Bringing a Musical to Life: Nick Blaemire and Kyle Jarrow Shepherd FALLOUT to a NYC stage

We are never too old for heroes. They are the stuff of which dreams are made. Dreams like creating a new musical and offering it up to the world. And it works really well when the new musical is about finding your heroes, or, maybe even becoming one for yourself. Enter Fallout, a new musical by DC-native Nick Blaemire and musician/composer Kyle Jarrow, which just recently had a concert presentation at Feinstein's/54 Below in New York.

I'm often asked "how does a show become a show?" The answer is different for every show, of course; and very different for musicals, given the need to weave story and music into a seamless whole. I readily admit my fascination with this evolutionary process, and I could listen to artists tell me their "development stories" all the day long. So I was really happy for the opportunity to get to enter the "artists at work" zone last month to peek at how Fallout is growing. When I spoke with Nick last, in April '15, it was on the occasion of his musical Soon opening at Signature Theatre in Arlington. During our chat, Nick told me about his work with musician/composer Kyle Jarrow on another new musical in development called Fallout, about a young boy, his family and neighbors dealing with the impact of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, and how little control we have over our world sometimes, both near and far.

So I thought it would be great to get an update from Nick about how that project was progressing, and the occasion of this concert presentation was the perfect time to check in. For a show to move forward, it is vital to get it to the point where it can be introduced to various types of audiences; particularly audiences which include people who may be interested in backing a production financially. This is where the delicate balance between art and business must be carefully managed. Staying true to the art, and nurturing it into a commercially viable production is, to put it mildly, a monumentally challenging task.

Contrary to what you might think, a reading, workshop, concert presentation, lab presentation of a new show in development is not necessarily restricted to industry insiders. Many are, and you may only find out about them via a Broadway World article, or other press and social media outlets. However, many theaters, including DC's Arena Stage, for example, offer opportunities to attend free or minimally priced events like this. The actors are usually working with scripts, and there may not be formal staging, set or costumes, but think of it as a chance to really work your imagination, and experience storytelling as it was long ago.

Case in point, Feinstein's/54 Below is a unique supper club venue, below street level on W 54th St in Midtown Manhattan, with an intimate, luxe setting, great food, a staff adept at balancing serving to be both efficient and unobtrusive during the shows. Having experienced a variety of entertainment at the club, I am consistently impressed with how well the small space is used, the excellent acoustics, and the opportunity to get up close and personal with the artists, who often mingle with the crowd after their performances.

Jennifer Ashley Tepper, theater historian, author of the popular book series The Untold Stories of Broadway (Volume 3 due November '17), and Director of Programming at Feinstein's/54 Below is acting as somewhat of a patron saint of new musicals this season, by dedicating several weeks of Tuesday night performances to musicals in development. The shows are, most accurately, called, "concert presentations," meaning that they are primarily showcases for the songs/score, but include enough story background and context to allow audiences to connect on a deeper level with what the artists are trying to accomplish.

As Jennifer said to me, "these new musical evenings are designed to be more than concerts; to give the audience more plot; and it seems to be working because people are leaving talking about the story, not just the songs!" And for Nick's part, he says that building interest in these new works is exactly the kind of result the artists are hoping will occur.

Speaking of story, here's what you need to know about Fallout: At 7pm on Monday, October 22, 1962, President Kennedy addressed the nation, explaining that the US and the USSR were locked in conflict over the Soviet's shipment of missiles to Cuba. Over the next seven days, the world teetered on the edge of nuclear war-the closest this has ever come to being a reality-and normal people had to struggle with the fact that life as they knew it might come to an end. FALLOUT tells the story of two neighboring families in suburban Westchester, New York over this week in1962, as the conformist mentality of the 1950s gave way to a new era of expression. Marie and Joe struggle to deny their mortality by refusing to discuss the crisis with their children, Judy and 10 year old Michael, through whose eyes we watch the story unfold. Their neighbor Bill begins to build a fallout shelter in his basement, while his wife, Hanna begins to look outside her marriage for a new reality. And as the danger becomes more undeniable, so does the conflict it incites. Lines are crossed, bonds are betrayed, and sanity is tested.

