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World Premiere Recording

Release date: August 20, 2021

Book by

COREY BRUNISH

Music by

ROSABELLA GREGORY

Lyrics by

DINA GREGORY

Based on the motion picture screenplay FOR ROSEANNA by

SAUL TURTLETAUB

Corey Brunish

Book

Corey Brunish has, at some point, participated in every aspect of live theatre. It was when he joined the ranks of Broadway producers that all that experience paid off. Brunish has garnered 11 consecutive Tony Award nominations over the last 9 seasons, and received three Tony Awards and an Olivier Award from London's West End. Two of his most notable production credits include Beautiful The Carole King Musical, which ran for 6 years and is in the top 3% of all musicals in terms of longevity. Come From Away returns to Broadway this Fall and is perhaps the most beloved of all shows on which he has served as a producer. Additionally, Brunish largely funded the concert "Women of Soul" filmed in the East Wing of the Obama White House for PBS. (Starring Aretha Franklin, Melissa Etheridge, Patti LaBelle, Janelle Monáe and Ariana Grande). He is currently producing the new documentary feature about the career of Stephen Schwartz titled "Defying Gravity."

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The Writers

Rosabella Gregory

Music

Rosabella is an award winning singer-songwriter, composer and arranger. She has released three albums and performed her work throughout the UK and internationally, as a solo artist at venues such as The Royal Festival Hall, Pizza Express Jazz Club, Joe’s Pub (NYC) and 606 as well as in support of Jools Holland on his Country House tour. Other Career highlights include a live Radio 2 session with ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris and winning the International Prize in the New York Songwriters Circle Song Contest, which gained her the support of Grammy winning producer Russ Titelman who compared her to "a young Joni Mitchell". Her musicianship has also led to wide ranging collaborations with such luminaries as Bob James, Anoushka Shankar and Soumik Datta and she is a sought-after arranger, working with a diverse array of artists including Faroese singer-songwriter and filmmaker Heiðrik á Heygum, Icelandic Indie Folk outfit Árstíðir, percussionist/composer Bernhard Schimpelsberger and UK pop sensation, Busted. Rosabella was 1 of 10 composers nominated to create an original song for The Canales Project #HearHerSong initiative (2019). Other works include Where No Bell Tolls an aria commissioned by the National Opera Studio (Hoxton Hall/Grimeborn, 2018), City Stories (numerous venues including a London residency at St James Theatre (now TOP) and 59E59 Theatre New York. TV composition credits include ‘Big Font Large Spacing,” “Dove” and Channel 4’s “The Last Leg.” More recently she collaborated with Opera Up Close, composing Sammy and the Beanstalk, their new online opera for children. As well as working in Theatre, TV and Opera Rosabella finds the time to lecture in composition at The London College of Music. Collaborating with her twin Dina has given Rosabella some of her most rewarding writing experiences, from in their early years writing a rock opera for the ENO Lillian Bayliss programme to winning the Vivian Ellis prize together at the age of 21, right up to the present day and their collaboration on a wonderful new adaptation of The Wind in the Willows starring Jennifer Saunders and Harriet Walter for Audible.

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Dina Gregory

Lyrics

Dina is a storyteller and lyricist who hails from Devon. She holds an MA in Psychology, Physiology & Philosophy (PPP Joint Honours) from Somerville College, Oxford University, and an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her musicals, plays, songs, arias, and choral anthems have been performed at venues large and small, both in the USA and the UK, including Hoxton Hall, Her Majesty’s Theatre, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, and Carnegie Hall. As lyricist/librettist, her works include Words Apart, published by Choristers Guild (2020), “Grateful” (Hear Her Song, Canales Project, 2019), and Where No Bell Tolls. commissioned by the National Opera Studio (2018). As book writer-lyricist, her works include Hello Sky, a musical based on the life of artist Georgia O’Keeffe (produced by OperaLancaster, 2010), Falling (Daegu International Musical Festival, South Korea, 2010), and Willy & Rupert (O’Neill Music Theater Conference, 2005). As author, Dina has penned over twenty stories for Audible, including the short stories “Gingerella'' and “The Chocolate Tree,” and the full-length Audible Original adaptation of Wind in the Willows (2020), featuring an all-star cast and including music by her twin sister and longstanding collaborator, Rosabella Gregory.

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The Cast

FEATURING A CAST OF BROADWAY VETERANS

01

Roseanna

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Laura Osnes

Roseanna

Laura is a two-time Tony Award Nominee for her roles in Bonnie & Clyde and Cinderella (Drama Desk award). She also starred on Broadway in Bandstand, Anything Goes, South Pacific and Grease and can be seen regularly on the Hallmark channel. 

