Interview: Creative Team of WILD ABOUT YOU!

A major new musical is having an industry reading this week. BWW managed to sit down with the creative team of Wild About You.

Hi Chilina, thanks so much for taking a brake from your preparation for the readings.   There has been a lot of very positive buzz around the industry about these upcoming readings. 

Chilina Kennedy (Composer/Lyricist)

Chilina, you come to this project both as a Broadway performer and as a songwriter. How has your experience on stage shaped the way you write music and lyrics for Wild About You?

I have been incredibly fortunate to play many wonderful roles on and off Broadway. One of the most influential of these was Carole King in Beautiful. I had the chance to dive into to her experience as a songwriter and collaborator. The way she and James Taylor, along with other artists like Joni Mitchell, collaborated and created the soundtrack of a generation has inspired me. Though every creative experience leaves an imprint, Beautiful left one of the deepest ones. I also learned a lot about fearlessness and taking big risks from working with wonderful composers and collaborators over the years - Jason Robert Brown, Jason Howland, Carole Pope and Stephen Schwartz to name a few. All of them have left an impact and taught me how to be better at what I do. Sometimes simply watching, listening and being in the room can change everything. 

The musical explores memory, identity, and the search for connection. What musical language—whether pop, folk, or theatrical—felt most natural for telling this story, and how did you arrive at that sound?

The blueprint for the score originally came from my debut folk/pop album What You Find In A Bottle, arranged and produced by my dear friend and colleague Rick Fox. It was a great jumping off point to experiment with where we wanted to go with the score for the musical Wild About You. There are certain theatrical elements and rules we followed as we have developed the score, but the show definitely has a pop/rock/nouveau folk sound. Daniel Edmonds has been a tremendous collaborator, along with many other artists and musicians, who helped uncover the new sound, ranging from pop and rock to R&B and folk. We had so much fun exploring some of the 90’s flashbacks and how each character has their own musical flavor. There is also the world of Billy as an 18 year old artist finding his own voice. One of the most powerful discoveries I’ve made happened quietly one day not too long ago, when I realized that after so many big numbers and lush, gorgeous orchestrations, we needed a moment to land with our protagonist alone with his guitar, singing a song that represents who he truly is as an artist and as a human being, after being influenced by life changing events and relationships. This realization could only come after years of work and lived experience and allowing myself to be affected by those around me. 

Dani Stoller (Book Writer)

Dani, the show deals with characters piecing together the past through letters and memories. How did you approach structuring a narrative that moves between memory, discovery, and emotional revelation?

I think it all goes back to the wholeness of the characters, right? We need to care about the people who are being tasked with coming to terms with their past, being chased by ghosts, and discovering hidden truths. For me, the first time I read the original script and watched the concert tape, I was immediately struck with the need to see Olivia through the eyes of Billy. I kept thinking about the importance of legacy. And I kept thinking of Chilina's lyric asking about what we leave behind. If we were talking about this piece as though it were, you know, Greek, we might call it a Hero's Journey. And so, for me, everything that is learned has to be of use to Billy's future by way of his mother's past. 

Daniel Edmonds (Music Supervisor / Music Director / Orchestrator / Arranger)

Daniel, you’re wearing several musical hats on this project—from supervision to orchestration. How do you shape a unified musical identity for the show when balancing all those roles?

It actually becomes an advantage, because I’m able to see and shape both the forest and the trees at the same time. I was also fortunate to be able to produce, arrange and orchestrate the world premiere recording, where we were able to establish a vivid sonic world from Chilina Kennedy’s amazing source material.

For me, it starts with identifying the emotional grammar of the show, what harmony feels like “home,” what rhythm feels like propulsion, what sonic textures belong to this world and what don’t. Once that’s clear, every decision becomes a variation on that DNA.

As a supervisor, I’m thinking about the big picture arc. As a music director, I’m shaping how it lives in the room with actors and the band. And as an orchestrator and arranger, I’m weaving together motifs, grooves and layers that help to enrich and amplify the story we’re all telling. The goal is that no matter which layer you’re experiencing, it all feels like it came from the same heartbeat.

