A Continually Updated Blog of Jack’s Work

Havana

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 17:26:57 -0500

This is Havana, a place for pleasure, music and dance. But behind this dazzling world of nightlife, glamour and romance, the country is fraught with corruption. This is a story of an impossible love which grows against a scene of violent political struggle and rebellion. Havana is a city on the edge of becoming a battleground.

The year is 1958 and NATALIE, a young American writer of Cuban extraction, is arriving in Havana to claim her inheritance. Her AUNT JULIA has died leaving Natalie her house and a Night Club. It is Natalie’s intention to come to Cuba in order to sell both properties and return to the U.S. —Nilo Cruz

With Book by Pulitzer Prize winning Playwright, Nilo Cruz (“Anna In The Tropics”), and Music and Lyrics by Tony Nominated collaborators Frank Wildhorn and Jack Murphy, the development process of this show will be updated on this website as they become available.

Take a moment to listen to audio clips from the show on our podcast page.

The Count of Monte Cristo

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:48:26 -0500

Alexander Dumas’ classic tale of love, betrayal and vengeance in the post-Napoleonic era follows Edmund Dantes as he prepares to captain his own ship and marry his beloved Mercedes. On the very day of his betrothal, he is arrested on trumped up charges — designed by his enemies who, each for his own reason, wants him out of the way. Condemned to lifelong imprisonment, he is befriended by Abbe Faria, a priest and fellow inmate who has been working on an escape for years. The Abbe tells Edmund the location of an immense treasure just before he dies, leaving Edmund to escape alone. Free at last, and incredibly wealthy, Edmond re-invents himself as the brooding and mysterious Count of Monte Cristo — a persona he uses to gain access into the aristocratic society of France in order to reclaim his lost love and exact a terrible vengeance from his accusers.
With music by Frank Wildhorn and Book and Lyrics by Jack Murphy, the musical of Dumas’ enduring story will have its World Premier in St. Galen, Switzerland on March 14, 2009.

Gods of Autumn

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 15:14:41 -0500

We all know we’re going to die someday. Just not today. “Gods of Autumn” is a play about how three very different people who never would have met in the course of their normal lives, are thrown together to face their own mortality. But it’s really not so much a story of how we die as it is a story about how we live. As one of the characters, Mary, says “Maybe you just have to take your best guess and keep heading West like Columbus — keep telling the crew something’s out there just over the horizon ... some place as real as this, and then hope to God there is. Maybe, that’s what life is all about — holding on and hoping.”

The show had its world premiere in Raleigh, North Carolina on August 20, 2008, continuing its run through August 31. Gods of Autumn is part of the annual Hot Summer Nights at the Kennedy.

The cast for this production was great: Jarrod Emick as Jimmy Sullivan, Jessica Phillips as Mary/Bernadette, Dorothy Brown as Evelyn Whitman, Gilly Conklin as Nurse/Mom and Holden Hansen as The Other Part.  http://www.hotsummernightsatthekennedy.org.

The Seduction of Sheila Valentine

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 15:13:23 -0500

It is 1958 in Dubuque, Iowa and two fading female stars of stage and screen are in a final dress rehearsal for an unfortunate production of the never-was, never-gonna-be hit ‘My Oh My Oh Iowa!’ Irene Fontaine and Rosalind Lords have fallen as far as two forty-something actresses can fall, all the way to the John Wayne Dinner Theater. When their long-lost agent arrives, the girls find out that he is bringing a hot new script by a hot young writer/director to his prize client Mamie Van DeLay. They each get their hands on the script for this new Broadway show, ‘The Seduction of Sheila Valentine’ and decide independently that it is their ticket back to the big time. When two desperate actresses vie for one role of a lifetime, the result is nothing short of hilarious.

Take a moment to listen to the audio clips from the first reading on our podcast page..

Zelda

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 14:17:15 -0500

Zelda is a love story loosely based on the lives of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Zelda, a young, beautiful southern belle meets a handsome, twenty-one year old author named F. Scott Fitzgerald at a dance on July 4, 1917 in Montgomery, Alabama. The two fall madly in love at first sight and together, they decide that they are going to create a new kind of American celebrity. Zelda is ultimately about the two lovers’ rise, their fall, and their almost divine desire to rise once more… together. This show was first presented at the Lenape Regional Performing Arts Center in Marlton, New Jersey where it was honored with eight Barrymore Nominations for Excellence in Theatre including Best Musical. The final rewrite for the show has been completed and we are in the process of securing a theater to present the pre-Broadway production of the show.

Take a moment to listen to the audio clips and the video presentation for the show on our podcast page.

Rudolph

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 14:05:17 -0500

Suggested by true events and set against the backdrop of champagne splashed Vienna of 1889, “Rudolf — The Last Kiss” tells the tragic tale of one of the most controversial love stories in history. Based on material drawn from Frederick Morton’s remarkable book, “A Nervous Splendor,” Rudolf, The Crown Prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, meets and falls in love with the 17 year old Mary Vetsera. Unable to live together as man and wife in this world, they decide to die together so they can be joined through all eternity.

This musical had it’s successful World Premier in Budapest, Hungary in May of 2006, directed by Kerenyi Miklos Gabore — a production which is still running in repertory performances there.

A new production is set to open in Tokyo at the Imperial Theater in May of this year, directed by Amon Miyamoto and a third production is to premier in the city that inspired it, Vienna, Austria on February 26, 2009 at the Raimond Theater, under the direction of David Leveaux.

Take a moment to listen to the audio clips and the video presentation for the show on our podcast page.

Wonderland

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 13:36:21 -0500

Once upon a time Alice Cornwinle made her phenomenal publishing debut with the best-selling children’s novel, What The Invisible Man Saw. Alice’s literary legacy is formidable—she is the great-great-great-great-great granddaughter of the little English girl, Alice Liddell, for whom Lewis Carroll wrote ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.’ One night, Alice finds her daughter Chloe being whisked away by a clothed white rabbit. Alice gives chase until she enters an old elevator with an eccentric operator who takes her down...down...down into the bowels of Manhattan... into Wonderland! Join Broadway composer Frank Wildhorn, Tony-nominated Lyricist Jack Murphy and newcomer Phoebe Hwang for a wild, whimsical, Technicolor return trip to Wonderland that is part ‘Shrek’, part ‘Yellow Submarine’ and aimed dead center at the child in all of us!

You can listen to samples of the music on our podcast page.

Mitsuko

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 13:05:00 -0500

In collaboration with Frank WIldhorn Jack is writing a new musical with Shuichiro Koike (book and director), titled Mitsuko. The show focuses on Mitsuko Aoyama (1874-1941), who was the first Japanese woman to marry a westerner. In 1892, she married the Austro-Hungarian ambassador, Count Heinrich Coudenhove-Kalergi. Almost five years later they moved to Austria, where their family would grow to include seven children. Following Heinrich's death in 1906, Mitsuko stayed in Vienna to provide the best opportunities possible for their children. Their second son, Richard Nikolaus, became the founder of the first movement for a unified Europe, editing the "Paneuropa" journal and publishing a manifesto of the same name. Mitsuko is therefore sometimes referred to as "the mother of European unification." She remained in Vienna even through anti-Japanese sentiments during the First World War, and until her own death in 1941.

Material from the show was premiered at the "Mitsuko Musical Concert" in Vienna on Friday, 9 December 2005. Ten selections from the show were performed by Uwe Kröger (as Heinrich), Maki Ichiro (as Mitsuko) and Yoshio Inoue (as Richard). They were backed by the Musical Festival Orchestra Vienna, conducted by Adrian Manz. Most of the songs were performed in German, with translations by Ulrich Peters, while the rest were presented in English. The event, which was produced by Kyodo Tokyo, took place at Museumsquartier-Halle E, at 3:30 and 7:30 pm. More information can be found at eventpromotion.net.

Carmen

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:56:31 -0500

The following information is from the show’s website at: www.carmen-musical.com This is a translation from the original Czech.

Carmen brings to Prague a spectacular Broadway style show featuring daring circus stunts. An all-star cast and the magnificent music of Frank Wildhorn virtually guarantee a theatrical experience unlike any seen before in Prague. For the first time in history, Prague will play host to a world premiere written by famous Broadway authors.

This new version of the story - written for the Karlin Musical Theatre by the experienced trio of American authors Frank Wildhorn, Jack Murphy and Norman Allen - is not identical to the original novel or opera. It is not a modern version of Carmen, but rather a story inspired by the original.

For the first time ever, Carmen brings together the production talents of two top theatres - the Karlin Musical Theatre and Ta Fantastika. Carmen Musical will be hold under the auspices of Mayor of Prague MUDr. Pavel Bém!

Silver Dollar

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:54:12 -0500

Originally directed by noted Broadway director Scott Schwartz, Silver Dollar is the true story of an infamous triangle of love and scandal on the American frontier. In a cabin above a deserted mine, the ghost of Augusta Tabor and eighty three year old Baby Doe Tabor, are bound together by their sins, courage and passion for silver king Horace Tabor, who's first wife's brain was his fortune and who's second wife's beauty was his downfall. As Baby Doe's death is imminent, the women realize they must settle their "unfinished business" or be stuck on a mountaintop forever. They decide to compare diaries and their story enfolds in a series of flashbacks. East versus West, gold versus silver, banker against farmer. Fortunes lost and dreams that died. The Tabors epitomized the best and worst of human nature, just as the Colorado goldrush epitomized the best and worst of the American dream. And in this age of greed, political betrayal and disillusionment, their story has a particular message: Those who cannot learn from history, are doomed to repeat it. Just as in Silver Dollar, two women in a lone cabin will either redeem each other or be condemned to relive their mistakes forever.

The Civil War (For The Glory)

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 03:45:25 -0500

In 1998, the Tony Award® winning Alley Theatre under the Artistic Direction of Gregory Boyd, produced The Civil War, a unique American musical that brought an essential humanity to America’s single most deﬁning conﬂict.

The musical never tried to be a history lesson. Instead, it focused on the effect of the war on the hearts and minds of Americans from virtually every walk of life, from President to slave. The Civil War became one of the most successful shows in the history of the Alley Theatre and went on to Broadway in 1999, a successful national tour, and a recent commercial revival in Gettysburg, PA under the new title, For The Glory.

The show was always ﬁrst and foremost about the music. The
score, which deftly weaves elements of popular music, country,
gospel, rock and folk music into an emotional web of powerful
storytelling received a Tony Nomination for “Best Score” and spawned a two disc Atlantic Recording featuring Trisha Yearwood, Patti LaBelle, Amy Grant, Travis Tritt, Hottie and the Blowfish, Linda Eder, Maya Angelou, Danny Glover, and many others.
 Take a moment to listen to the audio clips and the video presentation for the show on our podcast page.

Swing

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:26:35 -0500

The neo-swing movement hit Broadway in full force with the December 1999 opening of Swing!, a high-energy song and dance revue celebrating the music of the '30s and '40s. The show combines swing classics ("Stompin' at the Savoy") and wartime standards ("I'll Be Seeing You") with originals by some of the industries most sought after composers. Cabaret chanteuse Ann Hampton Callaway, Everett Bradley, Laura Benanti, Michael Gruber, and ukulele-toting Casey MacGill (fronting the Gotham City Gates) perform solos and duets as well as quintets arranged by Manhattan Transfer's Yaron Gershovsky. Callaway (whose writing credits include the theme song for the TV series The Nanny and Barbara Streisand's "I've Dreamed of You" and "At the Same Time") has a voice that can burn on a ballad, blare like a trumpet, or scat up a storm. Director-choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett's high-flying swing and Latin dancers helped make the Broadway show a hit which ran for 461 performances. The cast recording is an enjoyable romp in the spirit of Broadway's 1981 Ellington tribute, Sophisticated Ladies. --David Horiuchi
 Take a moment to listen to the audio clips and the video presentation for the show on our podcast page.