Sheet Music Is Here!

I'm very pleased to announce that sheet music for the songs on my album Out of Context: The Songs of Michael Patrick Walker is now available for purchase!  That's right - it's true!  There is a brand new Store section of my web site where you can buy music for twelve of the thirteen songs (the thirteenth song, I Believe, is already sold by Hal Leonard)!

I've wanted to offer the music for sale for some time but you'd be surprised how long it takes to format and clean up sheet music - especially when you're a bit of a procrastinator like me!

On top of that, the music is also for sale via a wonderful web site - NewMusicalTheatre.com - which sells sheet music from practically all of today's young musical theatre writers!  Check out the mpw section on their site to hear sample clips of the songs, watch videos of Broadway and West End stars performing the songs and to buy the sheet music so you can sing it yourself!

I would love to see and hear all of your performances of any of these songs - it's always exciting to see what different performers bring to a song - so I encourage you to video yourself singing and post to YouTube and let me know - maybe I'll share some of my favorites here!  Happy singing and I hope everybody enjoys!

London Is...

Two weeks ago today, I returned from my trip to London and, in one way or another, I've been thinking about it every day since then.  The concert itself - my London debut at the Hippodrome - was wonderful and I can't say enough good things about Simon Greiff and SimG Productions who put together the entire evening.  Not to mention the five fantastic West End actors who performed with such talent, grace, emotion and humor - or, rather, humour.  I looking forward to working with every one of them again as soon as possible!  Here's to Kelly-Anne Gower, Stuart Matthew Price, Lauren Samuels, Caroline Sheen and Simon Thomas - if you ever have the chance to see any of them perform in anything, do it!  Here's a quick sample - Stuart and Simon singing Different Kind of Man:

The reception for the show - featuring my songs as well as songs written by Georgia Stitt and Scott Evan Davis - was better than I could have hoped for.  After all, despite being performed all over the world, Altar Boyz has never played anywhere in the UK - I'm working on it, I swear! And while Out of Context is sold via Amazon, iTunes and is available from Dress Circle's web site, there is no reason the Brits would know me or any of my music.  And yet, they were nothing but welcoming, interested and supportive of what we were doing - it was a really wonderful feeling and experience!  To paraphrase something Simon Greiff is fond of saying, if the theatre community doesn't support new writing, then we're basically done - and yet, that's too often what happens.  More on that in a minute but, first, the amazing Kelly-Anne Gower who opened the show with All About Me:

Don't get me wrong, I'm fully aware that my brief and first trip to London puts me solidly in the honeymoon phase - I'm sure there are non-supportive people there too!  But it was nice to experience a theatre community that is so much like New York, but also quite different.  And before anybody thinks I'm bashing New York or the New York theatre scene, far from it - there are some of the most supportive, creative, wonderful people here and I count myself lucky to know a whole bunch of them!  So, maybe what I've taken away from my trip is that, if I could combine the best parts of New York and London into one city, I would truly be in theatre geek heaven!  

I'm gonna get to work on that - I'll let you know how it goes!  

Next Time: Some exciting news about sheet music sales and what's going on this fall!

Oklahoma...and London?!

Wait, I have a blog on my web site?  I had NO idea!  But rather than a long rambling post about my lack of blogging stick-to-it-ive-ness, let's just move past the eight month gap and embrace August 2012!

As I type this, I find myself in Oklahoma City, OK.  This isn't a surprise - no teleportation was involved in getting me here and two flights on American Airlines from LaGuardia, no matter how on schedule, can't be called "sudden".  So, yes, I knew I was coming here, but there is an element of surprise when I wake up each morning and realize what state I am.  Adding to that is the reason I'm here - as I often do, I'm here with the lovely and talented Chita Rivera performing her concert show - for an entire week, no less!

I realize I'm straying dangerously close to stereotypes here, but I just didn't expect Oklahoma City to be able to support 6 performances in a very large theatre.  Rodgers' and Hammerstein's work aside, one does not often equate OKC with musical theatre!  But, the Lyric Theatre here has done an entire season of shows that Chita performed in - ranging from Sweet Charity to Call Me Madam and beyond. All culminating with the woman herself for six shows.  We've only done two thus far, but the audiences have been wonderful and, while I'm not sure I could ever enjoy the 108 degree heat they get a great deal of here, I must say that we're having fun and looking forward to the rest of the shows!

