Crazytown

BOHEMIAN DREAMS: RAQUEL ALMAZAN

Discover NYC's most talented starving artists - before they're rich and famous. This week meet performance artist Raquel Almazan, and hear what she has to say about Butoh dance, pornography, and being a vegan.

 by David Davila (playwright / songwriter)

Performance artist, playwright, and actress, Raquel Almazan, has been making people laugh, cry, and think for several years on the downtown theatre scene with shows like SHE WOLVES: WOMEN IN SEX, DEATH, AND REBIRTH, and DEATH OF THE DOLL which explore modern female sexuality and social power.

Originally from Spain, the Spanish/Costa Rican artist moved to the US at an early age and lived in every Hispanic part of the country from Texas to Florida before setting her roots in NYC. I first met Raquel at the weekly Salon at INTAR THEATRE where artists share new works for a group of non-judgemental peers. Almazan was presenting a comical look at the her mother's travels through a racist, Southern, USA and I was rolling on the floor with laughter. Now she's presenting a new one-woman show at Dixon Place for one night only that explores a porn star's journey from celebrity to outer-space refugee using mixed-media and Butoh dance that has me intrigued to say the least.         

Porning the Planet Trailer- Sizzle Reel from raquel almazan on Vimeo.

I caught up with the avante-garde performance artist, and hilarious stand-up comic, over soy-lattes at our local Brooklyn Bagel in Astoria to talk about her involvement with Butoh dance, its correlations to pornography, and how she wants to be Orson Wells...

Here's what she had to say:

(David Davila) How did PORNING THE PLANET come about?

(Raquel Almazan) The play was inspired by the book “female chauvinist pig movement”, by Ariel Levi. For fifteen years I’ve worked with marginalized women and girls (including sex workers) in schools, prisons and centers. This lead my work to demand a political process. Holding interviews in strip clubs and pornographic environments. The platform for my current piece comes from five years of processing with women, research, and public art presentations. I am now armed for the ultimate challenge of embracing and unearthing pornography in all its forms.

The piece strives to connect ancient women’s mythology with modern media, pornographic images, and how women’s sexuality is used as a weapon against themselves. I’m working to fuse today’s whore as the power symbol in finding ways to honor the virginal whore that refuses to go mainstream porn but instead redefines what it is to be feminine. (Cont.)

BOHEMIAN DREAMS: JUDITH LEORA

Meet NYC's most promising starving artists before they're rich and famous. This week meet playwright Judith Leora, and find out what she has to say about dating drug dealers, American sitcoms as an art form, and tiny buckets of pennies.

by David Davila (musical theatre writer)

It was four years ago when nine other musical theatre writers and I were set-up with the impossible task of writing a full length musical about the Occupy Wall Street movement in just three weeks. There was a lot of screaming, a lot of coffee, and a lot of big personalities with crazy ideas. Out of the madness emerged Judith Leora, and her idea for a wacky scenario in a Dunkin Donuts that became the basis for OCCUPY: THE MUSICAL. Wacky scenarios in American chain-restaurants are a pretty big theme in the work of this visionary playwright who tackles big issues like racism and misogyny in hysterical and outlandish ways all while satirizing American consumer culture.

Since then, I've become one of Judith's biggest fans and have produced her work at my theatre company at every chance I could possibly get. Last year we produced a reading of her new play SHOWPONY about a group of under-appreciated women working in a male dominated advertising firm. It was brilliant, and it became utterly clear to me that it is only a matter of time before Judith Leora's name is uttered by everyone in the theatre industry.

This summer she has not one but two plays being produced. First came a production of her play GIDEON, her answer to WAITING FOR GODOT set in an Los Angeles apartment where two girls wait for the cable guy. Now her play THE COOKIE FIGHT is receiving a full production at the Bristol Valley Theatre. 

I caught up with this talented writer at Beer Authority in Times Square and chatted with her about "not" breaking fire codes, Christopher Durang, and drinking paint thinner. Here's what the playwright had to say:

(David Davila) Tell me about THE COOKIE FIGHT.

(Judith Leora) THE COOKIE FIGHT is the first play I wrote when I moved back to NYC from LA and started writing plays again. It’s a play about a family of adult siblings coming home for one last Christmas in the family home and must come to grips with their family issues in the middle of a national financial crisis. That doesn’t sound very funny, but it’s a comedy. Which is pretty typical of my writing. I write deeply political plays that sound like a sitcom. Which I mean in a positive way. I think really well-written sitcoms are a very American, very perceptive art form. Yes, I just called sitcoms an art form. I feel no shame!!  

