Kurt Misar The Musicals

THE MUSICALS

SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON - 2006

(one act musical) - music

This work was originally commissioned by John Monteverde, then at the Northwest Children's Theater, Portland, OR. Working with me, my LA-based, Lehman Engel Musical Theater workshop partner, Brad Beaver loosely adapted the work from the book and wrote both libretto and lyrics. Completed 6 years late, a cast demo recording is currently being produced. Sample tracks will be added as finished.

THE BISHOP’S BOTTOM - 2004

(one act musical) - music

This one-act project was created to be coupled with my own Christmas at Kings Head Inn in order to provide a two-act holiday program. The original story and libretto are by Nurmi Husa and lyrics by Brad Beaver. While we completed a second draft of this project, following a workshop reading and audience comments, the three authors could not agree on the changes needed to further refine the work. As a result, this is a project that will never be available for stage production.

A replacement one-act (Christmas at the Spread Eagle Inn) is in current development with book and lyric by Brad Beaver and several songs from this incomplete project will be found in the new work. No cast album will be made and the musical excerpts herein are instrumental.

CHARLOTTE'S WEB - 2000

(one act musical) - music adaptation

A musical written by Jay Harnick (brother of Sheldon Harnick), I was hired to musically edit, arrange and produce the finished songs and underscore for the Oregon Children’s Theater Co, April 2000 production. The selections included here are from the 2000 production. The songs were lip-synced by the actors on stage.

THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS - 1998

(two act musical) - music and co-lyrics

An original musical, this play comes with a number of lyrics written by A. A. Milne - who wrote the play adaptation. I was hired to set these to music, add additional lyrics or new lyrics (for new songs) to loosely adapt the play into this musical for the Northwest Children's Theater 1998 production. The cast sang live to pre-recorded tracks made in the studio. No demo or cast recording was made and the lone vocal recording is a pop ballad version of the title song (used as the Exit music cue). The musical excerpts herein are mostly instrumental, from the original production tracks. The Overture and Entr'acte cues provide an overview of the major themes and song melodies.

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY - 1997

(one act musical play) - music adaptation and co-lyrics

This was a play with incidental songs and underscore. The music themes were adapted from the Briccuse-Newly movie score (Willy Wonka, etc.) and the opening song was sung by select music students from Chapman Grade School, Portland OR. The Bow and Exit music solo, is the great local jazz trumpeter - Gavin Bondy. These cues with underscoring were created for the 1997 Oregon Children’s Theater Company production and were used again for a repeat production in 2002.

THE RIDDLE OF THE DRUM, THE LEGEND OF LUCIA ZENTANO AND THE KING WHO WAS BORED - 1997

(3 one-act musical plays) - music

These were three short plays adapted for children's dramatic theater (to be performed by students), each containing 2 or 3 short songs. Working with just 2 weeks lead time, 9 songs (all with a Mexican-Spanish flavor) and numerous reprises were written and simple MIDI instrumental arrangements were produced for the kids to sing to for this 1997 Sexton Mountain Grade School production. No demo recording was made. Future instrumental versions may be posted later.

CLAUS, Not Your Ordinary Christmas Eve - 1995

(two act musical) - music

In partnership with LA-based playwright and lyricist, Gordon Duffey, this project was begun while my wife and I were still living in Los Angeles and took 10 years and 6 drafts to complete. Loosely adapted from two works by L. Frank Baum (of Wizard of Oz fame) this was produced twice by Oregon Children’s Theater Company. The 1995 premiere production featured many of the cast members on the demo recordings found here, singing live to a studio recorded instrumental sound track. The 1996 production was performed with a live piano-bass-drums trio.

JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH - 1993

(one act musical) - music and co-lyric

This one hour play adaptation contained all of Roald Dahl's original verse. I was hired to set these to music and work with stage director Greg Tamblyn adding additional lyrics to loosely adapt the play into this musical for the 1993 Oregon Children’s Theater Company production. The work was produced again by OCTC in April 1999 and the selections included here are from the 1999 production. Because of the vast size of the Keller Auditorium (over 3,000 seats), these are the recordings lip-synced by the actors on stage -- used to control the audio balance.

ALL'S FAIR - 1989

(two act musical) - music

Four years in the making, and written both in LA and Portland, this was my second collaboration with fellow Lehman Engel Musical Theater alum, David Scott Marley - a musical adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing set in the Fifth Avenue glamour of depression-era New York City.

A screw-ball comedy with an American popular song score this project won the Northwest Playwright's Guild "Best of Fest" Award and premiered as a full stage production at the now gone, Portland Civic Theater - June 1989 -- winning that year's Portland Drama Critic Circle's Drammy Award for best "Original Play." No demo recording was ever produced. The vocal selections here are mono dubs from a cable access video taping of this production.

CHRISTMAS AT KINGS HEAD INN - 1987

(one act musical) - music, book and lyric

This is my second original project, originally intended to be a one-act companion piece to The Best Kind of Christmas. However, as writing progressed, it became clear that this was much darker in tone than the other one-act. This project was also begun in partnership with Greg Gosser (with whom I had recently completed a Harry Warren musical revue).

