After a short hiatus where we were working on updating the orchestrations, we spent several days in the studio, recording the remainder of the songs. Thanks to the exceptionally talented Berlayne Smith (who reprised her role as Esther), Manuele Adrian Mizzi (as Mr. Verious), Justin Welsh (Uncle Mo), Cara Adams (Vashti and Contestant Two), Erin Humphry (Contestant One), and Jesse … Read More
Sing with Esther – musical preview
Update: The Sing With Esther program is now in a second phase: we’re no longer putting together a virtual choir of our own, but the music remains available for any choirs that are interested in adding (one) or both of these songs to their repertoire – at no cost. Either sign up on the website, or reach out directly. Putting … Read More
Time for a rewrite? (yes, again)
I had the exceptional good fortune to meet Rob Corbett recently. Beyond teaching acting at several colleges and being a playwright in his own right, he is a most insightful script reader and dramaturg. And a pleasure to work with. One of the challenges of a first-time script writer (that’s me), is that you don’t know what you don’t know. … Read More
Musical Preview event
A very proud evening for me and all who have been involved to date. After much work, we hosted a “Musical Preview” event, with 100+ people in attendance. The goal was to reveal the music, provide background on the project, and start to build some “buzz” around Who Is Esther. After I described each scene, the scene’s music was played, … Read More
The Power of Diversity: Feedback and Perspective
After two years of research, 100’s of hours in front of the computer writing and rewriting, playing music for hundreds of hours to get everything just right, 89 recording sessions, editing sessions, mixing sessions, mastering… it was done. And then, it wasn’t. When I wrote my first (non-theatrical) book in the 1990’s, I felt the same: the masterpiece was … Read More
Research – About Musical Theater
Many people are fans of musical theater; my co-producer wife and I have been sitting in audiences for decades. But how much time have you spent thinking through how musical theater actually works, from the inside. and from my perspective, where do I start? There always seems to be a trade-off between innovation (or rather, making mistakes that turn out … Read More
Composition? Arranging?
Yes, these are actually skills that people spend years studying to get good at. In my case, beyond the basics of composition and music theory, I didn’t have a music degree or a lifetime of music arranging experience. But I did have time. After I decided to write the musical, I spent this time ordering books from Amazon, combing through … Read More
Researching Esther – the story
I had read the Esther story in the bible a number of times, and was always fascinated by a few of what I thought were unique attributes: I did understand that if I wanted to bring the story into the present day, I needed to do a fair amount of research on the original story – something that I had … Read More