Backstage Pass

In this episode we continue our conversation with Rob Berliner, Harrison Bryan, and Aaron Kenny about their new musical A Hanukkah Carol, or GELT TRIP! The Musical.

Narcissistic millennial influencer Chava Kanipshin (known to her followers as ”Queen Vava”) is obsessed with her social media empire… so much so that she has no time or energy for the real world, for actual friendships, or—least of all—for Hanukkah with her family. That is, until she is transported on an unforgettable trip that compels her to rethink everything… a trip led by Spirits of the Past, Present, and Future. Think you know this story? Think again! Irreverent playwright Harrison Bryan teams with composer Aaron Kenny and lyricist Rob Berliner to subvert—and convert—Dickens's holiday classic.

This episode features the song ‘A Light in the Dark’ performed by Ben Fankhauser, Zachary Noah Piser, Benjamin Velez, Nate Richardson, and Daniel Mertzlufft.

It also features the song ‘The Girl I Used to Know’ performed by Fernanda Douglas, Katie Luke, and Paul Libman.

Connect with A Hanukkah Carol, or GELT TRIP! The Musical:

Website: https://www.ahanukkahcarol.com/

Instagram: @ahanukkahcarol

Connect with Rob Berliner:

Instagram: @nutritiousjunkfood

Connect with Harrison Bryan:

Instagram: @hahaharrisonbryan

Connect with Aaron Kenny

Instagram: @akenny

Connect with New York Theatre Barn:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode features a discussion with Rob Berliner, Harrison Bryan, and Aaron Kenny about their new musical A Hanukkah Carol or GELT TRIP! The Musical.

Narcissistic millennial influencer Chava Kanipshin (known to her followers as ”Queen Vava”) is obsessed with her social media empire… so much so that she has no time or energy for the real world, for actual friendships, or—least of all—for Hanukkah with her family. That is, until she is transported on an unforgettable trip that compels her to rethink everything… a trip led by Spirits of the Past, Present, and Future. Think you know this story? Think again! Irreverent playwright Harrison Bryan teams with composer Aaron Kenny and lyricist Rob Berliner to subvert—and convert—Dickens's holiday classic.

Connect with Rob Berliner:

Instagram: @nutritiousjunkfood

Connect with Harrison Bryan:

Instagram: @hahaharrisonbryan

Connect with Aaron Kenny:

Instagram: @akenny

Connect with New York Theatre Barn:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the second part of our interview with Nico Juber, we continue our discussion about her new pieces Millennials Are Killing Musicals and Winner. 

We also play a game where we decide which musical theatre characters would thrive on social media.

Millennials Are Killing Musicals (by Nico Juber)

Meet Brenda: a single Millennial mom who wants to do better “adulting” like the seemingly perfect Jake’s Mom at her daughter’s school.

Brenda is finally ready for love and creativity in her life when her younger #influencer sister Katrina shows up at her house, eight months pregnant, totally unprepared for motherhood. 

The three women must shed the Greek chorus of social media filters on their lives to achieve their dreams.

Winner (by Nico Juber and Joe Barros)

It's 1999 and today is election day for the Y2K senior class of Riverside High School. Autumn has prepared her whole life for this election, and her chances of landing a college scholarship depend on her winning. But, when Autumn’s best friend (with benefits) Stevie gets added as a last-minute candidate running against her, tensions rise between the girls. 

When Stevie unexpectedly wins the election, Autumn hacks into the new electronic system to discover that the election was rigged. Winner is an original story that asks the question: If everyone's losing, who wins? 

Connect with Nico Juber:

Instagram: @stuffnicolikes

Connect with New York Theatre Barn:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode features a discussion with Nico Juber about her new musicals Millennials are Killing Musicals and Winner.

Millennials are Killing Musicals (by Nico Juber)

Meet Brenda: a single Millennial mom who wants to do better “adulting” like the seemingly perfect Jake’s Mom at her daughter’s school.

Brenda is finally ready for love and creativity in her life when her younger #influencer sister Katrina shows up at her house, eight months pregnant, totally unprepared for motherhood. The three women must shed the Greek chorus of social media filters on their lives to achieve their dreams.

Winner (by Nico Juber and Joe Barros)

It's 1999 and today is election day for the Y2K senior class of Riverside High School. Autumn has prepared her whole life for this election, and her chances of landing a college scholarship depend on her winning. But, when Autumn’s best friend (with benefits) Stevie gets added as a last-minute candidate running against her, tensions rise between the girls. When Stevie unexpectedly wins the election, Autumn hacks into the new electronic system to discover that the election was rigged. Winner is an original story that asks the question: If everyone's losing, who wins? 

