The Great White Way takes over the Millennium Stage
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Version 0 of 1. The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage serves as Washington’s reliable purveyor of free world music concerts, folk dance performances and National Symphony Orchestra previews. No one ever learns, for example, that the District is home to a large contingent of Slovenian expat classical music enthusiasts until happening upon the 6 p.m. performance of a Slovenian pianist, cheered on by fans waving her country’s flag. That’s not to say the Millennium Stage neglects American art forms. For one week a year since 2011, the free concert programming has been handed over to Michael Kerker, vice president for cabaret and musical theater at ASCAP, who curates concerts featuring up-and-coming composers and their performer friends. What’s ASCAP? The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. More specifically, it’s the umbrella organization that helps songwriters and composers copyright their work, and it serves as a clearinghouse to dole out royalties and otherwise parse legal issues related to music. “The Millennium Stage didn’t have musical theater, in particular the songwriters,” Kerker said. “They invite me to put together what I see as the future of the theater. We have a pretty good track record.” How good? The 2013 lineup featured Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the duo behind Arena Stage’s New York-bound hit “Dear Evan Hansen.” Last year, the Millennium Stage hosted Steve Lutvak when he was hot off his Tony Award win for “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.” In a previous iteration of the program, now called “Broadway Tomorrow,” Kerker invited Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich to perform their hits sung by other artists, including the Kristin Chenoweth staple “Taylor the Latte Boy.” One up-and-comer on this year’s schedule happens to be a Bethesda native. Earlier this year, Signature Theatre premiered Nick Blaemire’s “Soon,” a chamber musical about 20-somethings preparing for the rapture. But Blaemire is best known as the kid who wrote the musical “Glory Days,” which debuted at Signature Theatre in 2008 and then transferred to Broadway, where it promptly closed after just one performance. On Saturday night at the Millennium Stage, Blaemire and a few friends reprised songs from “Glory Days” and “Soon” and debuted numbers from his next musical, “Fallout.” In the meantime, Blaemire is still making money off “Glory Days,” because he belongs to ASCAP and the show has since been produced more than 30 times around the world. Those theaters pay ASCAP for rights to the show, which in turn pays royalties to Blaemire and his librettist, James Gardiner. “I recommend that songwriters join ASCAP as soon as their music is publicly performed,” Kerker says. To find talent, Kerker has become a regular at hole-in-the-wall clubs such as New York’s Don’t Tell Mama, where he hopes to catch young performers singing works by their peers. Jeremy Jordan, for example, formerly of “Smash” and now of “Supergirl” fame, has recorded songs by Michael Mott, who will perform on the Millennium Stage on Wednesday. Mott is enrolled in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, the program that spawned “Frozen’s” EGOT-winning songwriter Robert Lopez, among many other talents. Mott plans to perform songs from his musicals “Lucifer,” “Mob Wife” and “Faustus,” with help from guest performers Jackie Burns (“Wicked”) and Brian Justin Crum (“Next to Normal”). “Broadway Tomorrow” week concludes Thursday with a performance by theater and television veteran Karen Mason, who also will offer a free master class for student songwriters Thursday morning at the Kennedy Center Terrace Gallery. Mason, who has long been a devotee of new musical theater, last year sang the role of a senator running for president at the workshop of a new musical, “Woman on Top.” Unfortunately for her, a less-oblique show beat “Woman on Top” to the stage. “Clinton: The Musical” got an off-Broadway run earlier this year at New World Stages. Now a recording of “Clinton: The Musical” has been released, just in time to serve as a predebate soundtrack for anyone hosting a Hillary vs. Bernie party on Saturday night. Kerry Butler, the cheeky muse from “Xanadu,” plays the role of the devoted wife to our 42nd president as the couple sing about Socks the Cat, Watergate and Monica Lewinsky. (“I did not have sexual relations with that woman” sounds surprisingly good backed by a syncopated pop beat.) Digital downloads are available now, and CDs are out next week. Ken Starr, Newt and Callista Gingrich and Linda Tripp are among the musical’s other characters. Australian brothers Paul and Michael Hodge wrote the show, which will be staged at theaters in Australia but isn’t yet slated for a Washington run. Perhaps that’s because, as New York Times critic Laura Collins-Hughes observed, “ ‘Clinton: The Musical’ isn’t the sort of show that the real-life subjects are likely to find entertaining, but for the rest of us, it’s 95 minutes of healthy catharsis.’ ” Ritzel is a freelance writer. |