Denial, fear, hope, reawakening, discovery, childhood, growing up and heroes, both real and imaginary are the very relatable themes running through Fallout, relevant no matter the era in which the story is set.

Sitting in the green room at Feinstein's/54 Below with Nick before the first show, I asked him about Fallout's road to this point. Still at the "very beginning," smiles Nick, "meaning we've been working on it for two years at this point!." "We've had one reading, done a bunch of festival applications, have gotten interest from a potential producer, and this is the culmination of this first quadrant, from Kyle bringing idea to me, writing and rewriting drafts, doing the reading a year ago, Jen [Tepper] asking last summer, can you be ready for a fall concert? It was the perfect push! Both Kyle and I are super busy, and this is a breath of fresh air between other projects."

What was the biggest challenge in preparing for that night's production, I asked. For Fallout, in particular, Nick replied, it was "how do we get this big idea and clarify it for the audience; get them to leave their life for a moment and really grab them; also, the best and worst parts of this truncated process is that it's a true rehearsal life cycle but compressed, you basically have the first and last day of tech [the logistical setting of the show with staging, equipment, etc.] When you arrived at 4pm, we were on a roll, after spending much of the day in fits and starts. This is a massive cast in comparison to what we've done before, and it's been about getting information to them, so that they can take ownership. There is a lot of pressure to deliver, and that's good for our motivation. We have good alchemy going on tonight. We'll see if people respond. It's definitely exciting...and scary!!!"

I could see what Nick was talking about while watching the rehearsal beforehand. For one song, being performed by Libby Winters (Hanna), there was technical work being done on sound and lighting, music supervision being done by Wiley DeWeese and Andrea Grody, who played the piano and directed the band, direction offered by Chloe Treat and guidance from Nick, who was watching from the back row of booths. That was just for one song, but the group went through it again, so that fine tuning could be done. Moving on to the duet between Hanna and Joe (played by Nick Christopher), they worked on staging it out in the audience, which required further adjustments from the technical side. As Nick tells it "there's a huge element of surreality to the show, that it's hard to visually show in a concert. The idea is that affair occurs and young Michael sees them [his dad and Hanna, their neighbor], kiss on the rooftop, and his brain splits as he confronts the mortality of life that the adults have been talking about, and the mortality of relationships, and quite possibly, love. So there are two kinds of fallout for Michael. And he sees all his heroes, Superman (George Reeves), Joe DiMaggio, JFK, Marilyn Monroe, and others around him, and thinks, if I can save my family, I can save the world. He has no idea the way the worlds works. 'The one way you can't go is back,' sing Joe, Hanna, Superman, etc., and by the end of the show, we've seen Michael's growing awareness of the inevitably of change, and the hope that it leads to a break through to a whole new way of looking at life."

I also had the chance to chat with cast members Libby Winters (Hanna), Grace McLean (Marie), Nick Christopher (Joe), Adam Chanler-Berat (Michael) and director Chloe Treat. All spoke about the necessity for being able to roll with last minute changes, adapt to small spaces and tight time frames, and how important the audience is in creating an atmosphere that allows a developing show to chart its progress, and find its groove. Nick Christopher, most recently seen in Off Broadway's David Bowie musical, LAZARUS, commented that we live in an age when we spend a great deal of time passively watching television and movies that don't require us to react or interact. Theater is different, we agree; it's about what the audience brings to the performance, not just what's happening on stage. That's what makes every single theater performance a one-of-a-kind moment. While this team may not go forward with the show as it grows, everyone was happy for the chance to give life to this story and the characters, even if, for right now, it's only for a day.

