A NEW MUSICAL BY BRETT BOLES '07 TO BE PRODUCED

This April 26-29, The Count of Monte Cristo, an original musical by School of Music student composer Brett Boles ‘07 will receive a full staging with 26-piece orchestra in the Hoerner Theatre, where it is far more usual to perform established repertoire.  Presenting an untried work on the main-stage season is both an unusual and bold venture and yet appropriate for the theatre arts department.  The chair of the department, Lee Byron, had been hearing rumors about a composer wunderkind for quite a while by the time Brett sat down at a piano and sang through almost the entire show for department faculty.  Impressed by the quality, spirit, and volume of the original work Brett had already done, Byron set the process in motion that has led to production. 

Brett has grown up in theater, appearing in the final Les Miserables production before it closed on Broadway and playing leads in regional theater throughout his high school years.  During his sophomore year of high school he started writing songs, which came to the attention of playwright Bill Davis, creator of Mass Appeal, who was looking for a composer for his new show Austin’s Bridge.  So it came to pass that an established theatre professional collaborated with a high school junior on a show that will be opening at the Firehouse Theatre in Richmond, VA this June. 

Some of the songs for Austin's Bridge,sung and played by Brett himself, were on his Ithaca College composition degree audition CD.  Composition professor and American musical theatre expert Gregory Woodward, listening to a stack of audition CDs, at first assumed the CD had gotten in the wrong pile and that it was of some new show that he hadn’t heard about yet.  Brett was admitted, studied with Dana Wilson for a year, then began “serendipitous” studies with Woodward.

As to the genesis of this show, Boles explained: “I read The Count of Monte Cristo—my dad’s favorite book—in my senior year of high school. I immediately asked myself ‘How has no one ever turned this into a musical?  It needs to be done!’”  He began writing some songs and working on a script.  “I compose by starting in a moment or a mood, at the piano, and just play with sounds or rhythms.  Once things seem to fit, music and lyrics evolve; I work out the shape and form of the song, keeping motives tied together.”

Woodward speaks as a proud professor:  “Brett has both a natural instinct for how to write a song and the ability to learn and respond inventively to suggestions.  He understands how to pace a song for maximum expressive and dramatic impact, how to take the listener on a journey.  As good as his composing is, he’s equally gifted as a lyricist, which is a result both of being a voracious reader and hard worker—taking the time to say what needs to be said in the most poetic way possible.  He goes to great lengths to make rhyme schemes work in interesting ways.”  Woodward would know; he and Boles have met for hundreds of hours of composition lessons to work on this show, which has consumed Brett’s entire undergraduate career. “We didn’t even try to cover some of the more traditional projects for composers because it was so clear from the start that Brett was focused on something at which he is incredibly gifted. Songs just seem to flow out of him, yet he’s also interested in pushing the boundaries: The Count includes complex mixed meters, sophisticated and layered leitmotifs, and even a fugue. Yet because Brett is doing everything—book, lyrics, and music--it comes out as a completely unified work.”

Brett, speaking last December, summed up this way:  “I feel so privileged to have the incredible talent and resources of our great musical theatre program at my fingertips to make this dream a reality.  It's a once in a lifetime experience, and I can't wait to get started!”