Connect with us

Arts & Entertainment

New voices, new works

Signature takes daring chance on two new musicals by local composers

Published

on

Matt Conner (left) and Adam Gwon, composers of two new musicals on the boards now at Signature. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

‘The Boy Detective Fails’
‘The Hollow’
Through Oct. 16
Signature Theatre
4200 Campbell Avenue, Arlington
703-820-9771

In a rather bold move, Signature Theatre, the Arlington-based company that is best known for doing pared down takes on fat Broadway hits, is opening its fall season with not one but two world premiere musicals in full production in rep. And what’s more, the shows, “The Boy Detective Fails” and “The Hollow,” are the new works of talented rising composers Adam Gwon and Matt Conner respectively, and not the latest offerings from a pair of household names.

As part of Signature’s American Musical Voices Project: The Next Generation, Conner and Gwon (both gay) were each commissioned to develop full length musicals.  Not long after receiving his commission, New York-based Gwon met with Eric Schaeffer (Signature’s gay artistic director) to discuss project ideas: “I was determined to do ‘The Boy Detective Fails.,’” Gwon says. “When I’d read it several years earlier, I knew instantly that it was something I had to make into a musical.”

Adapted from the same-titled popular novel by Joe Meno (also the musical’s librettist), “The Boy Detective Fails” tells the story of famed kid sleuth Billy Argo who returns to his hometown after 10 years in a mental institution to solve the mystery of his sister’s death. Hardly the stuff of the Nancy Drew series, but still Gwon says he approached his contemporary musical theater score in childlike way, “trying to create a world full of wonder that is at times earnest and heartfelt and then changes to scary.”

Conner’s story is different. He says Schaeffer suggested he develop a chilling musical reinterpretation of Washington Irving’s classic “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”: “My first thought was I better re-read this,” says Conner, 41. “All I could remember was it had a guy without a head, but of course there a lot more including themes of country vs. city and what it likes to be an outsider.”

After selecting Hunter Foster (librettist and Broadway actor) to write the book for “The Hollow,” Conner concentrated on the show’s score, which he describes as having a classical feel.

“It begins very structured and grounded and then soars off into my own ethereal world,” he says.

Conner successfully mined Irving’s text for lyrics, finding both vivid imagery and beautifully expressed phrases. He also uses the townsfolk’s Dutch language to accentuate city boy, English speaker Ichabod Crane’s otherness.

Growing up on a dairy farm in Stephens City, Va., Conner learned to play piano by ear and became involved in his church choir. He attended the Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester. After graduating he began doing musical theater in the D.C. area and eventually found an artistic home at Signature.

As a boy in Baltimore, Gwon displayed an affinity for music. At 3, he was climbing up on the bench and plunking out tunes on the family piano. His parents smartly fostered his interest.

“I experienced music and theater on different tracks: drama club and after school classical piano lessons” says Gwon, 31. Eventually it came together in college (NYU’s undergraduate drama program) where he first wrote music for student productions. Inspired by that experience and the work of a freshman year musical theater professor who unexpectedly died mid-semester, Gwon was hooked.

Both composers have known success. Gwon’s musical about young New Yorkers “Ordinary Days” enjoyed a successful Off-Broadway run, and Conner’s Edgar Allen Poe musical paean “Nevermore” was popularly produced at Signature five seasons ago. More recently Conner completed a yet-to-be-produced musical adaptation of “Night of the Living Dead” in collaboration with local actor Stephen Gregory Smith (who plays the title role in “The Boy Detective Fails”). Apparently Conner isn’t concerned about becoming the go-to guy for spooky musicals: “I may be a poor composer most of the year, but hopefully every October when Halloween rolls around, I’ll earn a lot of royalties.”

Among possible future projects, Gwon is considering composing a show based on Harvard University’s “Secret Court” of 1920. Spurred by the suicide of a gay undergraduate, the university created a disciplinary tribunal responsible for investigating a wide circle of sexually adventurous gays on campus. Those found guilty were punished with suspension or expulsion.

Conner is also interested in setting the LGBT experience to music with something related to Stonewall.

But for the moment, Conner and Gwon remain focused on succeeding at Signature.

 

Advertisement
FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM
SIGN UP FOR E-BLAST

Photos

PHOTOS: Silver Pride

Rayceen Pendarvis serves as emcee

Published

on

Rayceen Pendarvis was the emcee of Silver Pride 2025. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The 2025 Silver Pride Resource Fair and Tea Dance was held at the Eaton Hotel on Wednesday, May 21.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)

Continue Reading

Out & About

Queer film festival comes to D.C.

