Strangely Beautiful The Musical! Sites and Sounds

Hello friends! Happy to report that The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, The Musical, now has three very important things: A Website: http://strangelybeautifulthemusical.com

A Twitter: http://twitter.com/misspercyparker

A Facebook Page: http://facebook.com/strangelybeautifulthemusical
Please have a listen, follow and "like"!

What's the latest news on the show, you ask? We're doing a private staged reading in New York City next month, and from there we'll continue to smooth out all the details and figure out where it will be put up on its feet in the regional theatre market before bringing it back to NYC when it's ready. If you visit the website you can hear our draft of the beginning of the show!

Strangely Beautiful blessings!

Oh, and ONLY 23 MORE DAYS UNTIL DARKER STILL: A NOVEL OF MAGIC MOST FOUL! Be sure to get in on the action! Signed Pre-orders via WORD NYC! http://tinyurl.com/darkerpre

Cheers!

Strangely Beautiful, The Musical - Status Update

Greetings! I've fielded some questions lately about the status of Strangely Beautiful the musical, optioned last year. Being in this process from the very beginning has taught me just how long it takes to begin mounting a show. A long time.

Because first... it has to be written. I'm proud to say a draft of the show is complete. (Rough draft, but a draft nonetheless). An earlier post described my intitial breakdown process of adaptation (a lot of index cards). This eventually, along with inserting lyrics and song sections into the piece in the best places and chewing over where and how exactly to do that, has resulted in a script.

Taking that rough index-card structure, I glanced at the book a few times, but for the most part set it aside. It did not serve to go moment by moment or scene by scene from the novel. The show calls for different things out of the characters at different times, it becomes more convenient to use some characters for one thing while clipping and combining other moments. Suddenly a scene that took place in the office needs to be in the library. Suddenly a character needs to take bold action when they were contemplative. Things are being stated that the characters only thought in their minds. It's a fascinating thing, really, adaptation. The work becomes like a relative to the original product. There was never a time when I particularly struggled over cutting a character or shifting scenes and/or intent. It was just what had to be done and I thankfully know theatre well enough to allow it its due process. Hopefully I'll have this same relative flexibility when working on the second, third, fourth draft, etc...

And yes, there's music! Beautiful music that reflects the many moods and actions, human and inhuman, that course this tale.

So where are we now? Well, I can safely say our team is awesome, music and lyrics are spot-on, gorgeous and exactly what I could have hoped, now we just need to become a hive-mind in revisions. We need to make our respective three voices into something utterly seamless, from dialogue to music to song lyrics, one voice. Which can be difficult with three distinct voices but thankfully the tone of the work is the overarching voice itself, and the team really understands the particular fantastical Gothic voice and tone that has become my niche - for which I'm grateful. Once we can get three very busy people in the same room together for a bit of a retreat to create the next draft, then we can begin thinking about workshopping, and we've a couple of places where we might do that. Our biggest challenge so far is getting said group of exceedingly busy people into one room for any length of time. So that's where things stand. The producers are working their contacts, seeds ae being planted. Things will be growing within the year.

Thankfully, I've got the next Strangely Beautiful novel releasing May 3rd and I've had a lot of early prep for DARKER STILL (Magic Most Foul #1) to keep me plenty busy in the meantime. Stay tuned for lots of goodies and news on those fronts!

Cheers and Strangely Beautiful blessings!

Strangely Beautiful the Musical. In the Beginning...

How does one make a show? A show on a trajectory to a Broadway musical? Very carefully. And with talented people. Step by step, a show comes together.

I hope you'll recall this spring when I excitedly announced that the option rights had been sold for my debut novel, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker to be adapted into a musical theatre production. As an actress / playwright / author who never expected all her talents to come crashing together into one enormous dream, there's nothing really more thrilling, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that its happening. Now to be clear, it's a long road to Broadway, with stops in other cities prior to the big move, but making a show begins small; in the minds and hearts of a core group of people, and for me, on index cards. I promised I'd offer an inside view onto the process, so here goes.

My role as script writer (in theatrical terms: "the book" of the musical) is to create the structure into which the composer and lyricist's beautiful (and I mean beautiful- they've done incredible work so far) songs will be placed, and make sure the connective tissue from one theme to the next is full of simple but effective storytelling.

To do this, I had to think of my book in skeletal form; to storyboard it out. To wrap my head around this, I picked up a stack of blank index cards. I've been working on the Strangely Beautiful storyline for a decade at this point so I pretty much know the story blindfolded, in my sleep, by rote, etc. Rather than picking up the book, I simply thought about the bare bones of my story. On the top card I wrote: "The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker As Told By Index Cards" (see photographic evidence). When adapting a work of fiction that is ostensibly longer than the work you are adapting it into, the main plot points are what needs representation, not all the details.

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I then took what were the obvious bullet-points and typed up a document with headers and subcategories, the main events and the smaller moments, called "beats" in theatre. I also included in the document some quotes from the novel encapsulating the 'feel' and most important theme of that particular chapter. From this the composer and lyricist hopefully get a sense of things to take away into their own work, which is to write the big numbers, while I create the structure and weave in appropriate dialogue, which will either be spoken or sung, depending on what the creative team decides. I have to be a storyteller on a grand and bold scale, making sure the bare bones of what Strangely Beautiful is all about remains structurally clear, the musical numbers filling in and fleshing out all the information, conflict and emotion I've hopefully set into place.

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Last week I sat in on a session sharing some of the themes, music and lyrics already composed for the show. All I can say is wow. I think the music is inspired, lovely and well-suited, atmospheric, beautiful when beauty is called for and spooky when called for. The team had a great discussion, we made some choices and got on the same page, I cut some characters (a necessary evil, it must be done!) in hard and fast decisions.

