Book, Music & Lyrics by Steve Adams & Chan Chandler
WORLD PREMIERE Aug. 20-25 2007 @ the New York International Fringe Festival - FringeNYC
Photos by Myles Aronowitz
Longtime theater vets and Texpatriates Steve Adams and Chan Chandler have taken the diverse and multicultural musical styles of their native Texas (Blues, Rock and Roll, Gospel) and built a compelling and high energy theatrical score.
This past summer at the FringeNYC they were joined by a team of outlaw theatre artists from Austin, NY and LA and rocked NYU's Skirball Center
A stellar cast was lead by Saverio Guerra (Becker, Summer of Sam, Lucky You), Merril Grant, Broadway vet Lannyl Stephens (My Favorite Year, Once Upon a Mattress) and the legendary Sandra Reaves-Phillips as Rev. Mama. Rod Caspers directed. Ann Presley choreographed. Sets by Kim Chandler. Lighting by Casey McClellan. Costumes by Jacob Climer. Acclaimed Austin musician Chip Dolan was the arranger & musical director and led a killer rock band. And Scott Ihrig, Elliott Forrest & New Gate Productions were the producers for the FringeNYC show
A Big House thanks to Elena K. Holy and the FringeNYC staff enough for giving SLAMMER! a chance to make it to the stage.
Stand by for more exciting SLAMMER! announcements>
Check out more fun SLAMMER! news and podcasts on the SLAMMER! blog.
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Join in the jailbreak
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"When All Is Said & Done" Song Demo
Music & Lyrics: Steve Adams and Chan Chandler
vox: Gretchen Phillips, Meagan Tubb, Courtney Wissinger
Production: Murray Music Austin TX, and Smoke and Mirrors Bklyn NY
Tabitha, a privileged, naïve, and innocent young American
ingenue, is busted by the police after drugs are planted on her in an airport, and
is consequently sent to a women’s prison (“Good Girl Gone Bad/Welcome to the
Big House”). Immediately Tabitha
finds herself caught between two rival gangs of inmates led by Cat and Caramel
respectively.She also must deal
with the evil Warden Eva Danka and her sleazy, sociopathic prison guard,
Smiley. Tabitha is taken under
wing by Reverend Mama, a mother figure to the inmates who shepherds her through
this most difficult, early period.
Tabitha is sure her incarceration is just a big mistake and
that she will soon be released (“I’m Innocent”).The other inmates provoke and frighten her (“I Refuse to
Live Without Love”) but slowly she comes to understand that this prison is now
her world and she must survive within it through allegiances and her wits
(“Solitary”). The prison women are forced to labor on a rumbling, cranking
machine that spits out various marketable products (“Working for The
Man”).After an announcement is
made that the prison system has been privatized, the women find themselves
shipped off to another country; outsourced.Then they’re shipped to the next country, and then the next,
wherever the new owners can get a break.Every new location looks like the last, is in essence a McPrison.Soon even Warden Danka and Smiley are
unsure where they’re located.Naming rights to the prison are sold and swapped out on a regular basis
(i.e., Sunglow Lipgloss International Women’s Prison).
Tabitha realizes her smartest move
would be to appear to befriend Smiley despite his predatory nature.During her encounter with him where she
employs psychological jujitsu, Tabitha discovers his deepest secret in
his heart he’s a frustrated song and dance man.They share a magnificent dance.He falls in love with her as she’s the first person to ever
dance with him before or say nice things about his singing voice.But though Tabitha knows she’s safer
having made friends with Smiley, she’s conflicted over possibly enabled such a
man (“What Country Is This?”)
As cost cutting at the prison continues, management shuts
down the infirmary and begins cutting back on Reverend Mama’s insulin, deciding
it’s not cost-effective to keep “nature from taking its course” with an aging
diabetic.Tabitha, trying to save
Reverend Mama’s life, decides to make a deal with Smiley to get insulin even if
it means giving in to his sexual demands.But Reverend Mama gets wise to the plan and viciously attacks Smiley,
whereupon he pulls out his nightstick and “sends her to heaven” with a single
blow to her head (“Along The Road”).
Tabitha and the women, seeking revenge, join forces
(“Nothing to Lose”).Meanwhile,
Tina is released from the prison for “good behavior” to calm the inmates
(“Different on the Inside”).However, the women find out they only transferred Tina to another
prison.Tabitha pretends to
forgive Smiley so she can convince him to put on a musical for the prison and
the new corporate sponsors.He is
beside himself with anticipation as he gets to “conceive, write, direct, and
star” in the show of his dreams, Smiley’s Showertime Follies!
Finally the big night comes for Smiley’s stage spectacular.The corporate sponsors eagerly wait in
their seats as the show begins.But at the peak of the last number the onstage action takes an
unexpected term.The women strike
back and take control, bringing down the house with the final number (“Welcome to
the Big House Reprise”).
Steve Adams , along with his collaborator Chan Chandler, was a guest artist at the University of Texas where their musical, Branson or Bust, received its world premier. His plays have been produced in New York City at the Perry Street Theater and at Home for Contemporary Theater and Art. Other plays have been workshopped at Manhattan Class Company, Circle Rep Lab, The American Theater of Actors, and Upstate Summer Rep Theater (Buffalo). His plays have also had productions in Texas, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
His short stories have been published in Glimmer Train, The Missouri Review, Chicago Review, Quarterly West, and Georgetown Review. He’s won Glimmer Train's Short Story Award for New Writers and The Bronx Writer’s Center “Chapter One” Contest, and his fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and anthologized.