Greg was extremely instrumental in helping to shape the original story and contributed ideas to the first two songs written. Unable to find time to write out the libretto, Greg bowed from the project, which I completed alone. This project remains unproduced while waiting for a companion piece to complete a two-act work. (See The Bishop's Bottom and Christmas at the Spread Eagle Inn for more details.) A demo vocal recording will be made upon completion of both acts. Herein are two partial instrumental excerpts.

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS - 1985

(two act musical) - music

With book adaptation and lyric by David Scott Marley from the film of the same name, this was our first full collaboration after abandoning work on an adaptation of the film The Desk Set.
Written in LA while we were both senior members of the Lehman Musical Theater Workshop, this was a sample project written on spec, without permission to adapt from the property owners (as was urged by Lehman at the time.)

Consequently, this completed project cannot be produced without first obtaining permission from the estate of James Goldman (and all numerous attempts have failed to negotiate with said agent.) Several low-quality demo recordings were made, including of the workshop reading held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in LA, but none are of sufficient quality to reproduce here. The project was mounted as a revue at Salem State College (MA). This lone recording comes from an incomplete sketch I drafted for the orchestration of the opening number.

THE BEST KIND OF CHRISTMAS - 1984

(one act musical) - music, book and lyric

My first solo project, this one-act was written in LA the Fall of 1984 largely to replace the loss of writing on an annual Cinnamon Bear project. Intended to be wholly removed from elves and Santa, this simple tale was influenced by my ink and water color creation of several Christmas ornaments made years earlier (of a sea captain, a barber and his wife). Written first as a radio drama with songs and later as a stage one-act, this project has never been produced (lacking a companion piece) and no demo vocal recordings have been made. The excerpts here are instrumental-only, of the original song orchestrations.

CINNAMON BEAR AND ....
--------------------

...THE TAMING OF THE SHOE - 1983.
...THE TOY ELVES - 1982.
...THE ELVES THAT FORGOT CHRISTMAS - 1981.
...THE MAGIC JINGLE BELLS - 1980
...THE GIANT OGRE - 1979

(one-act musicals) music and co-lyric

Meeting writer-director-choreographer Michael Snider in 1978, (and contributing a single song to his 1978 production), we began a long collaboration creating holiday one-act musicals for Bambergers, Robinsons, Lipman-Wolfe and Frederick & Nelson Department Stores. These same collection of shows, with Cinnamon Bear, or with the later Peppermint Bear, were also produced as holiday entertainment for IBM, Inc., Kodak Co.; and by regional and collegiate theaters with productions in Oregon, California, New York, Hawaii, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Washington, Nevada and Wisconsin.

Each production was performed live to a recorded musical soundtrack. Although most of these soundtracks still exist, their recording, performance and arrangement quality are no longer at an acceptable public level. The 1980 CB Show was adapted from The Blue Kangaroo (see below) and the three music samples herein are a combination of recordings from both shows. (See The Blue Kangaroo for more details.)

These three additional one-act musicals also came about during this time.

BENNY AND THE EASTER BUNNY

(one act musical) - music and co-lyric

Produced for Bambergers located in New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania in 1982. This was our lone effort to create an Easter-based holiday show. Script and lead sheets are available, but no production recordings exist.

SANTA CLAUS AND THE CHRISTMAS OGRE - 1980 & 2002
(one act musical) - music

This was a collaboration with Francine Winters, who wrote her own one-act script and borrowed music from the Cinnamon Bear show of the same name (The Giant Ogre). No demo song recordings exist, but the sample instrumental music provided comes from this 2002 production.

THE BLUE KANGAROO

(one act musical) - music and co-lyric

Michael Snider borrowed heavily from The Velveteen Rabbit story to create this one-act which premiered at La Salle High School, Portland, OR - 1980. Additional productions by regional, high school and collegiate theaters and/or theater departments have occurred in Oregon, Hawaii, Wisconsin and Tennessee. No full demo or cast song recordings were made, but the sample instrumental tracks come from rewritten charts for the 2004 Wisconsin production. The Overture cue provides an overview of the major themes and song melodies. Doin' the Kangaroo is a newer 2000 instrumental accompaniment arrangement and Teamwork is from an original demo made in 1984 featuring a solo by LA-actor Rick Starr.

CLOWNS, CLOWNS, CLOWNS

(two act musical) - music and lyric

From an original idea my the stage director, Steve Knox, this was a loosely conceived book musical with eight musical numbers including two by Steve Schaubel and one by Scott Duvall (both songwriters who worked with me in banking during this period.) Featuring several local actors and 120 teenage girls, this project was hastily pieced together in 2 months, but received terrific reviews and ticket sales at the 1978 St. Mary's Academy premiere. Script, lead sheets and orchestrations are available, but no production recordings exist.

I LOST ME AT THE MOVIES

(two act musical) - music and lyric

From his original story, JP Linde wrote the first draft of the book and Gordon Abshire wrote a second and final draft. This project was originally slated for production during the 1976-77 season, was revoked a week from tryouts and then reinstated as a scaled down production, following the replacement show's embarrassing flop. This 1977 Lake Oswego Community Theater, production received terrific reviews and audiences. Script, lead sheets and orchestrations are available, but no production recordings exist.