Ellie Gravitte to Direct Her Family in Feature Film Debut GET HAPPY

​ A Connecticut family of working actors and singers - one of whom won a Tony Award - is making a movie in their own home. Production is underway on GET HAPPY, the debut feature film from writer/director Ellie Gravitte, produced by Lavinia Jones Wright and Lindsey Formes of I Play Different Productions. 

The film is a musical featuring eight live-performed songs, including one original. The film stars Gravitte’s mother, Tony Award-winning Broadway actress Debbie Gravitte, and her father, actor Beau Gravitte, along with other members of the Gravitte family. Filming runs now through November 9 in Redding, CT. The production is raising funds through a Kickstarter campaign. The Kickstarter ends on November 20. 

GET HAPPY follows the Williams family over a single day at home, where they gather for an annual tradition of music and meals around the dinner table. When the three Williams children bring their significant others home for an annual family gathering, a chaotic blend of musical performances, botched family meals, and interpersonal dramas threaten to drive the group to its breaking point. But family is family. Right?

The film features eight songs, all captured live on camera: “Fascinating Rhythm,” “Love Is Sweeping the Country,” “Button Up Your Overcoat,” “Get Happy,” “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows,” “Second Hand Rose,” “Someone to Watch Over Me,” and an original song, “No One Has It Worse,” written by Ellie Gravitte and Carlo Ladd.

Debbie Gravitte (Joanna), won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and a Grammy for Jerome Robbins’ Broadway. Her other Broadway credits include Chicago, Les Misérables, and Zorba. She has released four solo albums and earned an Emmy nomination for her PBS specials. She is currently starring on Broadway as Polly in Just in Time, her return to Broadway after more than two decades.