(DD) How did the idea for this play come about?

(JL) It wasn’t inspired by a specific financial crisis, but by the succession of crises we’ve had in the last ten years. Enron. The electricity crisis in California. The collapse in 2008. I’m sure there were some deeply un-empathetic people involved in those situations but I imagine that the majority of them are people who consider themselves “good people”. They were just doing their jobs and trying to make as much money as possible for their company, which our culture tells them is the greatest good. I’m very interested in that dissonance. How you justify doing things, which ultimately hurt large groups of people? I’m also interested in how religion is complicit in excusing that behavior. Which is where the main character Joy comes in… 

(The cast of THE COOKIE FIGHT at VBT, Left to Right: EJ Cantu, Sara Fetgatter and Mark Poppleton)

(DD) And you're having a full production of The Cookie Fight this summer. Can you tell us about that?

BOHEMIAN DREAMS: LOREN BERI

Meet NYC's most promising starving artists before they're rich and famous. This week meet composer and lyricist Loren Berí, and find out what he has to say about synchronicity, Lizzy Caplan, and Manischewitz.

by David Davila (musical theatre writer)

It was about eight months ago when my boyfriend turned to me and said "You have to listen to Loren Berí," He was referring to the album STOCKHOLM FANCY, and once I took his advice I became an instant fan. So you can imagine my surprise when a gentlemen approached me at The PlayGround Experiment back in March and introduced himself as Loren Berí, a composer who wanted to talk to me about the New York Musical Festival.

Loren Berí, a composer and playwright who released three EPs with the band Gardendale & Berkley and an LP with the band Met City broke out onto the scene in late 2015 with his first solo outing, a brilliant indie-rock album about his life living on Stockholm Street in Brooklyn. Now he's making his first appearance at the New York Musical Festival with the musical MOLLY MURPHY AND NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON ON OUR LAST DAY ON EARTH directed by Gabriel Vega Weissman as part of the NYMF reading series. The much buzzed-about musical staring Remy Zaken, Eric Lockley, and Grace McLean, had its first performance on Tuesday and gets two encore performances this Saturday and Sunday. I caught up with the bearded Brooklynite in Bryant Park and chatted with him about delusion, Sting's solo career, and Beauty & the Beast.

Here's what the tuner had to say:

(David Davila) Tell me about your new show going to NYMF this summer?

 

(Loren Berí) The show's called 'Molly Murphy and Neil deGrasse Tyson On Our Last Day On Earth.' The story/play is written by Molly Murphy, and is about a girl who leaves home to spend her last day on Earth with her favorite famed astrophysicist/science popularizer, Neil deGrasse Tyson, at his Hayden Planetarium in the Upper West Side.

 

It's Earth's last day before being swallowed in a black hole, an "event horizon", and this event deGrasse Tyson somehow predicted.

 

Molly wrote through this caricature, a megalomaniacal story-land version of Neil. Obsessed with greatness, explaining the cosmos to who he sees as his plebeian planetarium workers. Greatness relative to scientific contribution to society (His favorite examples being Isaac Newton and Einstein.). And deep down, we wonder if Neil knows that he himself is not actually in this lineage of great scientists.

 

 

I wrote the music and lyrics of 'MMNdGT' in the style of 80's synth-pop/orchestral indie, and I arranged it that way when played with a full band. 80's synth because I thought it'd be a way to match the sort of John Hughes-y, science field trip vibes I'd pictured from Molly's writing. Or for some reason I still imagine Gael García Bernal in 'Science of Sleep,' with those surreal cooking show scenes.

 

(DD) Wow, what a concept! How did this show come about? What's the inspiration?

 

(LB) I went one night to see an evening of ten or fifteen minute plays, and one of those was an early version of this show. It reminded me of those bizarre Frank Zappa flicks he made with his band. And it was hilarious. And the play did have music, like a Muse song, a Disney song, some classical piano pieces.

I talked to Molly and the director at the time Derek Smith, asking if they'd think about adding original music to it, maybe make it a musical. Within a week or so they had heard back about a residency they'd gotten it into. We made it into a musical and expanded it to an hour in that residency. 

 

(DD) What's your writing process like with a book writer? 

BOHEMIAN DREAMS: KIT GOLDSTEIN GRANT

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.

