Night of the Living Dead the Musical

One of the first horror films that I ever saw was Night of the Living Dead. I was way too young to be watching it, but I couldn’t look away. It seemed like a documentary in some nightmarish way. The news briefs on the tv, the breaking news on the radio, it all felt somehow too real.

You see, I grew up in Western Pennsylvania, where the film is set. Sitting there as a young boy and recognizing landmarks and town names made it all the more real. Besides the whole “being eaten alive” thing that zombies bring the threat of, they also bring relentless chase, and home invasion. This trifecta is the sum of the worst fears for me. 

Fast forward to 2001. I’m an adult (barely). I live with my partner in Arlington, VA. I work at a dog daycare center by the Capitol in DC. 9/11 happens. I am there at work when the planes hit. I hear a boom and see smoke plumes from the Pentagon. It was a scary day, as we all know. I was the only person driving on 295 on my way home. 

Fast forward a week. The Anthrax attacks begin. I’m suddenly afraid to get the mail. The DC area is hit, and a postal sorting station in the Brentwood area is shut down. They don’t know who is doing the attacks, or why. The attackers are unknown.

Fast forward a year. I’m at work again at the dog daycare center. I hear of multiple shootings not far from where I am. Four people shot that morning, one that evening. The DC Sniper is on the loose. For three weeks, the DMV area is terrorized by the possibility of being shot by an unknown assassin. It turned out there was more than one. 

One evening in particular, was too close to home. The sniper had shot someone at our local Home Depot. Police had shut down almost every road in and out of the area in response. I could see the gridlock from our dining room window. I put up “blackout” curtains in case the sniper was stuck in this traffic and decided to start shooting into people’s windows. (I fully acknowledge that this made zero sense.) 

I was caught in the full tilt spiral of fear programming over the past year of events. Terror color code warnings, zigzagging when you walked down the sidewalk, looking out for powder on your mail, wincing every time a plane would fly overhead. Fear was EVERYWHERE. Because it was unknown, elusive, just…out there somewhere, sneaking up on you when you would last expect it. 

As I was hanging my blackout curtains, I had the tv on the news, and I finally had to change the channel. I flipped through till I landed on my childhood’s favorite terror…Night of the Living Dead was playing on A&E. After a few minutes, it dawned on me that the characters in the film were boarding up their windows as I was hanging blackout curtains over my own. I sat down on the couch, gobsmacked by the irony. I was living in my favorite horror film.

A month later I was in rehearsals for The Secret Garden at Olney Theatre in Maryland (no secret there - one of the worst shows I’ve ever been in). I was playing the part of Dickon, so I had a few great songs and scenes, but was basically on stage for about 15 minutes out of a two and a half hour musical. I had lots of downtime. So I started researching, dreaming, sketching ideas. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to do something.  

What I’m Listening to at the time: “You Know You’re Right” - Hole, Lewis Black comedy specials, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Def Leppard’s Greatest Hits, O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack…

I bought my first DVD player during the run of that show, and my first disc that I bought was an anniversary edition of Night of the Living Dead. I studied it. Although I had a VHS tape of the film, and had seen the film hundreds of times, now I had a much clearer copy, with quick capability to skip around or back. 

That Summer, I was playing “Ren” in Footloose at Toby’s Dinner Theatre in Columbia, Md. In the cast with me was Nick Blaemire, playing Willard. I mentioned wanting to turn NOTLD into a stage musical, and he was excited by the idea. We started to meet, talk, and text about it. He started toying with a song called, “You Always Have a Smile for Me” for Tom and Judy. I remember loving it, and thinking that this first song had so much possibility. Nick went off to College, and we never really did continue working on that show. 

I briefly entertained working on the show with Steve McWilliams, but he didn’t really seem the right fit for the show. He suggested that I ask Matt to work on it with me. I asked, but he was fairly dismissive, and not really interested. For the next seven years, ideas kicked around in my head, but not much else happened with the show.

What I’m Listening to at the Time: “I Think I’m In Love” - Jessica Simpson, “Why Can’t I?” - Liz Phair, “Crazy in Love” - Beyoncé, “Real Love” - Pink, “Bring Me to Life” - Evanescence.

Lots of things happened  between 2003 and 2010. The Space-shuttle Columbia disaster. Reagan dies. Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse revealed. Hurricane Katrina. Barack Obama is elected. Swine Flu. 

Lots of things happened in our personal lives as well. We get our first pug, Buddha. Our house at 16th St S burnt down. Matt’s new musical that he was working on gets discovered, and soon he is commissioned by Signature Theatre to write Nevermore. I won the Helen Hayes Award in 2004.  The old Signature Theatre space is left behind and the new one is opened. Matt and I break up and separate. We get back together several months later.

