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NOT ANOTHER HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL


Book, Music & Lyrics by JJ NOVEMBRINI; Additional Music & Lyrics by RYAN L. WELLER


Website: https://notanotherhighschoolmusical.com
Contact Email: jjnovembrini@outlook.com


He’s poor. She’s dead. They’re a whore. She’s got a yeast infection…
 And they need you to SUPPORT THE ARTS!

Disguised as a partially true story and spoof of the popular Disney films, our “grown-up” Absurdist farce is from the vantage point of the troublemaking adults after the gleeful high school musical! This is the heartwarming tale of two broke losers — Vinnie, a genderqueer slut, and Boris, an annoyed hungry Jew — who face poverty when their old high school commissions them to write a televised musical to save the National Endowment for the Arts; they end up penning a controversial jaw-dropper entitled Hobo Heaven: Turn Off the Poor. Along the way, they’re forced to grapple with homelessness, artistic prostitution, a stoned Martha Stewart, chlamydia, and death! With perhaps the greatest “ten-thirteen showstopper” in the history of Polish folk songs, Not Another High School Musical explores the concept of creating art, the pros/cons of ambition, and the self-discovery process artists must endure as it wraps itself in a delicious, whimsical message. Beyond the $4 billion Disney franchise, this show’s a gloss on every musical about or set in a high school — from Grease to Mean Girls, the genre will always prove to have a ubiquitous durability. The eclectic and baffling score of punk-rock to polka, with such tunes as “Hobo Heaven”, “An Apple a Day”, “Whore For the Arts”, “Take Me From Nowhere”, “Good Thing”, and “You’re Still Jewish?”, (deemed too offensive) will leave audiences crying as the story crashes to a chilling resolution…although we did cut the risqué scene where Martha cooks the turkey in a trash can.

Here’s what regional producers/artistic directors are saying:

  • “…THE SCARY MOVIE OF HIGH SCHOOL MUSICALS!”
  • “SCATHINGLY BRILLIANT!”
  • “BRUTALLY FUNNY!”
  • “FRESH ORIGINAL IDEA!”
  • “PLAIN OBNOXIOUS!”
  • “MY AUNT DIDN’T HATE IT!”


ASK ABOUT OUR NEW CONCEPT ART!

Two-act book musical; 7 principals plus ensemble; 150 minutes; Appropriate for mature audiences (contains explicit content including strong language, sexual references, drug use, comic violence, adult themes, and nuns)


Entertainment has never been so poor!


HISTORY & FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

NYU (concept workshop), Red Wagon (co-directed). Cancelled production in 2021.

We are seeking a passionate, daring producer that wants to push the envelope of vanilla, safe, depressing theatre. How many goddamn shows of classic old stories or innocuous jukebox musicals can we watch?!

♦

NOT ANOTHER HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL initially began life as a much-hyped fundraiser, premiering to an invited New York audience. All involved with that intimate production had a most rewarding experience. The book and score were then outfitted with fresher jokes and tighter lyrics for a reading I co-directed. As a more seasoned writer, I’ve refined the play’s themes and streamlined/restructured the bloated narrative. While the rewrites indicated marked improvement, the work demanded another full-scale production. Criminally, my chance to properly re-stage the material has yet to come to fruition — “version 2.0” deserves that opportunity to be unleashed…and soon (these characters have actually spoken to me in my sleep)!!

♦

An eerie, serendipitous thing happened between the show’s conception and the present day: the economy bottomed out and threw the nation into a recession, mirroring the plot’s trajectory. Subsequently, funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and arts education were heavily slashed for the 26,000+ high schools in the country. As arts education has faced a historic defunding, this topical tale of impoverishment has a timely relevance to the current socioeconomic climate. We are currently accepting options for further development. The original workshop revealed that NAHSM connects with audiences about our world and entertains as it enlightens. Audiences loved it because they laughed, but also because they learned something.

NOT ANOTHER HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL is an all-out farce that is grounded in fear, bitterness, desperation, and artistic integrity. The show is stuffed with nonstop jokes and silly situations that make for hilarity, but also features characters who move us, holding a mirror up to ourselves and the choices we make. The comedy is on the page and doesn’t need exaggeration – rather, played for its honesty. At the heart of any farce lies truth. As the piece reaches the sentiment via the satire, it should prove to be less campy and instead evoke pathos. It’s absurd, it’s vulgar, it’s shocking…but at its core, it explores personal growth and learning how actions affect others.

“We all need a little bit of art to remind us we’re human.”

