Everyday Rapture
Encyclopedia
Everyday Rapture is a musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 with a book written by Sherie Rene Scott
Sherie Rene Scott
Sherie Rene Scott is an American actress, singer and writer. She is a co-founder of Grammy winning Sh-K-Boom Records and Ghostlight Records and has appeared in numerous Off-Broadway and Broadway musicals and plays appears on numerous solo and original cast recordings.-Life and career:Scott was...

 and Dick Scanlan
Dick Scanlan
-Biography:Scanlan has written articles that have appeared in The New York Times "Arts & Leisure" section, The Village Voice, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The Advocate, Playboy and Theatre Week....

 and music by various composers. It ran Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

 in 2009 and opened on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 in 2010. The musical is a loose autobiography of Scott herself, showing her travels from her half-Mennonite
Mennonite
The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...

 Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

 childhood to a life in show business.

Concept

The show is called a "stage memoir disguised as fiction", and a "mixed jukebox musical
Jukebox musical
A jukebox musical is a stage or film musical that uses previously released popular songs as its musical score. Usually the songs have in common a connection with a particular popular musician or group — either because they were written by, or for, the artists in question, or were at least...

". Songs by singers and songwriters include David Byrne
David Byrne
David Byrne may refer to:*David Byrne , musician and former Talking Heads frontman**David Byrne , his eponymous album*David Byrne , Irish footballer*David Byrne , English footballer...

, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings are a funk/soul band. They are signed to Daptone Records, where the Dap-Kings are the house band. They are spearheads of a revivalist movement that aims to capture the essence of funk/soul music as it was at its height in the mid-1960s to mid-1970s...

, and the Johnny Mercer
Johnny Mercer
John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...

-Harry Warren
Harry Warren
Harry Warren was an American composer and lyricist. Warren was the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song eleven times and won three Oscars for composing "Lullaby of Broadway", "You'll Never Know" and "On the Atchison,...

 "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe
On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe
"On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" is a popular song which refers to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. It was written for the 1946 film, The Harvey Girls, where it was sung by Judy Garland. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song that year.The music was written by Harry...

." The Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...

 standards "Get Happy
Get Happy (song)
"Get Happy" is a song composed by Harold Arlen, with lyrics written by Ted Koehler.It was the first song they wrote together, and was introduced by Ruth Etting in The Nine-Fifteen Revue in 1930....

" and "You Made Me Love You" are sung, the "latter amusingly illustrated with a series of cheeky images of Jesus." Songs from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, also known as Mister Rogers, is an American children's television series that was created and hosted by Fred Rogers. The series is aimed primarily at preschool ages, 2-5, but has been stated by Public Broadcasting Service as "appropriate for all ages"...

are also sung.

Scanlan described the show as "'a one-person show with four people in it.' The other three, besides Scott, are a younger actor who has an extended...sequence and two women who serve as backup singers — 'The Mennonettes' — and share other scenes with her."

Production history

Everyday Rapture debuted Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

 at the Second Stage Theatre
Second Stage Theatre
Second Stage Theatre is an award-winning contemporary Off-Broadway theater company.-Mission:The theatre's mission is to give new life to contemporary American plays and to produce the world premiers of new plays by both established and emerging playwrights...

 on April 7, 2009 in previews, opening officially on May 3, and closed on June 13, 2009. It starred Sherie Rene Scott
Sherie Rene Scott
Sherie Rene Scott is an American actress, singer and writer. She is a co-founder of Grammy winning Sh-K-Boom Records and Ghostlight Records and has appeared in numerous Off-Broadway and Broadway musicals and plays appears on numerous solo and original cast recordings.-Life and career:Scott was...

 with direction by Michael Mayer
Michael Mayer (director)
Michael Mayer is an American stage and film director. He won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical in 2007 for directing Spring Awakening.-Biography:...

, choreography by Michelle Lynch and orchestrations and arrangements by Tom Kitt
Tom Kitt (musician)
Tom Kitt is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator and musician. For his score for the musical Next to Normal, he shared the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Brian Yorkey...

. Featured in the cast were Eamon Foley, Lindsay Mendez and Betsy Wolfe. Scott was nominated for the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actress, and the show was nominated as Best Musical.

Scott presented an earlier form of the show titled You May Now Worship Me on March 31, 2008 as a one-night benefit for the Phyllis Newman
Phyllis Newman
Phyllis Newman is an American actress and singer. She was nominated twice for the Drama Desk Award and won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.-Early life:...

 Women’s Health Initiative of The Actors’ Fund.