BOHEMIAN DREAMS: JEREMY NGUYEN

Meet NYC's most promising starving artists before they're rich and famous. This week meet cartoonist and illustrator, Jeremy Nguyen and find out what he has to say about talking to adults, Sunday comics, and real estate.

by David Davila (musical theatre writer)

I wish I could say I discovered the cartoonist Jeremy Nguyen at a cool party in Bushwick with a bunch of smelly hipsters but he actually caught my attention on Instagram where he posts clever and hilarious cartoons about hipster life in the Bohemian capitol of the world: Bushwick. "Stranger Than Bushwick", which he illustrates serializes in Bushwick Daily, and it's pretty friggin genius. 

 

 

 

Now that his comics are catching on you can see his work on Thrillist, College Humor, Time Out New York, Brooklyn Magazine, and Bedford + Bowery. Now he's bringing his love for comics to life with live readings of brand new comic books by Brooklyn writers! I caught up with the anti-hipster this week to find out more! Here's what the illustrator had to say:  

 

(David Davila) So tell me about your Bushwick comic strip, how did this come about?

(Jeremy Nguyen) I had lived in Bushwick for about a year before some ideas came to me to make a comic. I was always seeing crazy things happen and had conversations with my friends about what was going on, like you do when you first move to a new neighborhood. I made friends with Katarina at Bushwick Daily and started contributing illustrations to different articles and columns, and she eventually asked for me to write articles. I declined her offer, cause I'm not a writer or journalist. 

 

(DD) Where do you find the inspiration for the things you draw?

(JN) It's pretty easy to find inspiration for comics because you can just take a walk and find something to write about at your doorstep. Sure, Bushwick has a lot of strange things going on, but a lot of the fun is finding the mundane normal things that all my friends and neighbors do and using that as fuel for a comic. 

BOHEMIAN DREAMS: ADRIANNA MATEO

Meet NYC's most promising starving artists before they're rich and famous. This week meet composer, and performer, Adrianna Mateo and find out what she has to say about Debussy, Bach, and Taylor Swift.

by David Davila (musical theatre writer)

It was a freezing February day this time last year and my friend from Texas had given me the task of finding a violin player to serenade his sweetheart on the top of the Empire State Building while he popped the big question. There was only one problem; the Empire State Building doesn't allow violins to go to the top. So Adrianna Mateo (the violinist I hired) and I had the difficult task of trying to convince the people who run the iconic skyscraper of allowing us up. It didn't work. That's how I met composer and violinist extraordinaire Adrianna Mateo. 

As we fought "the man" on that freezing February day, I quickly discovered all the wonders of Adrianna and her many projects! She writes music, she had a rock band, she has a string quintet, and she does just about everything else in between. Since that cold day a year ago Adrianna has made her Metropolitan Opera debut, her Metropolitan Museum debut and will soon be performing her original music at Arlene's Grocery. Above all Adrianna is a strong ally for new music and creating fresh art in the New York City.

I sat down with the talented musician at Javelina Tex-Mex in Union Square to talk about fame, fortune and artistic legacy. Here is what the composer had to say: 

(David Davila) Tell me about the Adrianna Mateo Quintet. How did this show at the Metropolitan Museum come about?

 

(Adrianna Mateo) ETHEL, the ensemble-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has been unbelievably generous in that they've given me carte blanche in curating and performing shows at the Met when they're out of town. As a result, I've been able to perform three-hour programs in practically every configuration (solo, duo, trio, quartet, quintet), commission and program works by my best friends as well by emerging talents, and perform alongside rock-solid performers, such as cellist-arranger Jiliane Russo, pianists Manon Hutton-DeWys and Salomé Scheidegger, and violist-composer Blake Allen. It's a wonderful, demanding gig: I love stretching my abilities as a performer and curator, and it's truly exhilarating to bring so much new music to life in a space as energetic as the balcony.

 

As a sidenote, I find it hilarious to play aleatoric music, Disney, Dvorak, Miley Cyrus, and Kanye West on the same program. There's a lot of room for humor in a three-hour show.

 

(DD) And you're doing a show at Arlene's Grocery too on March 11th. That's a much different venue. What's the difference in the musical stylings and set lists?

 

(AM) This is my first time at Arlene's - I'm really excited to perform my own music there with the full band. My music is much more hard-hitting than what I curated at the Met Museum. Instead of a classical piano quintet (piano, two violins, viola, and cello), the band is composed of two electric guitars, a bass and drumkit, myself on rock vocals, and (naturally) a choir of violins. I've been described as rock singer-songwriter and serial overthinker - or, more simply, as an alt-pop-rock artist.