May the magic be with you~

JJ Novembrini (Book, Composer & Lyricist) once described himself as a writer who transmogrifies epic dramas and Gothic thrillers into exhilarating, thought-provoking theatre…but he was totally lying. JJ attended New York University’s Steinhardt School of Music (Theory & Composition) where he studied with Dr. Steven Rosenhaus and Dr. Youngmi Ha, who dubbed his pieces “whimsical” and “so late”. As a featured songwriter, JJ was a recipient of the NYU Student Spotlight for excellence. He has taught piano privately and served as pianist for masterclasses, recitals, charity benefits, and religious institutions. The majority of JJ’s time has been wasted as composer, lyricist, librettist, joke ghostwriter, music director, and keyboardist for an array of high school, collegiate, and regional projects, as well as award-losing indie films that place as festival finalists. Several of JJ’s original works have received production, among them being Not Another High School Musical (Red Wagon); Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations (Appleseed Productions); Pharaoh! A Comedy in Ten Plagues (NYU Black Box); and a song cycle based on the novel The Body of Christopher Creed (Office Hours). He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and BMI. JJ has also earned distinction as being one of the world’s foremost historians on the great Bea Arthur. He actively continues his global search for remnants of her teeth. In loving memory of his grandmother, JJ dedicates all the show’s jokes that he stole from her.

Ryan L. Weller (Additional Music & Lyrics) is a world traveling New Yorker whose education has taken him to faraway lands such as Jordan, Germany, Beijing, and Brooklyn. A graduate of University of Rochester (B.A. in Music), his political science cravings and appetite for diplomatic relations led him to dine as an ESL Instructor at China University of Geosciences, devour studies at University of Jordan, and feast at NYU School of Law. Currently a lawyer in NYC, Weller reminds JJ Novembrini that youth is fleeting, but immaturity is forever. Like diamonds. He would like audiences to know the portions of this score you find brilliant and musically enchanting are, indeed, his. However, if you think it stinks, Weller affirms that he has nothing to do with the show.

Jeremy F. Goodman (Co-Orchestrations & Music Arrangements), whose work was most recently heard at Burning Man, completed his Master of Music in Film Scoring and his Bachelor of Music in Music Composition at New York University. Jeremy was the music director and pianist for “Annie Turns 40: Back to the Orphanage” starring Andrea McArdle. CBS featured a special from the event on CBS’s “Sunday Morning” series. Jeremy’s arrangements have been played by roughly a dozen orchestras and ensembles in the United States and Canada, most notably, the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. His original Latin jazz music can be heard on his CD The Jeremy Franklin Goodman Project: An Evening of Live Latin Jazz. Jeremy orchestrated, arranged, and musically supervised Assisted Living: The Musical by Rick Compton and Betsy Bennett. He a member of ASCAP and the American Federation of Musicians. www.jeremyfgoodmanmusic.com


Added April 24th:

NEW! Studio demo with Hannah Bonnett as Martha Stewart in the cutesy production number “An Apple a Day”!

↓




NOT ANOTHER HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL


Book, Music & Lyrics by JJ NOVEMBRINI; Additional Music & Lyrics by RYAN L. WELLER


Website: https://notanotherhighschoolmusical.com
Contact Email: jjnovembrini@outlook.com

He’s poor. She’s dead. They’re a whore. She’s got a yeast infection…
 And they need you to SUPPORT THE ARTS!

Disguised as a partially true story and spoof of the popular Disney films, our “grown-up” Absurdist farce is from the vantage point of the troublemaking adults after the gleeful high school musical! This is the heartwarming tale of two broke losers — Vinnie, a genderqueer slut, and Boris, an annoyed hungry Jew — who face poverty when their old high school commissions them to write a televised musical to save the National Endowment for the Arts; they end up penning a controversial jaw-dropper entitled Hobo Heaven: Turn Off the Poor. Along the way, they’re forced to grapple with homelessness, artistic prostitution, a stoned Martha Stewart, chlamydia, and death! With perhaps the greatest “ten-thirteen showstopper” in the history of Polish folk songs, Not Another High School Musical explores the concept of creating art, the pros/cons of ambition, and the self-discovery process artists must endure as it wraps itself in a delicious, whimsical message. Beyond the $4 billion Disney franchise, this show’s a gloss on every musical about or set in a high school — from Grease to Mean Girls, the genre will always prove to have a ubiquitous durability. The eclectic and baffling score of punk-rock to polka, with such tunes as “Hobo Heaven”, “An Apple a Day”, “Whore For the Arts”, “Take Me From Nowhere”, “Good Thing”, and “You’re Still Jewish?”, (deemed too offensive) will leave audiences crying as the story crashes to a chilling resolution…although we did cut the risqué scene where Martha cooks the turkey in a trash can.

Here’s what regional producers/artistic directors are saying:

  • “…THE SCARY MOVIE OF HIGH SCHOOL MUSICALS!”
  • “SCATHINGLY BRILLIANT!”
  • “BRUTALLY FUNNY!”
  • “FRESH ORIGINAL IDEA!”
  • “PLAIN OBNOXIOUS!”
  • “MY AUNT DIDN’T HATE IT!”


ASK ABOUT OUR NEW CONCEPT ART!

Two-act book musical; 7 principals plus ensemble; 150 minutes; Appropriate for mature audiences (contains explicit content including strong language, sexual references, drug use, comic violence, adult themes, and nuns)


Entertainment has never been so poor!


