Full disclosure – I’m partial to new musicals, with no known source material. There’s nothing quite like seeing a show come alive onstage that has, for years, just danced around in the head of the creator.
For me, that’s a sort of modern day magic.
For me, that’s the beauty of what it measns to be a theatre maker.
This past weekend I had the honor and the privlege of seeing Love In Hate Nation at Two River Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey – and I’m so glad I made the trip. It was worth every minute in the car, it was time well spent in a fantastic theatre space, and Red Bank is a delightful community, too.
Here’s the fancy blurb about Love In Hate Nation:
A turbulent rock romance by Joe Iconis, composer and lyricist of the worldwide sensation Be More Chill! Set in a 1960s Juvie Hall, Love in Hate Nation uses classic “bad girl” movies as the inspiration for the story of young people caught between eras of a changing America. Sixteen-year old Susannah Son is carted off to the National Reformatory for Girls to get her head put on straight. There she meets the aggressively incorrigible Sheila Nail, and a relationship forms which leads to an all-out “revolution in the institution” as they attempt to break out of the boxes society has created around them. Girl Group Wall of Sound harmonies are filtered through a punk rock spirit in this rebellious and romantic new musical.
Here’s what you need to know: it will make you laugh. It will make you smile. It might even make you cry (the people next to me absolutely did). It’s a story with heart, it’s a story centering on the stories of EIGHT WOMEN, which is pretty epic, it’s cast is brilliant (congrats, Sydney Farley, Amina Faye, Jasmine Forsberg, Lauren Marcus, Kelly McIntyre, Lena Skeele, Emerson Mae Smith, Ryan Vona, and Tatian Wechsler). It’s a story about love. It’s a story about friendship. It’s a story about finding your way in this crazy world, and finding the tribe that you want to be a part of, too.
Turning on the news can feel defeating, but tuning into new musicals like this will make it easier to hold onto your hope.
I do hope you go see for yourself.
Tickets and additional information are available here.