DC/DOX to showcase LGBTQ documentaries made by LGBTQ filmmakers

Published

on

DC/DOX film festival will take place in D.C. on June 12.

DC/DOX will host a film festival beginning on Thursday, June 12, at the Regal Gallery Place, Eaton Cinema, and the U.S. Navy Memorial Burke Theatre. 

This festival will premier LGBTQ documentaries made by LGBTQ filmmakers. Each screening will be followed by in-person Q&As with the filmmakers. 

For more details, visit dcdoxfest.com

Continue Reading

Movies

Gay director on revealing the authentic Pee-wee Herman

New HBO doc positions Reubens as ‘groundbreaking’ performance artist

Published

on

The HBO Original two-part documentary ‘PEE-WEE AS HIMSELF,’ directed by Matt Wolf), debuts Friday, May 23 (8 p.m.-11:20 p.m. ET/PT) with both parts airing back-to-back on HBO and will be available to stream on Max. (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.)

In the new HBO two-part documentary, “Pee-wee as Himself,” director Matt Wolf gives viewers a never-before-seen look into the personal life of Paul Reubens, the comedic actor behind the much loved television persona, Pee-wee Herman. 

Filmed before Reubens passed away in 2023 from cancer, Wolf and his creative team created the riveting documentary, interspersing several interviews, more than 1,000 hours of archival footage, and tens of thousands of personal photos.

Determined to set the record straight about what really happened, Reubens discussed his diverse influences, growing up in the circus town of Sarasota, Fla., and his avant-garde theater training at the California Institute of the Arts. 

Ruebens joined the Groundlings improv group, where he created the charismatic Pee-wee Herman. He played the quirky character during the Saturday morning show, “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” and in numerous movies, like “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” and “Big Top Pee-wee.” He also brought Pee-wee to Broadway, with “The Pee-wee Herman Show.”

To get an enigma such as Reubens to open up was no easy task for Wolf.

“I felt determined to get Paul to open up and to be his authentic self,” acknowledged Wolf at a recent press conference. “And I was being tested and I wanted to meet my match in a way so I didn’t feel frustrated or exhausted, I felt determined but I also, it was thrilling to go this deep. I’ve never been able, or I don’t know if I ever will, go this deep with another human being to interview them in an intimate way for over 40 hours.”

Wolf described the collaborative interview experience as a dream, “like we were in a bubble where time didn’t matter.” he also felt a deep connection to the material, having come of age watching “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.”

“I wouldn’t have been able to put words to it at the time, but I think it was my first encounter with art that I felt emotionally involved in,” noted Wolf.

“He continued: “I recognize that that show created a space for a certain kind of radical acceptance where creativity thrives. And as a gay filmmaker, I also recognize things like Pee-wee Herman marrying a bowl of fruit salad at a slumber party or dancing in high heels to the song, ‘Fever.’ That stuff spoke to me. So that was my connection to it.”

During the documentary, Reubens comes out as a gay man.

“Paul went into this process wanting to come out,” said Wolf. “That was a decision he had made. He was aware that I was a gay filmmaker and had made portraits of other gay artists. That was the work of mine he was attracted to, as I understood. And I wanted, as a younger person, to support him in that process, but he also was intensely sensitive that the film would overly emphasize that; or, focused entirely from the lens of sexuality when looking at his story.”

Their complicated dynamic had an aspect of “push and pull” between them. 

“I think that generational difference was both a source of connection and affinity and tension. And I do think that the level to which Paul discusses his relationships and intimacy and vulnerability and the poignant decision he made to go back into the closet. I do have to believe to some extent he shared that because of our connection.”   

Wolf hopes that the “Pee-wee as Himself” positions Reubens as one of the most “groundbreaking” performance artists of his generation who in a singular way broke through into mainstream pop culture.

“I know he transformed me. He transformed how I see the world and where I went as a creative person. And it’s so clear that I am not alone in that feeling. For me, it was fairly abstract. I couldn’t necessarily put words to it. I think people who grew up on Pee-wee or were big fans of Pee-wee, seeing the film, I hope, will help them tap into intangible and specific ways how transformative his work was for them. It really is a gift to revisit early seminal experiences you had and to see how they reverberate in you.” 

He added: “So, to me, this isn’t so much about saying Paul Reubens is a genius. I mean, that’s overly idealizing and I don’t like hero worship. It’s more about understanding why many of us have connected to his work and understanding where he lives within a legacy of performance art, television, and also, broader pop culture.”

Continue Reading

Popular