I return home to New York City on Sunday and then, only a few days later, I'm off to London!  And this trip is to make my London concert debut as a composer/lyricist - actually, it's the first time I've been to London for any reason, and I'm really looking forward to it!  A wonderful producer named Simon Greiff - who specializes in supporting writers - contacted me a few months back about doing An Evening with the Composers at the newly re-opened Hippodrome in London's West End.  On Sunday August 19th, Myself, Georgia Stitt and Scott Evan Davis will each be playing our own songs which will be sung by an amazing group of Brits - Kelly-Anne Gower, Lauren Samuels, Caroline Sheen, Stuart Matthew Price and Simon Thomas!  Not to mention a mini-choir from the Musical Theatre Academy in London!  It's going to be a great night and a wonderful introduction to London!

They'll be performing songs from Out of Context as well as a few old favorites -

On top of all of that, my album is now available at Dress Circle in the UK!  Although, sadly, the physical shop will be closing soon, their web site will live on and continue to be the place to get musical theatre albums in the UK - and I'm so thrilled that, in addition to carrying the Altar Boyz album and vocal selections, they now carry Out of Context!

I'll be taking my video camera to London and should have some fun footage of my adventures there - and if you're in London, please come see me at the Hippodrome on August 19th!  Get your tickets here!  And I swear I'm going to redouble my efforts to keep you updated on what's going on!  Next time, it's time to talk about a brand new show I wrote with the amazing Rick Elice! Stay tuned!

2011 Draws To A Close

I’ve never been a fan of the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day.  It always seems that the world stops spinning – or at least slows down – for the entire time.  While that’s not so bad for a little bit, I’m usually ready for the world to “start spinning” again well before it actually does.  Some of that has to do with my own version of “Buddy’s Blues”.  I’ve never been great at simply relaxing and doing nothing for long – except, of course, when I can’t relax or do nothing, in which case it’s all I can think about doing!

As luck would have it, I’ve had plenty to occupy me this year – rewrites, meetings, putting songs I’ve written down on paper – not to mention things like errands and bill paying and other all the other glamorous parts of being in show business.  But, to keep myself from having too much relaxation, I thought I’d take this time to look back on 2011 here in the old web site blog. 

It has been a busy year for me – the reading of my musical The Distant Bells at the Roundabout in March, continued writing of my new dance number for Radio City throughout the year, all of the work from start to finish on my Out of Context: The Songs of Michael Patrick Walker, and my first meetings up to the completion of the first draft of the new original musical I’m writing with Rick Elice. 

When I put it all in one block like that, it sounds like a very busy year – and it was.  But I’m struck by the fact that, before I wrote this blog, I was thinking I wished I had done more in 2011.  Funny how our perception of things can be different when we’re in the midst of them as opposed to being “outside” them.  Which, really, is my thought for the end of 2011 and the start of 2012.  It’s hard to appreciate things or to keep them in perspective while you’re in the midst of them.  I’m very fortunate in the opportunities I have and, while I – like most of us – want more opportunities and most success, I look back on 2011 with gratitude and excitement for what has been and what is yet to come. 

As we all go into 2012, I hope we all experience happiness, joy and fulfillment.  And, most of all, I hope that the Mayans were wrong…Happy New Year!

Video from Birdland #1

Just a quick post - I've started to upload some videos from my Birdland show last week to my brand new You Tube channel.  More to come but, for now, enjoy Andy Karl performing Never Added Up live!

Out of Context is finally here!

Well, it’s been two days since the official release of Out of Context: The Songs of Michael Patrick Walker.  I would’ve blogged about this on the actual day, but it’s taken me 48 hours to recover from the amazing release concert at Birdland!  I was definitely stressed out putting the show together – there were a lot of moving parts to manage and I had to handle pretty much all of them!  But, in the end, it was a huge success, it was all worth it and a fantastic crowd was on hand to help celebrate the release. 

