Village Theatre is dedicated to the preservation and artistic development of musical theatre, one of our country's most enduring art forms. Village Originals is a nationally recognized program and represents one of the strongest commitments to new musicals anywhere./
Over the years, Village Originals and Village Theatre have nurtured the development of over 50 new musicals-some of which have received subsequent productions in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London and Taiwan.
Follow former Village Originals in their productions around the world!
4 a.m. Boogie Blues, (a developmental production at Village Theatre in early spring 1998), was a 1999 recipient of the Jeff Citation (a award honoring excellence in non-equity theatre in Chicago) for outstanding musical direction at The New Tuners Theatre, now called Theatre Building Chicago. Theatre Building Chicago has participated in the development of other Village Originals alums, such as Fairystories and Once Upon A Time In New Jersey.
After The Fair, (a developmental production at Village Theatre in spring 1998, and a mainstage production in March, 2001), received its London Premiere at the King's Head Theatre in 2003. It was also performed at the Spirit of Broadway Theatre in the summer of 2005.
It was named by theatremania.com as one of the 50 best Off-Broadway scores of all time . More information can be found on the official website.
The soundtrack to Anna Karenina has been officially released and reviewed by Talkin' Broadway.
The Ark opened off-Broadway on Monday, November 14, 2005.
Read what New York Times readers had to say! (download Word document.)
Read the review in the New York Times
Barnstormer (a 2007 developmental production), along with The Yellow Wood was featured at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre's 20th Annual Festival of New Musicals, October 20 & 21, 2008. Casting information for the workshop was announced (Playbill.com). Prior to that, the show received a reading at the Hartford Stage Company's festival in November 2007. It was performed at Red Mountain Theatre in Birmingham, AL in January 2010 in collaboration with Better Basics, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, and Southern Museum of Flight.
Writer of Barnstormer, Douglas J. Cohen, has been named the recipient of the York Theater Company's 2009 Noël Coward Prize. Read more...
Bonnie & Clyde, (part of the 2001 First Annual Festival of New Musicals and a Village Originals developmental production in fall of 2003), received a reading at Ardelle Striker's Blue Heron Theatre in New York City in 2004. For some insight about the show, read Andrew Herron's author's notes.
Bonnie & Clyde is licensed through Summerwind Productions.
The Big Ending — the deceptively-titled first half of Village Originals Festival of New Musicals 2006 collaborative work The Big Deal — had a full production at The Rosemary Branch Theatre in London, October–November, 2006. For more details see the website of the British writing team Shrubshall & Free.
City Kid (a 1995 developmental production and a 1996 Mainstage show), was nominated for four 2008 LA Ovation Awards, for Ensemble Performance, Franklin R. Levy Award for Musical in an Intimate Theatre, Musical Direction (Patrick Gandy), and Choreography (Bradley Rapier).
The show also received six NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Theatre Award nominations for an October 2006 production at the Hudson Theatre in LA. Nominations (announced on Playbill.com) included Village Theatre's own Steve Tomkins (director) and Alex Berry (lighting designer).
Visit the official City Kid website!
Cuban and the Redhead received small readings on March 8, 2010 in New Jersey and on March 9, 2010 in Manhattan starring the Village Theatre Festival ’09 leads, Brandon O’Neill as Desi Arnaz and Nicole Boote as Lucille Ball.
Cupid & Psyche, (a developmental production in February, 2001), in 2002 received a short run at Spirit of Broadway and a reading at Theatre Building Chicago. It was later given a small New York production at the John Houseman Studio in September 2003 (read the review), a full production in the spring of 2006 with The Themantics Group in New York, and most recently ran at the New Jersey Repertory Company, December 11, 2008 – January 18, 2009.
Desperate Measures, (a reading at the 2005 Village Original Festival of New Musicals), was the recipient of two Excellence awards and one honorable mention at the 2006 New York Musical Theatre Festival. The Awards included "Excellence in Musical Theatre Writing" by Peter Kellogg, Book, "Outstanding Individual Performance" by Max Von Essen; the Honorable Mention was for "Direction and Choreography" by Eleanor Reissa.
The Desperate Measures writing team has also created the new musical Stunt Girl (mainstage 2008-09) and Chasing Nicolette (mainstage 2009-10). Look for another new show from the Desperate Measures team this summer at Village Theatre's Tenth Annual Festival of New Musicals.
