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a New Wave musical - of Lovers and Frenemies
FULL MUSICAL STAGED READINGS
FULL MUSICAL STAGED READINGS
Next Step Theatre Festival
Thursday, June 11 @ 1 pm and 8 pm
The Producers' Club, 358 W 44 St
FREE, but RSVPs required to furpajamasmusical@gmail.com
It's an intimate venue, so don't delay! Provide your name, phone number, number of seats (limit of 2), and performance time.
Admission will be confirmed by return email.
Hope to see you at FUR PAJAMAS!
MUSIC BY
MUSIC BY
John Allman
BOOK + LYRICS BY
BOOK + LYRICS BY
David Ceci
STORY BY
STORY BY
John Allman & David Ceci
co-producers
co-producers
John Allman & David Ceci
MUSIC DIRECTOR
MUSIC DIRECTOR
John Allman
STAGE DIRECTOR
STAGE DIRECTOR
Andrew Coopman
FESTIVAL INFO + TICKETS
FESTIVAL INFO + TICKETS
For information about FUR PAJAMAS and the other shows being presented at the Next Step Theatre Festival (June 8 - 14), visit the festival website at www.nextsteptheatrefest.com.
SYNOPSIS
SYNOPSIS
Nigel Gladstone was the hot British front man for Fur Pajamas, a one-hit wonder '80s New Wave band. Now, years later and down on his luck, he makes a desperate (or desperately brilliant?!) proposition to his vengeful ex-bandmate Peter and his young new agent Andi: write a jukebox musical, using their old song catalog, for a competition - with a deadline in 1 week! With an ex-girlfriend who's ready to sue, an elusive ex-wife who may (or may not) hold the key, and a young rock star ready to carry Andi away - can Nigel reconcile his past with the present, and really make it big again?
THE CREATORS
THE CREATORS
JOHN ALLMAN
Composer, lyricist and playwright John Allman was music director for staged readings in Seattle of Fur Pajamas, and his own musical The Miracle of the Salt. He music-directed his children’s musical Bee Present in Redmond, WA. As a singer/songwriter he’s played the Seattle Cabaret Festival. Previously, he MD’d a reading his own mini-musical adaptation of Poe’s House of Usher. John wrote songs for 4 prior children’s musicals: Snow Queen, Fluffy Tale of Adventure, Alice in Wonderland and Sparkle Fairy’s School. He wrote incidental music for Agamemnon and Henry V at La MaMa ETC in NYC, and MD’d a workshop of his Alice in Santa Fe, NM.
DAVID CECI
David Ceci (he/him) writes across multiple genres about characters who tend to live in the past or the future. In addition to these readings of FUR PAJAMAS, he is also workshopping his supernatural horror play Unfamiliar: A Maidstone Tale at the PG Exploration Festival. Last fall, David directed a staged reading of Act I of Arsinoë IV, an historical drama set in ancient Egypt, at the Spark Theatre Festival, while its origin short play ( also titled Arsinoë IV) was a Finalist with Red Bull Theatre's Short New Play Festival. He also self-produced a short play derived from the full-length Unfamiliar: AMT in festivals at both The Secret Theatre and The Players Theatre. The Enemy Unseen, a dystopian sci-fi adventure (formerly Sundown), was selected for a developmental reading at The Skeleton Rep’s Salon Series, and David continues to develop The Fountain, a period romantic drama set in southern Italy. His work has also been developed at The PlayGround Experiment, Seattle Playwrights' Salon, and Primary Stages ESPA. He is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and PGE.
ANDREW COOPMAN
Andrew Coopman (they/he) is a freelance director-choreographer. Drama League Directors Project alumnus, Andrew’s work as a director and choreographer has been seen on stages in Chicago, Dallas, Milwaukee, Ithaca, New York City, and more. Credits include: Billy to His Friends (World Premier, The Wild Project/Fresh Fruit Fest), MIKEY! (World Premier, The Tank), Georgia & The Butch (World Premier, The Tank) Alan Turing & The Queen of the Night (World Premier, Players Theater) The Apollo of Bellac (Hangar Theatre), Head Over Heels (Lakewood Playhouse), Bryony Lavery’s Frozen: A Play (Cabaret Theater), Little Women (Seattle Musical Theater), Cinderella (Village Theatre), and Orfeo y Euridice (Seattle Opera). MFA Directing, University of Washington and MA, Educational Theatre, New York University – Steinhardt. SDC member.
CAST LIST
CAST LIST
NIGEL GLADSTONE:
ANDREA 'ANDI' WILSON:
PETER BERTUCCI:
CLAUDIA RICHTER:
EVA JEAN BARNES:
ZACH POWELL:
DENISE MAXWELL:
MAITRE D:
CHARACTER DOUBLING
ANDI: Adelita, Commuter, Pom Pom
CLAUDIA: Commuter, Pom Pom
EVA JEAN: Entourage, Commuter, Pom Pom, Jaded New Yorker
ZACH: Entourage, Pat, Train Conductor, Jaded New Yorker
DENISE: Entourage, Commuter, Pom Pom, Jaded New Yorker
MAITRE D: Entourage, Commuter, Paralegal, Jaded New Yorker, Gothic Character
SET LIST
SET LIST
"Life of a Star"
"This Isn't Just Some Gig"
"Damn Straight"
"C'est La Venus"
"Safe Choice"
"I'm Over That"
"Delirium"
"The Snake"
"Drive a DeLorean"
"Fixating on Me"
"One of a Kind"
"Famous Once"
"What Would Keith Do?"