When we do, we agree that we must start working towards things together. Not just be on our own separate orbits. So I ask him again to work towards something with me…Night of the Living Dead the Musical.  He agrees to sit down and watch the film with a pen and paper. He begins taking notes. When the film is over, he immediately heads to the piano and starts writing an aria for the character of Barbara. This song will come to be known as “Johnny and Me”.

We team up with my recent costar of High Fidelity at Landless Theatre, Karissa Swanigan, to workshop the song. She becomes the poster girl for the show, and instrumental in its making. We even drive to my Nana’s cemetery and do a photo shoot/music video to promo the upcoming workshop. 

We continue our work together on the show with the following caveat that he sets - you don’t see any zombies in this show. You can hear things, etc, but no visible zombies. While skeptical at first, I come to see the genius in this approach. I am reminded of being in my living room putting up block out curtains, afraid of everything and nothing specific at once. 

What I’m Listening to at the Time: “Call Me Maybe”, “Somebody That I Used to Know”, “We Are Young”, the entire Adele “21” album. 

We launch a Kickstarter back when Kickstarter was relatively new. We reach our goal thanks to many gracious friends and supporters. We assemble a dream cast: Karissa Swanigan, Kevin McAllister, Chris Sizemore, Gillian Shelly Lawler, Chris Mueller, and Dani Danger Stoller. We find a venue: the Kensington Armory.

The reading happens, my parents are there, it all comes off magically. So now what? I have a contact in New York who wants to produce the show way off Broadway. Of course, I’m excited about this, and even get several of my friends involved. It turns out that this Director and production leave much to be desired, so much so that it even hurt or ended my relationships with two of the friends that I got involved, as they blamed me for this other man’s incompetence, (which I had no knowledge or control of). Despite this rickety start, Michael Musto seemed to like it well enough not to trash it, so there’s that. 

Next, the show returned to the Kensington Armory for a full production through the Kensington Arts Theatre (KAT). We assembled another dream cast, including Karissa Swanigan returning as Barbara. I directed this production alongside Jenna Ballard. Kevin Boyce provided the incredible set and light design, and Jenna designed the props. Having recently done work with Joe Calarco in The Boy Detective Fails, in which we worked heavily in Anne Bogart’s Viewpoints technique, I tried to apply these methods to this production’s staging. This is a very enchanted period of time for me, as I am finally staging my dream show with wonderful friends who love the material and take it very seriously. I’m writing a blog series for DC Metro Theatre Arts,  I even get to do a Hitchcock style promo of the show to help with marketing. 

But there was still even more to come on our journey to the Farmhouse. The Living Dead were about to head to St. Louis in 2013…

What I’m Listening to at the Time: “Applause” by Lady Gaga, “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus, “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke and Pharrell, “Royals” by Lorde, “Suit & Tie” by Justin Timberlake.

We were contacted by Scott Miller of St. Louis’s New Line Theatre, and the company was interested in doing our show the next Fall. I loved the look of some of their previous work, and couldn’t wait to see Scott’s take on our show. He wrote a brilliant series of essays about the show that I loved reading. (Really- check out each link highlighted - these essays really get the show). He is such a brilliant mind, and his takes on musical theatre are very fascinating to read.

While we didn’t get to go see the show (the curse, at the time was that we were writing shows while being full time actors, and not able to go to either NYC or St. Louis to help sherpa the show), we loved the clips that we were sent, from Drive, to the opening, to the inventive marketing video that they did that incorporated the actual film trailer. The set was INCREDIBLE! I also loved how Scott used silence in the show. Sometimes there were just actors boarding up the set, and no one saying lines for several minutes. This built up an unbelievable tension. 

2013 was a crazy year for us. We got married, our pug Buddha started a very slow health deterioration, I was booked solid. Besides Buddha’s health, which we didn’t know was going to be such a big deal till later, it was a very good time. 

Shortly after the St. Louis NOTLD, we started working on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which premiered in 2014. We were also commissioned to write The Turn of the Screw, which led to the whole 5 year Bold New Works Journey. Since 2013, we’ve been so busy writing new shows that we haven’t had the time to keep furthering NOTLD’s journey. I hope to keep looking for and finding new homes for this piece to land at. 

What I am Listening to Now: Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia album, Adele “30” album, Lil Nas X’s “Monterro” album.

The thing that I love about NOTLD is that it always is relevant. No matter how our history evolves, NOTLD has new meaning or interpretation with every passing year. It is impossible to watch NOTLD without thinking of police gunning down an innocent Black man. Seeing the insurrectionists break their way into the Capitol and crawl in through broken windows immediately brings to mind the living dead making their final breach into the Farmhouse. A pandemic raging through the world that makes everyone quarantine and pile up supplies as they avoid others while out on errands brings to mind the epidemic sweeping the Country in NOTLD. 

