Paul Bogaev And Gabriel Barre Attached To Musical In Development 38 MINUTES

In January of 2018, an emergency cell-phone alert warned citizens and visitors in Hawaii to seek immediate shelter because of an incoming ballistic missile. Thirty-eight minutes later, the alert was canceled after officials discovered it to be a mistake. In the interim, people throughout the islands panicked, putting children into storm drains and saying what they believed would be their final goodbyes to loved ones.

The Hawaiian Missile Crisis is now being developed as a stage musical, "38 MINUTES," by its conceptor and composer Holly Doubet, with playwright Joseph McDonough, and composers Kathy Babylon and John Vester. The musical will enjoy its first professional concert reading at the Sammons Center for the Arts in Dallas, Texas on December 9 and 10, 2021.

Broadway veteran Gabriel Barre ("Billy Elliott," "Pippin," "Jesus Christ Superstar," etc.) will direct, with Grammy and Emmy Award-winning director, producer, and arranger Paul Bogaev (Elton John's "Aida," "Chicago," "Nine," "Dreamgirls," "Across the Universe," "Mulan," "The Lion King," etc.) serving as musical director.

"I am thrilled to be working on developing this exciting new show with these talented collaborators," Barre said. "It is rare to come across such a galvanizing event to center a show around, and provoke characters to reckon with themselves, and seek change, in the way this story does, and it is all made even more compelling because it is based on an actual occurrence."

Through song and scene, "38 MINUTES" follows several diverse characters, including tourists and Hawaiian residents, as they come together to assist each other in preparing to accept the inevitable, but still hoping for the impossible. The characters' perceptions of themselves, their lives and the world around them are profoundly changed by this monumental experience.

Composer Holly Doubet first conceived of the idea for "38 MINUTES" after being caught up in the Hawaiian Missile Crisis while vacationing in Kauai. After returning home to Dallas, she enlisted help from her longtime friend and frequent collaborator, Kathy Babylon, in Los Angeles, to begin working on songs.

"Being in Hawaii when the false missile alert occurred in 2018 was life-altering," Doubet said. "For 38 minutes, I faced death without knowing how or when it would occur- in one minute? Ten minutes? I waited, prepared, with my ID strapped to my waist in case the worst happened. Every song, every thought in the show came from my actual experience. The passing of time and events, the feelings of despair and revelation."

"As terrifying as the situation was, we wanted the show to have a touch of humor," Babylon said. "I believe the music Holly and I wrote for '38 MINUTES' is emotional and fun with extremely memorable melodies. The fact that it all started from a true event makes it all the more compelling."

With wide ranging emotions in the songs, two are notable for their whimsy- "Cincinnati Boys," in which a gay couple on vacation catch their first glimpse of the islands, and "Mine Is Bigger Than Yours," which features former president Donald Trump arguing with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un about whose nuclear button is bigger.

(Listen to "Cincinnati Boys," as performed by Ken Stacey.)

Through a mutual acquaintance, Babylon and Doubet reached out to playwright Joseph McDonough to co-write the book for "38 MINUTES."

"I was initially intrigued, and in fact overwhelmed, by the beautiful songs that Holly and Kathy had begun composing for this show," McDonough said. "Holly's personal story of her own real-life experience during this crisis was so compelling and engaging. I think audiences will truly relate to that experience and wonder how they would react in those circumstances. I have tried to focus on the characters, to make each of them specific and relatable, and to follow each of these people moment by moment through the crisis, while keeping the danger always present and imminent.

After the songs and first draft of the script were completed, Babylon invited Paul Bogaev to participate in "38 MINUTES." Bogaev had previously worked with Kathy's late husband, musician and arranger Guy Babylon, on Elton John's Broadway production of Aida, for which they received Grammy Awards.

"I feel the story is extremely moving," Bogaev said. "The score is rich and varied."

"38 MINUTES" recently received a $5,000 grant from the Donald Fowler Theater Arts Memorial Fund of the Dallas Foundation. Fundraising efforts are continuing, with a goal of fully developing the production.

A concert reading of "38 MINUTES" will take place at the Sammons Center for the Arts in Dallas, 3630 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas, Texas, on Thursday, December 9, and Friday, December 10 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $250 and can be obtained through the producers' Kickstarter campaign.