Santino won the Tony Award for his portrayal of the title role in Tootsie. He has also starred in Cinderella (with Laura Osnes), Billy Elliot, the film Frozen and the TV series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

Marcello

Santino Fontana

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02

Marcello

03

Cecilia

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Elizabeth Stanley

Cecilia

A 2021 Tony Award Nominee for Jagged Little Pill, Elizabeth has also starred in On The Town, Million Dollar QuartetCompany and Cry Baby.

Capestro

Terrence Mann

A three-time Tony Nominee for his roles in Pippin, Beauty and the Beast and Les Misérables, Terry was also in the original production of Cats. More recently he has starred in Addams Family, Finding Neverland and Tuck Everlasting.

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04

Capestro

05

Antonio

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Derek Klena

Antonio

Copponi

06

Copponi

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Robert Cuccioli

The original Jekyll in Jekyll and Hyde (Tony Nominee and Drama Desk Winner) Robert has also starred in Les Misérables and Spider Man: Turn Off The Dark.

Rossi

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The Ensemble

GRACE CHOI

ELYSIA JORDAN

CYNTHIA WANG

MARY PAGE NANCE

VISHAL VAIDYA

JOEL WAGGONER

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Raymond's voice has been heard by more than 42 million people as the "Blowfish" in The Little Mermaid movie. On Broadway he is a Drama Desk Nominee for Wonderful Town. He also appeared in A Tale Of Two Cities, Dance of the Vampires and was the original Stride in Jekyll & Hyde.

Raymond Jaramillo McLeod

07

Rossi

Artists

The Synopsis

Synopsis

A 2021 Tony Award Nominee for Jagged Little Pill, Derek also starred in Anastasia and Wicked.

ACT ONE

As our story begins in a small town in southern Italy. We are at a funeral. But it is not just any funeral. A circus performer has died and a highwire act is in progress over the cemetery. During “DANZA” the tightrope walker tosses roses into the grave. 

 

We meet Marcello, our narrator and husband to Roseanna. We learn in short order that the tiny cemetery is now nearly out of burial plots and that Marcello’s wife, gravely ill, wishes to be buried alongside her daughter who perished at the age of just seven. Thus it is Marcello’s mission to keep everyone in his village alive at all costs for as long as possible. The townsfolk, barely tolerant of his meddling, joke with him that for all his efforts, snatching cigarettes out of people’s mouths, making sure workmen have their ladders properly supported, helping the elderly across the streets, “ANYONE COULD DROP DEAD” at any moment.

Back at home (above the Trattoria Marcello runs with his wife and her sister Cecilia) Roseanna baits Marcello with the idea that after she is gone, he might consider marrying her sister (“THAT THING”). The scene shifts to a prison. Copponi is being released and sings of his bitterness and his intent to reclaim the money he was convicted of stealing and has hidden away for ten years in the care of his lawyer Rossi. He is en route to Rossi’s house, but not before he tells of “COPPONI’S LAMENT”.

In the town square, Cecilia obliges some tourists by taking their photos, but first pretending to make off with their phones. An observer of her shenanigans, the young lawyer Antonio, is smitten and invites her to coffee. He is far less confident than Cecilia and finds her difficult to read. That is, until he has a revelation (“FROG SONG”). The solution to Marcello’s dilemma is to buy more land for the church cemetery. To that end, he visits a wealthy neighboring landowner in an attempt to persuade him (Capestro) to sell off an acre of land which adjoins the church. Capestro, bitter that he lost Roseanna’s love to Marcello long ago, defiantly sings “THAT SHIP HAS SAILED”.

Downcast, Marcello returns to Roseanna. She tries to reassure him all will be well and as God intends it to be (“MY MARCELLO”). Learning that a townsperson, Fatalatti, is on his deathbed in a coma, Marcello rushes to prevent the family from unplugging his life

support (“POOR FATALATTI”).

Just as the debate finally is decided against Marcello’s wishes, the patient miraculously awakens, and the day is saved. Back at the Trattoria, Roseanna and Cecilia discuss the potential relationship between Cecilia and Marcello (“YOUR MARCELLO”).

Suddenly, Rossi, in a panic having heard Copponi has been released from prison, is struck in the head by the church bell, which has mysteriously fallen from its tower. In the hospital, Marcello prays for his full recovery (“MARCELLO’S PRAYER”) Rossi is indeed released and returns home.

There, Marcello confronts him about the hidden money Copponi seeks. Sadly, the doctors were premature in releasing Rossi, and he suddenly falters and passes away, giving only the slightest hint to Marcello as to the location of the hidden treasure. Unfortunately for Antonio, Cecilia has learned that his father is none other than the evil Capestro. Needless to say, their budding relationship is sabotaged by this revelation. For now.

Back at Rossi’s, Marcello, in an act of genius combined with madness, born of his devotion to Roseanna’s wish to rest beside her daughter for eternity, has placed the inconvenient corpse of Rossi in his freezer amongst the frozen vegetables (“REST IN PEAS”).

