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In the summer of 2014, we presented a workshop production of “It Happened in Roswell.”

An Intergalactic musical.

The story about a clueless tabloid reporter looking for one big story falling for an overly emotional alien girl.  What’s the reporter supposed to do…get the story?  Or the girl?  A wonderful, heart-warming, goofy story set in the 1950′s…in Roswell, New Mexico.

Written by Terrence Atkins and Jeffery Lyle Segal.

Presented in a workshop production (minimal scenery, lights, or props).

Rory Dunn plays the hard-nosed reporter, with Broadway’s Julie Tolivar as the alien.  Nathan Ondracek plays a sweet 4F lad who has been too preoccupied trying to communicate with aliens to notice the love of his life, Bessie (Amy Bloom), right in front of him in the local diner.  Deranged former military man Major Nails is played by John McCool Bowers.  Rounding out the other eccentrics in the town are cast members Emma Sperka, Matthew Herrmann, Emerson Boatwright, and Carrie Madsen.  Music direction is by Ron Barnett.  Co-directed by Terrence Atkins and Scott Guy.  Choreography by Susanna Young.  Costumes by Abel Alvarado.  Stage Managed by Pat Loeb.  Associate Producers Gavin Atkins and Amy Francis Schott.  Produced in workshop production by New Musicals Inc.

‘It Happened in Roswell’ won the 2014 Search for New Musicals, as well as the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2008, and the Festival of New Musicals in 2007.

Some rehearsal photos.

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The cast:

Nine-O (Julie Tolivar)

A wayward alien girl who’s run off to the little blue planet to find something called “love.” Is it warm like the toaster? Or does it have something to do with the handsome and charming news reporter?

Floyd (Nathan Ondracek)

No one believes Floyd when he says his homemade radio helmet can contact the aliens. But one night it really does crackle to life…now Roswell will ever be the same.

Rusty (Matthew Herrmann)

Rusty has his eyes set on Floyd’s girl, Bessie, and he can’t understand why this doesn’t make Bessie the happiest person in Roswell.  After all, he’s got an engagement ring for her — it even glows in the dark….

Scoop (Rory Dunn)

Broke hard-nosed news reporter. Time was he’d do anything for a story, including fake a photo of a space alien. But when it turns out the alien is REAL alien and he’s falling for her, what’s it to be? The story? Or the girl?

Bessie (Amy Bloom)

Life can be pretty boring in Roswell. But what if Bessie’s best friend, Floyd, the shy, flat-footed mechanic, is really more than a friend?  Naw, it can’t be.  Can it?  Or why wouldn’t he just SAY so…?

Edna (Emma Sperka)

Summertime’s rough on Edna…the heat just makes her wanna take all her clothes off.  ‘Course, same thing kinda happens for different reasons in the winter.  And the spring.  And the fall….

Frank (Emerson Boatwright)

A cub reporter who’d do anything for his pal, Scoop, including help fake an alien photo while Scoop romances the spacey new waitress in the diner to get it.

Mabel (Carrie Madsen)

In Mabel’s Diner, the pie is always fresh and the coffee’s always hot.  Now, if only the customers would be just a little bit less, well, ODD….

Major Nails (John McCool Bowers)

Retired Army officer Major Nails knows what he SAW in the night sky…and he’s determined to protect the good citizens of Roswell from invaders from space.  Now, if he can only get that steep plate in his head to stop buzzing….

Photos by Suzanne Nordberg.