This episode features the song ‘Eye on the Prize’ from Winner, performed by Jenna Pastuszek, Music/Lyrics by Nico Juber & Joe Barros, with Arrangements/Orchestrations by Bálint Varga.

Connect with Nico Juber:

• Instagram: @stuffnicolikes

Connect with New York Theatre Barn:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Backstage Pass! We’re premiering our podcast with a double release that features our conversation with Tony Award Winner Greg Kotis (Urinetown, Yeast Nation) about his new musical The End of All Flesh. Check out Episode 2 for the second part of our conversation.

THE END OF ALL FLESH (by Greg Kotis)

The End of All Flesh is a rollicking post-apocalyptic fable unfolding on a remote mountain top sometime in America's distant future. Having made it through the End Times, Ma and Pa fight to keep themselves and their son, Boy, alive, by hunting, gathering, and maintaining a healthy distrust of strangers. But Boy's near grown now, and his new friend Girl is putting some mighty funny ideas in his head about familial hierarchies and the Patriarchy. Expect plenty of picking (and some grim grinning) in a concert reading of a new dark comedy that explores environmental collapse, gender norms, generation gaps, survivalist practices, and the creative potential of a pandemic beard...in song!

Connect with New York Theatre Barn:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the second episode of Backstage Pass, we continue our conversation with Tony Award Winner Greg Kotis (Urinetown, Yeast Nation) about his new musical The End of All Flesh. We also play a game we designed just for Greg, Survival: The Musical.

THE END OF ALL FLESH (by Greg Kotis)

The End of All Flesh is a rollicking post-apocalyptic fable unfolding on a remote mountain top sometime in America's distant future. Having made it through the End Times, Ma and Pa fight to keep themselves and their son, Boy, alive, by hunting, gathering, and maintaining a healthy distrust of strangers. But Boy's near grown now, and his new friend Girl is putting some mighty funny ideas in his head about familial hierarchies and the Patriarchy. Expect plenty of picking (and some grim grinning) in a concert reading of a new dark comedy that explores environmental collapse, gender norms, generation gaps, survivalist practices, and the creative potential of a pandemic beard...in song!

Connect with New York Theatre Barn:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode features discussions about Zack Zadek and Peter Duchan’s Love, Rosie and Peter Hodgson and Kathleen Wrinn’s The Bridge.

LOVE, ROSIE (by Peter Duchan & Zack Zadek) - Rosie and Alex meet at eighteen. They’re from different worlds, a gulf of misunderstanding between them, but they share a passion for music—and for each other. Two interconnected lives are tracked over the course of 30 years, asking the question: what is a love story?

THE BRIDGE (by Peter Hodgson and Kathleen Wrinn) - The Bridge is an epic new musical based on the love story that built the Brooklyn Bridge. When Emily Roebling’s husband falls mysteriously ill and is unable to continue as Chief Engineer, Emily must do the impossible: secretly take her husband’s place as Chief, in an era half a century before women were allowed to vote. With a genre-defying score as vibrant as New York City itself, The Bridge explores the forces that unite and divide us. It is a story of mistakes and forgiveness. Of great sacrifice and even greater hope. Of finding a way forward, across the uncrossable. Together.

Featuring performances from Zack Zadek, Peter Hodgson, and Kathleen Wrinn.

Co-produced and edited by Hector Flores Jr. and Pauls Macs

Connect with Zack Zadek:

• Instagram and Twitter: @zackzadek

Connect with Peter Hodgson:

• Instagram: @phodgson11

Connect with Kathleen Wrinn: 

• Instagram and Twitter: @inittowrinnit 

Connect with New York Theatre Barn:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode features discussions about Kira Stone’s Salem and Truth Bachman and Zhailon Levingston’s Shapeshifters.

SALEM (by Kira Stone) - In Salem, Susannah, Bridget, Miriam, Martha, Rebecca, & Mary are held hostage in a modern day courtroom for their collective trial by judge and jury. We marvel at the mass hysteria, we deliberate, and we ultimately are a part of deciding the fate of these six women. Follow the twists, switchbacks, and real-life discoveries that are made as we speculate: Why did this happen? How did this happen? And, heaven forbid, could it happen again now? Kira was joined by her director Sarna Lapine.

