Episode #0: An Introduction to “CAN AI WRITE A MEDIOCRE MUSICAL? “
Join New Musicals Inc. as we attempt to collaborate with AI, pushing it to its limits as a creative collaborator.  We turn the camera on our Executive Director as you watch him in real time try (and fail) (and succeed) (and epic fail) to work with AI as a true collaborator.   In this introduction, we explore what we’re trying to accomplish, and discuss the pros, cons, and creative ethics of working with our bot overlord as we create a brand new work for the musical theatre.

Episode #1A: THE ART OF DEFIANCE
The finished musical, written and performed by AI.
Torn between raw artistic expression and commercial viability, an emerging performance artist must decide whether to compromise their provocative political exhibition, as citywide protests intensify.
This is the final product, written by AI with a little help from humans.  The voices and singers on this video are generated by AI (so the genders are inconsistent).

Episode #1B: GOT AN IDEA FOR A MUSICAL, AI?
Highlights of the first tortured work session.
Highlights of first work session with AI.  Zipping over 40 minutes of character development.  How do we go from a story about a body-swapping magic to a one about protests during a political artist controversial art exhibition?

Episode #1C:  GOT AN IDEA FOR A MUSICAL, AI?
The complete first work session.
An hour-long work session with AI, in which an idea about body-swapping morphs into one about a controversial art show which is sparking protests and social unrest.  After you watch the highlights, we encourage you to watch this entire work session; it’s fascinating interplay between human and AI; watching human mind take cues from AI and turn them into viable conflict.

Episode #2:  We have an outline for a mediocre AI musical
We work very hard to get AI to deepen the outline to include conflict, theme, and interpersonal relationships.  AI’s not very insightful…it’s a bit of a battle.

Episode #3: Cleaning up the mess that AI made.
Cleaning up formatting, moving a couple things, clarifying action.  Some beats need fixing, we’ll do that at the next step. 

Episode #4A: Shh, don’t tell Chat GPT we’re texting CoPilot. (Highlights from the work session.)
Shhh, don’t tell Chat GPT — I look at CoPilot, to see if its ideas are any better.  CoPilot gets off to a bad start.  I toss out ten lousy ideas and one good one before honing in on a promising story about a bank heist gone wrong.  It takes nearly an hour.  Here’s an episode of the highlights. 

Episode #4B: Shh, don’t tell Chat GPT we’re texting CoPilot. (The full unedited work session.)

Episode #5 – Bad dialogue.  Really bad dialogue.
Chat GPT struggles to write dialogue.  I try to get it to expand beats, or add subtext, or write in the style of contemporary American playwrights, and all I get is stinky, wooden unuseable dialogue. 

Episode #6 – Can CoPilot write mediocre lyrics?
My standards of mediocrity are slipping. Can CoPilot do any better at writing dialogue? Ugh; no…it’s just as bad, and in fact CoPilot gets obstinate and refuses to rewrite some lines I ask it to. I’m ready to give up on the whole project.

Episode #7 – Turning bad dialogue into terrible lyrics
With a sigh, I input GPT’s dreadful dialogue hoping for acceptable lyrics. Terrible terrible lyrics. I’m getting ready to give up.

Episode #8 – The humans take over.
I accept the limitations of my bot-collaborator, and rewrite the dialogue myself.

Episode #9A– More terrible lyrics! How bad can they get? Highlights
I feed the Rough Draft dialogue into GPT and get it to squeeze out mediocre lyrics. It reverts to musical theatre tropes (solos, singing directly to the audience)…I try to get it to use the lyric as action (over and over again). I give up. Highly entertaining episode.

Episode #9B– More terrible lyrics! How bad can they get? The complete work session.
The complete work session trying to get GPT to write even mediocre lyrics. If you’re serious about working with AI as a collaborator, this is a must-see session, watching the poor human struggle to get AI to break out of the models in its database (and don’t get me started on rhyme).

Episode 10 - More human intervention, this time with lyrics.
I can’t help myself…and revise the lyric a little bit. Setting myself up for more disappointment. Will I never learn?

Episode 11 - AI’s music saves the day!

AI creates some powerful music…and saves the musical!

