The musical ended its Off-Broadway run at Dodger Stages Dec. 4, after 121 performances. A national tour as well as London and Las Vegas productions are in the works.
Featuring music and lyrics by David Nehls with a book by Betsy Kelso (who also directs the show), the country-rock and blues musical began previews Aug. 20 and opened Sept. 22. The musical is billed as "a new show about agoraphobia, adultery, '80s nostalgia, spray cheese, road kill, hysterical pregnancy, a broken electric chair, kleptomania, strippers, flan & disco."
Inspired by a neighborhood from his childhood paper route, Nehls finally lets loose the earthy folk he describes have "always been a nugget in the back of my head." The composer recalled to Playbill.com "In the wintertime, I was out for like an hour and a half delivering papers and they were always the people who had hot cocoa and cookies for me and would always engage me in conversation. They were the coolest people on the paper route; and they were so lovely." (For more from the cast, read Playbill.com's feature.)
Producers Jean Doumanian (Democracy) and Jeffrey Richards (Glengarry Glen Ross) present the work which played a run last summer at The New York Musical Theatre Festival.
The cast of The Great American Trailer Park Musical featured Tony Award winner Shuler Hensley (Oklahoma, "Van Helsing"), Linda Hart (Hairspray, Anything Goes), Kaitlin Hopkins (Bat Boy, Noises Off, Bare), Orfeh (Footloose, Saturday Night Fever), Leslie Kritzer (Hairspray, Bat Boy), Wayne Wilcox (A Man of No Importance, The Light in the Piazza) and original NYMF cast member Marya Grandy. The design team includes Derek McLane (sets), Donald Holder (lighting), Markas Henry (costumes), Peter Fitzgerald (sound) and Josh Marquette (hair and wig). Richard C. Rouscher serves as production stage manager with Francesca Russell (asst. stage manager) and Rob Conover is technical supervisor.
The tracklist for The Great American Trailer Park Musical album is as follows:
1. This Side of the Tracks
2. One Step Closer
3. The Buck Stops Here
4. It Doesn't Take a Genius
5. Owner of My Heart
6. The Great American TV Show
7. Flushed Down the Pipes
8. Storm's A-Brewin'
9. Road Kill
10. But He's Mine/ It's Never Easy
11. That's Why I Love My Man
12. Panic
13. Finale
14. This Side of the Tracks (Reprise)
Sh-K-Boom has recently released the recordings of See What I Wanna See, Songs from an Unmade Bed, Altar Boyz, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Little Women and more.
For more information, visit the Sh-K-Boom website at www.sh-k boom.com or the show site at www.trailerparkmusical.com.
