LATEST NEWS
Hello friends!
Who Is Jimmy Pants? finally enjoyed its Off-Broadway premiere in January 2025 at the York Theatre as part of its New2NY series. It was an edifying and gratifying (though limited) run, and collaborator Jeff Bienstock and I are hard at work on bringing the piece to its next level.
I’m now looking forward now to early 2026, when my musical revue, Music of the City, will have its debut at the revived Laurie Beechman Stage at the West Bank Cafe (a stage on which I performed many times back in the day).
Also in the works is a new piece I’m writing based on the John Kennedy O’Toole novel, The Neon Bible. This is an exciting quasi-opera I’ve had rattling in my brain for years now, and I am finally finding the time to put pen to paper on it. (Literally—with Finale software being discontinued and my slow learning curve on other notation programs, I’m writing by hand again!)
Lastly, as the “revisal” of The Pirates of Penzance ends its Broadway run, there has been renewed interest in my adaptation of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Gondoliers, originally commissioned by the Roundabout Theatre. Here’s a playlist, for your listening enjoyment!
https://soundcloud.com/churchmuse/sets/the-gondoliers-full-album
And as always, please check out my two books from Oxford University Press: Music Direction for the Stage: A View From the Podium and Rock in the Musical Theatre: A Guide for Singers.
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/music-direction-for-the-stage-9780199993413?lang=en&cc=us
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/rock-in-the-musical-theatre-9780190943479?prevNumResPerPage=20&prevSortField=3&sortField=3&resultsPerPage=20&start=40&lang=en&cc=us
Happy summer!
Joe