The concert opened with Walter Cronkite (Patrick Page), stage left, reading the news from the October evening in 1962 when the Russian government announced it would establish missile sites in Cuba, aimed at the US, setting the tone for the specter of annihilation that fell over the country (watch the opening number below!). The entire cast then sang the emotional "Violet Sky," about being faced with the unknown and the fear of change, of growth; an apt analogy for the minefield that is called "new show development," it seems. And fittingly, the final song was "Different Kinds of True," as young Michael (Adam Chanler-Berat) comes to realize how his perspective on life and his world are shifting, and how being a hero requires looking inside oneself. What might be called "different truths," are also applicable to the process of show growth as the feedback from those who see the show at these various stages, reflect such a diversity of reactions and input.

And as we talk, Jennifer Tepper comes by and confirms for Nick that the show that night will be filmed and audio recording will also be done, which brings up that all-important question of what Nick and Kyle hope to walk away from that evening's work with, and how they gather the feedback they need. Nick puts it this way: "It's inviting the right people. The goal is to fill the room with the right brains, who are willing and interested in making the show move forward, But you have to be careful, because you can get oversaturated with feedback. The dream is a production set up, but more reachable and equally exciting is putting together a team of people who want it to be a production. We don't want to languish, don't want to lose our fire. We really feel the show is particularly relevant now. And this process forces us to listen and do, rather than just pontificating about it. It is important to create a muscular piece of scaffolding for actors to stand on, and every question we ask needs to be in pursuit of understanding it better and not creating a new show, but trusting where we are, and where we can go."

In the show each of the characters, experiencing a brief period of facing their possibly imminent mortality, must consider that life is sometimes about harmonizing the way that you think it is or want it to be, versus what it's turning into, and as Nick says, "even when you're there you can't settle into there, because it's become something else; and that unease for people creates the opportunity to do crazy things." Not unlike, I might add, that crazy thing called "writing a musical."

Ending on the subject of heroes, one with which I think we can all relate, especially in times of crisis, I asked Nick and Kyle who their heroes have been and are, and it's a diverse collection. They talk of superheroes, like Spiderman (Kyle), Superman (Nick), public figures like John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. (Nick), Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer (Kyle), Barack Obama (both!), artists like Stephen Sondheim (Nick), Arthur Miller and Sam Shephard (Kyle), and Kyle includes his grandmother, Joan Goundry in the list (I'm going to guess that there are lots of grandmothers on lists of heroes out there). And for that evening at Feinstein's/54 Below, Jennifer Tepper, all the staff at the club, all the people that came out to see the show, and all the talented actors, musicians and creative team members that made a Fallout concert presentation possible, made the list of heroes for Nick Blaemire and Kyle Jarrow that night.

Watch the opening number from the concert below, and keep your eyes and ears open for more about Fallout in the future! To find out how to experience other new musicals at Feinstein's/54 Below, check out the club's website at 54Below.com.

And finally, some more about the artists involved with the show:

Kyle Jarrow's projects include the musical Noir (with Duncan Sheik) and the upcoming Broadway-bound Spongebob The Musical. He won an OBIE Award for his Off-Broadway hit play A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant and plays frequently with his band Sky-Pony. According to The New Yorker, "Mr. Jarrow is the kind of writer who likes to provoke people."

Nick Blaemire is the author of the musicals A Little More Alive (Kansas City Rep, Barrington Stage), Soon (Signature Theatre), and Glory Days (Broadway). As an actor, his credits include Godspell and Cry-Baby on Broadway, as well as Found The Musical, Dogfight, and The Black Suits Off-Broadway.

February 9, 2016 Cast at Feinstein's/54 Below:

Joe - Nicholas Christopher

Marie - Grace McLean

Michael - Adam Chanler-Berat

Judy - Sara Kapner

Bill - Theo Stockman

Hanna - Libby Winters

JFK - Jonathan Raviv

Marilyn Monroe - Elizabeth Judd

Walter Cronkite - Patrick Page

Director - Chloe Treat

Music Supervisor - Wiley DeWeese

Music Director - Andrea Grody

Guitar - Freddy Hall

Bass - Eric Day

Drums - Jeremy Yaddaw

All photos by Ellen Burns