Piper McKenzie presents the world premiere of Trav S.D.'s Willy Nilly: A Musical Exploitation of the Most Far-Out Cult Murders of the Psychedelic Era in the 2009 New York International Fringe Festival August, 2009 marked the 40th anniversary of the Tate-Labianca Murders, committed by the psychedelic hippie cult commonly known as the Manson Family as well as Piper McKenzie's World Premiere of Trav S.D.'s rock musical Willy Nilly: A Musical Exploitation of the Most Far Out Cult Murders of the Psychedelic Era at the New York International Fringe Festival. After a wave of publicity (Manson Family member Squeaky Fromme was paroled on the day the show opened), praise (Michael Musto in the Village Voice called the show "a tastily eccentric 'psychedelic-atessen'"), and sold-out performances, the FringeNYC Encore Series has chosen the show as one of this year's extensions.
Charles Manson meets Mad Magazine in this tasteless rock'n'roll spoof about a filthy faux-Messiah, his cult of wanton women, and high Hollywood murder. With a raucous score, gratuitous nudity, acid freakouts, excessive gore, cruel stereotypes and slapstick misogyny, consider this fictionalized musical satire the anti-Hair.
The cast includes the production's playwright/songwriter Trav S.D. (No Applause, Just Throw Money; House of Trash), co-producer Hope Cartelli (Babylon Babylon; John Goldfarb, Please Come Home), Becky Byers, Maggie Cino, Michael Criscuolo, Betsy Head, Daryl Lathon (member AEA), Rich Lovejoy, Mateo Moreno, Esther Silberstein, Adam Swiderski, and Elizabeth Hope Williams, and introducing Avery Pearson as the Manson-inspired title character. Live music will be provided by The Four Hoarses, a new psychedelic band featuring Derek Davidson (The Electric Mess, ZZ Top cover band Cheap SunglasseZZ), Oweinama Biu (Madam Robot, The Lust Brigade and The Electric Mess), Darro "Sparkie" Sandler and Chris Talsness (formerly of The Electric Mess and Flaming Fire).
Other personnel include director and co-producer Jeff Lewonczyk (Babylon Babylon; 2007 FringeNYC hit John Goldfarb, Please Come Home); sound designer Ryan Holspopple (That's Not How Mahler Died: METRONOMA); prop and costume designer Julianne Kroboth (Babylon Babylon; No Applause, Just Throw Money); and stage manager Guinevere Pressley. Choreography and movement are by Becky Byers and Jeff Lewonczyk, and lighting design is by Kia Rogers.
The show will perform at The Actors' Playhouse (100 Seventh Avenue South, between Grove and Bleecker) as part of the FringeNYC Encore Series. The performance dates and times are as follows:
Thursday, September 17 at 10:30pm
Friday, September 18 at 10pm
Saturday, September 19 at 2pm
Saturday, September 19 at 10pm
Sunday, September 20 at 8:30pm
Tickets are $18 and available by visiting http://www.fringenyc-encoreseries.com or calling 866.468.7619.
Piper McKenzie made its New York debut in FringeNYC with 1999's The Walking in Space Show. In the intervening decade, founders and Artistic Directors Hope Cartelli and Jeff Lewonczyk have been creating theater that is "brazenly experimental, unapologetically populist, and surprisingly endearing" (indietheater.org). Their unique aesthetic of genre love, unsettling comedy, physical storytelling and cultural mythology (pop and otherwise) have yielded such recent works as The Granduncle Quadrilogy, Babylon Babylon and Macbeth Without Words, all of which appeared at The Brick Theater in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They are both Associate Directors of The Brick and were collaborators on the award-winning 2007 FringeNYC musical hit John Goldfarb, Please Come Home, with a book by William Peter Blatty (The Exorcist), for which Jeff directed and Hope originated the role of Svetlana.
Trav S.D. is perhaps best known for his popular book No Applause, Just Throw Money: the Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, which Margo Jefferson of the New York Times called "a delicious cultural history...sharpens the mind and stirs the heart." His works for the stage have included Cold Fire (Joe's Pub), No Applause: the Show (Theatre for the New City), The Strange Case of Grippo the Apeman (LaMama) and his two previous FringeNYC Productions: House of Trash (2000) and Misshapen Jack the Nebraska Hunchback (1998). In addition to being a frequent contributor to publications such as The Village Voice and Time Out New York, he is the host of the podcast and television show Indie Theatre Now, produced by the New York Theatre Experience.
Hi-res and Web-ready production photos are available at Piper McKenzie's Willy Nilly page on Flickr, which can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pipermckenzie/sets/72157621498446526/.
For more information on Piper McKenzie, visit www.pipermckenzie.com or the company's blog, The Piperline, at pipermckenzie.blogspot.com.