 

(DD) You also made your Met Opera debut on stage I'm dying to know what it was like standing on that stage. 

BOHEMIAN DREAMS: JENNY ANNE HOCHBERG

Meet NYC's most promising starving artists before they're rich and famous. This week meet comedic actress and writer, Jenny Anne Hochberg and find out what she has to say about Disney Princesses, broken vibrators, and the fact that she's not Sara Bareilles.

by David Davila (musical theatre writer)

 

I met Jenny Anne Hochberg on one of those amazing New York nights through friends of friends who you never know. I don't know exactly who introduced us, but at some point during a pretty raucous birthday party at the Hourglass Tavern for a TV star that we both knew that included strippers and loads of alcohol we met and traded phone numbers. Still, things like that happen all the time in New York and I mostly expected that I would never see or hear from her again, so you can imagine my surprise when I ran into her the very next night at a concert in the Lower East Side. Neither one of us knew anyone else there and so a friendship immediately began. What amazes me most about the astonishingly funny and beautiful Jenny Anne Hochberg is not just her talent and looks, but mostly her ability to hold a crowd in the palm of her hand. She woos her audience, whether they're guests at a party or a sold-out crowd at one of her comedy shows. Jenny Anne Hochberg knows how to work a room! 

 

Aside from booking acting and modeling gigs here and there, she entertains crowds several times a week with her improv shows at venues all around New York, and in 2015 she wrote, produced, and released her first web series; YES AND: THE SERIES. The series, a hilarious look at life as a twenty something in New York highlights the unglamorous sides of the fabulous life of New Yorkers. It's hilarious. 

 

 

 

I sat down with the comedic actress at our favorite hangout, The Hourglass Tavern and talked about decaffeinated tea, Second City, and her grandmother's dating life. Here's what the lovely lady had to say:

 

(David Davila) So tell me about YES AND: THE SERIES.

(Jenny Anne Hochberg) YES AND... is a web series about two roommates/friends. One is named Jenny, who is an out of work actor, improviser, hopeless and sometimes desperate romantic. And the other one is named Reece, who is a staff writer for a social media company called Buzztime. The show follows their hilarious, and sometimes-awkward careers and loves lives. There are a lot of web series now a days, especially since Broad City, about two girls trying to make it in New York and find love. Although our show sounds similar to that, the opening scene for YES AND... separates us from the norm. In the first scene, my improv crush/romantic leading man in the show, Ross Taylor, is going down on me, he tells me that I taste just like Granny's apple pie, and then tells me "it's time to wake up Bitch." Which turns out that I left my vibrator in me over night, and it breaks when I take it out. You have to watch the rest of the series to find out what happens! 

 

 

(DD) How did this show come about?

JH: I had been writing a different web series for about a year with another writing partner of mine, who in the middle of writing had become very busy with booking multiple acting gigs. Which was great for him, but not so great for our series. I was hoping to have a web series that would help push my acting career in a direction that it hadn't been going in thus far. As well as showcase me in a leading role that I had not been given the opportunity to perform yet. So I gave up on trying to write this show, and took a break from writing web series. Until one day, I posted a photo of Broad City with Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer on instagram with a hashtag I started called #fff, standing for #flashforwardfriday. Meaning, rather than looking back in time of what has already happened with #flashbackfriday. I post a photo of what I want to accomplish in the future, which is write and perform in my own successful show. A girl named Rasheda Crockett, who I met through Actors Connection, an actors networking place, where we are both readers at, commented on the photo saying that she would like to write with me and make this happen. I took this offer seriously, and then it all came together.

 

BOHEMIAN DREAMS: BEN BONNEMA

Meet NYC's most promising starving artists before they're rich and famous. This week meet musical theatre writer, Ben Bonnema and find out what he has to say about Easy Mac, gay hook-up apps, and Darren Criss.

by David Davila (playwright / songwriter)

 

Everyone who is anyone was at the Factory that night; the Musical Theatre Factory in Hell's Kitchen, where New Musicals are developed and songwriters come to share their new work once a month. It was at one of these Salons that I first met Ben Bonnema, a musical theatre song-writer from Seattle with a talent for turning a lyric into a surprisingly hilarious yet poignant joke that flips from one verse to the next.  

I introduced myself to the chap and got an ear full about his work including a new musical he wrote that was soon getting a production at Musical Theatre Factory; BOYS WHO TRICKED ME. 

