PRESS RELEASE: For the Last Time is a new jazz musical with music and lyrics by celebrated composer Nancy Harrow (This Side of Paradise), book by Will Pomerantz and Nancy Harrow, directed by Will Pomerantz (The Blue Flower), arrangements/ orchestrations by Dennis Mackrel (Conductor of the Count Basie Band), with music direction by Cody Owen Stine (Murder Ballad). It will get its world premiere at Theater Row’s Clurman Theatre beginning performances May 19, opening May 28 and running through June 20, 2015. Tickets are $39-79 and can be purchased by visiting www.Telecharge.com or by calling (212) 239-6200.
In 1950’s New Orleans, four young artists create an Eden of music and art. But the past forces its way into their lives, and an act of passion changes everything. The new jazz musical, FOR THE LAST TIME, is inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Marble Faun, and features a powerhouse young cast backed by an 8-piece jazz ensemble.
“This is a thrill for me to hear my songs sung by these gifted actor/singers. And to hear all the music played by our fantastic group of young jazz musicians. I am so grateful to Dennis Mackrel for his amazing arrangements which manage to sound fresh and still are faithful to Roland Hanna’s original conception for the jazz album we did some years ago. This is my fourth collaboration with inspiring colleague Will Pomerantz, and I think with this show we have captured a rare energy where jazz and theater meet.”
“Nancy Harrow is a unique talent. As a singer, she has recorded with some of the greatest jazz musicians in the history of the art form. As a songwriter, she taps into this deep well of experience, as well as her love of literature. Nancy is able to conjure character and story breathtakingly through song, and only Nancy could have figured out how to marry jazz and Nathaniel Hawthorne! With this wonderful company of actors and musicians, Hawthorne’s tale of love and crime is sure to sing.” FOR THE LAST TIME co-book writer/ director Will Pomerantz
Cast features: Brittany Campbell (The Civil War), Carl Clemons-Hopkins (Regional: Macbeth, The Color Purple), Kim Exum (As You Like It), Britton Smith (After Midnight), Anita Welch (Bubble Boy), Reggie D. White and Jason Veasey (Beautiful, The Lion King). Band includes: Associate Musical Director Alphonso Horne (Trumpet), Owen Broder (Woodwind), Carrie Dowell (Violin), Robert Edwards (Trombone), Nathan Ellman-Bell (Drums), Eleanor Norton (Cello), and Eric Wheeler (Bass).Creative team includes: John McDermott (Scenic Designer), Whitney Locher (Costume Designer), Jimmy Lawlor (Lighting Designer), Kevin Heard (Sound Designer), Judy Merrick (Properties Designer), Cristina Knutson (Fight Choreographer), Angie Hesterman (Stage Manager), Michael Cassara (Casting) Corey Pearlstein (General Manager).
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| For the Last Time cast features: Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Kim Exum, Anita Welch, Brittany Campbell, Reggie D. White and Britton Smith. Not featured in the photo is cast member Jason Veasey. Photo by Russ Rowland |
Who’s Who:
NANCY HARROW (playwright/ composer) recorded 16 albums with many stellar jazz musicians – John Lewis, Roland Hanna, Clark Terry, Phil Woods, Jim Hall, Kenny Barron, among others- before writing songs on her own. Recent CDs Nancy recorded were her own inventions based on literary subjects – a Willa Cather novel (Lost Lady), Hawthorne’s The Marble Faun, and a CD about F. Scott Fitzgerald (Winter Dreams),which became a musical about Zelda & Scott called This Side of Paradise. This had a production in NYC and another in St. Paul, Minnesota in 2013. Two of Nancy’s jazz song cycles were based on children’s stories – The Adventures of Maya the Bee ran as a puppet show in NYC for 7 years, then was translated into Japanese and toured 10 cities there. The Cat Who Went To Heaven was performed at the Asia Society, Harlem School of the Arts, the Kennedy Center, and last spring at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music). For The Last Time began as a jazz CD (The Marble Faun) and now, with its locale changed to New Orleans, has become a jazz musical. This is the fourth collaboration with director and co-writer Will Pomerantz, the most recent being This Side of Paradise.
WILL POMERANTZ (director) has directed and developed new plays and musicals with such theatres as American Repertory Theatre, 2nd Stage, The Guthrie, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theatre, Hartford Stage, New York Theater Workshop, The Signature Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theater, Soho Rep, Culture Project, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Studio Theatre, Epic Theatre Ensemble and The Mark Taper Forum. He has directed world premieres by such playwrights as John Guare, David Auburn, Neil LaBute, Craig Lucas, Kia Corthron, David Lindsay-Abaire, Stephen Belber, Noah Haidle, Linda Cho, Kira Obolensky, Russell Davis and Carey Perloff.
His last music theatre collaboration with Nancy Harrow, This Side of Paradise (based on the lives of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald), won ten Broadway World Awards, including Best Musical, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Featured Actress, Best Music Direction, Best Choreographer, and Best Ensemble for its regional premiere in St. Paul, F. Scott’s birthplace.
His production of The Blue Flower swept all the major awards in the Boston Area, winning both the Elliot Norton and the Independent Reviewers of New England (I.R.N.E.) Awards for Outstanding Production, Outstanding Design, Best Musical of the Year, as well as multiple Best Performance Awards. The New York production, produced by 2nd Stage was listed as one of the 10 Best Productions of the Year by Bloomberg ("The best musical since Spring Awakening"), and was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical. His production of The Shape of Things was voted Outstanding Production of the year in Washington, DC and received a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Performance, as well as being cited as among the year's 10 best by The Washington Post and The Washington Times. His production of Dai received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Solo Performance and was awarded a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Performance. Will is currently Associate Director of Artistic Development for Epic Theatre Ensemble and Associate Artistic Director of Bay Street Theatre.
DENNIS MACKREL (arranger/orchestrator) is a noted jazz drummer and highly respected composer/arranger and conductor whose work has been recorded and performed by the Count Basie Orchestra, the Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band, the WDR Radio Big Band from Germany, the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw from Holland, and the McCoy Tyner Big Band, whose Grammy winning CDs included Mackrel’s arrangements. He has won numerous awards including Who’s Who in Music, A National Endowment for the Arts grant for composition, and Outstanding Alumni from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is also an experienced jazz educator who conducts master classes, seminars and workshops throughout Europe, Asia, Canada and the United States. His web site is www.dennismackrelmusic.com
CODY OWEN STINE (musical director) is a composer, lyricist, arranger, performer, copyist, and music director who writes for theater, film, and cabaret. Recent work includes Music Director and Arranger for Eager to Lose at Ars Nova, Associate Conductor on Murder Ballad at Manhattan Theatre Club and Union Square Theatre, and Associate Music Director for Atomic the Musical at Theatre Row. As a composer/lyricist, his work has been seen at Ars Nova, Prospect Theatre, Joe’s Pub, Laurie Beechman, Duplex Cabaret, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Second City, LA among others. Music copying credits (Finale and Sibelius) include projects for MTI, Ars Nova, and numerous cabaret and concert performers. For five years, he was musical director, arranger, and contributing writer for The Water Coolers, a nationally and internationally touring musical comedy group. Upcoming projects include a full-length show with bookwriter Sharyn Rothstein, and a rock musical based on Heinrich von Kleist's play Penthesilea. He is a member of the Advanced BMI Musical Theater Workshop and the Dramatists Guild.
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