The months of May and June are giving music lovers something to sing about as Southern California kicks off the Festival of New American Musicals. The entertainment extravaganza will feature full productions, staged readings, workshops, master classes, cabarets and concerts at locations from Orange County to Ventura, including two events at Pepperdine University.
Executive producers Bob Klein and Marcia Seligson, who recently announced the festival line up, say a cultural revival is underway.
“There is a renaissance in American musical theater,” said Klein, who is also the co-founder of Malibu’s Celebration of Film. “It’s really coming back and everywhere you look there’s something going on.”
Klein pointed to the popularity of productions like “High School Musical” and “Wicked,” which are being performed everywhere from local schools to the bright lights of Broadway.
“I saw a high school production of ‘Sweeney Todd’ in Agoura and it was terrific,” Klein said. “The kids were just wonderful. They’re part of a youth revolution that’s going on in musical theater.”
That’s one reason why Klein and Seligson wanted to shine the spotlight in their own backyards.
“Southern California is a focus point for new musicals,” Seligson said. “Once we began to organize the festival, we found that composers, lyricists, directors and performers all lived here and wanted to find a way to highlight the huge amount of musical theater activity here. Our two-month festival is the first of its kind to celebrate new musicals on such a grand scale.”
Events at Pepperdine include a performance by Jason Robert Brown (credits include the Tony Award-winning “Parade,” “Last Five Years,” “Songs for a New World,”) on May 18, with his Caucasian Rhythm Kings band, as part of the composer-lyricists-in-concert series, as well as a special master class conducted by Brown on
May 14.
There are full-scale productions planned as well and the festival seems to have something for every musical taste.
“Love Janis” is a new show inspired by Laura Joplin’s book about her legendary big sister. The icon of the ’60s comes to life on stage in both words and music. The show tells the Joplin story through the singer’s famous songs as well as through a series of poignant and revealing letters she wrote to her family as she shot to fame. It is arranged and directed by Sam Andrew, an original member of Joplin’s Big Brother and the Holding Company band.
On the other side of the spectrum, you’ll find “The Grapes of Wrath,” which makes its West Coast premiere at Walt Disney Concert Hall. It is based on the classic John Steinbeck novel and will be performed in concert by the Los Angeles Master Chorale and its musical director Grant Gershon.
There’s even a new musical based on zany, ’50s sci-fi flicks called “The Brain From Planet X.” With music and lyrics by Bruce Kimmel, it features an all American family, two aliens and a singing brain.
So whether it’s camp or classics, the Festival of New American Musicals is a celebration of song that aims to put some swing into spring.
More information on the festival can be found online at www.lafestival.org