The show began previews on Broadway at the American Airlines Theatre
American Airlines Theatre
The American Airlines Theatre is a Broadway theatre, located at 227 West 42nd Street, New York City.-Design:Originally named the Selwyn Theatre, it was constructed by the Selwyn brothers, Edgar and Archie, in 1918. It was one of three theatres they built and controlled on 42nd Street, along with...

 as a last-minute replacement in The Roundabout Theatre Company's season, replacing the company's planned production of Terrance McNally's Lips Together, Teeth Apart
Lips Together, Teeth Apart
Lips Together, Teeth Apart is a 1991 play by American playwright Terrence McNally.-Plot:A gay community in Fire Island provides an unlikely setting for two straight couples spending the Fourth of July weekend in a house inherited by Sally from her brother who died of AIDS. Through monologues...

 (due to the last-minute withdrawal of star Megan Mullally
Megan Mullally
Megan Mullally is an American actress and singer.After working in the theatre in Chicago, Mullally moved to Los Angeles in 1985 and began to appear in supporting roles in film and television productions. She made her Broadway debut in Grease in 1994 and she has since appeared in several Broadway...

 due to issues with director Joe Mantello
Joe Mantello
Joseph Mantello is an American actor and director best known for his work on Broadway productions of Wicked, Take Me Out and Assassins, as well as earlier in his career being one of the original Broadway cast of Angels in America...

), on April 19, 2010 and officially opened on April 29, 2010. Then following a limited engagement of 85 performances the show closed on July 11, 2010. The original cast reprised their performances in the Broadway production, Lynch returned as choreographer, and Mayer returned as director despite being caught up in rehearsals for the production of Green Day
Green Day
Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool...

's American Idiot
American Idiot
American Idiot is the seventh studio album by the American punk rock band Green Day. It was released on September 21, 2004 through Reprise Records and was produced by longtime collaborator Rob Cavallo. In mid-2003, the band began recording songs for an album entitled Cigarettes and Valentines...

, which he also directed. During its run, Scott was nominated for the 2010 Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

 for Best Leading Actress in a Musical as well as Best Book of a Musical
Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical
The Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical is awarded to librettists of the spoken, non-sung dialogue, and storyline of a musical play. Eligibility is restricted to works with original narrative framework; plotless revues and revivals are ineligible...

, the latter with co-writer Dick Scanlan
Dick Scanlan
-Biography:Scanlan has written articles that have appeared in The New York Times "Arts & Leisure" section, The Village Voice, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The Advocate, Playboy and Theatre Week....

.

In the summer of 2012, the first production of the musical outside of New York City will be in Kansas City, Missouri, at the Unicorn Theatre.

Song list

From the original cast recording:
  • "The Other Side of This Life" (Overture)
  • "Got a Thing on My Mind"
  • "Elevation"
  • "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe"
  • "Get Happy"
  • "You Made Me Love You"
  • Mr. Rogers Medley ("It's Such a Good Feeling", "Everybody's Fancy", "I Like to Be Told")
  • "It's You I Like"
  • "Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City"
  • "Life Line"
  • "The Weight"
  • "Rainbow Sleeves"
  • "Why"
  • "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"
  • "Up the Ladder to the Roof"

Bonus Tracks:
  • "Remember"
  • "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)"

Recording

The original cast recording has been released by Sh-K-Boom Records
Sh-K-Boom Records
Sh-K-Boom Records is a record label, a producer of recorded and live entertainment, and an interactive community at www.sh-k-boom.com — all devoted to the mission of bridging the gap between pop music and theater...

 on their Ghostlight label. Scott is a co-founder of Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records with her husband, Kurt Deutsch. The cast album is now available to download on iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....


Critical response

Ben Brantley
Ben Brantley
Benjamin D. "Ben" Brantley is an American journalist and the chief theater critic of The New York Times.-Life and career:...

 wrote in his New York Times review of the 2009 off-Broadway production that "it easily qualifies as one of the year’s most extravagantly entertaining new musicals." Eric Grode, in the Village Voice, commented that "Gifts like [Scott's], especially when packaged and delivered this shrewdly, deserve a kind of worship."

Awards and nominations

Tony Awards
  • Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (Sherie Rene Scott) (nomination)
  • Best Book of a Musical (Dick Scanlan and Sherie Rene Scott) (nomination)


Drama Desk Awards
  • Outstanding Musical (nomination)
  • Outstanding Actress in a Musical (Scott) (nomination)
  • Outstanding Book of a Musical (nomination)
  • Outstanding Orchestrations (Kitt) (nomination)
  • Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical (Ashley Hanson, Kurt Eric Fischer and Brian Ronan) (nomination)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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