It's in the hands of the gods, now ....

February 14, 2013

FringeNYC Applications
The Present Company
520 Eighth Avenue, Ste. 311
New York, NY 10018-8906

Dear Present Company:

Once upon a time there was a sweet, sad, funny little musical that wasn’t exactly “Fringe-y.” It was, in fact, practically the anti-Fringe musical: it had a poignant, almost sentimental story, a linear, tightly-constructed, plot-driven book, and a fully integrated score. Basically, it was a love letter. A giant, lacy valentine to the city of New York that grew, over time, out of the fact that something had once happened here that made a grown woman cry a little every time she thought about it. And eventually she realized that if it made her cry, it might move other people in a similar way, so maybe she’d better write it down. And because it was a sweet, sad, funny little valentine of a show, there should probably also be songs. Because that’s usually how those things work.

Fifty years ago this Fall, New York City lost one of its most beautiful and magnificent structures. In October of 1963, despite growing public opposition, demolition began on the “late, great Pennsylvania Station.” Its loss was a wake-up call, leading to the creation of the Landmarks Preservation Committee, and to a growing public awareness of the vulnerability of the city’s architectural treasures. The story of its loss is the story of the collision of past and present, youth and age, wisdom and folly.

It’s not a particularly Fringe-y story.

And judging by the late postmark on this submission, you may guess that the decision to submit it was kind of a last-minute one. But this is our thinking: Last year would have been Penn Station’s Centennial. This year is the Biennial of its destruction, as well as the Centennial of Grand Central — a building that was rescued from demolition in large part due to the outcry over the loss of Penn Station. It’s an important year for this story, and we’d like to mark it by seeing the show on its feet in 2013. We could wait until next year and submit it to NYMF, but the funny thing is, we feel like we kind of already “have” that audience. People who regularly attend NYMF musicals would probably gravitate toward this show. We feel that if we could pull in a Fringe audience — if we could make the audience for “Jersey Shoresical” cry a little — we’d really know we had something. So we’re taking a shot.

We hope you like it, and if it doesn’t make you cry a little, that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with being a heartless monster. (Kidding!) But either way, Happy Valentine’s Day to you. And Happy Valentine’s Day to New York.

We love you both,

Maureen FitzGerald

Second Music Post

This is Taylor again, with Katherine Reinert.

First Music Post

In years to come, no doubt finer minds than ours will produce volumes of scientific research demonstrating the impact of climate change on the performing arts. And when they do, it will be old news to me. After losing a third of our Fringe performances to Hurricane Irene in 2011, and a chunk of a recent songwriting workshop to Sandy in 2012, it seemed almost inevitable that in 2013, submissions to the Fringe and the ASCAP workshop would be jeopardized by a blizzard called NEMO, for crap's sake. Nevertheless, we will make our deadlines. The recordings will not be exactly what we might have hoped, but at the last minute our arranger, the lovely and talented Taylor Williams, stepped up to record the male parts of the various songs, and since by a ridiculous coincidence, an old musical theater colleague of his not only moved to New York from San Francisco two weeks ago, but unbeknownst to both of them, had actually moved into an apartment three blocks from his building (which is where we were recording), she was able to hike through the snow to record the female parts.

I wasn’t sure whether I should upload any of the songs here -- the recordings are a little rough, but you know what? The whole point of doing this was to show the evolution and progress of this project, and when the final recordings are done, it will make for an interesting comparison, so here are a couple, what the heck why not?

ASCAP submission

Is OUT the door!  Now on to the Fringe ...

Grand Central Centennial

We’re tantalizingly close to the next phase of this project, and I should have news to post as soon as next Monday.  Meanwhile, I’ve been meaning to mention this for a while, so if you’re at interested in New York City history, architecture, and just all-around awesomeness, you should definitely go check out Grand Central’s Centennial website.  Click on the events tab and you can scroll through the full year’s worth of festivities.  Penn Station would have celebrated its Centennial last year; sadly, 2013 is the 50^th Anniversary of the start of the demolition.   If you don’t pass through Grand Central on a regular basis, it’s worth a special visit, if only to get a bit of a sense of what might have been.

Click below to follow:

Grand Central Centennial