What are the particular challenges of orchestrating for a developmental reading, where the goal is clarity of storytelling rather than the full sonic world of a finished production?

It’s all about clarity over color. You’re stripping the music down to its essentials so the story lands cleanly, but still hinting at the world it could grow into.

The challenge is knowing what to leave out. In a reading, every note is exposed, so the orchestration has to support the storytelling without ever getting in its way.

Having said that, this is a show full of pop music, so you better believe we’re going to groove and be soulful as well!

Kristin Hanggi (Director)

Kristin, you’ve directed major musical hits like Rock of Ages. What drew you to the story and tone of Wild About You, and how do you envision its staging evolving as the piece develops?

I'm so excited to stage Wild About You because I love the way it lives in two worlds at once. There's the grounded, very human story of a young man trying to figure out who he is, and this more ethereal, almost poetic space where memory, love, and unfinished emotional business continue to exist.

I also was really drawn to the idea of this mother who is both gone and not gone, guiding her son from this liminal space. It gives the piece a kind of emotional depth that sneaks up on you. It's a story that's about legacy, choice, and what we carry from the people who shaped us.

In terms of staging, I love the theatricality that's already embedded in the writing, like the fluidity between past and present, the seen and unseen. It invites a staging that’s imaginative. I’m interested in a world where transitions are seamless, where the physical space can transform the way memory does, which is unexpected, emotional, and sometimes even playful.

As the piece develops, I see it leaning into that duality; something visually inventive, but always anchored in emotional truth. The goal is to create a theatrical language where the audience feels like they’re inside these characters' inner world as much as they’re watching the external journey.

When directing a new musical in a reading format, how do you help actors bring emotional depth and theatrical life to a piece that may still be evolving on the page and in the score?

With a piece like this, where there are both grounded relationships and more heightened, almost metaphysical elements, the key is anchoring everything in truth.

Even though the world is theatrical, the emotions have to be completely real. Olivia isn’t just a spirit, she’s a mother with urgency, regret, love. Billy isn’t just “finding himself,” he’s navigating pressure, expectation, and the fear of making the wrong choice. So we start there: specificity, stakes, and honesty.

From there, I'm encouraging the actors to be bold and make big choices. In a reading, clarity comes from commitment. If an actor fully invests in a moment, it teaches us something about the piece. It shows us where the energy lives.

And because the show is still evolving, I really invite collaboration. The actors’ instincts, like how they interpret a line, where they feel tension, where something wants to breathe, that’s all incredibly valuable information. We’re discovering this piece together.

Full Creative Team

A 29-hour reading is such a unique step in musical development. What are each of you hoping to learn from this reading, and what kinds of discoveries do you expect from hearing the show in front of an audience?

A reading tells you what the show actually is. You feel immediately where the story lands and where it needs clarity.

For me, it’s about momentum and connection—are we tracking the emotional journey, and is the music helping it move? Is it funny and varied and moving and beautiful? We think it is! And we’re excited to show it to an audience.

We think this is the best version of the show we’ve ever put together. We’ve been lucky enough to develop it through a number of different iterations. And what has always been so thrilling is audiences being able to hum the tunes long after the presentation has finished, and tell us the impact the big musical moments have had. That’s a great compliment to the strength of the songwriting.

Looking ahead, what do you feel is the core emotional promise of Wild About You—the thing audiences will carry with them long after leaving the theatre?

I think what audiences will carry with them is the question of: Am I living truthfully? Am I choosing my life, or inheriting it?

And alongside that, there’s the idea that love doesn’t disappear. That even when people are gone, their presence, their influence, their hope for us continues. This is a theme that is very powerful and meaningful to me. 

If we do it right, audiences will leave a little more awake to their own lives and maybe give themselves a little more grace in their relationships. 

BroadwayWorld.com would like to thank the creative team for WILD ABOUT YOU! for taking a brake from their preparations to chat with us, and we wish them a successful reading.