BOYS WHO TRICKED ME, directed by Shakina Nayfack, is a new interactive musical that takes a long, deep look into the awkward situations, ridiculous propositions, steamy sexual encounters, unforgettable heartbreaks, and heavy regrets that gay boys experience while dating. 

I caught the show on opening night and the crowd (made up of the sexiest boys in Manhattan I might add), was on fire with laughter, shock, and gay porn. During a steamy game of Truth or Dare, one audience member even gave a strip tease. It is a wild experience that inevitably takes the audience on a ride to recovery from heart-break, too many hook-ups, or being a Fader (a dating jerk who stops answering texts). Ben Bonnema's unforgettable melodies and catchy lyrics echo the simple yet witty and memorable songs of Cole Porter finding his place in the world one mistake at a time. It's refreshing and remarkable; and highly entertaining. 

I met up with Ben at the factory on Saturday morning and chatted about the Spice Girls, attractive EMTs, and writing songs about his exes.  Here's what the young writer had to say:

(David Davila) So tell me about BOYS WHO TRICKED ME. 

 

(Ben Bonnema) - BOYS WHO TRICKED ME is a song-cycle, party-game, sleepover-style musical. It features songs of love gone wrong, lust gone right, and that nagging fear that you're going to die alone. It's also a fun, gay slumber party, where we ask you to share stories of the kinkiest thing you've ever been asked to do, or that time the boy you liked slowly stopped texting.

 

(DD) Where did you get the idea for the show?

(BB) I drunkenly kissed my bisexual friend at a party once, because I thought he had been giving me signals, but it turned out he had a girlfriend. I felt silly and wrote a song about it, and then another, and when I played them for an NYU Writer's Group, someone said, "Hey, this sounds like the start of a song cycle."

 

(DD) How much of the show is autobiographical?

 

(BB) A decent amount is autobiographical, but I also tried to be conscious about including other people's stories. It makes for a better show, I think, when it doesn't all come from me. 

 

(DD) The show focuses a lot on the negative aspects of gay dating apps like Grindr, are you against these kinds of sites or do you still use them... Or do you use them and then feel guilty about it?

BOHEMIAN DREAMS: LYONS & PAKCHAR

Meet NYC's most talented starving artists before they're rich and famous. This week meet musical theatre writers Lyons and Pakchar and hear what they have to say about balancing theatrical careers, dating Lady Macbeth, and working with Lillias White.

by David Davila (playwright / songwriter)

I met Douglas Lyons and Ethan Pakchar at the hottest Shubertiade in NYC. Besties, Kait Kerrigan and Adam Gwon, invited every musical theatre songwriter they knew to their offices at NY Song Space to meet each other and eat the snazziest array of sushi and caviar while sipping on delicious cocktails. Adam and Evan played me some of their music in a small practice room and I knew immediately that I was listening to something special. 

Lyons and Pakchar are the hottest new duo in New York with a string of successful cabaret concerts and a new album to boot. Their music is that rare fusion of different sounds that can only be described as American. Mixing hard rock with jazz, blues, pop, musical theatre belt, and good ole fashion call and response, these guys have created something that is both magnificent and unique. 

 
(I'm completely obsessed with this performance and this song.)

After premiering their work with a concert at the famous Cutting Room (which they recorded), they quickly moved to nightlife hot spot 54 Below and were soon asked to take part in the “Future American Song Book Series” at Lincoln Center. Up next they've been chosen to participate in the National Alliance for Musical Theatre's 2014 festival on Oct 24th. 

I recently sat down with the guys at the fountain at Lincoln Center and chatted them up about Indian Food, Ray Charles, and their upcoming musical projects. Here’s what the young song-writers had to say: 

(David Davila) I know you’ve spoken about this a million times but for those who aren’t familiar with your music yet, can you tell us how you two started writing together?

(Ethan Pakchar) Doug and I met on the 1^st National Tour of the Book of Mormon. He originally asked me for guitar lessons but when we hung out, we started jamming. After a while we started taking it more and more seriously. 

(Douglas Lyons) The guitar lessons turned into writing sessions and we've bloomed into a full out music theatre composing team.  

(DD) What I love about your music is how unique it is. So many jazz chords, and mariah-esque riffs, and unexpected sudden changes between verses and choruses. How did you discover your musical voice?

(EP) I know Doug comes from church background and I was classically trained in college so I think we both have an ear for those “odd” chords. But we really try to smooth out all of our influences into one cohesive sound. 