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And I had a moment, sitting at the table, my book in front of me, music inspired from my book caressing my ears, and all my years of theatre training and playwrighting and fiction writing had led me to that moment where I felt a God-like voice murmur: You were meant for this.

And so it is; we're making a show. I'll keep you posted along this magical journey as it continues to unfold.

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Newsy Bits:

We have a release date for A Midwinter Fantasy including "A Christmas Carroll" (Strangely Beautiful 2.5): November 23. (digital / eBook only). Join the Midwinter Page for access to more details.

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I joined my new publisher's Teen Fire forum, where we'll be actively discussing YA Fiction and Magic Most Foul. Join in the fun! I just set up a group for Magic Most Foul, so come join me!

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I just turned the sequel to Dark Nest, titled Dark Nest: Reckoning, to my editor and that should release from Crescent Moon Press within the next couple of months. Look at CMP's pretty new site! It's definately a change of pace to return to the Dark Nest world, a futuristic paranormal, but I hope all those who have been asking "what is going on on that ship next!" will be pleased. :)

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If you still have not joined my new Facebook Page, please do, I'll be running a lot of contests from there in the months to come and a lot of information will flow through that portal in regards to Magic Most Foul, Dark Nest, and also, the future of the Strangely Beautiful series.

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Cheers and blessings!

VERY BIG (and Strangely Beautiful) News...

UPDATE 6/13/10:
CONGRATULATIONS to musical director Kenny Seymour and the cast of Memphis for winning the 2010 Tony Award for Best Musical! Memphis also won Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score! We are so excited to have Kenny on the Strangely Beautiful team!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you, the most interesting and exciting news I can possibly offer...

As seen on Publishers' Marketplace:
Report of Option Agreement Sale:
"Musical stage rights to Leanna Renee Hieber’s, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker described as a Victorian “Ghostbusters” about an eerie young woman whose skin is white as snow and the cadre of characters who believe she may be the key to an ancient prophecy, sold to Mt. Clair Entertainment to be adapted by the author with music and lyrics by Kenny Seymour, Jim Abbott and Nicholas Roman Lewis."

Further press details on the option agreement, care of Nicholas Roman Lewis:
"The ghostly, Gothic Victorian Fantasy The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker is heading for the legit musical stage. The author Leanna Renee Hieber will write the book of the musical with music and lyrics by Kenny Seymour (Broadway credits include music direction for Memphis and arrangements for The Wiz) and Nicholas Roman Lewis (creative development for The Alchemist and They Call Me La Lupe) with additional orchestrations and arrangements by Jim Abbott (Wicked, Bombay Dreams, Disney’s Tarzan)."
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Oh. My. Goodness. How about that?!
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So. If you haven't read The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, now is the time to do so. Buy it. AND this couldn't have better timing as we count down to the continuation of the Strangely Beautiful series on April 27th. Make sure you're on board for The Darkly Luminous Fight For Persephone Parker. Buy it.
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Well, like the saying goes, you can take the girl out of the theatre... But you can't take the theatre out of the girl. I suppose I wasn't meant to entirely walk away from that magical possibility that is a darkened stage after all. What I've heard of the music composed so far is haunting and gorgeous!!!! I'll be starting work on the script in the coming months. (I do have to get out there and sell Darkly Luminous, you know)
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The Strangely Beautiful joy of returning to a childhood dream...


We had our first production meeting today, backstage of Memphis at the Shubert theatre, Nicholas, Kenny and I. I am joined in this venture by two wonderfully talented men, and I could not feel more blessed. And as I was on my way down 44th street, I have to say... I walked past The Majestic theatre, past The Phantom of the Opera and my whole life unfolded before me, all my childhood dreams, and it was everything I could do not to weep with amazement.
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You see, I started writing my first book when I was 12 years old, a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, because I was obsessed with that Broadway show. I fell in love with the theatre and began my trajectory towards becoming a professional actress. And I always kept writing. My two loves have always gone hand in hand. But never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that my great loves would come together like this, that when I stepped backstage inside a Broadway theatre for the first time today, it would be for the first production meeting of the musical of MY book... the book of my heart, Miss Percy's book. A ten year labor of love, come to this unexpected new possibility. For her, and for all those who feel they are marginalized in society, who feel alone and disconnected, and wonder why they find beautiful things others think are strange... this show, once it comes together, it will be for you. And it will be full of magic. Because things like this just don't happen every day.

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Um... and can I just say that we talked about holograms at the production meeting?! For the ghosts. *muppet flailing* THIS. IS. SO. COOL.

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I just have to take time out to give a big shout-out to God. God brought gifts into my life, surrounded me with blessed and talented people, and has brought it all together for this incredible moment. The show may never get off the ground, but nothing can take away the incredible fact I never thought I'd get this far to begin with - and how much of a joy it is to dream and dream big. As an adult I don't tend to dream as big as I did when I was a kid. But I'm now reminded to dream as big as ever. You never know what might happen.
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And huge thanks to Nicholas Roman Lewis, who wrote this wonderful paragraph for our press releases, words that are truly music to an author's ear:
"Kenny and I had been looking for a musical project for at least two years. Leanna's book had enthralled me from the moment I first read it as a manuscript so it was literally always on my desk staring at me. I knew this would make a wonderful musical but perhaps slightly daunting, after all, the book is full of ghosts, magic and murder. And then I thought, "the book is full of ghosts, magic and murder...this MUST be a musical." The characters and epic nature of the story lend themselves to song and I knew that Kenny shared my desire to incorporate sweeping cinematic themes with traditional musical theater styles. The icing on the cake is I think every writers dream; a lead character white as snow and strangely beautiful....I think I hear a song."