Me at Birdland

I’ve performed at Birdland a number of times over the last few years – but always as a part of somebody else’s show and almost never with a show that had even one song that I wrote in it.  So to suddenly find myself on stage doing my own show of all my own material – and hosting and playing piano for it – was a big old jump in the deep end of the pool. 

Noah Galvin

It was made even better by being on stage with a group of amazing musicians and singers – all there to make me look better than I could ever look on my own!  I have to say a huge thank you to the singers who sang their hearts (and lungs!) out for me – Andy Karl, Betsy Wolfe, Jim Stanek, Kenita Miller, Julie Foldesi, Noah Galvin, Peter Friedman, John Tartaglia, Andy Mientus and Lauren Kennedy. 

Andy Mientus & John Tartaglia

And an equally huge thank you to the musicians who played every song with artistry and skill – Claudia Chopek, Clay Ruede, Mary Ann McSweeney, Brian Koonin and Michael Croiter.  And an extra special thank you to Michael Croiter and Yellow Sound Label for having faith in me and the album and being so amazing at every step of the process from day one.  I’m honored to have the album released on the Michael’s and Bill Sherman’s label. 

Kelli O'Hara records "Moonflower"

While the Birdland show was a huge project for the last month or so, it would not have happened without the album so I also need to thank the wonderful people who sang my songs on the CD itself – Anne L. Nathan, Kate Wetherhead, Andy Karl, Lisa Howard, Telly Leung, Michael Arden, Andy Mientus, Kelli O’Hara, Noah Galvin, Jim Stanek, Rachel York, Peter Friedman, Kerry O’Malley, Natalie Venetia Belcon and Cheyenne Jackson.

Finishing the album and doing the launch concert gives me a wonderful sense of accomplishment, but it’s also just the finish line on one project, so as much as I’d like to relax and kick back, it’s on to the next thing.  Right now, I’m in Costa Mesa, CA for a few days performing with Chita, then it’s back home to NYC for the opening night of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular and the premiere of my brand new Rockette number – I’ll be talking about that in an upcoming blog post. 

For now, though, jump on over to the Albums page and check out Out of Context – and don’t forget to buy your copy on Amazon or iTunes!

Out of Context #2

Well, things are really rolling now!  The physical CDs arrived yesterday and, while I've been looking forward to that moment for months, I was surprised how holding one in my hand actually hit me.  I've seen and heard everything about the CD a million times, so none of it is "new" to me, but there's something different about it actually existing in its final form that is very, very cool!

The press stuff is starting to ramp up both for the Birdland concert I'm doing on Monday November 7th at 7pm and for the release of the actual album the next day.  I've been doing some interviews which and polishing the orchestrations for the concert and it's coming down the line like a freight train, so we better be ready!  I've mentioned the amazing people singing on the album and doing he concert before, but the here is the track list for the CD:

1. All About Me - Anne L. Nathan
2. Weird Little Man - Kate Wetherhead
3. Never Added Up - Andy Karl
4. Irene - Lisa Howard
5. Different Kind of Man - Telly Leung and Michael Arden
6. More - Andy Mientus
7. Moonflower - Kelli O'Hara
8. Sometimes - Noah Galvin
9. Finding Me - Jim Stanek
10. Pour Poor Me - Rachel York
11. The Wall - Peter Friedman
12. Sometimes - Kerry O'Malley and Natalie Venetia Belcon
13. I Believe - Cheyenne Jackson

For the concert, Andy Karl, Peter Friedman, Andy Mientus, Jim Stanek and Noah Galvin will be there from the album as well as Ann Harada, Kenita Miller, Julie Foldesi, Betsy Wolfe, Lauren Kennedy, John Tartaglia and Tyler Maynard.  I'll be playing piano with Michael Croiter on drums, Brian Koonin on guitar, Mary Ann McSweeney on bass, Claudia Chopek on violin and Clay Ruede on cello.

You can't hear the CD quite yet, but if you go to amazon.com you can hear snippets and whet your appetite for the full album.  And come on down to Birdland (315 West 44th Street, NYC) this coming Monday November 7th and be the first to hear it all and get your own copy of Out of Context: The Songs of...well, me!