Small, intimate musicals. Small casts and solo shows.
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Master Smee's Finishing School for Gentlemen Pirates, and Ladies is Welcome Too
A full-length one-man show starring one of the most endearing characters in all of literature. Winner, SoloFest, Los Angeles, 2014.
Master Smee has had it after thirty years of potscrubbin’ and bootlickin’, so he’s cooked up an ill-conceived idea to kidnap himself a ship of his own. He’s set up a finishing school for gentlemen and lady pirates and tricks his new recruits into hoving out to sea with him and a secret treasure map belong to Captain Hook. Things begin to go terribly wrong, when he realizes to his dismay that Hook is already three steps ahead of him, and poor Smee now needs some quick alibis or, in his words, “might as well go voluntarily pouncy-pouncing off the end of the plank!”
Queen Mab's Alarmingly Mandatory Bridal Shower
Music by Offenbach. 1 woman. 45 minutes. Queen Mab has ordered us, her Fairy Court, to join her in a hastily-put-together Bridal Shower, to celebrate this morning’s engagement to the Duke…her twenty-ninth fiancé.
The Elephant's Child
Three of Kipling’s most beloved tales, come to life in a musical adaptation for three actors. Teachers will delight in hearing Kipling’s original, playful language, blended with moments of spontaneity and audience interaction.
“I wrote The Elephant’s Child in response to requests from theatre companies which loved my non-musical adaptation of three other Just So Stories, which has played for over 500,000 children in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. If you have actors who can sing, The Elephant’s Child is perfect for you!”
Soul of Darkness
Music by Placido Domingo. A steam-punk musical.
A young 19th-century heiress, Mary, is haunted by nightmares of demons and vampires; but in her dreams since childhood the vampire is her rescuer and guardian. On the eve of Mary’s wedding, the vampire materializes to rescue her from her fiancé, who is being blackmailed by an ambitious prostitute. Mary’s naiveté eventually gives way to the much darker side of her nature, and she is horrified to discover the pleasure she feels as the vampire kills the prostitute upon her request. When her fiancé turns out to be an unforgiving jealous opportunist, the last of Mary’s naivité crumbles, and she accepts the blackness of her own soul and her inevitable fate as a nosferatu, happily made loving and nurturing by the vampire who has rescued her.
Twice-Told Tales
O.Henry, Hawthorne, Poe and Twain. The Ransom of Red Chief, Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Mysterious Stranger. Classic, literate, funny and spooky. Cast of four; single set; piano only — a crowd and budget pleaser.
The Just So Stories
Three classic tales from Rudyard Kipling, brought to life by three actors, a trunk of imaginative costumes, and you. This script has had thousands of performances for nearly a half-a-million children in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Tried, true, tested, plus it fits beautifully into the Common Core curriculum in multiple areas.
“While remaining remarkably true to the original text of the stories, Guy enhances Kipling’s already wonderful storytelling techniques, weaving in many moments of audience participation. This unique retelling of a literary classic brings the stories from the page to the stage in a truly engaging fashion.” (Merry Go Round Playhouse, New York)
Frogs in the Living Room
music by Liza Lehmann. 1 man, 1 woman. 90 minutes; no intermission.
Crime and Punishment
Dostoevsky’s edgy, psychological thriller, work, with a classical/pop score.
In a filthy tavern, a clerk and a painter commiserate about how the local pawnbroker has cruelly oppressed them and how much better off the world would be if someone would simply kill the old woman. Young brooding student Raskolnikov overhears their fantasies, and we hear his PSYCHE begin to contemplate whether such a murder is possible. (Raskolnikov’s Psyche is sung by six voices.) Before he’s conscious of what he’s doing, Raskolnikov visits the pawnbroker and kills her and her sister with an axe. His dreams are tortured and tormented, and give him a burning desire to confess his crime and accept his inevitable punishment.
A cast of seven and minimal set makes this show easily producable, and its focus on murder and subsequent guilt make the show powerfully relevant to a modern-day audience.
Flatland
Music by Eric Satie. 2 men, 2 women. 75 minutes; no intermission. A 2-dimensional Square dares to dream the heretical dream that there might be THREE dimensions.