HISTORY & FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

NYU (concept workshop), Red Wagon (co-directed). Cancelled production in 2021.

We are seeking a passionate, daring producer that wants to push the envelope of vanilla, safe, depressing theatre. How many goddamn shows of classic old stories or innocuous jukebox musicals can we watch?!

♦

NOT ANOTHER HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL initially began life as a much-hyped fundraiser, premiering to an invited New York audience. All involved with that intimate production had a most rewarding experience. The book and score were then outfitted with fresher jokes and tighter lyrics for a reading I co-directed. As a more seasoned writer, I’ve refined the play’s themes and streamlined/restructured the bloated narrative. While the rewrites indicated marked improvement, the work demanded another full-scale production. Criminally, my chance to properly re-stage the material has yet to come to fruition — “version 2.0” deserves that opportunity to be unleashed…and soon (these characters have actually spoken to me in my sleep)!!

♦

An eerie, serendipitous thing happened between the show’s conception and the present day: the economy bottomed out and threw the nation into a recession, mirroring the plot’s trajectory. Subsequently, funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and arts education were heavily slashed for the 26,000+ high schools in the country. As arts education has faced a historic defunding, this topical tale of impoverishment has a timely relevance to the current socioeconomic climate. We are currently accepting options for further development. The original workshop revealed that NAHSM connects with audiences about our world and entertains as it enlightens. Audiences loved it because they laughed, but also because they learned something.

NOT ANOTHER HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL is an all-out farce that is grounded in fear, bitterness, desperation, and artistic integrity. The show is stuffed with nonstop jokes and silly situations that make for hilarity, but also features characters who move us, holding a mirror up to ourselves and the choices we make. The comedy is on the page and doesn’t need exaggeration – rather, played for its honesty. At the heart of any farce lies truth. As the piece reaches the sentiment via the satire, it should prove to be less campy and instead evoke pathos. It’s absurd, it’s vulgar, it’s shocking…but at its core, it explores personal growth and learning how actions affect others.

“We all need a little bit of art to remind us we’re human.”

May the magic be with you~

JJ Novembrini (Book, Composer & Lyricist) once described himself as a writer who transmogrifies epic dramas and Gothic thrillers into exhilarating, thought-provoking theatre…but he was totally lying. JJ attended New York University’s Steinhardt School of Music (Theory & Composition) where he studied with Dr. Steven Rosenhaus and Dr. Youngmi Ha, who dubbed his pieces “whimsical” and “so late”. As a featured songwriter, JJ was a recipient of the NYU Student Spotlight for excellence. He has taught piano privately and served as pianist for masterclasses, recitals, charity benefits, and religious institutions. The majority of JJ’s time has been wasted as composer, lyricist, librettist, joke ghostwriter, music director, and keyboardist for an array of high school, collegiate, and regional projects, as well as award-losing indie films that place as festival finalists. Several of JJ’s original works have received production, among them being Not Another High School Musical (Red Wagon); Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations (Appleseed Productions); Pharaoh! A Comedy in Ten Plagues (NYU Black Box); and a song cycle based on the novel The Body of Christopher Creed (Office Hours). He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and BMI. JJ has also earned distinction as being one of the world’s foremost historians on the great Bea Arthur. He actively continues his global search for remnants of her teeth. In loving memory of his grandmother, JJ dedicates all the show’s jokes that he stole from her.

Ryan L. Weller (Additional Music & Lyrics) is a world traveling New Yorker whose education has taken him to faraway lands such as Jordan, Germany, Beijing, and Brooklyn. A graduate of University of Rochester (B.A. in Music), his political science cravings and appetite for diplomatic relations led him to dine as an ESL Instructor at China University of Geosciences, devour studies at University of Jordan, and feast at NYU School of Law. Currently a lawyer in NYC, Weller reminds JJ Novembrini that youth is fleeting, but immaturity is forever. Like diamonds. He would like audiences to know the portions of this score you find brilliant and musically enchanting are, indeed, his. However, if you think it stinks, Weller affirms that he has nothing to do with the show.

Jeremy F. Goodman (Co-Orchestrations & Music Arrangements), whose work was most recently heard at Burning Man, completed his Master of Music in Film Scoring and his Bachelor of Music in Music Composition at New York University. Jeremy was the music director and pianist for “Annie Turns 40: Back to the Orphanage” starring Andrea McArdle. CBS featured a special from the event on CBS’s “Sunday Morning” series. Jeremy’s arrangements have been played by roughly a dozen orchestras and ensembles in the United States and Canada, most notably, the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. His original Latin jazz music can be heard on his CD The Jeremy Franklin Goodman Project: An Evening of Live Latin Jazz. Jeremy orchestrated, arranged, and musically supervised Assisted Living: The Musical by Rick Compton and Betsy Bennett. He a member of ASCAP and the American Federation of Musicians. www.jeremyfgoodmanmusic.com


Added April 24th:

NEW! Studio demo with Hannah Bonnett as Martha Stewart in the cutesy production number “An Apple a Day”!

↓




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