The initial concept for BANNED the Musical was created in the Summer of 2008 with the development of WYSIWYG. It all started with a bunch of songs written in the last millennium about someone finding themselves and being comfortable with who they are. At that time, the Internet was just starting to become part of our daily lives. In early 2012, I placed an ad on craigslist that solicited singers for a unique musical concept. Kelly Zick responded to the ad and we setup an informal meeting near the Lamont School of Music to discuss the project.
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Edinburgh Fringe Performance
The Frontier, a Lamont School of Music watering hole
Drew Bradley joined us at our first meeting and he recommended Tony Domenick transcribe the music. Tony and I worked together throughout 2013 and at some point he became the vocal coach and music director for the premiere. Along with Kelly and Drew, I hired Blake Nawa'a and Mark Del Monte to complete the cast. On September 14th, 2013 we held a stage reading of the concept at the Black Crown Piano Lounge in Denver Colorado.
Public introduction of WYSIWYG(September 2013)
A few weeks after the Black Crown performance, I met Evan Duggan at the Rooster Cat Café and hired him to help me with the book. Songs were added, expanded and changed. His goal was to capture the true, very personal story that was being played out for him in real time. At some point, Evan assumed the role of Director too and we planned our first theater run for Spring 2014.
Evan Duggan, Tony Domenick and Glenn Alsup(January 2014)
It's not easy for an independent production to find rehearsal space in Denver, but with my connection at First Baptist Church and the casts' relationship with Lamont School of Music we were able to make do. We spent the first half of 2014 tweaking the script, rehearsing and refining the production. The premiere was on June 6th, 2014 at Denver's Crossroads Theater. Our closing performance was the matinee on June 8th, 2014.
Crossroads Cast and Crew at Lamont School of Music(March 2014)
But that's not quite the end of this story, in the months following our 2014 performance of WYSIWYG, April escapes from the pages of the musical and the web to assume her place in the real world. After the completing WYSIWYG she went right back to work and in 2017 she premiered her music theatre work The Age of Sisyphus at the Aurora Fox with a 15 member cast and a 5 piece band. Colorado audiences were thrilled and the work was nominated for several Denver area awards.
April Alsup overlooking downtown Denver(Summer 2014)
On July 12th, 2018 April debuted her new 90 minute production of WYSIWYG at the Vintage Theater in Denver. It was a sneak preview and photo op before heading off to New York City to participate in the 10th Annual Planet Connections Theatre Festivity, where the troupe won one of the festival's most prestigious awards! By mid-August they were back in Denver for a weekend of shows at the Avenue Theater. It was a whirlwind for sure, but along the way we accumulated 12 award nominations for music theatre excellence, including: five Off-Broadway awards and seven regional Broadway World awards.
NYC Cast and Crew of WYSIWYG(August 2018)
After the NYC performances of WYSIWYG and a 2019 visit to Scotland's Inner Hebrides, April got to work on Eigg the Musical. While the pandemic slowed down performance events around the world, it allowed her to complete the WYSIWYG cast album with Movie Sound Studios, learn to play the accordion and work on Eigg the Musical with playwright Mark Sbani. In 2023 they were invited to perform the work at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it won "Best New Musical" from Broadway World's Denver area readers. A few months after the Eigg debut at fringe she was invited to return to Fringe in 2024. The timing was perfect, WYSIWYG had become a bit dated and she really wanted to create a new version of the show. Everyone got onboard, so it was a great fit on both sides of the pond.
Edinburgh Cast and Crew of BANNED the Musical(August 2024)
The trajectory of a new music theatre work is never cast in stone and even with all the success we had with WYSIWYG early on we knew we could do better. The pandemic had given us the opportunity to focus on the WYSIWYG script and supplement the work with an ensemble. The latest show follows a group of gender misfits (the ensemble) through the events leading up to their debut at a local performing arts festival and we expanded the show to have a larger representation from the non-conforming, gender queer community. The new show's title is just BANNED! It includes a theatrical group of performers who are marginalized in society and succeed despite the adversity. The new recipe was a huge hit and the BANNED show received a four star review in Scotland's National Newspaper, The Scotsman.
Our latest performance package comes in several versions including a 60 minute (fringe version), 90 minute (regular version) and a two act (extended version) that is a little over 2 hours with a brief intermission. We'd love to hear from you!
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