Paradise Lost V5 - Reading Report

(More blog entries from bbirney)

Rob Seitelman and I read the latest draft of our Paradise Lost musical in New York this past November 19th. Here follow several thoughts on the reading.

First, the cast deserve once again our deepest thanks. I know every time I put this music in front of someone that it is difficult and stressful to learn it - but inevitably it turns out to be worth it. So, thank you, cast, for your dedication and hard work. It was worth it.

This was the first Paradise Lost in which we had spoken dialog, and I have to say I think Rob did a great job. The parameters he was given were "stitch together the songs so we don't have to have recitative", and even with that extremely constraining requirement he managed to add a whole bunch of new character to, well, the characters.

There were also 11 new songs. They went well. People seem to really like the music, which is good.

The biggest thing we took away from the performance and the talk-back afterwards was that we need to focus the story on a single arc, and spend more time developing the characters. Rob and Jordan and I have agreed that the story should play on equal footing with the music, and that will require time spent developing the plot further. We think that once we have done the plot, focus and character work that the show still needs, we'll be able to pick and choose the song moments from the last three drafts that we want to include and be able to present a very solid product.

Look for a public reading sometime this coming winter...

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