As we watch our political system tear our Country in half, I am reminded of the characters in the Farmhouse, and how you scream at the TV, hoping that they hear you and change their course. Hoping that they work together to accomplish their goals. Knowing that self interest will prevent that from happening

The terror that younger twenty-something me felt back in the early 2000’s was valid and palpable, but was no match for the terror to come. 

People often ask me why I like scary movies. Isn’t life scary enough? Yes, it is. But I think we learn from scary movies. We learn how we would react, or what we would do better. Scary movies are training for scary scenarios, although, hopefully never as dire. I don’t view NOTLD as a “scary movie”, per se. I view it as a cautionary tale for what happens without compromise and teamwork. 

It’s been way too long since the Farmhouse has had any visitors, and I would love to bring it back to life in the coming future with a theatre troupe that is brave enough to believe in this existential vision of the story that Matt and I created. As the news stations proclaim throughout the show, please stand by…

The Silver Belles

The origins of The Silver Belles are a series of strange interwoven stories that intersected, against all odds, bringing a group of people together that never would have been in the same room.

Arlington Magazine published a very comprehensive piece, written by Cathy Alter, who, along with Sandra Johnson, came up with the original business concept, “Senior Moments” - a temp agency for Seniors, that eventually became the musical “The Silver Belles”. With a book by Allyson Currin, Music and Lyrics by Matt Conner & Stephen Gregory Smith, the musical premiered at Signature Theatre in December 2016. It went on to be purchased by Broadway Licensing for its catalog, and is now available to be licensed wherever musicals are performed. 

If you’ve read the Arlington Magazine piece that I referenced above, it will become a good framing device for our perspective of the story of the creation of The Silver Belles. Matt and I were both at that initial 2007 “Business Meeting Brunch” with Sandra and Cathy. Looking back on it, I remember Sandra’s “hand-outs”, (some business proposal language and a vague timeline), I remember Matt suggesting that it be a musical, and I remember him coming home and working on it that very day. 

Our musicals haven’t historically had long gestation periods, as we usually work very quickly together, and deadlines are like an aphrodisiac to us both, creatively. So in the near decade between that initial meeting with mimosas and “hand-outs”, the show took on many different plot points, settings, and songs. 

We even tried out a few songs at Matt’s 2013 Holiday Cabaret at Signature, “A Matt Conner Christmas”, and boy, didn’t we think the song, “Christmas Balls” was going to be a big hit! 

Ally Currin started working with Matthew along the way, and really brought the Southern Charm with her. We also had met Warren Freeman, our constant Music Supervisor since 2014, at Shenandoah during our Sleepy Hollow redux. He joined the project in the last year before it came to workshop or stage. The four of us became a dream team of creativity.

I remember during the workshop of the show, we started to have trouble with the song, “Christmas Balls”. As funny as it had been in our heads, and at the cabaret, it was too far fetched to work in even the zany world of Silver Belles. We were asked to revisit the lyrics during our one hour lunch break. It was indeed a “Make it Work” Project Runway-style situation. I remember Warren, Matt, and myself pacing around the Shen Rehearsal room of Signature Theatre on a lunch-less lunch. 

We knew the situation involved. There was to be a seduction, holiday style. The “Christmas Balls” way in to the scene was a woman getting so ecstatically turned on by decorating a Christmas tree that she started removing jewelry, her shirt, etc to adorn the tree. It still makes me laugh in my head. To have an almost sexual/religious ecstasy over decorating. On a stage - it just wasn’t translating. 

The song rested on its title syllables. “Christmas Balls” - 1-2-3 syllables. So how to not throw the baby out with the bath water? The melody that Matt wrote was great, and I didn’t want to change it if possible. 

We quickly landed on the perfect three syllable holiday seduction device…Mistletoe. As soon as we found that, the lyrics flew like moonshine from a still. We had the song by the end of lunch. 

There were other inspirations as well. Moonshine became quite the secondary character in the story, with our Leading Lady being struck dead by lightning in the beginning of our story, at the culmination of her song, “Strike Me Lord”, where she was sipping on moonshine and trying to find inspiration for this year’s Silver Belles Christmas Pageant, and standing a little too close to the still during a thunderstorm. I will never forget the riotous laughter that this, and many other moments produced. 

As much laughter as the book produced, I was equally glad that the lyrics seemed to be generating an equal amount of laughs as well. But above all else, what I loved about the show the most was that as much as you laughed, you then cried. The show has a HUGE heart. 