TIP #1: Get a dog and walk it…

TIP #9: Sit on a park bench and feed the pigeons…

TIP #`17: Befriend ugly men!

TIP #24: Don’t be afraid to associate with more attractive girls; they may have some leftovers.

TIP #39: Have your father buy some theatre tickets that need to be got rid of …

TIP #40: Stand in a corner, and cry softly…

TIP #52: Wear heels!

TIP #63: Bat your eyes!

TIP #68: Use an ashtray …

TIP #72: Girls who whine stay on the vine…

TIP #76: Double-date with a gay, happily married couple…

TIP #84: If he’s a fisherman, learn to scale and clean fish…

TIP #93: Find out about the girls he hasn’t married. Don’t repeat the mistakes they made.

TIP #110: Make sure he knows that the death rate of single men is much higher than that of married men …

TIP #118: Drown!

TIP #111: Go to Yale!

TIP #124: Make and sell toupees–bald men are easy catches!

EPISODE #1: The Last Letters from the South Pole. The final hours of Robert Falcon Scott’s doomed expedition to the South Pole in 1912. Featuring Ryland Shelton as the haunted explorer, trying to keep up a stiff upper lip as he writes his final letter to his wife. With music adapted from Ken Neufeld, and words taken directly from Captain Scott’s actual letters.

EPISODE #2: The Echo of My Silence. A young diabetic has to choose between buying food or rationing his insulin. Featuring Michael Jeffrey Lucas, with music adapted from Ken Neufeld.

EPISODE #3: The Last Cat and Dog Fight. A cat and a dog, weary of constant fighting, wonder what on earth made them start feuding in the first place…isn’t there SOME way they could learn to get along, and find some, y’know, UNITY? Featuring Kim Reed and Joshua Finkel; directed and choreographed by Cate Caplin, with music adapted from Ken Neufeld.

EPISODE #4: The Last Laugh. An arthritic circus clown suddenly faces the reality that he can’t bend enough anymore to fit into the clown car…so it’s time to take off the nose. Starring Michael Laurie; featuring music by Kelly M. Ett, and an ambitious digital set created by the NMI staff.

EPISODE #5: The Last Sheep. Oh, the poor sheep — just one more sheep to be counted, and the insomniac guy will be asleep. But no, the guy’s obsessing about all those unanswered emails and other problems of the day. It’s driving the sheep crazy…just count me! Andrew Landecker stars as the sheep (and the guy in the bed). Music and lyrics by Sharon Fencl.

EPISODE #6: The Ninth Life. A smug cat who theatrically recounts how she lost eight or her nine lives is now suddenly sobered when she discovers she’s just like everyone else, and has only one precious life left to live. Starring Kristen Towers-Rowles as the humbled cat; directed Cate Caplin. With music and arrangements by Kylie Michele Briggs. We’re playing around with a rotoscoping post-production filter, giving this episode a cartoonish look.

EPISODE #7: The Last Fish. If you’re a lazy sealion, and you discover you’ve eaten the last fish - what’re you gonna do … fish, or go back to sleep? Featuring music adapted from Ken Neufeld, in an episode written by Lisa Elke. This is another experiment in combining live action backgrounds with animated musical theatre characters.

EPISODE #8: Stone Bird Houses. Kira has invested every last penny of her inheritance in her belief that there is about to be a booming market in stone bird houses (that is, houses for stone birds). Starring Dana Shaw as the overly-aspirational Kira. With music adapted from Ken Neufeld.

EPISODE #9: The Last Code. A computer punch-card realizes the world has moved on, and he’s never going to be wanted again. His language of 0’s and 1’s is surprisingly universal, and speaks to our own individual obsolescence. With music adapted from Ken Neufeld.

EPISODE #10: The Last Folksinger’s Alphabet. NMI is visiting the last folksinger in Frog Hollow, Kentucky, to record old folk songs before they’re lost forever. We fear we’re too late!, as you’ll see from this half-remembered song by “the last folksinger of Frog Hollow”, Henry Ricket. Here, poor Henry tries to remember an alphabet song about lumberjacks, but some of the letter seem to have gotten into the wrong order, or gone missing entirely.