A native Texan and graduate of The University of Texas, Steve received his MFA in Creative Writing from The New School in 2002.
Chan Chandler (Book, Music & Lyrics)
Chan Chandler has spent over 20 years in the entertainment business working as writer, producer, stage manager, and filmmaker.
A longtime member of the BMI Musical Theater Workshop, Chan’s musicals have been produced in New York City, including AN UPPER WEST SIDE STORY and STARS IN MY EYES. With Steve Adams he wrote BRANSON OR BUST, which premiered at the University of Texas at Austin. While at the Yale School Drama Chan wrote and presented the musicals OH, CLORIS, A PART OF ME, and SIMPLY WEILL, which he also directed at the Yale Cabaret.
As a staff songwriter, Chan wrote songs and jingles in NYC for years and worked with a range of artists including Duran Duran, Michael Bolton, Brave Combo and Yes. He co-wrote the story and contributed lyrics to the ballet REQUIEM FOR THE AMERICAS with Jonathan Elias, which was recorded as an all star benefit album for Save the Children on Capitol Records. Chan has written, produced and/or directed short films and music videos for artists as diverse as Prince, Grace Jones & KISS.
Chan was a member of the New Haven based new wave band Notes From Underground and NYC's The Poppies. He's currently doing album projects with Smoke and Mirrors in Brooklyn and Murray Music in Austin.
Chan co-founded and is a partner with Austin artist and renowned cartoonist Sam Hurt (www.samhurt.com) in Studio Eyebeam -- an award-winning animation studio in Austin, Texas. Austin is also home base for Chan’s Renaissance Bubba Productions.
He has stage managed on Broadway, spent 5 years as Production Stage Manager of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular in Chicago, and this past fall began his 17th season as Stage Manager of the NY Pops both at Carnegie Hall, and on the road, including 3 tours of Japan. Chan has produced, tour managed, designed lighting and/or stage managed corporate industrials, concerts and “extreme events” around the world including New York, London, Rome, Paris, Singapore, and Hawaii, Thailand and South Africa.
A graduate of the University of Texas and the Yale School of Drama, Chan has taught at Yale, SUNY Purchase, The University of Texas and currently teaches at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He is also a longtime member of Actors Equity, and The Writers Guild of America.
BRANSON OR BUST (A C&W Musical)
Music and lyrics by Chan Chandler & Steve Adams.
Here are a few songs from the show.
It premiered at the University of Texas.
Postcard by Sam Hurt & Kim Chandler
BRANSON OR BUST (a c&w musical)
REQUIEM FOR THE AMERICAS (Songs From The Lost World).
This project was the brainchild of producer/composer Jonathan Elias and was originally written as a full-length ballet for the Joffrey. It came out on Capitol/Enigma Records. All proceeds go to Save The Children.
"Father & Son" & "Let There Be Peace"
Music: Jonathan Elias & Jon Anderson
Words: Chan Chandler
Vocals: Martin Sheen, Charlie Sheen, Michael Bolton, &
Patty D'Arcy-Jones (RIP! We will miss your huge talent!)
excerpts from: REQUIEM FOR THE AMERICAS (Songs From the Lost World)
REQUIEM on MTV
PLANETS (a song of hope)
a new musical by Chan Chandler & Jonathan Elias
Songs from PLANETS the musical (Elias/Chandler)
and now...
CHANSONGS (Onstage &
Off)
a few straight from the trunk to you!
Influences
Here's an excerpt from: "Different On The Inside"
music & lyrics by Steve Adams & Chan Chandler vox: Courtney Wissinger piano/guitar: Chris Gage recorded @ Murray Music, Austin TX
From SLAMMER! Act II
Oh...yeah...influences...here are a few!
Trailer for Jonathan Demme's 1974 CAGED HEAT
VIOLENT WOMEN trailer for a classic B&W 50's W-I-P Film.
Stay tuned for the next round of Big House Fun! Thanks to all who made the show a SLAMMING success the the FrineNYC, and for those of you who came and cheered us on!!!
Stay tuned for the next jailbreak!
Click below to get a peek at what you missed @ the SLAMMER! FringeNYC Premiere.
Book Music & Lyrics:
Steve Adams & Chan Chandler
Hit play below for a demo of "Working 4 The Man" (SLAMMER! Act I)
Stills are from W-I-P Films that have inspired us!
"If you keep quiet, you die. If you speak, you die. So speak and die."
– Tahar Djaout
Pulp art can examine taboos that mainstream art tends to avoid. What could be more appropriate in this time of such radical corporate and political exploitation than to use an "exploitation genre" as a metaphor, and at times an allegory, for our play? Oh yes, there will be singing and dancing!
Thanks to Elena K.Holy and the entire FringeNYC staff for loving the music and believing in our show!
www.fringenyc.org
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Thanks for your support. Having you as a Friend is truly an INSTRUMENTAL part of our success. Charity Music Inc. is an all Volunteer 501(c)(3) nonprofit public service organization that provides Musical Instruments, on loan, at no charge, to disadvantaged and at-risk youth who wish to explore their hidden musical talents. Our Mission, "to help cultivate the next upcoming crop of young musicians", is being accomplished with the help and generosity of our newly found MySpace Friends.
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