Across a Crowded Room (11/19/22)

Okay, this is at least my second iteration of this event. If memory serves, this is essentially a summer writing series. The participants—composers, lyricists, book writers—are paired together randomly at the beginning of the writing seminar. Across a crowded room. The result should be a twenty-minute musical theater presentation—either a self-contained snippet, or part of a larger work—to be shown at the 11/19/22 performance I attended. 

First off, I had a blast watching nine separate snippets. Were they all hits? No. Were there any clunkers? No. This year’s chore was to adapt a work in the public domain that was also in the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. This criterion was (mostly) met. 

With nine works on display, I will not cover all of them (with myriad writers/composers/performers, etc.). 

Sing a Song of Six Pants was a riff on a Three Stooges episode, here with Mary, Mo, and Curly, all female. An all-female piece followed: It Ain’t Over ’Til the Bat Lady Sings. Trifles followed, which was slightly operatic (except for the men’s duet). Tomorrow was next, with a take on a Frances Hodgson Burnett short story/play, again with an all-female cast. The fifth work was based on a James Barrie play, The 12-Pound Look. It was one of my favorites. The sixth was also based on James Barrie—The Admirable Crichton. Is This Who We Are as Beavers? was a throwback to high school high-jinks. 

And now. A very-long-titled piece decided to throw operetta on its ear. Messrs. Christenfeld and Grunin present an operretic mistake in one act entitled "DOWN WITHTHE SCRIPT!": a musical fantasia on the most unfortunate death of  Mr. Justus Miles Forman aboard the RMS Lusitania. (I’m not making this up, you know.) This was hands-down the crowd pleaser. It had blue cloth representing the rising water—ankles. knees, waist, thorax, and finally … glub, glub. Funny stuff, with funny music. 

A ninth piece followed, but it was pretty much anti-climactic. 

All in all, I had a great time exploring new writing from new pairings of writers/composers/lyricists. This is something I will definitely seek out again.

Interestingly, there was also feedback from a panel of theater insiders. I agreed with almost every one of their comments.

ConcertMeister