BMI's Winter Smoker Features Songs by Blumenkrantz, Etc.

By: Feb. 09, 2007
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The 2006 Tony-honored BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop announces its Winter Smoker, a semiannual showcase for new songs from Workshop writers.  The event will be held in the Media Room of BMI's New York office at 320 West 57 th Street on Thursday, February 15 at 5:30PM and is open to members of the entertainment industry as well as Workshop members. 

The Smoker, now entering its tenth season, is modeled after informal social gatherings at Cambridge University where the Workshop's two time Tony® Award winning writer Maury Yeston performed his songs during his undergraduate days.   Previous smoker participants include Best Musical Tony® Award winners Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx (Avenue Q), Nancy Ford and Gretchen Cryer (I'm Getting My Act Together…, American Girl Revue), Eric Rockwell and Joann Bogart ( The Musical of Musicals, The Musical) and Amanda Green and Tom Kitt (High Fidelity).
 
Eleven new musicals and twenty-one BMI Workshop writers are represented:

Andy Monroe, composer-lyricist of The Tragic and Horrible Life Of The Singing Nun, winner of NYMF's 2006  Audience Award as Best Musical, presents work from his new show Drive --- set entirely automobiles. Tony-nominated composer-lyricist Jeff Blumenkrantz (Urban Cowboy ) is unveiling new work which examines pop culture of the 1920s and 30's. 

NEO2 composer Joy Son and lyricist Steve Routman are developing a musical about a celebrity driven to suicide and his rescue by an unlikely hero.   Barrymore Award winning composer/lyricist Michael Ogborn will give a first look at Tulipomania, which examines the Dutch Tulip craze in the 1600's – a prophetic look at the recent dot com and Enron-like catastrophes.   
 
Chris Boal, author of last season's off-Broadway comedy-drama Crazy for the Dog, joins composer Andrew Sherman with Low Life, an original musical set in the noir world of the 1940's.  Lyricist Jeffrey Haddow, one of the creators of the long-running off-Broadway hit Scrambled Feet joins composer Marc Schubring with a preview from their musical Deadline, based on the 1931 film, "A Man in Search of his Murderer" by Kurt Siodmak & Billy Wilder
 
Composer Robert Maggio (upcoming The Rubberers) teams with lyricist/actress Kristin Maloney (Dorothy Parker-Talk of the Town) in a new musical about a businessman who yearns to break out of his ordinary life.   Their song, "Falling" is performed by Broadway's Dean Bradley (Company).  

Writing team Raymond Bokhour, who recently appeared on Broadway as Amos in Chicago and British composer and West End Musical Director Simon Gray will perform "Tear It Up, Start Again," a new song from a musical about corporate greed. "The Other Other Woman," is from the original musical The One that Got Away by lyricist Jack Lechner and composer Denver Casado.
 
Multi-Emmy Award and Gold record recipient Randy Klein joins lyricist Matthew Hardy with "Where Is The Girl" from The Thing About Joe, a original musical comedy about a young man from the heartland who yearns to become Manhattan's premiere maitre d'.  
 
Composer Fred Thaler, whose broadcast credits include ABC, HBO, FOX TV and has worked in film and concert with Cher, Jane Fonda, Manhattan Transfer, Peter Allen, Melba Moore, Judy Collins, Leonard Cohen and Sister Sledge joins lyricist Robert Yarnall with their song "I Do What I Do," from a new musical about health fanatics at the turn of the 20th Century.
 
Songwriters Sara Wordsworth and Linda Dowdell and bookwriter Michael Hidalgo are writing a musical inspired by a not-so-science fiction account of book-burning in the present day.  Their song, "Our Chit Chat Hour" will be performed by Susan Derry (Wonderful Town) Patti Perkins (The Full Monty, A Man of No Importance) and writer Wordsworth, whose voice is heard on the CD of Disney/ Pixar's Finding Nemo, the Musical.
 
Performers Aaron Galligan-Stierle, Adam Shonkwiler and Emily Whtye perform "Don't Say Goodbye" by composer Carl Danielsen (The Gilgul of Park Avenue ) and lyricist Selda Sahin ("I'm Not That Kind Of Girl", "Let") from a new musical about a postgraduate's evolution during his first job out of school. 

The event is co-produced by Kleban Award Winner Patrick Cook, Artistic Coordinator of the Workshop and Frank Evans, Special Events Coordinator. Cook garnered an Outer Critics   Circle Award Nomination for Captain's Courageous, produced by Manhattan Theatre Club.  Evans, whose plays and musicals have been seen from Alaska to London is a Jerry Bock Award winning lyricist. He has been named on Best of The Year Lists in The Palm Beach Post, The Norwich Bulletin and TheatreWeek.
 
The 2006 Tony® Honored BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, also honored with the 2006 Drama Desk Award and the 2005 Drama League Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre, was founded in 1961 by the late Lehman Engel, dean of American musical theatre, to create a setting where new writers could learn their craft.
 
Now marking its 65th year in business, BMI is an American performing rights organization that represents more than 300,000 songwriters, composers and publishers in all genres of music. With a repertoire of more than 6.5 million musical works from around the world, the non-profit-making corporation collects license fees from businesses that use music, which it then distributes as royalties to the musical creators and copyright owners it represents.
 
For reservations, e-mail Ssantana@bmi.com or call 212 830-8360.


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