Thursday, April 16, 2009
Feel the Rain
I love musicals. And I especially love new musicals. If you do too, then don’t miss the one night only staged reading of Georgia Stitt’s new musical, The Water. You can catch it at the Colony Theatre in Burbank on April 27th at 7:30 pm. Written with collaborators Jeff Hylton (lyrics), and Tim Werenko & Jeff Hylton (book), it was the winner of the Academy for New Musical Theatre’s 2008 Search for New Musicals. Stitt’s music is rich with texture, beautifully capturing the pathos, subtlety and yes, even humor, of a story that speaks to our inherent humanity.
The Water is the story of a small Missouri town that survives a flood and examines what it takes for a community to rebuild its buildings, its relationships, and its unique sense of home. The story and characters are fictitious, but inspired by real events which happen in the Midwest every year.
Composer Georgia Stitt talks about what drew her to the story. “I had been interested in writing about the ideas of home and community. What makes a place special, so special that you choose to rebuild after a tragedy rather than leaving? Jeff and I have attempted to write a score that captures that sense of place, of belonging, and also deeply explores the passions of these people and their relationships with the water that both feeds and destroys their livelihoods. I have worked to write music that is full of both character and emotion, and I think Jeff and Tim have managed to do that in the script, as well. The show is funny, heartwarming, and achingly tragic. This is a particularly American story, and since we started writing it, we have lived through September 11th in New York City and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. As timely as ever, The Water is a show about moving on.” You can read more about The Water on Georgia’s blog at www.georgiastitt.com/.
Scheduled to appear in the cast are Vicki Lewis (Film: Finding Nemo; Broadway: Damn Yankees; TV: series regular on NewsRadio), Michael Arden (who appeared in the title role of the Center Theatre Group’s recent production of Pippin), Jeremy Kocal (currently appearing in Wicked in San Francisco) and other Southern California musical theatre stars including Dan Callaway, Julie Garnye, Tim Gulan and Steven Hack, and members of the Academy Repertory Company. Tickets are available at www.anmt.org.