"Wanna Be With You"
"Echoes of the Past"
"I Can Feel It"
"I Thought I Knew"
"Don't Let Them Go"
THE CAST / AUDITIONS ARE UNDERWAY!
THE CAST / AUDITIONS ARE UNDERWAY!
NIGEL
NIGEL
ANDI
ANDI
PETER
PETER
CLAUDIA
CLAUDIA
EVA JEAN
EVA JEAN
ZACH
ZACH
DENISE
DENISE
MAITRE D
MAITRE D
STAGE DIRECTIONS
STAGE DIRECTIONS
DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
John & David at the post-reading party in Seattle (Oct 2024).
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
John and David met at a Dramatists Guild ‘speed dating’ event for writers and composers in NYC, and while John was intrigued by David’s basic story idea that eventually became FUR PAJAMAS, David insisted that he needed to write the entire story out as a straight play before the two of them could collaborate on a musical version. Serious collaborative work on adapting that play version into a the show with music began in earnest in 2019, and the Seattle Playwrights Salon hosted a self-produced staged reading in July of that year. Following an unanticipated pause brought on by COVID-19, David returned to the next draft of the book, presenting several rewritten / new scenes at The PlayGround Experiment - a developmental theater company based in NYC - in 2021 and 2022. After a year in which John and David focused on individual projects, in March 2024 they returned to FUR PAJAMAS and conducted a Zoom table reading of the fully revised script. In October 2024, they moved ahead and self-produced a staged reading of the current version of the show in Seattle... which brings us to the upcoming staged reading at the Next Step Theatre Festival at The Producers' Club in NYC!
Tickling the ivories in 2024
Tickling the ivories in 2024
Talkback at 2019 SPS
Talkback at 2019 SPS
Practice, practice, practice
Practice, practice, practice
Theatre Puget Sound 2025
Theatre Puget Sound 2025
2025
Seattle Armory 2024
Seattle Armory 2024
2024 (logo designed by Noel Pederson-Walker)
Palace Theatre & Bar 2019
Palace Theatre & Bar 2019
2019
2025
2024
2019
SPECIAL THANKS
Book writer and lyricist David Ceci would like to acknowledge the vital role played by two very special NYC-based organizations in the development of FUR PAJAMAS.
Primary Stages Einhorn School for the Performing Arts (ESPA) offers classes in writing, acting and directing. In 2017, David wrote the lyrics for all of the songs on FUR PAJAMAS' four studio albums in an Advanced Lyric Writing course taught by Adam Gwon (Ordinary Days, Scotland PA). Some of those diegetic songs made their way into the score. Later that spring, David started to flesh out Nigel's story in a weekend writing workshop (A Play in 2 Days) taught by Melissa Ross (Nice Girl, Of Good Stock). And that summer, in a cabaret-style event celebrating ESPA writers, David presented two scenes (directed by Ria DiLullo) and two songs (directed by Jen Curfman) with Tony Patryn as Nigel and Badia Farha (School of Rock, Hell's Kitchen) as Eva Jean. Additional ESPA classes in which David continued to work on the book were taught by Suzanne Bradbeer (Confederates, The God Game), Winter Miller (In Darfur, No One is Forgotten), and Michael Mitnick (The Siegel, Fly By Night).
The PlayGround Experiment, a developmental theatre company founded by current Artistic Director Mike Lesser, is home to an extraordinary group of artists who are welcoming, encouraging and generous with their time and feedback. Fast forward to 2021 and 2022, when David was able to hear several newly revised scenes from FUR PAJAMAS that were read by the talented actors of PGE in various Volumes, their flagship program designed to 'test drive' messy new work.
FUR PAJAMAS GRAPHICS DESIGNED by RENÉE NICOLE GRAY
FUR PAJAMAS GRAPHICS DESIGNED by RENÉE NICOLE GRAY
See Renée's other design work at her website, https://reneenicolegray.com/
AND WHAT'S WITH THE NAME?
AND WHAT'S WITH THE NAME?
Well, it turns out that Nigel was a big Talking Heads fan growing up. In 1986, when they released their album, True Stories, Nigel was first in line to buy it at the only record shop in his small English village. After running all the way home with his newly acquired treasure, Nigel proceeded to play that album so often that the needle started to cut through the vinyl. Wild Wild Life was the lead single from that album, and when Nigel heard the first line of that song - "I'm wearing fur pajamas" - he couldn't stop imagining himself as a rock 'n' roll god. Before his nan could say "Bob's your uncle," he'd spent all his money to buy a old electric guitar and book a flight to New York, where he just KNEW that he could achieve his rock 'n' roll dreams and live the life of a star! Little did he know just how fast that would happen, or how quickly it would all fade away...
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