Remember when Sting sang “I Want My MTV” in the middle of Dire Straits’ “Money For Nothing”? If you don’t, “Un-Block The Music” suggests you google “Live Aid”, the ginormous concert, and watch the frenzy that was 1980s music! Why do I bring this up? Dr. Jeff and Jacob Foy introduced their second musical, One Night Only during this past weekend’s WFYL 1180Am’s broadcast of “From Bullets To Broadway, Anatomy of A Broadway Show.”
While this radio program has been following development of the Foys’ first musical, Emergency, show host Sgt. Dan McCaughan discovered that Emergency is not the only creation Jeff and Jacob have been developing. “We felt the need to work on something other than Emergency,” said Jeff. Rewrites and edits are ongoing when you are taking a musical from paper to stage, but you can only look at the same line so many times before having to walk away for a while. Working on a separate musical keeps the creativity going. “(After working on One Night Only for a while), we were able to go back to Emergency with fresh eyes.”
It’s like a horse race, said Jacob. “One horse slows down naturally, and then the other horse gallops ahead. You can move back and forth.” Why music of the 1980s? Basically, it’s fun, and it is what Jacob grew up listening to…the hair bands like Bon Jovi. “It’s my favorite music,” he said.
Jeff continued. “We knew that we wanted the show to have an 80s rock sound and wanted it to be uniformed throughout the show, but it wasn’t until we had good solid script draft before we started the music,” Jeff said. And, it wasn’t until they workshopped the show this past summer, did they know the actual year the show should be set.
With the exception of bringing the incredible Jen Wineman on to direct One Night Only, the Foys have been doing everything themselves including funding. As Jeff says, “you can only do that for so long. And we know, that we want the next production of Emergency (which originally ran during the New York Theater Festival’s Summerfest in August 2019) to be bigger.” How are they going to get the funding?
One Night Only was scheduled to be produced in the summer of 2020. Obviously, that didn’t happen. Fingers crossed, the summer of 2021 will be a different story. The show is scheduled to open at the Players Theatre in late July. “We are hoping to achieve good feedback and momentum and get people interesting in funding Emergency,” said Jeff. It’s essential. “Good shows can die without funding,” while shows that might be mediocre can make it to the stage because they have recognizable names and money behind it.
The question is always…is there an audience for a show? Witness…Rock of Ages and Head Over Heels. The answer is …yes!!! Jacob’s generation (early 20s) grew up listening to hair bands and Jeff’s generation is not only paying to see shows, but taking their kids as well. While COVID-19 has turned the world upside down, Sgt. Dan always says the military adapts, overcomes and achieves. Kinda sounds like theater too, wouldn’t you say?
During Saturday’s broadcast, the song “One Night Only” sung by Garland Ray Dance Jr. was played. If you want to hear some other of the show’s demos, go to https://www.onenightonlythemusical.com/ If you missed the radio broadcast or want to hear it again, you can listen Saturday, February 6 at noon.
As for music from Emergency The Musical, go to https://www.emergencymusical.com/
Also, if you are interested in 1980s driven musicals, you might want to check out “Un-Block the Music’s” interviews with Antigone Rising’s Dena Tauriello and Emma Ford, both drummers for The Go Go’s musical, Head over Heels. I also interviewed Jacob Yates, musical director for Rock of Ages. That story is coming…watch for it.
One more thing, if you have missed any of the other past episodes of “From Bullets To Broadway,” it’s not too late to hear them. Go to https://www.1180wfyl.com/ and hit “podcasts.”
Un-Block The Music 
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