2024 - Gordon Leary

First read/sing of the first act!

There are few things as exciting as hearing the songs you’ve written sung for the first time, especially when they are sung by some of your most trusted (and talented) collaborators.

Julia and I were thrilled to have a table reading of the complete (and sprawling) first act of These Familiar Spirits – all 90 minutes and 16 songs of it!

Thanks to our readers and singers – Shaleah Adkisson, Liz Carbonell, MinJi Kim, Lauren Marcus, Allison Posner, Hana Slevin, Rebecca Spiro, and Colette Robert – and music director extraordinaire Rich Silverstein for tackling a lot of material in a short amount of time and letting us hear this new project for the very first time! What could be better than an afternoon with generous, talented, and insightful artists??

On to Act II and Michigan later this year!

Florida Festival of New Musicals

Cheer Wars Readings

Karlan and I had a wonderful time at the Florida Festival of New Musicals seeing a reading of the first act of Cheer Wars. Over the last 15 years we’ve had some amazing opportunities with the show, and it was great to expand the squad of artists who have been a part of the journey!

Thank you to director Desiree Montes, music director Harrison Light, stage manager Hillary Humphries, and our wonderful cast: Jake Aboyoun, Lizzie Black, Lindsay Diaz, Mahalia Gronigan, Victoria Highsmith, Rachel Hope Ihasz, Brandon Roberts, Carly Simpson, Vanessa Sotomayer, Avianna Tato, Addison Ward, Kelly Wells, and Chase Williams. Thanks always to the wonderful staff at the Winter Park Playhouse – Roy Alan, Heather Alexander, Lisa Milello, Todd Allen Long, and festival coordinator Conny Williamson – for welcoming us to Florida and putting on such a wonderful event.

I’m hopeful that there will be more cheer in the future!

Cheer Wars returns!

Cheer Wars Readings

Cheer Wars will be featured in this summer’s Florida Festival of New Musicals at the Winter Park Playhouse in Winter Park, Florida!

The festival will feature six musicals by writers across the country over the course of four days, June 20-23, 2024.

The time has never felt more right to stake a claim for joy, and I’m excited to revisit this project with Karlan almost 17 years (gulp!) after we started writing it!

Twenty-twenty-three.

Updates

It was a year of fulfilling long-standing promises and wildest dreams before starting new ones!

After over three years of waiting and planning, Julia and I finally got to bring The Magnificent Seven to life at Flint Repertory Theatre. We released our very first original cast album featuring the 2022 Theatre Row cast of The Magnificent Seven. And we received our very first commission to write These Familiar Spirits with Flint Rep!

As always, the best part of the year was the community of artists – both longstanding and brand new – with whom, for whom, and because of whom I was able to create:

Kendra Babcock, Bret Beaudry, Ann Beyersdorfer, Ally Bonino, Taja Christine Calhoun, Catie Davis, Jake DeGroot, Adam Dill, LaRaisha Dionne, Sasha Dudock, Alex Finke, Emi Fishman, Jesse Glenn, Alex Grindey, Beth Guest, Bryana Hall, Miranda Hartman, Duane Lee Holland Jr, Scott Anthony Joy, Sukari Jones, MinJi Kim, Kimberly Koljat, Amanda Kuo, Allison Lian, Michael Lluberes, Jeremy Robin Lyons, Rebecca MacCreery, Ellen Condon Macy, Melissa A. Nathan, Terrence Newman, Emma Orr, Matt Otto, Lucas Perro, Allison Posner, Alvon Reed, Mary Paige Rieffel, Katie Rodgers, Lynne Marie Rosenberg, Nicole Samsel, Russ Sauter, Libby Servais, Rich Silverstein, Hana Slevin, Monica Spencer, Rebecca Spiro, Phoebe Strole, Dave Thompson, and Abbey Wiker.

I’m excited for a year of new ideas and new victories and new experiences in 2024!