Eleanor, by Village Originals veterans Jonathan Bolt (Glimmerglass, Threads), Tom Tierney (The Dream Team, At The Back Of The North Wind, Ichabod, Jungle Queen Debutante, Narnia) and John Forster (The Dream Team), Eleanor was seen on both Village Theatre's First Stage Mainstage (1987) and Mainstage (1992), and has since been published by Rodgers and Hammerstein Theatricals. A cast recording is available from the 1999 Ford Theatre production, with Broadway performers Anne Kanengeiser (Ragtime), Anthony Cummings (Waiting in the Wings), Rita Gardner (The Fantasticks) and Steve Routman (Victor/Victoria).
Visit the official Eleanor website!
The Fabulist (part of the 2005 Village Original Festival of New Musicals) was chosen (along with 2003 Village Originals Festival of New Musicals show Like You Like It) from over 300 submissions worldwide to be presented in the 2006 Cardiff International Festival of Musical Theatre.
FAIRYSTORIES by Paul Graham Brown received a showcase presentation at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London’s West End on June 30, 2009.
Girl of My Dreams received a run at Spirit of Broadway in Connecticut in September 2009.
Glimmerglass (developmental production, spring of 1995), a Village Theatre commissioned work, was given a full production in 1999 at Goodspeed Musicals and a reading at the 2000 National Alliance of Musical Theatre Festival. A world premiere production opened at the Spirit of Broadway Theatre in Connecticut in the spring of 2008.
A Hundred Years into The Heart was recently in our Festival of New Musicals — visit the official website for A Hundred Years into The Heart!
The 4th Wall Theatre Company in Upper Montclair, New Jersey, presented a workshop staging of A 100 Years into The Heart as a part of their M.I.D. Stage Series (Musicals In Development). The show was helmed by 4th Wall's Executive Director, Gwen Ricks-Spencer, and run February 4, 5 and 6, 2010.
View the 4th Wall Theatre Company website.
Look for Iron Curtain in our 2010-11 Mainstage season!
Iron Curtain (also Taxi Cabaret and The Alchemists) Lyricist, Peter Mills is a 2010 recipient of the Kleban Prize for Most Promising Theatre Lyricist!
In addition to the developmental work Iron Curtain has had at Village Theatre (2008 Workshop, 2007 Festival), it has been presented:
Jungle Queen Debutante, (a First Stage Theatre production in 1991), by Thomas Tierney (Eleanor, Ichabod, At The Back of the North Wind) was presented as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival, 2007.
We held a Workshop Presentation of The Last Starfighter, (seen at the 2006 Festival of New Musicals) in ; read about it Playbill Online!
The show was also presented as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival, 2007. For more information, read this Playbill.com update.
In October 2008 Like You Like It was produced Off-Off Broadway at the Gallery Players in Brooklyn. The production won an Innovative Theatre Award in September 2009. Songs from Like You Like It were also part of a New York Theatre Barn concert in May 2009.
Like You Like It, (part of the 2003 Village Originals Festival of New Musicals), was mounted in July, 2007 at Theatre Under The Stars in Houston as a successful fundraiser for TUTS' Tommy Tune Awards Scholorship Program.
Like you Like It was also chosen (along with 2005 Village Originals Festival of New Musicals show The Fabulist) from over 300 submissions worldwide to be presented in the 2006 Cardiff International Festival of Musical Theatre.
It also received a reading at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2004, where it was voted a runner up for audience favorite; read the Talkin' Broadway review of the reading.
Little Women, (part of the 2006 Village Originals Festival of New Musicals, then a Mainstage production in 2008), was part of Syracuse Stage's 2009-2010 Season.
Little Women is licensed through Theatrical Rights Worldwide.
Love Is Love received a 2-week run at the Maltz Theatre in Florida in October 2009.
Making Tracks, (a developmental production in 2000, on the Village Theatre mainstage in spring of 2002), ran at San Jose Repertory Theatre in the spring of 2005.
Visit the official Making Tracks website.
Musical developed in Issaquah earns three Tony nominations ----IssaquahPRESS.com
Million Dollar Quartet opened on Broadway April 11, 2010 at the Nederlander Theatre with 4 of Village Theatre’s original cast members! Million Dollar Quartet will begin a national tour in October 2011
As BroadwayWorld.com reported, Million Dollar Quartet, (a Mainstage production in 2007), made its Chicago debut in October, 2008 at the Owen Theatre at Chicago's Goodman Theatre; due to high demand, the production was subsequently moved to the Apollo Theatre.
Visit the official website.
April 12, 2010—It was announced today that the new musical drama Next to Normal won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama! This Tony Award-winning new musical got its start in Issaquah, WA in Village Theatre’s new works program Village Originals under the title Feeling Electric. Written by Brian Yorkey—Village Theatre’s former associate artistic director—the show went on to further development and found a home at Broadway’s Booth Theatre in April 2009. It’s been over one year on Broadway, the show has since recouped, and a national tour is on the horizon.
Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt interview with NPR on August 14, 2009- Listen here.
On May 5, 2009, Next To Normal received 11 Tony Award nominations; these included Best Musical, Best Book of A Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Direction of a Musical. Recently, City Arts Magazine published an article about Next To Normal and writer Brian Yorkey - read it here.
Wooooo! Next to Normal has opened at the Booth Theatre on Broadway! The New York Times called it a "brave, breathtaking musical"! Read recent articles about the production and its development on Playbill.com and IssaquahPress.com.
Next to Normal enjoyed a successful run at the Arena Stage — read some reviews: Washington Post; Washington City Paper; Washington Times; Talkin' Broadway; Potomac Stages; DC Theatre Scene; DCist; patrons.
Also, here is a Washington Post article about the show's retooling; a DC Theatre Scene interview with N2N creators Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey
Winners of the 2008 Outer Critics Circle Awards were announced on May 12, 2008: Next To Normal tied with Adding Machine for Outstanding New Score! It also received nominations Best Off-Broadway Musical and Best Actress in a Musical (Alice Ripley).
An off-Broadway run at Second Stage Theatre (part of the Theatre Communications Group) in March, 2008 also garnered critical acclaim: Theatre Mania, The New York Times, The Canadian Press, and The New York Daily News. The show received rave reviews (theatremania.com, broadwayworld.com) for a reading at the 2005 New York Musical Theatre Festival starring Anthony Rapp (Rent), Amy Spanger (The Wedding Singer, Village Theatre KIDSTAGE alum), and Ben Schrader (Big River, national tour).
Next To Normal (formerly Feeling Electric) began as a staged reading at Village Theatre in March 2002 and a workshop June 2005.
nor'mal, (part of the 2003 Village Originals Festival of New Musicals). On June 12, 2007, The Snapple Theatre hosted a benefit for NORMAL in Schools, a national nonprofit arts-in-education organization devoted to helping mount high school productions of nor'mal: in conjunction with programs for students of all ages teaching the devastating impact of eating disorders.
The show was also produced by the Transport Group at The Connelly Theatre in New York City from October 20–November 12, 2005. The review in Variety said: "It's rare to see such a compassionate, nonjudgmental attempt to examine why some families refuse to acknowledge that anything is amiss in their domestic paradise."
In its 2006-2007 Season, Transport Group launched an arts-in-education program called Normal In The Schools (NIS) which brings an educational version of the show to local high school students.
As reported on Playbill.com, No Way to Treat a Lady will play a limited engagement at the Colony Theatre in Burbank, April 15—May 17, 2009.
No Way To Treat A Lady was a developmental production at Village Theatre in spring of 1999. By the composer of Barnstormer, another Village Originals workshop, No Way To Treat A Lady was published by Samuel French. The show was well received in a run at TheatreWorks in Hartford, Connecticut in the spring of 2001, and was produced off-Broadway in 1996, receiving two Outer Critics Award nominations: Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Alix Korey) and Best Revival of a Musical. The soundtrack was recorded in 1997. The show has also toured Italy and Spain, been produced in London, Sweden, and three cities in Germany, including Berlin, and had over 100 productions in the U.S.
Nymph Errant has, since its 1999 Developmental Production at Village Theatre, been published by Samuel French.
Once Upon A Time In New Jersey composer, Stephen Weiner, won a Richard Rodgers Award for Rocket Science
Once Upon a Time in New Jersey (seen on our Mainstage in 2007 and as a reading in the 2004 Village Originals Festival of New Musicals) has been performed at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, where it received rave reviews. It is also now published by Theatrical Rights Worldwide.
Susan DiLallo, bookwriter for both Once Upon A Time In New Jersey and Iron Curtain is one of the recipients of the 2008 Jonathan Larson Award as reported by Playbill.com.
"Once Upon A Time In New Jersey" will get a fall 2010 production at The Hudson Guild Theater from Oct. 2 - 31 and be produced by The Prospect Theater Company in New York City. For more information, click here.
One Red Flower/Letters From 'Nam, (a developmental production in the fall of 2002), received a production at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia in the fall of 2004; read the Patricia Cotter, Jason Rhyne, and Stephen Weiner
Play it By Heart will be workshopped at Human Race Theatre Company in Dayton, OH this coming July 2010 following a September 2009 writers’ residency in Dayton to further develop the piece.
