Maestro Jeffrey Dokken conducts the chamber orchestra while recording engineer Jeff Gruber adjusts microphones. Orchestral tracks for A Roadkill Opera were recorded live and simultaneously for the most part at the first studio session in January 2013. Proofs for the artwork for the cover of the sheet music can be seen at the lower right in this photo.
After the immensely successful proof of concept of A Roadkill Operaas a stand-and-sing concert performance at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City (Arlington), Virginia, the next step was to record a demo. So said Maestro Jeffrey Dokken. So, on a cold day in January 2013, the entire cast and orchestra for the recording gathered at Blue House Studios in Kensington, Maryland.
We had the studio booked for 4 hours for our 59-minute show. The plan was to run through it a couple of times, and to re-record anything that wasn’t decent enough in the remaining time. That was the plan.
Jeff Gruber, the recording engineer, suggested we lay down the overture first and get a good mix on the sound for the orchestra before adding in the vocalists. He got the orchestra sounding so good, though, that I asked Jeffrey Dokken “Is it me or does that sound good enough to release commercially?” Dokken agreed it was good enough for release. It turns out that Gruber is a classically trained musician in addition to having a very fine ear.
So I asked Gruber “Can we still get the whole thing recorded today?”
Gruber said “No. We can lay down the backing tracks from the orchestra today. Bring the singers into the control room and I’ll record them on a scratch track. We can bring them back later to lay down the vocals on clean backing tracks.”
It took six months.
Vocal guide or “scratch” tracks were laid down simultaneously with the orchestral tracks for A Roadkill Opera at Blue House Studios in January 2013. Laura Wehrmeyer, who sings the role of Holly, is in the foreground. Behind her are Andrew Webster (as Eddie) and (seated) David Timpane (as Stephan).
The singers were all very busy, and we also had to lay in some of the instruments separately; Dokken on timpani, Parker on cymbal, and on hammer and 2×4; and Natalie Spehar on the killer cello solos. Scheduling available studio time for them with their limited availability, plus mixing sessions, took until late June. We were lucky to make our targeted release date: July 4, 2013, the 25th anniversary of the opening night of Roadkill!!! Live!, the subject of A Roadkill Opera.
Jeffrey Dokken conducted cello soloist Natalie Spehar in one of the final sessions for A Roadkill Opera at Blue House Studios in the spring of 2013.
Since the goal of the January 2013 demo was to have something that could be pitched to artistic directors, and it wasn’t done and (as of March) it was not certain that it would be completed anytime soon (if at all), I started editing and publishing the sheet music. If the recording was not completed, we could still pitch the show. Whether or not the recording was completed, anyone wanting to mount a show would need the sheet music.
Recording engineer Jeff Gruber (with his back to the camera) isolated the singers in the mixing booth to cleanly separate the vocals (on a scratch track) from the instruments at the January 2013 recording session for A Roadkill Opera at Blue House Studios in Kensington, Maryland.
As an old Chicago punk-rock light and sound man, the ethos of DIY (do it yourself) was strong; publishing the sheet music for A Roadkill Operaallowed others to do it themselves. Having the backing tracks cleanly separated from the vocal tracks allowed for both the separate release of a CD with the backing tracks and for the release of karaoke videos for A Roadkill Opera.
The producers of the studio recording of A Roadkill Opera (left to right) are Stephan Alexander Parker, Jeff Gruber, and Jeffrey Dokken. Gruber and Dokken provided detailed coaching to the vocalists in their individual sessions to lay the vocal tracks atop the orchestral tracks, including tips on phrasing and breathing.
The studio work of Dokken and Gruber so elevated the recording that they were given producer credits along with Parker. Dokken later joined Parker when, though not nominated or performing at the show, A Roadkill Opera was invited to the GRAMMYs in February 2018.
A Roadkill Opera‘s librettist Stephan Alexander Parker and music director/conductor Jeffrey Dokken show their Grammy tickets before the Premiere in February 2015. The Roadkill entourage also included video director Ben Ganz and merchandizing director DJ Choupin. Composer Ferdinando Paer was not available to attend, as he passed away in 1839.Just inside the door of the GRAMMYs Premiere at the Nokia Theatre in January 2015, A Roadkill Opera‘s Stephan Alexander Parker and Jeffrey Dokken were excited to see Weird Al Yankovic and his wife enter behind them (background, right on top of and to the right of Jeff’s head). We thought that was as close as we would get to our musical comedy hero.Weird Al Yankovic sat just across the aisle from the Roadkill Opera entourage at the Grammy Premiere in February 2015–he was nominated for Best Comedy Album.Yes! In February 2015, Weird Al Yankovic wins the Grammy for Best Comedy Album for Mandatory Fun as Jeffrey Dokken of A Roadkill Opera applauds. Weird Al’s wife has a lovely smile.In February 2015, Weird Al Yankovic races up the aisle to collect his Grammy for Best Comedy Album as Jane Seymour gets up (she was sitting in front of us). The GRAMMYs Premiere ceremony was running long–like the Roadkill Opera entourage, Jane Seymour was waiting to see Al win before going to the televised GRAMMY Awards Show.A Roadkill Opera‘s Stephan Alexander Parker and Jeffrey Dokken with photographer/merchandising director DJ Choupin at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2018. Our seats for the televised portion of the show were not quite as good as our seats for the Premiere, but we had a great time.A Roadkill Opera‘s video director Ben Ganz (founder of Vego Pictures) checks on the after-party for the 57th Annual Grammy Awards while librettist Stephan Alexander Parker is pleased he remembers where he parked the car.
Looking for further creative re-use of the songs from A Roadkill Opera, and recalling how Irving Berlin recycled the songs from the black-and-white film Holiday Inn in the color film White Christmas, I took up the invitation to participate in the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop 2018in Los Angeles. Stephen Schwartz’s invaluable advice was to look at the structure of the play to get the main character on stage with and “I want” song early, and to look as well at giving the main character an “I have a problem” song.
Thus the book for the musical theatre version of A Roadkill Opera has been re-shaped and the order in which the musical numbers are performed has been revised. The new musical is called Hungry Men Don’t Swerve. More to come as it gets further along.
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 in Los Angeles in February 2018 at the Wallis Theatre. Schwartz directs and hosts two workshops annually, one in Los Angeles and one in New York. Schwartz’s advice on getting the main character on stage early with an”I want” song and to look art giving the main character an “I’ve got a problem” song was invaluable in reshaping A Roadkill Opera from a 59-minute opera into a 90-minute-ish musical comedy as Hungry Men Don’t Swerve.Megan Hilty is most recognized for her portrayal of seasoned triple-threat Ivy Lynn in NBC’s musical drama “Smash.” In the spring of 2017, 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. In re-working the songs from A Roadkill Opera into the upcoming musical comedy Hungry Men Don’t Swerve, “Impress Them” becomes the opening number as an “I want” song and “Butterflies” comes later as an “I have a problem” song, in Stephen Schwartz’s terms. Hilty and Parker are seen here at the Wallis Theatre in February 2018 where Hilty performed as a special guest for An Evening with Stephen Schwartz: A Writers Circle.
