Staged Reading Set For Revamped Gun Musical, LOCKED AND LOADED

The latest version of a musical that explores gun violence in the U.S. will receive a staged reading this month for the first time under its new title, "Locked and Loaded, an American Musical." The Sept. 21 performance will take place in the East Gallery of the Pilgrim Monument Museum in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Under its former title, "Gun Control, the Musical," the show, which debuted at Cape Cod's historic Provincetown Theater, was presented last year in a staged reading at New York's Theatre at St. John's in Greenwich Village (related Broadway World article: www.broadwayworld.com/article/GUN-CONTROL-the-Musical-Will-Hold-Reading-20181018).

Award-winning journalist and pianist Jim Brosseau is the composer, lyricist and book writer of "Locked and Loaded, an American Musical" 

The former two-act musical is now 85 minutes with no intermission and has retained all 13 of its well-received songs. Its seven characters will be portrayed by five actors.

The musical is driven by a father whose only child has perished in a shopping-mall shooting. His fight to ensure the loss hasn't been in vain is waged against the backdrop of draconian new gun legislation. The heavy subject matter is leavened with an unlikely love story and moments of humor.

The Provincetown cast will be led by Spencer Keasey ("Naked Boys Singing") and Sarah MacDonnell, appearing this September in "The Night of the Iguana" as part of Provincetown's Tennessee Williams Festival. Rounding out the cast of "Locked and Loaded, an American Musical" will be Clyde Shelby Mellert ("The Fantasticks"), Halcyone Hurst ("The Trip to Bountiful," London), and Provincetown Theater veteran actor Jeff Tagen.

Producers for the September 21 staged reading will be business and philanthropy vet Keith Lampman-Perlman and his husband, Bruce, who has served as director of the annual children's musical theater at the Bucks County Performing Arts Center in Pennsylvania.

"When I was introduced to Jim's musical last spring, I felt compelled to act," said Keith Lampman-Perlman. "I was incredibly impressed with his ability to address the incendiary issue of guns in America through musical theater."