Saint-Ex, a musical inspired by the life of author/aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (The Little Prince), has won the fourth annual Weston Playhouse New Musical Award, announced Weston Producing Director Steve Stettler. With a score by Jenny Giering and book and lyrics by Sean Barry, Saint-Ex explores Saint-Exupéry's relationship with his brother, his tempestuous marriage, and the conflict between his career as an aviator and his success as an author.
The Weston Playhouse New Musical Award advances the work of composers and librettists of exceptional promise by providing them with a professional demo of their latest work. A composing team, chosen from a group of national nominations, travels to Weston, Vermont with 5 actors and a music director for 4 days of rehearsal and a free public concert, followed by a NYC concert and recording session with Kurt Deutsch of Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records.
Saint-Ex was nominated for the award by Paulette Haupt, Artistic Director of the National Music Theater Conference at the O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut. The musical has been developed to date under the auspices of TheatreWorks Palo Alto, the Sundance Theatre Lab, and the Lark Theatre Company.
The cast for Saint-Ex features Alexander Gemignani (Valjean in the recent Broadway revival of Les Miz) as Saint-Exupéry, with Joe Cassidy (Broadway's Next to Normal), Blythe Gruda (Of Thee I Sing at City Center/ENCORES!), Price Waldman (Broadway's The Lion King) and Michael Winther (Broadway's 33 Variations). Matt Castle (Broadway revival of Company) is Music Director.
Composer Jenny Giering's shows include The Mistress Cycle, a multiple Jeff Award nominee slated for a New York production next year. Winner of the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Award, the Frederick Loewe Award and the Kleban Prize, Giering is also at work on a Playwrights Horizons commission with playwright Neena Beber. Sean Barry is a writer of fiction, poetry and theatre. Saint-Ex is his first musical theatre collaboration.
Funders for the Weston Playhouse New Musical Award have included 321 Theatrical Management; the Araca Group; Dramatists Play Service, Inc.; Dramatic Publishing; Music Theatre International; the Rodgers and Hammerstein Foundation; Samuel French, Inc.; Tams-Witmark Music Library; and Thomas Schumacher.
For more information about the non-profit Weston Playhouse Theatre Company, its New Works programs and its 2010 summer season, visit www.westonplayhouse.org.
Photo: 2010 Weston New Musical Award Group.