EPISODE #11: The Last Folksinger of Frog Hollow (almost) remembers “The Log Jam”. Here, poor Henry tries to remember a dramatic song about some early settlers lost in a log jam which falls apart.

EPISODE #12: The Last Folksinger of Frog Hollow shares “A Little Song of Little Things”. Poor Henry Rickett tries his best to remember a folk song from his beloved Kentucky: “A Little Song of Little Things.” It pokes a little good-natured fun at politicians, until Henry gets a little lost….

EPISODE #13: The Last Word - a Cryogenic Farewell. Two astronauts from the not-so-distant future accidentally hit the Cryogenic Sequence before they’re ready, and they have to cram 100,000 light-years’ worth of their relationship into the few seconds which remain to them. Featuring Gia Mora and Ryland Shelton as the doomed space travelers; with music adapted from Ken Neufeld.

EPISODE #14: The Last Folksinger of Frog Hollow (almost) remembers “The Blacksmith’s Daughter”. Henry Rickett, dubbed “the last folksinger of Frog Hollow,” tries to remember the old folksong “The Blacksmith’s Daughter”.

EPISODE #15: The Last Folksinger of Frog Hollow (almost) remembers “The 12 Days of Christmas”. Henry Rickett, dubbed “the last folksinger of Frog Hollow,” tries to remember the old folksong “The 12 Days of Christmas”.

EPISODE #16: The Last Folksinger of Frog Hollow (almost) remembers “Fair Nottiman Town”. Henry Rickett, dubbed “the last folksinger of Frog Hollow,” tries to remember the very confusing folksong “Fair Nottiman Town”.

EPISODE #17: The Last Folksinger of Frog Hollow (almost) remembers “The Harp Screw”. Henry Rickett, dubbed “the last folksinger of Frog Hollow,” tries to remember the very confusing folksong “The Harp Screw”.

EPISODE #18: The Last Folksinger of Frog Hollow (almost) remembers “The Sewing Machine”. Henry Rickett, dubbed “the last folksinger of Frog Hollow,” tries to remember the very confusing folksong “The Sewing Machine”.

EPISODE #19: The Last Folksinger of Frog Hollow attempts to tell a spooky tale about a “Ghost Pirate”. The actual lyrics tend to be more about chickens, we think.

BLUE PROGRAM

DIRECTOR: John Coppola
MUSIC DIRECTOR: Thomas Craig Buckley
STAGE MANAGER: Catie O’Donnell
CAST: Melvin Biteng, Chloe Brewer, Asia Ring, and Elliot White
KELLYANNE
with book and lyrics by Katherine Cowell, and music by Kat Zimmerman
GOODLAND
with book by Sissy Van Dyke, music by Nathan Scalise, and lyrics by Jenson Parker Neal
THE COOTIE CONSPIRACY
with book by Sierra Blanco, music by Xander Ambrose, and lyrics by Sarah Horton

RED PROGRAM

DIRECTOR: Elise Dewsberry
MUSIC DIRECTOR: Ron Barnett
STAGE MANAGER: Kim Iosue
CAST: Tatiana Gomez, Emily Elizabeth Jones, Amir Levi, and Harry White
MOTHER RUSSIA
with book by J.A. Moad II, music by Erika Ito, and lyrics by Katherine Glover
SEEING THE LIGHT
with book and lyrics by Ahou Yasmine, and music by Kiarah Davis
UNBOUND
with book by Patricia Baer, music by Ron Barnett, and lyrics by Jeff Kasanoff

BLUE PROGRAM

DIRECTOR: John Coppola
MUSIC DIRECTOR: Ron Barnett
STAGE MANAGER: Kim Iosue
CAST: Carrie Lynn Certa, Max Havas, Stephanie Rojo, and John David Wallieroa St #1400, Los Angeles, CA 90012
ALLIGATOR with book and lyrics by Abel Alvarado and music by Nathan Douglas Scalise
BETWEEN COVID AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA
with book by Celeste Chan Wolfe and music and lyrics by Benjamin Emory Larson
BACK TO YOUR GRAVE, MA!
with book and lyrics by David Harry Yoon and music by Michael Vegas Mussman
FOR RICHER OR FOR POORER
with book by Kim Bixler, music by Michael Steven Turnblom, and lyrics by Greg Beattie

