Shaking the can

Click THIS AMAZING LINK to go to our donations page!

Hey, Friends: We're hoping the power of the internet can help us raise some funds to help our musical cross the finish line! If you're hankering to see what a hilarious Spider-Man parody musical can be, consider kicking us a few bucks? If you loved us the first time around, or heard our soundtrack on Spotify, and are already on board, consider kicking us a few bucks? If you think the multi-hyphenate web-slinging wall-crawler didn't get the shake he deserved on Broadway, consider kicking us a few bucks? Or if you're totally broke but love social media, consider sharing our link?  Every little bit of anything helps!

Click THIS AMAZING LINK to go to our donations page!

7 Years Later

We're starting the machine back up again! Check back here for updates and information, and we'll keep 'em coming as fast as our little fingers will let us!

Peter, Who?

WE’RE BACK!

Hello friends!  It’s been a while.  Seven years, to be exact. That’s when a few theater folk, musicians, graphic artists and patient parents with minivans all got together to answer the crucial question, “do you need $75 million to make a good Spider-Man musical?”

Remember that one?  Kinda?  I get it, seven years is a long time.  Lucky we made a bunch of behind-the-scenes videos to track the journey.  Check’em out if you want to relive how it all went... or if you're curious to see how a musical was made completely from scratch in under 30 days: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF6E2FD09BEFFC9FB

Believe it or not, that one night wasn’t lights out for The Spidey Project. Since then, the show has been put up in high schools and community theaters across the country. It even had a couple of great runs in LA – topped by its most recent sold-out production this past summer at the Hollywood Fringe Festival.  No, really!  Check out these pics:

And along the way, the show has grown. We've got two new songs have been added.  Scenes have been beefed up.  And what was once a scrawny, scrappy show is now a full-grown musical with great abs.  We've even got a shiny new title: Peter, Who?

And guess what?  This new version of the show gets to fly high again this summer as part of the New York Musicals Festival (or, NYMF).  How awesome is that?! Here's a link to Their press release!

We want you all to join us on this new journey.  Keep an eye on this page. We’ll post updates, videos, photos, maybe some sweet music licks, and who knows what else.

Thank you to everyone who’s kept up with us over the years, and we can’t wait to see you this summer.

Time to get back to it!

THE SPIDEY PROJECT Cast Record Released With National Tour On The Horizon

The comedic theatre collective Compass Theatrical today released the long-awaited original cast album of their 2011 cult musical hit THE SPIDEY PROJECT -- featuring a super-hero rock score composed by Doug Katsaros and Adam Podd -- It is available via iTunes, Google Play and Amazon and also, keeping with the tradition of the show, free to download from CD Baby and their website:  compasstheatrical.com.

Justin Moran directed the sold-out production of the unauthorized musical parody (music by Katsaros and Podd, with book and lyrics by Moran and Jon Roufaeal) based on the web-slinging hero who was catching so much flack on Broadway that year.  The album has music direction and arrangements by Adam Podd with additional arrangements by his identical twin brother Matt, and a band featuring Doug Katsaros, the brothers Podd, Dillon Kondor, Bernard Grobman, and Harvey Wirht.  The score's style draws inspiration from the 1960s Spider-Man cartoon and a clear pop-rock influence to hilariously tell the iconic zero-to-hero story of social outcast Peter Parker, whose life changes when he's bitten by radio-active spider.

THE SPIDEY PROJECT started in the wake of the extended preview performances of Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark, which was criticized for its excessive delays, bloating budget, and cast injuries.  Comedian and playwright Justin Moran joked to the internet, “How important is $65 million in making good theatre?” and stated his goal of creating a fully-realized web-slinging musical for $0 in under 30 days,  making its opening one day before the (at the time) scheduled opening of the Broadway show. Interest poured in and volunteers were enlisted, and in just a month they wrote, rehearsed, and produced the first Spider-Man musical to officially open in New York City. 

In addition to having the rehearsal and performance space donated to the project, recording studio NY NOISE donated time for the group to record their sweet score for posterity.   And record they did.  Mark Goodell volunteered to engineer and mix the album which was produced by Adam Podd and features the vocal talents of original cast members: Travis Nilan, Liz Bachman, Jon Roufaeal, Ryan Nelson, Michael Lutton, Louie Pearlman, Robin Rothman, and Claire Neumann; as well as Diana Yourke, and Adam Podd.

The show’s strong reviews and subsequent life on the internet and in productions around the country caught the eye of veteran producer Paul Bartz, president of Windwood Theatricals (Broadway’s Tony Award-winning revival of HAIR,  Forbidden Broadway: Alive and Kicking), who is leading the campaign to bring THE SPIDEY PROJECT national tour to life for the Fall of 2014.

