Shameless Plug: A Roadkill Opera at Lionsgate Studios and the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018
Megan Hilty is most recognized for her portrayal of seasoned Broadway triple-threat Ivy Lynn in NBC’s musical drama “Smash.” Last spring, Hilty received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Brooke Ashton in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of Noises Off. She earned nominations for a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Drama League Award and won a Broadway.com Audience Award for Favorite Featured Actress in a Play. All of which makes Stephan Alexander Parker thrilled that Ms. Hilty is holding a piano/vocal score of his show A Roadkill Opera, which, like Noises Off and “Smash”, is largely set backstage. Hilly and Parker are at the Wallis Theatre where Hilty performed as a special guest for An Evening with Stephen Schwartz: A Writers Circle on the final night of the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018.
During the evening, Megan Hilty sang a hilarious new number by Zina Goldrich & Marcy Heisler about a singer in the chorus yearning to sing a melody rather than harmonies. The frustration and yearning with the musical jokes all worked beautifully. And, there is a parallel (of course there is) to A Roadkill Opera. The sheet music contains a table letting every player know what other instruments are in each musical number, and the sheet music is sold in books, so any string player can enjoy playing any other string’s lines (outside the official rehearsals and shows, of course). The reason? Parker was a terrible musician (3rd clarinet) in high school, and yearned to play melodies he heard others play. Problem was, he couldn’t tell which part had the melody and the sheet music was not available to individuals. An old Chicago punk, when he had the chance to publish the parts and score for A Roadkill Opera, he made sure that they would be available to all players.
Perhaps indicative of the first evening of the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018, which featured The Bully Problem, a kids musical with book, music, and lyrics by Michael Gordon Shapiro, the third and final night was open to the public and had lots of kid-friendly songs by Cinco Paul and the duo Zina Goldrich & Marcy Heisler: An Evening With Stephen Schwartz: A Writer’s Circle. Here a young theatre kid and her proud dad, anticipating a highly entertaining evening.A Roadkill Opera‘s librettist Stephan Alexander Parker and Broadway composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell, Pippin, The Magic Show, Schikaneder) at the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018 at the Wallis Theatre. Schwartz directs and hosts two workshops annually, one in Los Angeles and one in New York. This is Parker’s first time attending.A Roadkill Opera‘s librettist Stephan Alexander Parker met The Phantom of the Paradise‘s Paul Williams and his lovely wife Mariana Williams at the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018 at the Wallis Theatre in Los Angeles. Williams’s popular music is the soundtrack for a generation, including such songs as “We’ve Only Just Begun”, “Rainy Days and Mondays”, “I Won’t Last a Day Without You”, “Evergreen”, “Just An Old Fashioned Love Song”, “Out in the Country”, “Family of Man”, and “Rainbow Connection.”A Roadkill Opera‘s librettist Stephan Alexander Parker (center) with director/choreographer/playwright/songwriter Jenita Nakamura (left) and her song producer/studio orchestrator Kyle Donald (right) at the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018. We had dinner together before the second session, only to find we were sitting in adjacent rows–the front two rows! This evening, the workshopped show was Tenn, book.music, and lyrics by Julian Hornik.
At the first session, Parker was randomly seated next to songwriter/composer Danny Maseng (Let There Be Light, Beyond the Gates) and his wife. And, serendipitously, they were seated next to each other down in the first row for the second session. This allowed them to swap CDs and sheet music.
Between sessions of the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018, A Roadkill Opera’s librettist Stephan Alexander Parker worked on the script adaptation of his 59-minute opera to a 90-or-so-minute musical, poolside at the Mosaic Hotel. Suggestions from the workshop are enormously helpful in checking the show’s structure: characters “I want” and “I have a problem” songs; the levels of centrality of various characters; and the notion that the purpose of each scene is to propel you to the next scene, and the purpose of each song is to give you a reason to listen to the next one. Perhaps the most important connection made at the workshop was with producer Michael A. Kerker of the ASCAP Foundation. In addition to producing the workshops, Kerker was unfailingly kind and attentive to the workshop participants and performers.While in Hollywood for the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018, A Roadkill Opera‘s librettist Stephan Alexander Parker dropped by the Lionsgate Studio to meet with A Roadkill Opera‘s 2012 workshop concert video director Ben Ganz. The experience Ganz brought as the youngest field producer in “American Idol” history came in handy, as Ganz shot the stand-and-sing workshop at Artomatic 2012 in one continuous take, live, with one camera.The brilliant Ben Ganz is the brains behind Vego Pictures, currently set up at Lionsgate Studios. When he isn’t shooting verite video for A Roadkill Opera, that is. You can see Ben (partially) reflected in the N of LIONSGATE in the background of this glamour shot of A Roadkill Opera‘s librettist Stephan Alexander Parker, skating during the day until the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018 resumes in the evening. Ganz used his iPhone to shoot a promo for the studio recording of A Roadkill Opera at the GRAMMYs in February 2015 (see below). While they were walking back to Lionsgate Studios from lunch this week, Ganz caught Parker in the act of promotion to some people on the street–an opera singer’s boyfriend received a piano/vocal score and the others got bumper stickers that read “If you see roadkill, think opera.”
So here’s the thing: during this video shot at the GRAMMYs in February 2015, A Roadkill Opera‘s librettist (and, for the recording, one of the producers) Stephan Alexander Parker brandishes a pair of chopsticks imprinted in gold with the ideogram for “harmony” and lettering for A Roadkill Opera. The chopsticks were partly inspired by the knowledge that ASCAP’s President and Chairman Paul Williams likes squid. With the thousands and thousand of people at the event, Parker and A Roadkill Opera‘s conductor and music conductor (and co-producer for the recording) Jeffrey Dokken were shocked and pleased to bump into Williams on the sidewalk after the show. Parker pulled out a CD to hand to Williams, totally forgetting the chopsticks.
Well, at the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop LA 2018, Parker finished a delivery three years in the making.
