Band Directing Music Musical
One of my best casts yet – A lovely time working with these six talented ladies as Music Director for the Ottawa Halloween premiere!
Client Name
Lost Baggage Musical Theater
Release Date
October 28, 2022
Project Types
Music | Band | Directing
Very much appreciated your insightfulness and preshow preparations. Everyone enjoyed working with you and you helped make the rehearsal and show process successful and stress free. I don't think we have ever had a band that was so well prepared!
Mathieu Charlebois
LBMT President
Ottawa Premiere
Screams Queens!
I've watched Lost Baggage grow as a musical theater company in Ottawa since 2018 and been impressed with their vision and ability to bring musicals to Ottawa's east end and draw newcomers to the arts community.
And their choice of Halloween show jibed with my sense of humor and also appealed to my desire for more flexible winter vacation possibilities!
So I reached out and happily got the gig.
We casted in early summer and I was a taskmaster encouraging slow summer learning of the score.
The end result was a super smooth rehearsal schedule and a nice tight show. Super proud of everyone involved in it.
Scream Queens: The Musical
Lost Baggage Musical Theater
October 2022
Musical Director | Accompanist | Band
Lost Baggage Musical Theater
October 2022
Musical Director | Accompanist | Band
“They sing – they dance – they die!”
A hotel ballroom, 1998, and six voluptuous B-movie “Scream Queens” revive their fading acting careers by presenting a musical revue for their fans at a science fiction and horror film convention. From young newbie to seasoned grand dame, the Queens strut their stuff in song and dance to prove “I Got All of the Talent I Need.”
For 90 minutes of hilarious musical mayhem, they take the audience into the world of no-budget movies with awful scripts, fake monsters and gooey “Special FX.” They even involve the audience in a screaming contest and zombie talent search.
As each Queen reveals her personal story, we share their hopes and dreams, from Tonya’s love of her idol “Fay Wray” to Alexis’ advice that “Everybody Starts at the Bottom” to DeeDee’s secrets of Scream Queen longevity: “Don’t Open That Door.” British screen veteran Nadine savors her joy of being “Still In Demand” while Bianca celebrates the lifetime achievements of “Roger Corman” and Richelle laments her own elusive “Happy Endings.” They also screen original clips from their direct-to-video “scary movie” spoofs such as “Revenge of the Psycho Bimbos” and “Malibu Vampire Vixens,” all hoping to attract the attention of a popular young horror film director lurking in the audience.
A hotel ballroom, 1998, and six voluptuous B-movie “Scream Queens” revive their fading acting careers by presenting a musical revue for their fans at a science fiction and horror film convention. From young newbie to seasoned grand dame, the Queens strut their stuff in song and dance to prove “I Got All of the Talent I Need.”
For 90 minutes of hilarious musical mayhem, they take the audience into the world of no-budget movies with awful scripts, fake monsters and gooey “Special FX.” They even involve the audience in a screaming contest and zombie talent search.
As each Queen reveals her personal story, we share their hopes and dreams, from Tonya’s love of her idol “Fay Wray” to Alexis’ advice that “Everybody Starts at the Bottom” to DeeDee’s secrets of Scream Queen longevity: “Don’t Open That Door.” British screen veteran Nadine savors her joy of being “Still In Demand” while Bianca celebrates the lifetime achievements of “Roger Corman” and Richelle laments her own elusive “Happy Endings.” They also screen original clips from their direct-to-video “scary movie” spoofs such as “Revenge of the Psycho Bimbos” and “Malibu Vampire Vixens,” all hoping to attract the attention of a popular young horror film director lurking in the audience.
The toughest thing about this show was the music was unavailable as a recording so I purposely made piano vocal tracks for our cast in June/July and asked them to come to music only rehearsals in August ready to sing. That preplanning was well worth the effort as our cast had a third of the show musically ready at our first script read-along with the production team at the end of August.
Our fall rehearsals went super smooth as a result and the extra time was spent really tightening the choreography and delivery.
The show as an absolute scream!
Our fall rehearsals went super smooth as a result and the extra time was spent really tightening the choreography and delivery.
The show as an absolute scream!
Backstory films of our cast
One of the cooler features of this show was that all cast members had their own back stories of horror films they had starred in and the script allowed for creative license in making them. Check out the results!