist. Methinks we’ll hear more of her.” –Dirty Linen Magazine

“Milburn was a deft pianist, his nimble fingerwork doing double duty as the band’s bassist and provider of its harmonic foundation, delivered with the jazzy sophistication of Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen and the rock and roll theatrics of Billy Joel.” — Seth Rogovoy

Any questions? Email us at valerie at milburn-vigoda.com, or call the venue directly at 323.856.0036.

Gearing up for WHEELHOUSE premiere

Valerie — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 21:32:12 +0000

Photo by Mark Kitaoka

We just returned from our intensive 7-day writing workshop at TheatreWorks of Silicon Valley, in preparation for our WHEELHOUSE world premiere, which starts rehearsal in 5 short weeks. Read Val’s blog about the process, which begins here.

John Orr of the Mercury News interviewed TheatreWorks Artistic Director Robert Kelley about the show:

John Orr: And not only that …

San Jose Mercury News

“Kelley said the first read-through was ‘quite amazing’, which I believe, having seen Valerie Vigoda, Brendan Milburn and Gene Lewin in action before.”

First preview is June 6, opening night is June 9 and the run continues only through July 1. There already seems to be a good buzz about the show; so we encourage you to get tickets right away.