I actually had the Author’s Nightmare scenario happen to me during the run of this show. I was performing in Titanic in the larger theatre at Signature, The Max, when the actress who played the part of Bo Jack, a non-binary person who is Earl’s best friend and host of the local radio station, fell ill. For reasons that I still don’t quite understand, there were no understudies. I was approached to go on as the part. I ended up having to go on for two performances. While I barely remember due to merciful adrenaline, as we always say, the show must go on. 

The Silver Belles had a limited run at Signature Theatre in 2016, which was entirely sold out. I’m not sure why they never brought it back after it did so well. The next theatre (especially in the DMV area) that will produce this show will no doubt have a big box office hit on their hands, as I still get told by people that they couldn’t get a ticket to The Silver Belles and can’t believe they missed it. 

To hear a few of the demo tracks, you can check out The Silver Belles on Broadway Licensing. Here’s hoping that Oralene and The Silver Belles will be making more laughter peel out in the near future.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

 

In 2014, we had an amazing opportunity presented to us. We had the chance to go back to our Alma Mater, Shenandoah University, and work on an original musical of ours with the Conservatory Students. 

Matt had worked on the source material in a different production a few years before, but was not ultimately happy with the end product, as it didn’t match his vision that he painted so plainly and achingly in his score. Knowing his vision and world like none other, I suggested we take this piece up again and revisit it through our combined eyes. 

This being only the second musical that I ever wrote, and coming off the heels of our first baby, Night of the Living Dead, I was still very much in a “Full Dark, No Stars” kind of mindset. The first draft I wrote of this show was SUPER dark. Like, I believe the show opened with Katrina chained to a harvest god statue. I remember no more details other than that. 

I knew that I had to take it way down. But If you’ve ever read Washington Irving’s short story, there isn’t much “there” there. It is quite an anecdotal tale told in passing, with not many plot points to make a decent scene out of, outside the iconic and climactic ones near the end. 

This lack of information put me in mind of the itinerant schoolmaster, and what he didn’t know about the hushed valley of Sleepy Hollow. Why wasn’t there more information in the story? What was being hidden? What could I infer between the lines of Irving’s text?

What I imagined in response, was a town with leftover Germanic/Quaker extreme beliefs that were not so much Christian based, but based more on a Harvest God, and a sacrifice that must be made every year to ensure the success of the crops. An unwitting virgin who is introduced to a stranger brought into town, who has no idea that her part in the grand scheme is to lure a man to death, and by the time she finds out, she is too late to stop it.

I was pleased with this version of the show, and was also pleased we were able to cut some of the songs from the 2011 version, and add back some amazing songs from the 2009 workshop that were very strangely cut from the 2011. 

There may very well be a chance on the horizon to revisit this piece again, and would I do the same 2014 version again? I don’t think I would. This piece isn’t quite settled yet, and I think I would go back to Irving’s text again, and instead of trying to be smarter than the simplicity of it, I think I would bask in it, simplify the story to its basest arc, and really just tell THAT story, and make sure our music supports it. 

And the music…that score is amazingly beautiful.

The opening number to this show is one of my favorite pieces that Matt has ever written. It takes the poem “The Castle of Indolence”, quoted by Irving at the top of his tale, and brings it to song. 

“ A pleasing land of drowsy head it was

Of dreams that wake before the half shed eye

And of gay castles in the clouds that pass 

Forever flushing round a summer sky” - James Thomson, “The Castle of Indolence”

There is also the stunning “Boston”, in which Katrina  expresses her desire to leave Sleepy Hollow and explore the world beyond. “Be Not Afraid” is sung by the Widow Meer - one of the backbones of the community, and a woman you shouldn’t get on the wrong side of. It is an anthem of the perpetual fear that scripture and religion keep alive inside of us. “Still” is primarily for Brom, but expands to Katrina’s father, and Ichabod, then the entire village - where it seems like everyone has a plan or idea of what Katrina should do or be to them. Katrina wanders through this song, experiencing it, and trying to escape it, and has no opportunity to voice her own wants or desires during it.  Cut from the 2011 production (maddeningly), this song is one of my favorites in the piece. There are many others that bear mentioning here, whether they be “Blue”, “Little Things”, “Fire Burn, Fire Red”, “The Chase”, or “Perhaps”, this score is still one of my favorites.

I have a fond place in my memory for the 2014 production of Sleepy Hollow, because it was our second venture writing together. Shortly after this show, we were commissioned to write the Bold New Works 5 year journey, and the rest is history. But back in 2014, the world was new to us as a writing team, and this opportunity to go back home to Shenandoah where we first met in 1996 was a magical prospect. Our first pug, Buddha, was nearing the end of his life then, and we actually took him in his stroller to rehearsal a few times, so this show was the only one he ever actually got to sit in the rehearsal room and watch. 

I have very high hopes that when the Fall comes back again next year, you will hear the hooves of the Headless Horseman’s steed galloping your way. But be not afraid…