(DL) My upbringing and exposure to music has led me to write the way that I do. My ears have been heavily influenced by Nancy Wilson, Kirk Franklin, Whitney Houston, Sara Barellies and many more. The chords that emerge in our music are a product of emotion & soul releasing through sound. Ethan and I have extremely different musical backgrounds, and that range of variety brings a clashing of culture to our musical voice.   

(DD) So both of you take credit for writing music, not just music OR lyrics. I have noticed a trend lately of songwriting pairs both admitting to write both. Why did y’all decide to do that? 

(EP) I don’t really do lyrics although Doug will tell you I feel passionately about them. I think the music and words come naturally to Doug in tandem. I’m more musically oriented so I like to develop the music. 

(DL) I handle lyrics, but always check in with Ethan to make sure the storytelling is clear. Ethan nails our full orchestration and we building the music together. We know when something isn't right, each chord has to feel good to both of us to make it into a new song. 

(DD) Can you walk us through your process of writing a song together?

BOHEMIAN DREAMS: MATTHEW NEFF

Meet NYC's most promising starving artists before they're rich and famous. This week meet theatrical story teller Matthew Neff and find out what he has to say about building costumes, Janet Jackson choreography, and dollar pizza.

by David Davila (playwright / songwriter)

It was a hot summer night in Hell's Kitchen and the queens were belting to the Gods at New World Stages. It was the "Karaoke Idol" finals or something like that, and everyone in the neighborhood was packed into one room. The singers were great and the crowd was crazy - literally throwing shoes at the stage, but I was most intrigued when the hostess of the evening mentioned that she'd be singing in a concert version of PARTY MONSTER THE MUSICAL, on Wednesday. 

My friend Joey had been telling me for weeks about this very concert and I of course was dying to know more about this super top secret project, so when the fabulous Injoy Fountain (who I should mention, happened to win Karaoke Idol 2014) introduced me to the writer/director of said musical I immediately took the chance to find out more about him.

Matthew Neff is a choreographer, director, writer, and lyricist, but at the core of any of those platforms he's just a story teller - plain and simple. It's in the truth of the characters and stories he's set on telling that he finds inspiration, and every single movement, costume, or set piece is a well thought-out tool to express that truth. Now he's got his sights set on conquering musical theatre with a brand new EDM, (which in this case would stand for Electronic Dance Musical) based on one of the most compelling and horrific tales in America's short history which plays 54 Below on Wednesday Aug 27th. 

(Rehearsals for PARTY MONSTER)

I sat down with the visionary artist and talked about Club Kids, Julie Taymor, and Dallas BBQ. Here's what the lyricist had to say:

(David Davila) So the first question on everyone’s minds is obviously, how in the hell did you get the rights to make PARTY MONSTER a musical? 

(Matthew Neff) I emailed James St. James.

(DD) Oh... well... yeah, that's one way to do it. 

(MN) I asked if I could develop his book into a musical, and he wrote back the next day. To be honest, I never thought he would say yes. I had already started writing another project and PARTY MONSTER popped into my head. I put my other idea on hold and began the initial draft the next day. Over the last two years I would check in with him via email about the musical's progress. After I had finished writing the script I wanted to start make a video to showcase the music Brian Morey and I created. We shot a music video at Sandbox Studio to show what we could do with a zero dollar budget. I circulated that video privately for a year to get interest. The video will become private again on August 28th. The idea of presenting some of the songs as a concert at 54 Below was brought up. A mutual friend introduced me to Jennifer Tepper, 54 Below's Director of Programming. I sent her the video and she offered us a spot. Then I was granted permission for the concert by World of Wonder. I've been very lucky and am really thankful for all the people that have helped the show along the way so far. 

(DD) You wrote the book and lyrics, what were you looking for in a composer to write this with? 

(MN) I was looking for someone with talent and no ego. I wanted someone open to collaborating and ready to break all the rules of making a musical. I didn't want someone to just write fun pop tunes for theater. I had very specific ideas about the sounds and arrangements for each song. Brian is unbelievably talented. I couldn't ask for a better writing partner on this project. For each song I would send him the lyrics and samples of music. Each song had about 5-7 inspiration songs. I would say, "I like this beat in this song, I like the vocal filter here, the vibe this song gives, the sensation this part gives, we need a big timpani like this, this dissonance is awesome, etc" He would then take all these ideas and send me back a demo. I would send him notes, other ideas, change lyrics and he would send back a new demo. This would happen over and over until we both really loved the track. 

(DD) How did you guys find each other?