Wrap Up of Goodspeed Festival of New Musicals

By Nancy Sasso Janis

Last weekend the Goodspeed in East Haddam hosted the Goodspeed Festival of New Musicals. Artistic Director Donna Lynn Hilton described the Festival as “one of the cornerstones of Goodspeed’s commitment to new musical theatre development.” It thrives with the theater’s Mercer Writers Grove, the developmental productions offered at the Terris Theatre in Chester, and the new works like “Summer Stock” and the magnificent “The 12” that appeared on the main stage this year.

“Developing new musicals is a long, expensive and labor intensive process…Every classic was once a new work,” continues Hilton. She thanked attendees for recognizing this truth and getting in on the ground floor of some up and coming musicals.

The weekend event began on Friday with a staged reading of “Photosynthesis,” with book, music and lyrics by Claudine Mboligikpelani Nako, and a cabaret with musical theater composer and lyricist Nevada Lozano held at the Gelston House.

The packed Saturday events included three seminars held at the Gelston House and St. Stephen’s Church and the symposium “Getting to Know Maggie.” The staged reading of “Letters to the President,” a new work conceived by Michael Bellow and Jessica Kahkoska that featured songs from various composers inspired by actual letters, was a part of last year’s Festival Cabaret. Saturday concluded with a cabaret with social impact artist Nikki Lynette.

I was able to attend the Sunday staged reading of “The Snow Goose” presented in the jewelbox Goodspeed. This year’s festival marked the first public presentation of the Goodworks commission of this musical.

The three book-in-hand presentations are the centerpiece of the Festival. This year the three presentations were performed by 23 musical theater student actors from The Hartt School at the University of Hartford and nine from Western Connecticut State University.

“The Snow Goose” was written by NOISEMAKER, the award-winning partnership of bookwriter/lyricist Scott Gilmour and composer Claire McKenzie, originally from Scotland. The team has also presented “Hi, My Name is Ben” at Goodspeed.

The musical is based on the novella of the same name by Paul Gallico (“The Poseidon Adventure,” “Mrs. ‘arris Goes to Paris.”) It tells the story of a most unlikely friendship that forms between an outsider living in an old lighthouse and a young girl who work together to rehabilitate an injured snow goose. The time period covers 1932-1940 on the southeast coast of England. Goodspeed’s artistic director has believed this is a story that should be a musical since she was first gifted the novella decades ago.

Director Emily Reutlinger worked again with Noisemaker, “joining them in their mission to create innovative work that expands the possibilities of musical theatre.” She did an admirable job of helping the student actors to engage with the audience, with just the right amount of staging and fine comic timing. Adam Souza served as music director from behind the keyboard, bringing the excellent score to life.

The company for “The Show Goose” was composed of supremely talented Hartt School students, who no doubt were thrilled to appear on the Goodspeed stage. Hannah Moore was perfectly cast in the role of the young girl Frith, who attempts to befriend Philip, played well by Jon Maltz.

Carson Timmons sometimes accompanied himself on guitar in his role as a bard. Kennedy Thompson played the young Clara and Meag O’Meara portrayed her friend Farley.

Andrew Johnson read the role of Wilf, a young man who is sweet on Frith and Katie Kallay stepped out of the ensemble to play the post mistress. Riley Means stepped up to play Miranda and was part of the ensemble.

Representing WestConn was ensemble member Ben Muckenthaler in the roles of Garrick and a radio broadcaster. Marianne Grosmann also traveled from the Danbury campus to portray the role of Frith’s cousin and caretaker Harper, who got to sing the beautiful “The World Don’t Want to Know” in the second act.

What made this presentation even more personal was listening to lyricist Gilmour reading the stage directions in his lilting Scottish accent and adding some cheeky commentary. At one point in the second act, he admitted that he and McKenzie had just completed a song. The composer switched seats with Souza to accompany her writing partner for the new musical number, copies of which they had provided to the cast members for sight reading.

The musical numbers ranged from soaring solos to beautiful ensemble pieces with wonderful harmonies. Bard opened the show with “Restless Sea,” which introduced the musical motif that becomes the snow goose’s call. The character then punctuated the story with well-crafted songs that were reprised later in the performance. I loved how “Spring (How Much Time)” marked the change in season and I enjoyed the conversation that Frith has with herself in “That Were Some Day.” The reprise of “Restless Sea” strongly marked the end of the first act, and the memorable “Dunkirk” and “The Call/Restless Sea (Finale) ended the show.

My experience with only one day of the Festival of New Musicals was so memorable that next year I plan to book as many of the scheduled events as I can on my calendar.