Broadway In Concert 2009

Notes from Music Director, Alex Tirrell

Background: So I'd originally wanted to do Jonathan Larson's Tick, Tick, BOOM! in this June slot, but after we payed for the rights to Into the Woods, we didn't have enough money for another full production.

After talking it over with some colleagues and the board, we decided to put together a Broadway revue with an orchestra.

The idea wasn't foreign. We attempted to do one last year, but it had to be canceled due to a miscommunication with the EP Recreation Dept.

Not all of our work went to waste last year--we presented songs and scenes as a pre-show to our 5th season opener "Little Shop of Horrors" last August.

So, we scheduled the dates with the EP Recreation Center, and I began casting. We have a sort of recurring group of company members that is always expanding. Many of the people in the show I asked to participate. We also brought in a few others through our Into the Woods auditions.

We did have a special guest, Dr. Fredric Scheff, my voice teacher and adjunct professor of music at Rhode Island College. Of course, he would argue that he's not that special--that he was just one of the group just like the rest of us. I consider him special because was in the national touring company of Phantom of the Opera--twice!

Much of the song selections came from the cast themselves. The only guideline I gave them was a list of shows that I would be able to assemble orchestra parts for, or quickly arrange myself. I did pick a few of the songs though, or made suggestions. I'd recently seen Spring Awakening when the National Tour came through in April, I decided I had to do something from the show--so we did the first scene, as it is a great ensemble song for young women. I'm also a big fan of Hairspray, which closed in January of this year on Broadway. I was able to see it twice before it closed, and I knew I wanted something from it in the show--so I picked the closing number "You Can't Stop the Beat" to be our finale.

I was almost done finalizing the show, which was already running long, when I got a call from Fred saying "You'll never guess who is in my studio!" It was Sarah Pothier, a student from East Providence High School whom I'd last worked with when we were in Les Miserables at EP High in 2004. She was in middle school then and played Little Cosette. Sarah is a very talented young woman whom many area residents may have seen portraying Mrs. Lovett in EP High's recent production of Sweeney Todd. Fred had just taken her as a student, and asked me if she could join us on the concert. I couldn't say no, so I put her in the show. Sarah also took over some parts after we had a couple cast members drop one week before the show.

Since this was very much an ensemble show, I would feel horrible not crediting the whole cast for their efforts and performances. Other than Fred and Sarah, the cast included Samantha Acampora, Jessica Albaum, Sara Bartel, Heather Bodnar, Jon Brennan, Kerri Lynn Costa, Keith Dion, Kayla Ferrucci, Matt Gingras, Jimmy Gracik, Dylan O'Leary, Diane Petit, Carly Romano, & Julian Trilling.

We'd been rehearsing individually and in groups during this month on music, and then added staging and choreography, for which Carly Romano did most of, at least for the ensemble number. Much of it was based on the original Broadway productions from which the songs derive.

The show itself was designed to be semi-staged. The setting ended up being reminiscent of A Chorus Line, which is an audition in an empty theatre, or Hair, which takes place in a theatre being renovated. We had a clothing rack with costumes set out on stage. A prop table and microphones. A table and chair--the bare necessities to make a show. We allowed the audience to see these pieces and bring them to life.

Though we had a rocky dress rehearsal on Thursday, the entire cast pulled through and made some wonderful music.