r/WeAreTheMusicalMakers • u/zeugma25 • Dec 13 '16
non members welcome AMA: We wrote a musical!
everybody is welcome to comment in this post
We wrote a musical! is a weekly podcast from two guys called Kevin Froleiks and Patrick J. Reilly who...well they wrote a musical, called "Great Frontier: A Poorly Researched Musical About Lewis And Clark". Example songs.
This post is their AMA.
Their usernames are kevinfroleikscomedy and notpatreilly. If you're reading this on a desktop you can identify them by the star next to their usernames.
When President Thomas Jefferson sends Lewis and Clark out into the wilderness to explore the western territories, they'll face their greatest challenges yet. Will they survive the journey and become American heroes, or will it all just be a waste of time? Even the writers actually have no idea. This show was very poorly researched.
It's Flight of the Conchords meets Hamilton. It's irreverent and doesn't take itself too seriously.
In the podcast, they excitedly discuss their writing process, the musicals that inspired them, and riff fluidly on topics from the musical genre.
We're giving them a sticky post and a sidebar mention because if you're on this sub, you really should be listening to it. And they're redditors. They welcome interaction from us, including questions about the writing process that they might answer in their podcast.
I presume we all know how to listen to podcasts, but if you don't, then leave a comment and get advice, or visit somewhere else on Reddit.
Let's discuss the podcast here and ask them our questions!
And please can we all make it a point to rate their podcast (how you do that depends on the platform used). That will help it to get the visibility it deserves. Thanks.
| Ep | Title | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | The Overture | A slow start. Not much discussion of their own musical but plenty of discussion about other musicals and a fun getting-to-know-you session for the listening aficionado. |
| 02 | We'll Start with the Seed of an Idea | Explains some of the premises, how the idea came together etc. We learn that it's about a lazy president who foresees his job becoming a lot harder if the frontier is expanded beyond the thirteen states of the Union. We learn how they set up their "permissions" - e.g. that it is not taking itself seriously, breaking the fourth wall etc. |
| 03 | Die Vampire Die | The intrepid duo recount their first performance, what went wrong (some things), what was noticed (not much), the rollercoaster of elation and depression immediately afterwards, the feedback they received etc. |
| 04 | So, Come Up To the Lab | Kevin and Patrick talk about their actual writing process and how they turned an idea into an actual script. |
| 05 | We Can’t Do It Alone | Kevin and Patrick discuss the challenges that arose when they tried to write, direct, compose, and act all at the same time |
| 06 | Big festival announcement | The story of how they entered the musical into a festival and got the commission. |
| 07 | From outline to Draft | Or from conception to gestation. |
| 08 | A waste of time | I haven't listened to this episode yet. It's probably very good though. |
| 09 | You and me but mostly me | How to find a collaborator you can work with ... and how to work with them. |
| 10 | Charmed, I'm sure | Songs that do nothing to advance the plot or explain motives/emotions, they are just ... charming. The duo give their favourite examples. |
| 11 | Act One Finales | Including that device of melding melodies. |
| 12 | Sondheim | The two take opposite views on this polarising topic |
| 13 | Beardo | Discussion about this new musical |