Everyday Rapture

Everyday Rapture is a musical with a book written by Sherie Rene Scott and Dick Scanlan and music by various composers. It ran Off-Broadway in 2009 and opened on Broadway in 2010. The musical is a loose autobiography of Scott herself, showing her travels from her half-Mennonite Kansas childhood to a life in show business.

Everyday Rapture
Broadway Playbill cover
MusicVarious Artists
LyricsVarious Artists
BookDick Scanlan
Sherie Rene Scott
Productions2009 Off-Broadway
2010 Broadway

Concept

The show is called a "stage memoir disguised as fiction", and a "mixed jukebox musical". Songs by singers and songwriters include David Byrne, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, and the Johnny Mercer-Harry Warren "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe." The Judy Garland standards "Get Happy" and "You Made Me Love You" are sung, the "latter amusingly illustrated with a series of cheeky images of Jesus."[1] Songs from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood are also sung.[2]

Scanlan described the show as "'a one-person show with four people in it.' The other three, besides Scott, are a younger actor who has an extended YouTube sequence and two women who serve as backup singers—'The Mennonettes'—and share other scenes with her."[3]

Production history

Everyday Rapture debuted Off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theatre on April 7, 2009 in previews, opening officially on May 3, and closed on June 13, 2009. It starred Sherie Rene Scott with direction by Michael Mayer, choreography by Michele Lynch and orchestrations and arrangements by Tom Kitt. Featured in the cast were Eamon Foley, Lindsay Mendez and Betsy Wolfe.[4] Scott was nominated for the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actress, and the show was nominated as Best Musical.[5]

Scott presented an earlier form of the show titled You May Now Worship Me on March 31, 2008 as a one-night benefit for the Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative of The Actors’ Fund.[6][7]

The show began previews on Broadway at the American Airlines Theatre on April 19, 2010 and officially opened on April 29, 2010. (It was a last-minute replacement for The Roundabout Theatre Company's planned production of Terrence McNally's Lips Together, Teeth Apart, which was canceled when Megan Mullally withdrew after differences with director Joe Mantello.) Following a limited engagement of 85 performances the show closed on July 11, 2010.[8] The original cast reprised their performances in the Broadway production, Lynch returned as choreographer, and Mayer returned as director despite being caught up in rehearsals for the production of Green Day's American Idiot, which he also directed. During its run, Scott was nominated for the 2010 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical as well as Best Book of a Musical, the latter with co-writer Dick Scanlan.

In the summer of 2012, the first production of the musical outside of New York City will be in Kansas City, Missouri, at the Unicorn Theatre.[9]

Song list

From the original cast recording:

Bonus Tracks:

  • "Remember"
  • "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)"

Recording

The original cast recording has been released by Sh-K-Boom Records on their Ghostlight label. Scott is a co-founder of Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records with her husband, Kurt Deutsch. The cast album is now available to download on iTunes.[10][11]

Critical response

Ben Brantley's review in The New York Times of the 2009 off-Broadway production stated that "it easily qualifies as one of the year’s most extravagantly entertaining new musicals."[12] Eric Grode, in The Village Voice, commented that "Gifts like [Scott's], especially when packaged and delivered this shrewdly, deserve a kind of worship."[2]

Awards and nominations

Original Broadway production
Year Award Category Nominee Result Ref
2010 Tony Award Best Book of a Musical Dick Scanlan and Sherie Rene Scott Nominated [13]
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical Sherie Rene Scott Nominated
Drama Desk Award Outstanding Musical Nominated [14]
Outstanding Book of a Musical Dick Scanlan and Sherie Rene Scott Nominated
Outstanding Actress in a Musical Sherie Rene Scott Nominated
Outstanding Orchestrations Tom Kitt Nominated
Outstanding Sound Design Ashley Hanson, Kurt Eric Fischer and Brian Ronan Nominated
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References
  1. Sommer, Elyse. "Curtain Up review: Everyday Rapture". Curtainup.com, May 1, 2009
  2. Grode, Eric. "Everyday Rapture Glimpses (Funnily) into Tug Between Narcissism and Discipline". Village Voice, 2009, accessed April 19, 2010
  3. Arnold, Monty."Sherie Rene Scott Slips Into Rapturous Persona", Playbill.com, April 23, 2009.
  4. Hernandez, Ernio. "Sherie Rene Scott Enjoys Everyday Rapture Off-Broadway Starting April 7". Playbill.com, April 7, 2009
  5. Jones, Kenneth. "Everyday Rapture, Glass Menagerie, The Pride Are Among Lortel Award Nominees" Archived 2010-05-04 at the Wayback Machine. Playbill.com, April 1, 2010
  6. Lenzi, Linda. "Photo Coverage: Sherie Rene Scott in You May Now Worship Me". Broadwayworld.com, April 1, 2008
  7. Smith, Andy. "Sherie Rene Scott's You May Now Worship Me". Broadwaycares.org, archive 2008, retrieved April 1l, 2010
  8. "Tony-Nominated Everyday Rapture Ends Limited Run July 11". Playbill.com. Retrieved 2012-02-15.
  9. The Lazarus Group. "Everyday Rapture | Unicorn Theatre | BOLDNEWPLAYS". Unicorn Theatre. Retrieved 2012-02-15.
  10. Hernandez, Ernio. "Scott's Broadway-Bound Everyday Rapture CD Available for Pre-Sale; Track List Announced". Playbill.com, April 14, 2010
  11. Hernandez, Ernio. "Ghostlight Records to Release Sherie Rene Scott's Everyday Rapture". Playbill.com, July 7, 2009
  12. Brantley, Ben. "Review Everyday Rapture". The New York Times, May 4, 2009
  13. Gans, Andrew and Jones, Kenneth. 2010 Tony Nominations Announced; Fela! and La Cage Top List" Archived May 6, 2010, at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, May 4, 2010
  14. Gans, Andrew.Drama Desk Award Nominations Announced; Ragtime and Scottsboro Top List" Archived May 6, 2010, at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, May 3, 2010
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