THE GORGEOUS NOTHINGS Presale to Launch

Life Jacket Theatre Company's production of THE GORGEOUS NOTHINGS is set to open for tickets to the general public on September 23, with PAC NYC Members already able to purchase tickets through an exclusive pre-sale. The show is conceived and written by Travis Lee Russ, with arrangements and orchestrations by Dan Schlosberg, arrangements by Alejandro Senior, and direction and choreography by Danny Mefford.

History tried to hide them, so they staged a spectacle.

Inspired by true events, THE GORGEOUS NOTHINGS uncovers the long-buried story of the 'Fag Ward,' a hidden wing of the Men's Penitentiary on Welfare Island in New York City, where inmates were imprisoned in the 1930s for homosexuality. With a score drawn from the Great American Songbook, this world premiere musical weaves six inmates' stories into high-camp numbers from the ward's annual Christmas pageant to expose a secret, fabulous, world that was never supposed to have existed.

The production is produced in collaboration with Making Gay History (Executive Director: Eric Marcus) and Baryshnikov Arts Center (Artistic Director: Mikhail Baryshnikov).

Creative Team

Travis Lee Russ is a Queer playwright/director/researcher from rural Indiana. Upcoming: THE GORGEOUS NOTHINGS (PAC NYC). Recent work: America is Hard to See (Critics' Picks – The List, Voice Magazine, Fest Magazine; 'Top 10 Plays of the Year' – New, Now, Next; '#1 Show of Edinburgh Fringe' – Fest Magazine) and Gorey: The Secret Lives of Edward Gorey (Critics' Picks – The New York Times & Time Out New York; Drama Desk Award Nomination; 7 New York Innovative Theatre Award Nominations; 2 Henry Hewes Design Award Nominations). Fellowships: Yaddo, Baryshnikov Arts, Millay Arts, Drama League, Tectonic Theater Project, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Making Gay History. Grants: National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Howard Gilman Foundation, and Andrew Mellon Foundation. Currently, Travis is an Associate Professor at Fordham University where he teaches research-based storytelling. Ph.D. – Rutgers University. www.lifejackettheatre.org/travis-russ

Danny Mefford directed and choreographed The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Bigfoot! He has also choreographed three Tony Award winners for Best Musical: Kimberly Akimbo, Dear Evan Hansen (also Olivier Award, Best Musical) and Fun Home, along with other Broadway, Off-Broadway and way, way Off-Broadway shows. Upcoming directing projects include THE GORGEOUS NOTHINGS and The Fitzgeralds of St. Paul. For TV, he staged all the theatrical sequences for Rise on NBC, made several dances for Dickinson on AppleTV+, and choreographed a sequence for Fleischman is in Trouble on FX. He is currently choreographing the Richard Linklater film version of Merrily We Roll Along, a twenty-year project. He has an MFA in Acting from Brown University/Trinity Rep and studied theater and politics at the University of Evansville.

Brooklyn-based composer, pianist, and conductor, Dan Schlosberg's music has been performed by the Dover Quartet, Opera Philadelphia, Minnesota Orchestra, Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Nashville and Albany Symphonies, at Carnegie Hall, (le) poisson rouge, Sydney Opera House, Beijing Modern Music Festival, and David Lynch's Festival of Disruption. Recent projects include The Counterfeit Opera (Little Island), which he composed and conducted; a segment of the 10-composer vignette-opera Complications in Sue with a libretto by Michael R. Jackson (Opera Philadelphia); conducting/orchestrations for The Marriage of Figaro (Little Island); conducting/arrangements for Anthony Roth Costanzo's solo album, Countertenor; music directing/orchestrations for The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse (The New Group); the score for Patrick Wang's film A. Rimbaud; conducting Costanzo and Justin Vivian Bond's Only an Octave Apart; The Extinctionist, his new opera for Heartbeat Opera; and music directing/orchestrations for Show/Boat: A River (Target Margin/NYU Skirball). In addition to collaborations with Angel Blue, the Imani Winds, Anthony McGill, Ariana DeBose, Tony Kushner, and Ben Stiller, Dan was the pianist for Steven Spielberg's West Side Story, and a featured soloist in Only an Octave Apart with the New York Philharmonic and NPR's Tiny Desk. Dan has received the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, two ASCAP Awards, and a 2023 Drama Desk nomination. He is the Music Director of Heartbeat Opera, for which his re-orchestrations of classic operas have been praised as 'flat-out brilliant,' 'the vision of a master sculptor,' (New York Times) and 'ingenious' (Wall Street Journal). www.danschlosberg.com

Born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Alejandro Senior made his Broadway debut working on the music team for Some Like it Hot. Other projects include Death Becomes Her (Broadway), Bigfoot! (Manhattan Theatre Club; Off-Broadway), Little Shop of Horrors (Off-Broadway), Urinetown (City Center), Oliver! (City Center) Queen of Versailles, Wanted, and Like Father. Most recently, Alejandro music directed Huzzah! (Old Globe), a new Larry O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin musical. Alejandro is an educator in Marymount Manhattan College's BFA musical theater program as well as the board president at the Musical Theater Training Studio BROADWAYVOX. Alejandro emphasizes the importance of leading with kindness and pursuing excellence in all his musical endeavors. Proud graduate of the University of Miami's prestigious Frost School of Music.

About Life Jacket Theatre Company