GrooveLily Will Ring in New Year in NYC With Striking 12

By Kenneth Jones
21 Dec 2009

Striking 12's Valerie Vigoda
Striking 12's Valerie Vigoda
Photo by David Allen

Striking 12, the postmodern pop musical set on New Year's Eve, will be seen in Manhattan on Dec. 31, performed by the trio that originated the show — GrooveLily. The only 2009 Manhattan seasonal appearance of the cult hit will play 8 PM at Merkin Concert Hall at 129 W. 67th Street.

Band members Gene Lewin (drums), Brendan Milburn (keyboards) and Valerie Vigoda (electric violin) wrapped a run of the cult-hit musical on Dec. 13 in Arlington, VA, in the Arena Stage season.

The performers provide accompaniment and are the actor-singers for the show that shatters the boundary of theatre and concert to create a hybrid storytelling music theatre experience inspired by Hans Christians Andersen's "The Little Match Girl." Striking 12 is co-written by Tony Award winner Rachel Sheinkin (who penned the libretto to …Spelling Bee) and Milburn & Vigoda, married songwriters who have since worked on a handful of other musicals, including Long Story Short.

Seen around the country, including a run Off-Broadway, Striking 12 is heard on a 2004 PS Classics live concert album that was recently supplemented with the inclusion of a card that offers a code for digitally downloading four new songs written for the score (recorded live before an audience in 2008). The card can be bought for $4 at GrooveLily concerts. If you are buying the CD at a retailer, the download card is included in the packaging.

Also released recently is a published piano-vocal songbook from Warner/Chappell and Alfred Music (visit alfred.com). It features eight songs from Striking 12.

The musical shifts between a secular 21st century story that follows a "Grumpy Guy" (who makes all attempts to avoid the hectic, loveless world on New Year's Eve) to Andersen's story of poverty, love and hope in the 19th century.

In addition to the show's original pop-trio version (heard on the album), Striking 12 was adapted as a theatrical piece that is available for licensing to acting companies.

For more information about the Merkin performance, click here.

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Vigoda and Milburn's new musical Long Story Short recently had a new, revised production by San Diego Repertory Theatre. They are also working on a handful of other musical projects, including the one-woman Ernest Shackleton Loves Me. They are winners of ASCAP's Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award.

For more information about the work of GrooveLily, visit GrooveLily.com.