This sequel to the classic tale enjoyed great popularity during the 2004 Village Theatre developmental production (mentioned on Playbill.com) and received several subsequent productions in the Seattle area in 2007, first at Centerstage Theatre followed by an outdoor presentation by the Mountaineer Players.
Rocket Science, part of Village Theatre's 2009 Festival of New Musicals, was recently selected as a winner of the prestigious 2010 Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theater by the American Academy of Arts and Letters! Congratulations to its creators Patricia Cotter, Jason Rhyne, and Stephen Weiner! To read the official press release, click here.
Sacagawea received its World Premiere production in 2008 at the Willows Theatre Company (http://www.willowstheatre.com/) John Muir Summer Festival in Martinez, CA. The production was directed by Seattle’s own Vanessa Miller who directed the 2007 Festival reading at Village Theatre.
Searching 4 Y, (a developmental production in the spring of 2001), is now called Irrationals. This musical by Jon Marans and Edward Thomas opened an Off-Broadway run at the American Theatre of Actors on November 10, 2004. (New York Times online subscribers can read the New York Times review online.) Irrationals was also reviewed by nytheatre.com.
Terezin (workshop 2006, developemental production 2007) has been renamed Signs of Life: a Tale of Terezin and Signs of Life was workshopped by Amas in April 2009 and received an off-Broadway run produced by Amas February 16 – March 21, 2010.
To visit the official Signs of Life website click here
Snapshots was part of the TheatreWorks 2008-09 season in Palo Alto; the production will star our own Beth DeVries, reprising her role from our 2005 developmental production. Read more about it on BroadwayWorld.com or Playbill.com.
Snapshots by Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell and Pippin among others) began as a developmental production in winter, 2005. In September, 2007, The Human Race Theatre Co and Victoria Theatre Association presented the world premiere of Snapshots at the Loft Theatre in Dayton, Ohio -Playbill.com.
Stunt Girl was presented as a reading in the 7@7 series at Manhattan Theatre Club on June 7, 2010.
The reading featured significant Seattle representation with direction by Brian Yorkey, former associate artistic
director for Village Theatre, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning author of Next to Normal, and director of
the 2009-2010 season's Lost in Yonkers, amongst others, at Village Theatre. R.J. Tancioco, music director for the
Mainstage production of Stunt Girl, was in New York to music direct this reading as well. As for the cast,
John Patrick Lowrie (Stunt Girl, The Gypsy King) traveled to New York to once again play the role of Joseph
Pulitzer, while Louis Hobson, currently in the Broadway cast of Next to Normal, played Arthur Brisbane.
Hobson played this same role in the Festival of New Musicals reading at Village Theatre in 2005.
Look for another new show from the Stunt Girl team this summer at Village Theatre's Tenth Annual Festival of New Musicals.
Take Me America was presented as the final 2009/2010 concert reading at Curtain Call, Inc., in Stamford, Connecticut, as a part of the theater's Musical Monday series on April 19, 2010.
Taxi Cabaret, (part of the 2003 Village Originals Festival of New Musicals), was published by Samuel French in 2004. That same year, it also received a reading at the New York Musical Theatre Festival; read the Talkin' Broadway review.
Peter Mills, Taxi Cabaret author (and lyricist of Iron Curtain from the 2007 Festival of New Musicals), received the 2007 Fred Ebb Award for excellence in musical theatre songwriting.
For more information, read the announcement on BroadwayWorld.com.
The Tutor, (from the 2004 Village Originals Festival of New Musicals, and a 2005 workshop), won a 2004 Richard Rodgers Award for Production, after winning 2002 and 2003 Richard Rodgers Awards in the catagories of Staged Reading and Studio Production.
The show had a reading in 2005 at the New York Musical Theatre Festival and received a run in the spring of 2007 at The Spirit of Broadway Theatre in Connecticut.
Read more at the show's own website.
Ya Got Trouble, (a developmental production in the spring of 2005), played at the Meydenbauer in the spring of 2006, and received a short run at Tacoma Actors' Guild in November, 2006.
Read the Seattle Times review of the Meydenbauer production: "'Ya Got Trouble' is entertaining with a capital 'E'".
The Yellow Wood, (part of the 2008 Festival of New Musicals), along with Barnstormer, will be featured at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre's 20th Annual Festival of New Musicals, October 20 & 21, 2008. Casting information for the workshop has been announced (Playbill.com); the cast includes Bob DeDea, who was featured in our Festival reading, as well as native Seattle performer, Diana Huey.
Danny Larsen and Michelle Elliott won a Richard Rodgers Award in 2006 for The Yellow Wood.
Look for another new musical by Yellow Wood authors in our upcoming Tenth Annual Festival of New Musicals!
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