 SONGS
FOR A NEW WORLD
A musical revue in 2 acts: Music and Lyrics by Jason Robert Brown.
Conceived by Daisy Prince.
W.P.A. (Workshop of the Players Art) Theatre
11 October - 5 November, 1995 )12 perfs plus 15 previews)
Storyline:
At age twenty-five songwriter
Jason Robert Brown pulled together sixteen of the songs he had written
for various projects (shows, cabaret, concerts) and director Daisy
Prince found a common theme to make a show of the pieces. The theme
is the moment of decision, the point at which you transition from the
old to the new. The change may be geographical, emotional, professional
or marital but things are different than they were before. The
result is neither musical play nor revue, it is closer to a theatrical
song cycle, a very theatrical song cycle.
Brown writes intensely personal, highly dramatic songs.
They range from country-ish story songs to gospel tinged wails and from
pop coloured romps to solo pieces of either concentrated personal revelation
or slightly off beat comedy. There's a pregnant woman's expression of
wonder at creation, the story of a would-be basketball star aching to
escape the dead-end world of failure, the lament of a couple who broke
up only to find their separate ways led nowhere, and even the hopes and
fears for the future that weigh heavily on the explorers sailing to find
a new world in 1492 and the flagmaker creating the banner for a new nation
in 1775. Each song is musically distinctive and dramatically effective.
|
