Meet NYC's most promising starving artists before they're rich and famous. This week meet composer and lyricist Kit Goldstein Grant, and find out what she has to say about Billy Joel, bingo, and moral ambiguity.
by David Davila (musical theatre writer)
It was a long and exhausting day at Lincoln Center last August and dozens of musical theatre writers and performers were scurrying in and out of the New York Public Library for the Performing arts for "Across a Crowded Room." An event where new musicals by emerging writers are premiered each summer. A whose who of musicalrazzi gave their two cents about each one and among the herd of hopefuls, several musicals rose to the top of the bunch. One musical that caught my ear was THE COMMUTERS, a cautionary tale about the Port Authority Bus Terminal. I was dazzled. I was amazed. It was brilliant, and as soon as the actors took their bows I ran over to the creative team to meet the writers. Kit Goldstein Grant was one of them.
Kit Goldstein Grant, is a New Yorker who writes great musicals. Since meeting her last summer I seem to keep running into her all around the city. I've had the pleasure of sitting in on several readings, and I even got to premiere one of her original pieces at the Musical Theatre Factory last month. She's the real deal y'all; writing lush melodies that get stuck in your head while accompanying them with unpredictable harmonies. I'm a fan, and I'm apparently not alone. She broke onto the scene this spring by winning the Lehman Engel award for composition and is spending the summer with not just one, but two full-productions of her musicals in New York City.
THE NOSE will debut at the Midtown International Theatre Festival and THE COMMUTERS will get a full production at the Strawberry Theatre Festival. I sat down with the talented lady at the PIT to find out more about her upcoming productions, her favorite musicals, and ice cream! Here's what the composer had to say:
(David Davila) Tell me about THE COMMUTERS.
(Kit Goldstein Grant) THE COMMUTERS is a one-act horror musical set in the Port Authority Bus Terminal, inspired by a statue there of three commuters waiting in line. In the show, Ernie, a recently-sacked MTA executive, tries to find a bus to HoHoKus after midnight, but little does he know that the statue is waiting to come to life with a horrible warning.
The show originated in the New York Library for the Performing Arts's “Across a Crowded Room” series last summer. The event started out with a mixer, which is where I met my collaborators on the project, Gil Varod and Caleb Damschroder. Gil is the bookwriter, Caleb's the composer, and I did lyrics. It’s also how we met our current director/producer, Christopher Michaels.
We had songs from the show performed in master classes with Lynn Ahrens and Jason Robert Brown, which was a great experience, and then had a staged reading for an industry panel at the end of the summer, which received much laughter and praise! Now it’s going to be part of the Strawberry One-Act Festival, where it runs July 15, 18, and 20 at 7 pm at the Theatre at St. Clement’s, at 423 W. 46th St.. More info and ticket links at www.CalendarBoysProductions.com.
(DD) How about THE NOSE?
(KGG) THE NOSE is a one-act musical for kids and family audiences, based on the classic short story by Nikolai Gogol. It's about a petty bureaucrat named Kovalyov, who has always prided himself on his good looks and laughed at disfigurement in others; his tune changes when his own nose up and runs away! Disguising itself as a higher ranking bureaucrat with fancy uniform and plumed hat, his nose sets out on a mad dash through Petersburg, and Kovalyov finds that whatever the consequences, he must follow his nose.
It’s a really fun show for young audiences, but has a lot of humor adults will enjoy, too! I'm the writer of book, music and lyrics on this one and I had a great time working on it. It’s playing August 5 at 1 pm, August 6 at 11 am, and August 7 at 12 pm at the Workshop Theater Main Stage, 312 W. 36th St, as part of the Midtown International Theatre Festival. More info and ticket links at: www.TheNoseMusical.com.
(DD) How did you get the idea for these pieces?
(KGG) THE COMMUTERS is an original story. The bookwriter, Gil, and composer, Caleb, and I all sat around at a table and batted around ideas for a 20 minute musical. When we got to this one, we all perked up, and decided to go with it. We had quite a number of meetings working out the details, but we all had the same vision for the piece, which is terrific to make a show cohesive!
THE NOSE is an adaptation of an 1830s Russian story by Nikolai Gogol. There’s also an opera by the same name by Shostakovich, but I still haven’t seen it! This adaptation is from the source material and my own imagination. The story is slightly changed to be more appropriate for a young audience, but the original already has a runaway nose and a police chief who gets bribed with sugar, so it was pretty appropriate to begin with!
(DD) And you're having a full production of both this summer, how did those come about?
(KGG) Christopher Michaels, who is now producing and directing THE COMMUTERS, had the idea for that one. We’d met him in the “Across a Crowded Room” series, and he’d been one of our actors for the staged reading at the end. This spring, he wrote to us writers to ask if he could submit the show to the Strawberry One-Act Festival, and we were all for it! The show got accepted, and here we are!
This spring, before THE COMMUTERS was for certain, producer/blogger Ken Davenport sent around a reminder to submit shows for the Midtown International Theatre Festival. I saw they accepted “short subjects” and were actively seeking shows for young audiences, and I thought, “Why not?” I had absolutely no plans for putting a production together this summer. But I sent in the script, they liked it, and here we are, getting ready to start rehearsals!