RED PROGRAM

DIRECTORS: Scott Guy, Allison Bibicoff
MUSIC DIRECTOR: Marc Macalintal
STAGE MANAGER: Timothy Michael Reyes
CAST: Elizabeth A. Bouton, Lauren Byrd, Nyx Ciel, and Christopher Robert Smith
BROKEN TREE LANE
with book and lyrics by Larry Todd Cousineau and music by Anton Chesnokov
DOWN THE ISLE
with book by Davern Wright, music by Lisa Maria Sedares, and lyrics by Jackie Brenneman
INSIDE
with book and lyrics by Elizabeth Simko and music by Orlando Byron
THE HAUNTING CRIMES OF DAVE
with book by Makena Metz and music and lyrics by D. Michael O’Dell

RED PROGRAM

The three 15 minute musicals that were part of the RED PROGRAM were shot on-site at NMI - with the actors rehearsing remotely and then coming to NMI for a shoot that was carefully monitored for safety. These were shot in a black-box setting with three cameras - and come to you very similarly to the way they would have been produced in a theatre.

A View from the Moon. Set in a tropical paradise, in which a Covid-stranded couple has run out of money, and an entitled rich woman thinks she can buy their gratitude and the affection of the hotel proprietor. This is a bittersweet, aching romance. Book by Richard Holland, music by Ben Ginsberg, lyrics by Stacey Weingarten.

The Traitor.  Set in a dystopian post-Covid future in which touching has become outlawed and even insurrectionistic. We’re in a prison cell, in which an interrogator is trying to get two of the prisoners to turn on the third…any two…so long as someone’s found guilty. It has a dramatic, almost operatic score. Book and lyrics by Stephen K. Nolly, music by Ron Barnett.

I Need Space. Poor Andrey…he’s scheduled to leave on a flight for Mars in two hours, but fear of germs and sudden lack of toilet paper confines him to a bathroom, to the eternal horror of his roommates who have been trying to get rid of him for months. Can the unscrupulous Toilet Paper Blackmarketeer save the day? Book and music by Sergei Stern, lyrics by Jordan Toopes.

BLUE PROGRAM

The three 15 minute musicals that were part of the BLUE PROGRAM were shot completely remotely - using Zoom! The director and actors were all in their own remote locations with their own camera and microphone equipment.

Close (But Not Too Close).  Too nervous to meet that special someone in person just yet? Why not try “CloseButNotTooClose.com” where you can check out the person of your dreams online. But watch out for scammers who may be looking for something other than love! Book by Paloma Sierra, music by Dusty Sanders, lyrics by Julia Koyfman.

Breakout. Siblings Jean and Jake are finding it extremely difficult to move on with their lives when divorced Mom and Dad are still openly feuding. One family Zoom session probably can’t make up for all the lost time, but can it at least help find a path forward? Book by Lalit Sritara, music by Evan Johnson, lyrics by Kellan Meador.

A Perfect Wedding. How can a mother give her daughter the perfect wedding that she never got to have when COVID forces everyone and everything to cancel at the last second? Book by Nicola Scott, music and lyrics by Laura Watkins.

We are delighted to announce that support for this program was provided through the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Arts Development Fee Program.  They really helped us transfer these musicals from the stage to the screen.  Please thank them if you get the chance:  201 N Figueroa St #1400, Los Angeles, CA 90012

ANITA. In the first episode, we meet Mary Virginia Terhune, who shocked her friends and family by publishing secretly under a pseudonym. Then we hear Amy Beach’s moving song which tells the story of Anita, jilted by the man she trusted with her life and heart.

THE WESTERN WIND. Antebellum author Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie lost a brother in a shipwreck, and expresses her grief through her writings for the stage. We excerpt one of her monologues in tonight’s episode, and couple it with Amy Beach’s passionate song, “The Western Wind,” a plea for the Sea to deliver a beloved who is far off on a distant sea. This is an episode from our musical webseries, “The Learned Ladies,” Season One of which features forgotten antebellum authoresses.