To download the album visit: www.compasstheatrical.com

For more information on The Spidey Project and its history visit: thespideyproject.blogspot.com

For more information on the National Tour visit: www.windwoodtheatricals.com

The Original Cast Recording is DONE!!

Hey all you beautiful and devoted Spidey fans!  

The highly anticipated (and almost 2 years late) cast-recording of The Spidey Project is finally here.  A quick re-cap for those of you who don’t know…

The Spidey Project was the FIRST theatrical Spider-Man musical to have opened in NYC. In the name of truth and justice, we put together a dream team (volunteers, all) of creatives, actors, techies, musicians, etc., etc. to conceive, write, rehearse, produce, and finally mount a fully realized web-slinger comic-book musical-parody (full of hyphenation) in just 30 days – for ZERO dollars.  This was in response to the Broadway fiasco with its delayed openings, cast injuries, and 75+ million dollar budget. The general idea being that maybe with all that bloat they missed the point of theatre and Spider-Man.  So our fearless leader, Justin Moran (co-author and director), put out a Youtube call to the world that stated his goal, with only 30 days to make it happen, in order to beat Turn Off the Dark’s slated opening night with our own opening night, one day earlier.  The world responded with hundreds of excited participants and we quickly went to work.

Doug Katsaros and Adam Podd set to work on a world-class score, Justin Moran and Jon Roufaeal hammered together a funny, energetic and tight-as-hell script, and the rest is (internet) history.

We're hard at work right now on getting the album up on iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify so you can all download it for free, put it on your phones, and listen to it at the gym; and we'll let you know as soon as it's ready, but until then, click the image below to listen to complete score in all of its glory.

For this amazing album Adam Podd was our producer and arranger, and his good friend/colleague Mark Goodell was our mixing engineer.


ALBUM CREDITS:
Music by: Doug Katsaros and Adam Podd
Lyrics by: Justin Moran and Jon Roufaeal
Produced & Arranged by: Adam Podd
Mixed by: Mark Goodell
Additional Arrangements by Matt Podd

THE BAND:
Piano: Adam Podd and Doug Katsaros
Other Keys/Synth: Adam Podd and Matt Podd
Guitar/Bass: Dillon Kondor
Additional Guitar: Bernard Grobman
Drums: Harvey Wirht

THE CAST:
Travis Nilan as Peter Parker
Liz Bachman as Gwen Stacey
Jon Roufaeal as Kent Holbrook and Chameleon
Ryan Nelson as Flash and The Doctor
Michael Lutton as Uncle Ben and Scorpion
Louie Pearlman as Electro and J.J. Jameson
Robin Rothman as Aunt May
Claire Neumann as Betty Brant
Justin Moran as Dr. Spidderman
Above also make up all vocal ensembles
Diana Yourke as Ensemble (recording only)
Adam Podd as Easter-Egg guest vocal… who found it?

[CLICK THE IMAGE TO LISTEN TO THE SPIDEY PROJECT  ORIGINAL CAST RECORDING]

Our new musical opens August 12th at the Players Theater in FringeNYC

Spidey goes west

Hey out there internet, just wanted to take a minute and drop a line. For all our friends out west who have huddled up late nights to our youtube videos longing for a Spidey experience of your very own, your ridiculously nerdy prayers have been answered... and so have ours.

A couple of theater companies (one mid-west-ish, and one west-coast-ish) are mounting "The Spidey Project..." in their 2012 seasons. Shiny new casts, crews, sets... with none of the timing or monetary restrictions, but all the same rag-tag awesomeness of the New York hit.

The west coast production is happening at Theater Unleashed in LA (California)

and the mid-west regional production is happening at TADA Productions in Lincoln (Nebraska)

Below are their links and logos, respectively:

Theatre Unleashed (Opens March) 

http://www.theatreunleashed.com/

TADA Productions (Opens April) 

http://www.tadaproductions.info/

A Pirate Project

While we’re still trying to keep the finer points of the story quiet, it’s a swashbuckling pirate adventure in three musical acts. Short musical acts… but there are still three of them. For the initial reading we’ve rounded up some of the usual suspects from our last two shows (The Spidey Project and POPE!) but this will definitely require a larger cast than we’re used to.

Everything is still pretty early in development (especially for a show that is scheduled to open in October!) While the first draft of the script is done, the score is still yet to be started, and all those other important things that go into a musical still need to be thought about. But adventure calls again, so onward!