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MUSICAL THEATER/PLAYS WITH MUSIC
Book and lyrics by Sam Swope General and Mrs. Pinch lead the Liberty Street kids in morning exercises and enforce a huge book of rules. Imagine their horror when the Araboolies move in! This eccentric, colorful, acrobatic, non-English speaking family brings pets, music and games of Remote Tickle and Boola Noola Ball. The Pinches declare war and summon the army! Only the children can save the fun-loving Araboolies and finally allow Liberty Street to live up to its name. Ages 4 and up. "If only all civics lessons were as
sprightly as the Araboolies." See our feature at NPR "Araboolies Go from 'Liberty Street' to the Stage." HEARTLAND
a musical Three sisters from Moscow, Iowa return home when their mother decides she is selling the family farm. A celebration of open space and saying goodbye. “Heartland… dares to create
realistic characters and gives them some great songs to sing –
things you can't say about enough Broadway shows these days.”
To license, contact Penny Luedtke 212-765-9564 O PIONEERS!
a musical adaptation of the novel by Willa Cather The story of Alexandra Bergson’s struggles as a pioneer farmer in an untamed Nebraska prairie. Listen to "Land Transformation." “In adapting the novel for the stage,
Darrah Cloud has been able to preserve much of Cather’s structure–and,
more important, her voice. Kim D. Sherman’s music supplies that
part of the emotional experience of the novel not readily transferable
to dramatic language: the sense of the prairie landscape, the inner
stirrings of the land and its people, the exaltation of the power of
the natural world.” To license, contact Dramatic Publishing THE TWO ORPHANS
a musical Adapted from the 19th century French melodrama, “The Two Orphans” is the tale of two sisters, ex-slaves, one blind, one beautiful who become separated in post Civil War New Orleans and struggle against beggars, thieves, murderers and aristocrats trying to find each other again. To license, contact Penny Luedtke 212-765-9564 A CHRISTMAS CAROL
a play with music and songs An adaptation of the Dickens classic with song and dance. “Credit composer and sound designer
Kim D. Sherman and Bruce Richardson for the rapturous music, both original
and traditional, and laced with a minor-key undertow as it veers from
ominous melancholy to piercing joy.” To license, contact Penny Luedtke 212-765-9564 JONAH’S
DREAM “Jonah’s Dream” uses an eccentric mix of theatrical styles from comedy, drama and Yiddish Theatre to vaudeville, musical theatre and puppetry to create a vivid dreamscape in which the Old Testament’s Book of Jonah provides captivating insights into ancient and modern concepts of atonement, forgiveness and repentance. William Gibson, one of America’s most influential and celebrated dramatists (Tony Award-winner for The Miracle Worker), has penned this fascinating and wildly theatrical new stage version of the biblical tale of Jonah and the Whale.† The score features a modern klezmer-like band. "Yet while it grapples with matters of belief and faith, this is an offbeat comic work, with its protagonist as a sardonic standup comic, a Biblical cross between Mort Sahl and Lenny Bruce." – Hartford Courant To license contact Penny Luedtke 212-765-9564 SONGS FROM AN
UNMADE BED a unique music/theatre event A solo work that propels a smart, resilient, wry, and ultimately romantic gay New Yorker through the heartaches and triumphs of love in the big city. Mark Campbell's lyrics on the endlessly surprising experience of urban romance have been set by an eclectic roster of today’s musical artists. Michael Winther premiered this funny, sexy, elegiac, ironic work. “Is it possible for the best musical of the season to have arrived when the season is just a couple of weeks old? Songs From an Unmade Bed, at the New York Theatre Workshop -- the same theater where Rent had its initial attention-getting presentation -- is the kind of show that erases memories of far less accomplished works that we reviewers had to sit through.” – David Finkle, Theatermania To license, contact Barbara Hogenson at 212-874-8084. LEAVING QUEENS
a musical An Irish American photographer returns from war to find her father has disappeared. While searching for him, she discovers the story of her family and her true self. "From the heart of Kate Moira Ryan...Kim
D. Sherman's music and orchestrations are a nice blend of traditional
and contemporary Broadway." "Sherman's score provides a lovely
mix of piano and strings with Gaelic fiddle...Ryan finds ways of neatly
juxtaposing first-generation toil and sacrifice with second-generation
progress in pursuing the American dream." To license contact Penny Luedtke 212-765-9564 BECOMING MEMORIES
a play with music A richly textured portrait of small town America from 1911 to the present, the play follows five families through three generations. “Superb theatre with the simplicity
and power of Thornton Wilder." To license, contact Samuel French I HATE HAMLET
a play with music A young and successful television actor relocates to New York, where he is offered the opportunity to play Hamlet onstage, but there's one problem: He hates Hamlet. His dilemma deepens with the entrance of John Barrymore's ghost, who arrives intoxicated and in full costume to the apartment that once was his. “…to recall the screwy comic
style of Barrymore’s Hollywood and Broadway days the director
has added to that nostalgic mood with hokey old-time background music
by Kim Sherman.” To license, contact Dramatic Play Service CHORAL MUSIC THE SONGBIRD AND THE EAGLE Libretto
by Rick Davis The Songbird and the Eagle, based on a traditional Buddhist
Jakata Tale, this work for explores the theme of the possibility of peace in
the world being attained through the small actions of each individual. "The Songbird and the Eagle" is published
by Plumber's Daughter