FORGET ME NOT. This episode features a dramatic, spooky poem by Eleanor Percy Lee about a haunted house, followed by the passionate song “Forget Me Not” about a woman trying to reach the spirits of the dead.

ECSTASY. Excerpts from the intimate diary of Jane Tandy Hardin Cross, who writes about a friend’s heartbreaking loss of a child, and how the women of the time dealt with grief. The episode concludes with Amy Beach’s powerful song, “Ecstasy,” which examines the balance between storm and sunshine.

HASTE O BELOVED. This episode’s story is one of our favorites of the season. It’s an excerpt from a wonderful vampire novel written by Catherine Anne Warfield, who was the daughter of the Mississippi Territory’s Secretary of State, Major Nathaniel Ware. In the excerpt, a young woman is asked by her grandfather to give up some of her blood. That’s followed by Amy Beach’s song, “Haste O Beloved,” which contemplates whether love can cross over the threshold of death (and back again).

EMPRESS OF THE NIGHT. This episode explores, first in poem, then in song, the image of a frightening, dark night sky being penetrated with a pinprick of light from a morning star. It’s an unmistakable analogy of hope against despair, of light against darkness…and by subtle symbolism shared by 19th-century women through literature, the endurability of a woman’s spirit fighting to be illuminated in a society determined to silence it. The poem is by Mary S.B. Schindler; the glorious music is by Amy Beach.

MISERERE OF THE PINES. Join us in a revisitation of Lucy Virginia French’s famous poem, “Miserere of the Pines.” Mrs. French finds echoes of both songs of jubilation and funereal anthems in the “stately, solemn, swelling miserere of the Pines.” In the words of one of Mrs. French’s critics of the time: “[You will] find [y]ourself floating away on a tide of rippling rhyme— forgetful of all but the delicious motion, and the silvery ‘tintinnabulation.'” The companion piece is a multi-layered song by Amy Beach, called “Le Secret,” with French and English lyrics, which also finds deeply hidden meaning in what appears to be a simple love song.

YE BANKS AND BRAES. In an excerpt from “Musings” by Amelia B. Welty, we visit the inspirational but haunted sound of birds singing at twilight, which, of course, serves as a metaphor for our own fleeting time on earth. The song in this episode is the decidedly melancholic “Ye Banks and Braes O’ Bonnie Doon,” in which a jilted lover is tormented by the merry sounds of birds who haven’t a care in the world.

THE THRUSH. This episode explores an antebellum processing her feelings of deep loneliness, in one of Anna Peyre Dinnies’ most passionate poems, “I Could Have Stemmed Misfortune’s Tide,” followed by an alternative view in the life-affirming song, “The Thrush” composed by Amy Beach. 

JUNE. Two joyous explosions of mankind’s place in Nature, explored in antebellum poetry and song. First, in an excerpt from Mary E. Bryan’s lengthy garden-metaphor poem, “My Missing Flower,” followed by the rapturous “June” with music by Amy Beach.

NIGHT. An antebellum writer contemplates the possibility of life after death, in Mary E. Bryan’s “When We Meet Again,” followed by the profound song “Night by Amy Beach, in English and German.

WHEN THE CAISSONS GO ROLLING ALONG. Edna Fervor shares with you verses 2, 3, and 4 of “When the Caissons Go Rolling Along.” (Sing along with her: “Men in rags, Men who froze, Still that Army met its foes!”)

O HOLY NIGHT!. Some of our most beloved tunes have obscure, old-fashioned, or downright offensive second verses. For instance, we wince at the slavery reference in one of the later verses of “O Holy Night,” but wonder how many revelers across the nation even notice it? Can you find it? It’s in this Yuletide edition of “Second Verses,” Edna Fervor sings additional verses from “O Holy Night”.

WE THREE KINGS. Edna Fervor sings additional verses from “We Three Kings”. These verses are truly morbid and bizarre. Take a listen as Edna sings these cheery words: “Myrrh is mine; its bitter perfume breathes a life of gathering gloom; sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying, sealed in the stone-cold tomb” in this Yuletide edition of “Second Verses”.