(DD) Now let’s get into some really important Bohemian questions. How long have you been living in NYC?
(KGG) Almost 3 years.
(DD) And where are you from originally?
(KGG) Schenectady, New York, near Albany. There’s actually a pretty fantastic theatre community in the Capital District!
(DD) What neighborhood do you live in now?
(KGG) Woodside, Queens. And we can never move, because Thai food.
(DD) What's your favorite appetizer to order at a Pub?
(KGG) Fries, I guess? I theoretically would be very interested in ordering sliders, so I should remember to do that sometime.
(DD) What’s your favorite adult beverage?
(KGG) Prosecco. Please send some!
(DD) How do you like your coffee?
(KGG) Invisible. I never drank coffee until last fall, when I started graduate school for composition. I decided that adding grad school on top of a day job and busy writing career demanded coffee. In January I started getting really shaky all the time, decided I was clearly dying, and then realized coffee was the culprit. So no coffee, no never no more.
(DD) What are your top five favorite hangouts in NYC?
(KGG) Flushing Meadows Corona Park; the Musical Theater Factory, wherever it is; Lincoln Center Plaza; the Frick Collection Garden Court; and my living room! Not in that order.
(DD) Favorite food to eat when you are poor?
(KGG) Eggs and rice.
(DD) What's the craziest or worst job you’ve ever had?
(KGG) The time I got hired to direct a play without asking enough questions, and it turned out the budget for the play was $0. But the play was about bingo, and my sister and I went to play bingo for research, and we wound up winning $1,300!
(DD) Who’s your favorite 90's pop star?
(KGG) Billy Joel. I answered a different question. I kinda lived in a bubble when I was a kid, and I think I missed the 90s.
(DD) Billy Joel definitely counts! River of Dreams was a huge hit in 1993! How about one of your female heroes?
(KGG) Maria Riccio Bryce. She wrote a beautiful musical about the Schenectady Massacre that played in my hometown when I was a kid, and it meant a lot to me. I still love that show.
(DD) Someone who we should check out that just doesn't get enough credit?
(KGG) Me!
(DD) How about your favorite guilty pleasure?
(KGG) Ice cream! I hope we’re talking about food here, and not about musicals, because I am talking about food.
(DD) Favorite musical of all time?
(KGG) LES MIS. No, RAGTIME! No, CAMELOT! No, GUYS AND DOLLS! No, NATASHA, PIERRE, AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812! What was the question?
(DD) And a musical that doesn't get enough love?
(KGG) WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND, which I need to get more love so there’s an opportunity for me to see it sometime!
(DD) What's your favorite place to write?
(KGG) New Hampshire. (I do a lot of my writing on long writing walks. Writing walks work really well in summer in New Hampshire!) (As long as you don’t get eaten by a bear.)
(DD) What lesson would you like to go back and teach a 10 year old version of yourself?
(KGG) Practice piano, 10-year-old me. You’ll be glad you did later.
(DD) What do you think is the purpose of art in society?
(KGG) To make life less dreary and miserable, and more interesting. I do think art has the potential to build empathy and give insight into unimagined perspectives.
(DD) What reoccurring themes surface in your work?
(KGG) Desperation for money, respect, greatness. Wonderment. Moral ambiguity. The word “fortuitous.”
(DD) What do you wish to achieve by creating musical theatre?
(KGG) I want to create a whole other world that the audience can fall into and be enveloped in.
(DD) And what are your biggest influences?
(KGG) Early 20th century humor, golden age musical theater, and pessimism.
(DD) Are you able to make a living off of your art?
(KGG) Hah! I wish.
(DD) Which brings us to a very important one: any advice for the teenage artists around the world who dream of moving to NYC?
(KGG) Practical plans for survival while you do your dream are a good idea. Being young and energetic doesn’t hurt, either.
(DD) So, what other projects are you currently working on?
(KGG) A musical black comedy, THE WRONG BOX, is in the works for a fall concert reading. I’ve been working on this show for years, and have had some smaller readings in the past, and am excited to get the whole show in front of people! The website for that is www.TheWrongBoxMusical.com.
I’m also, very, very slowly, working on an adaptation of E. M. Forster’s WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD, which you’ll probably see in some form in a year or two!
(DD) Anything else you want us to know about Kit Goldstein Grant?
(KGG) You probably know too much about me already! But if you’re hungry for more, check out my website: www.kitgoldstein.com.
(DD) Can you please share your favorite Instagram photo with us?
(KGG) What is this “Instagram” of which you speak?
DAVID DAVILA is the composer of MANUEL VS THE STATUE OF LIBERTY, VOX POP, #52SONGS and author of the Tex-Mex plays ADAN Y JULIO, MEN OF GOD, ABUELAS OR THE POVERTY CYCLE, CREDO, REQUERDOS OF MY LIFE, ANIMAL HUSBANDRY, and AZTEC PIRATES AND THE INSIGNIFICANCE OF LIFE ON MARS. He is a self proclaimed Voxist, a Diva enthusiast, and founder of Lone Star Theatre Co. Wanna talk about it? www.daviddavila.net
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