Words of Beethoven set to music "The Happiest and Unhappiest of Men is set for eight-part chorus, strings and flute. Sherman's language is economical, and the text is presented very clearly and naturally. The piece opens with the chorus rhythmically patting their chests to create the sound of a heartbeat. The music begins simply, with each line of text given sequentially to a different voice part in chant-like phrases, creating an effect like a dialog or conversation. Each phrase is separated by modulations of a rather eclectic and distinctly Beethovenesque character. The music builds in intensity as sung phrases and spoken text overlap, until a final crescendo is reached on the enigmatic text that Beethoven wrote on his final composition, the String Quartet in F major, Op. 135: "Must it be? It must be." The piece ends as it began, with the heartbeat, now softly fading away." –program note by Michael Moore, ©2005 Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia. All rights reserved. "The Happiest
and Unhappiest of Men" is published by Plumber's Daughter SERVICE FOR THE
DEAD IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA Service For the Dead… is an a cappella choral work written in response to the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. “Graveside”, the fifth movement of six, is a keening, a culmination and response to what has come before, and a release which might enable life to begin again. “Graveside” is recorded by Musica Sacra on the Catalyst CD “Of Eternal Light” (out of print) CATALYST 61822. Listen to "Graveside." (Broadband download time about 50 seconds.) “Most striking of all is Kim D. Sherman’s
Bosnia-inspired Graveside, with its Eastern European folk influences
and use of drone effects from sacred music.” Service for the Dead In Bosnia-Herzegovina is
published by Plumber's Daughter A WINTER SOLSTICE
RITUAL Commissioned and premiered in 1995 by The Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, Alan Harler, conductor. A Winter Solstice Ritual explores the pagan roots of Christmas traditions. It is a celebration of the cycles of the earth, which reflect the cycles of life. “The piece conjures up tonal visions
of the world as it awaited the coming of the Messiah. The score is chillingly
evocative and sumptuously scored for chorus, and it was performed to
great enthusiasm.” "A Winter Solstice Ritual"
is published by Plumber's Daughter GLORIOUS
MORN Suitable for all levels, Glorious Morn is an inspiring anthem with the passion of gospel and the heart of Dickens. New for the 2005 Holiday Season! "…rapturous music…" – Tom Sime, Dallas Morning News "Glorious Morn" is
published by Plumber's Daughter SONG CYCLES SONG OF SONGS Adapted from the Old Testament, Song of Songs is a celebration of love. In English and Hebrew. “The beauty of this piece consists
of the rhapsodic nature of Sherman’s spiraling themes, the strong
craft and lush scoring…” Song of Songs is published by Roger Dean A PRAIRIE DIARY
Settings of poems by Willa Cather and Darrah Cloud, the material evokes the vast sky and land of the Midwestern Prairie, and the feeling of belonging to the dream of this country. A Prairie Diary is published by Plumber's Daughter CHAMBER MUSIC KARNER BLUE
for flute and piano “karner blue” celebrates the life of the Karner Blue Butterfly. This beautiful endangered creature lives an intense short life. The music reflects the life of the creature, its beauty in nature, the joy of flight, and the delicate balance between survival and extinction. "karner blue" is published by Falls House Press THE VISION
for guitar and english horn The Vision is inspired by descriptions of a vision that came to the Native American warrior, Crazy Horse, when he was a young man. In it, he saw three significant events in his life – including his death. The Vision is published by Plumber's Daughter Recorded by Klemp Kachian Duo on their CD “Falls
Flyer” REAL WORLD
for solo guitar Real World is the solo guitar version of The Vision. Real World is published by Plumber's Daughter DITTIES
for Saxophone Quartet A humorous suite of extremely short pieces. “ The world premiere of Kim D. Sherman's
"Ditties" unveiled a set of seven snippets with the two longest
of them timing in around 30 seconds, give or take a few moments while
the others were ephemera to the tune of 10-15 seconds. It generated
the chuckles that the composer hoped it would.” Ditties is published by Plumber's Daughter THE MOON PIECE
for chamber orchestra A tone poem on the theme of loss and remembrance. “The work opens quietly on a sustained
high pitch by violins, like the sound of a finger circling the top of
a crystal glass. The effect is a sensation of tension and mystery, indicating
the dramatic yet ruminative quality of the work.” The Moon Piece is published by Plumber's Daughter OPERA HONOR SONG FOR
CRAZY HORSE an opera The epic story of the great Lakota warrior Crazy Horse and the last days of the free Lakota people. “Sherman’s music inventively
translates the drones, chants and drumbeats of the Lakota nation into
a distinct musical language that shimmers with melodies murmuring and
oscillating among adjacent notes, haunting open intervals and surprisingly
varied rhythms and orchestral colors from an ensembles of six. There
are spirited and beguiling dance passages…” To license contact Penny Luedtke 212-765-9564 THREE VISITATIONS
an opera trilogy Characters on the cusp of self-realization unwittingly collide with elements of the fantastic–stray killers, beach ghosts, bed ghosts– and find their personal trajectories irrevocably altered. Long Island Dreamer offers an accessible doo-wop sound (accompanied only by electric bass). “Are there any Long Island dreamers out there?” asks Amana del Ray, after a stranger of unknown intention appears at the window…In Red Tide, Lutece, a boy of 15 returns to a beach, ostensibly in search of a lifeguard who saved him from drowning a decade previously. In truth, however, he has been drawn there, like a moth to a flame, by a mystical power he cannot explain to his friend, a hopelessly earthbound clod whose name, aptly, is Worm… Like an unsanitized German Fairy tale, Lamentations is a dark psychodrama where aberrant sexuality and corrosive envy reveal the deeper scripts of ordinary lust and desire. “A richly conceived and finely wrought
music-theater trilogy” To license contact Penny Luedtke 212-765-9564 |
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THE ARABOOLIES OF LIBERTY STREET