ACT TWO

Once more at the church graveyard, the townsfolk sing of the mysterious bell accident, but celebrate Rossi’s apparent recovery (“THE BELL”). At her daughter’s grave, Roseanna, depressed over Marcello’s absence of late, sings her concerns to her daughter’s headstone (“YOUR FATHER”).

Antonio impresses Cecilia with his intention to confront and defy his father over his refusal to sell his land to Marcello. That night at dusk, on a pastoral hill overlooking the town, Marcello and Roseanna recall their love story (“OUR STORY”).

The wicked Copponi, through a twist of fate, confronts Marcello at Rossi’s house, and once the money is found, instead of killing Marcello to guard his secret, is himself killed through no fault of Marcello’s. But now, yet another body to dispose of to keep Roseanna’s dream alive!

Roseanna, in the meantime, decides it falls to her to confront Capestro over the sale of the land. In an emotional encounter, the two let their disappointment, detestation and despair play out (“SIXTEEN”). Back at Rossi’s, it is time to move the corpse from the freezer and Marcello has enlisted Cecilia to help defrost Rossi with two hairdryers in hand (“UNEXPECTED FREEDOM”). The two sing of their mutual relief that they are not attracted to one another and so may move on to other worries at hand. Antonio, clashes defiantly with his father and sings of “LOVE!” as the balm to all worries.

Outside the Trattoria, Marcello tearfully announces that his beloved Roseanna has passed away. It is too late. All of Antonio’s efforts are in vain. When Antonio later learns of Roseanna’s death, and hears that Marcello is at the train station bound for New York (a place where Marcello had always promised to take Roseanna) he races off to say goodbye. At the station he finds Marcello, Cecilia in a black veil alongside a black draped coffin. Roseanna will finally travel to New York after all.

Overcome, he drops to one knee and proposes to Cecilia! At the end of his heartfelt proposal, Cecelia removes her veil to reveal Roseanna! In quick order we learn that Copponi lies in the coffin on its way to New York, that Roseanna is on her way to consult a heart specialist there as well, and that Cecilia awaits Antonio at a beach cottage getaway. To celebrate this stunning but euphoric turn of events, they all sing “FINALE”.

“WHAT FILLS A DAY WITH PEACE, LOVE!

WHAT FILLS A LIFE WITH JOY, LOVE!

WHAT IS THE FORCE BINDING US ALL, ISN’T IT LOVE!”

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The Song List

1. DANZA -- Marcello & Ensemble

2. ANYONE COULD DROP DEAD -- Marcello & Ensemble

3. THAT THING -- Marcello & Roseanna

4. COPPONI’S LAMENT -- Copponi

5. FROG SONG -- Antonio & Cecilia

6. THAT SHIP HAS SAILED -- Marcello & Capestro

7. MY MARCELLO -- Roseanna

8. POOR FATALATTI -- Marcello & Ensemble

9. YOUR MARCELLO -- Roseanna & Cecilia

10. MARCELLO’S PRAYER -- Marcello & Rossi

11. REST IN PEAS -- Marcello

12. THE BELL -- Ensemble

13. YOUR FATHER -- Roseanna

14. OUR STORY -- Marcello & Roseanna

15. SIXTEEN -- Roseanna & Capestro

16. UNEXPECTED FREEDOM -- Marcello & Cecilia

17. LOVE! -- Antonio

18. FINALE -- Ensemble

MY MARCELLO is produced by Michael J Moritz Jr and Corey Brunish, associate produced by Jakob Reinhardt and Deena Zucker, arrangements and orchestrations by Rosabella Gregory, with music direction by Cynthia Meng, engineering by Jakob Reinhardt, mixed by Jakob Reinhardt and Michael J Moritz Jr, with mastering by Greg Reierson at Rare Form Mastering.

Song List
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Michael J. Moritz Jr.

Producer & Mixer

Most recently, Michael received the 2019 Tony Award for Best Musical as a co-producer for Broadway's Hadestown and the 2017 Emmy Award for Audio for his work on From Broadway with Love: A Benefit Concert for Orlando. He also received both TONY and Olivier award nominations as a co producer for Broadway/West End's Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Other notable Broadway producing credits include Big Fish, A Night With Janis Joplin, On The Town, and The Velocity of Autumn. Michael has musically directed 200+ theatrical productions throughout the US and UK. Known as the ‘Musical Director to the Stars,’ Michael has received high praise for his music direction and performance piano work in both Broadway and Pop arenas. Michael was seen on the Broadway stage as on-stage piano and vocals in A Night With Janis Joplin. In 2017, Michael was nominated for an Emmy Award for his work as audio engineer for the DVD release of the show.

Song Samples
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