If Carmello's various characters are looking back on their life choices, Pinero's are looking ahead to theirs, and she imbues them with the sweet sense of hope and promise that comes with such horizon-gazing (Jen Caprio captures these loose character threads in her costume designs).

Mia Pinero, in turn, is the gentle yin to Carmello's biting yang, lending her smooth soprano voice to the ballads 'I'm Not Afraid of Anything' (a woman realizing how she has been limited by the people around her) and 'Christmas Lullaby' (a woman singing to, and about, her unborn child). Claus to Santa), and explosive grief (not to mention vocal endurance) in 'The Flagmaker, 1775' (a woman who sews an American flag while her husband and son fight in the Revolutionary War). Contemplation, however, is only one of the colors she gives us throughout the evening: There's also comic acrimony in 'Just One Step' (a performative suicide threat from a wealthy wife to her inattentive husband), satirical schmaltz in the crowd-pleasing 'Surabaya-Santa' (a melodramatic farewell from Mrs. Her 'Stars and the Moon' adds a layer of calloused wit to the song's reflection on the road not taken, giving it an aspect of hard-earned wisdom about the unfulfilling nature of a superficial life. Carolee Carmello earned a Tony nomination back in 1999 for her performance as Lucille Frank in Brown's debut Broadway musical Parade (Brown's score won the Tony), and all the reasons Brown has kept her in his stable of artists are on display on this production. Since we've already broached the subject of 'Stars and the Moon,' probably the most popular number in Brown's entire catalogue, we may as well start with the actor who has the tall task of finding her own take on the song. Fortunately, Hoebee has collected a quartet that stands up to all the challenges set by Brown's score and breathes into it all the vitality and newness the lyrics promise (Georgia Stitt, a beautiful composer in her own right, but who, for the sake of context, must be described here as Brown's wife, lends music supervision - while Sinai Tabak conducts the production's stellar orchestra and delivers a virtuosic performance on piano). Even so, you could be the greatest technician in the world, and without the skill of musical storytelling, 'Stars and the Moon,' Brown's ballad of lost dreams, will send an audience right to dreamland (anyone who frequents cabaret shows or has attended a student showcase knows what I'm talking about). Lest Brown get all the credit, Songs for a New World only expands to the size of its container if it has a cast capable of sending it to the rafters - and not just vocally, though that is certainly key to making it through the challenging blend of jazz, gospel, funk, and pop the score requires.

But each of its five-minute songs draws big stories out of small worlds - or small stories out of big worlds - filling every corner of space with melody and performance. But Songs for a New World itself projects nothing small or tentative. Hoebee found the show's Covid-friendly four person cast an appealingly mild-mannered way to venture back into the world of live audiences. I'm sure Paper Mill's producing artistic director (as well as director of this production) Mark. The theater now reopens with an equally fitting celebration of turning points and pivotal moments with Jason Robert Brown's soaring song cycle Songs for a New World. Musically Directed by Amanda Hodder “In desperate need of a restorative evening? Here’s one.Paper Mill Playhouse went dark in March 2020 after its portentously named production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical revue, Unmasked. This will be the festival’s first presentation of a musical and will be performed in concert with an eight-piece band, under the musical direction of Hobart’s Amanda Hodder, twenty-one years after she first conducted the Australian premiere.įeaturing guest stars Paulini, Chloe Dallimore, John X, Jennifer Peers, John O’Hara, Tyran Parke and many more Now, through exclusive permission from the composer, Australian Musical Theatre Festival is proud to present an ambitious celebration of this work, featuring a dazzling mix of our greatest stars and emerging local talent. Originally written as a chamber piece for four performers, ‘Songs for a New World’ has been a cult hit for more than 30 years but has never felt more relevant. Long before Jason Robert Brown positioned himself as one of Broadway’s finest composers, he took a trunk of abandoned, individual songs and tied them together with a theme, a significant moment of change. As the world emerges from lockdown, we listen for the …

Songs for a new world