SHAPESHIFTERS: A QUEER COMIC BOOK MUSICAL (by Truth Bachman and Direction & Development by Zhailon Levingston) - High school bully and comic book genius, Mel, discovers a hidden plane of existence called Queer Time, simply by drawing scenarios with pen and paper. In Queer Time, Mel joins the ranks of an underground network of Queer and Trans superheroes called The Shapeshifters. As Mel and the Shapeshifters sprint toward uncertain futures, this tribe of queer heroes must rely on community to persist, resist, and survive their living nightmares.

Featuring performances from Truth Bachman, Basit Shittu, Antonio Cipriano (Jagged Little Pill) and Kira Stone

Co-produced and edited by Hector Flores Jr. and Pauls Macs

Connect with Kira Stone:

• Instagram: @kirabethstone

Connect with Truth Bachman:

Connect with Zhailon Levingston: 

• Instagram and Twitter: @zhailon

Connect with New York Theatre Barn:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode features discussions about AriDy Nox’s and Brandon Webster’s Metropolis and Mêlisa Annis and Jamie Floyd’s The King’s Wife.

METROPOLIS (by AriDy Nox and Brandon Webster) - Metropolis is an epic tale that follows the Harmonizer-android-unit turned space-time-continuum anarchist Fari as she is wrenched across space and time. With the Apocalypse hot on her heels in the past and the future, Fari keeps finding herself at the center of world-defining moments. But will she be able to withstand the upheaval? Or will she crack under the pressure?

THE KING’S WIFE (by Mêlisa Annis and Jamie Floyd) - The King’s Wife is a new musical that uniquely re-tells the relationship between Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, the first two wives of King Henry VIII of England. While historical accounts paint these women as bitter enemies, The King’s Wife (using historic clues) flips the script to tell their tale differently. It’s an untraditional period piece with a dark, progressive vibe, and a moving, hopeful story about female friendship and the detriment to the world when great women aren’t allowed to rise. Mêlisa and Jamie were joined by their producers Jennifer Kranz and Abigail Solomon. 

Featuring performances from Cory Barrow, Jamie Floyd, Taylor Harris, Tyler McKenzie, Max Morter, Caleb Spainhour, Marthaluz Velez and HK Wall

Co-produced and edited by Hector Flores Jr. and Pauls Macs

Connect with AriDy Nox:

• Instagram and Twitter: @aridynox

Connect with Brandon Webster:

• Instagram: @brandomitable 

Connect with Mêlisa Annis: 

• Instagram and Twitter: @melisaannis

Connect with Jamie Floyd:

Connect with New York Theatre Barn:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode features discussions about Nevada Lozano’s Ramona and Douglas Waterbury-Tieman’s Johnny & The Devil’s Box.

RAMONA (by Nevada Lozano) - Based on the classic novel by Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona tells the story of an orphan girl growing up on a Mexican hacienda in Southern California in the 1850s. She falls in love with a Native American ranchero, and together they journey across the new U.S. state in search of a place to call home. With a blend of American, Native American and Mexican musical styles, Ramona is an epic love story set during one of the most violent, tumultuous times in American history.

JOHNNY & THE DEVIL'S BOX (by Douglas Waterbury-Tieman) - Johnny & The Devil’s Box tells the story of Johnny Baker, a young man who believes he’s the best fiddler that ever was, and aims to prove it. However, another fiddler who haunts the hills of North Georgia disagrees, the Devil himself. Now, Johnny must contend with the threat of the law, the hypocrisy of the church, young love and tempting fame as he navigates the balance between responsibility and pride. Johnny & The Devil’s Box proclaims the immense power of music to heal broken communities and relationships when we put aside our pride and join hands in jubilant song and dance. Douglas was joined by his collaborator Annabelle Fox, music supervisor Scott Wasserman, and dramaturg Annika Chapin.

Johnny & The Devil’s Box: The Concept Album is available now.

Featuring performances from Annabelle Fox, Amanda Robles (BSC’s Into The Woods), Shereen Pimentel (West Side Story) and Douglas Waterbury-Tieman (The Robber Bridegroom, SeaWife)

Co-produced and edited by Hector Flores Jr. and Pauls Macs

Connect with Nevada Lozano:

• Instagram: @nevadalozano

Connect with Douglas Waterbury-Tieman:

• Instagram: @jdwtieman

Connect with New York Theatre Barn:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices