RSO at Lincoln Center Originals Video

October 29, 2015

On Tuesday, October 27th 2015, RSO performed the premiere of a new song at Lincoln Center Originals: Songwriters. Check out the full video over on Broadway World and read the lyrics below:

“NEW PICTURES”
Matthew always dreamed of dancing with ABT…
That is, of course, American Ballet Theatre.
(Which I thought it was a college because I’m dumb.)
He’d studied since a kid, and worked his ass off,
And then it happened. It ALL happened.

He had this picture in his head
Of dancing at the Met.
And by seventeen he’d joined that scene
In tights and T-shirt stained with sweat.
Building stacks of broken shoes,
Every day a brand new bruise,
A life’s goal attained so fast!
But what’s a dream to do
When it’s finished coming true?
The picture of his life didn’t — couldn’t last.

Cuz the picture in your head
Never ends like you expect.
And four years in, room starts to spin,
He stayed home sick, his body wrecked.
Sure, he thought, a minor bug,
But after weeks, and still a slug,
The docs called it Epstein-Barre.
Goodbye the dreams of ballet star…
Goodbye … goodbye …

He was lost. Everything he worked for,
Gone!
All the pieces smashed asunder,
Left eighteen months to wonder
What would he do now?
What would he do now?

With his picture just a shred,
He was jobless, with no hope.
But that wasn’t him, and so on a whim
He bought a camera, just to cope.
Slow at first, but then some speed —
He knew the passion it took to feed
A skill, whether dance or art —
He knew how much time, how much heart —

He was found. Suddenly the work came
Fast!
Putting pieces in position,
Reigniting old ambition,
He was an artist once again and how!
And now —

We have a picture by our bed
Of him dancing at the Met.
Now he shoots the shows, and Broadway knows
He’s the go-to-guy, good as they get.
He taught me life may change your art,
But it can never change your heart.
The real test, he came to see:
The picture of a dream can fade…
But the point is, new pictures get made.
He made new art
With his new life with me.

Music+Lyrics by RSO: Vol. 3 released Oct. 20

October 13, 2015

New RSO Songbook to be digitally released on October 20

On October 20, 2015 Music+Lyrics by Ryan Scott Oliver will be available for digital download for $34.99 in the online store.

Highlights of the book include:

  • 20 songs with piano-vocal arrangements and chords
  • Featuring never-before-released tunes from WE FOXES and DARLING, plus more
  • 3 key changes for popular gender-benders

Lindsay Mendez in "Rated RSO" at the New York Musical Theater FestivalFull list of songs:
“Sorrow Done” from We Foxes
“Map of Scars” from We Foxes
“Ruination” from We Foxes
“City of Angels” from We Foxes
“Clever” from Darling
“Ground” from Darling
“You’ll Never Grow a Day Older” from Darling
“Awful People” from Jasper in Deadland
“The Forgetting” from Jasper in Deadland
“One More Day of Snow” from Jasper in Deadland
“Hungry for Your Heart” from Jasper in Deadland
“Lifesong” from Jasper in Deadland
“The Killing” from Jasper in Deadland
“On Her Trail”
“Crazytown” from 35mm: A Musical Exhibition
“Hemming and Hawing” from 35mm: A Musical Exhibition
“Mama, Let Me In” from 35mm: A Musical Exhibition
“Leave, Luanne” (female key) from 35mm: A Musical Exhibition
“On Monday” (male key) from 35mm: A Musical Exhibition
“To Do” (male key) from Out of My Head

RSO + MATTHEW MURPHY “A FINE SHOWMANCE”

July 27, 2015

Playbill’s “A Fine Showmance” series highlights RSO and husband Matthew Murphy.

rso-mm460g_200_20035MM: A Musical Exhibition is a collaboration between RSO and photographer Matthew Murphy. Playbill goes behind the scenes on how their artistic and romantic relationship came to be:

“Although theirs is not a traditional showmance, in the sense that they did not meet while doing a show, they ended up creating one together, so this might just be the finest showmance of all. For this latest installment of “A Fine Showmance” Murphy and Oliver talk about trying to start their relationship off slow, their favorite upstate getaway and how Murphy ended up crying in the middle of Washington Square Park with a Chipotle burrito in his hand.” – Whitney Spaner for Playbill

Read the whole article HERE.

‘WE FOXES’ READING AT PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS

July 18, 2015

On July 24, 2015, ROS’s ‘We Foxes’ will receive a closed reading at Playwrights Horizons directed by Leigh Silverman.

WE FOXES promo 1-1z no text (1)The reading stars Katie Thompson, Emily Rogers, Ben Crawford, and Ben Frankhauser with Jill Abramovitz, Cory Jeacoma, Natalie Charle Ellis, Tori Huston-Elem, Will Erat, P.J. Griffin, Azudi Onyejekwe, Jen Perry, and Jim Stanek. Creative team includes Music Director Rich Silverstein, Music Assistant Kailey Marshall, with Stage Manager David Lurie and Production Assistant Nessie Nankivell.

We Foxes is a southern Gothic thriller set in small-town Missouri, 1945. It’s the story of WILLA, a tough and unmannered orphan girl, and her adoption by the crafty Sheriff’s wife, VESTA QUIMBY. When Willa discovers the dark secrets beneath the floorboards, a war cuts them apart and Willa must fight to survive. After all, Vesta Quimby is the most beloved and powerful woman in town … Yet she’s less humanitarian socialite than she is Machiavellian sociopath… Can Willa discover her own salvation, deliver herself into courage, and sacrifice everything to escape Vesta? It is a story of intense human struggle, deliverance, and the great salvation found only through oneself.

The reading is produced by Grove Entertainment and hosted by Playwrights Horizons.

Katie Thompson performs “Ruination” from We Foxes below.

 

 

35MM AT TORONTO’S GREAT HALL

May 2, 2015

RSO’S 35MM: A MUSICAL EHXIBITION TO PLAY MAY 3 & 4, 2015

The cast of “35mm”

“The time is perfect for this work” says co-producer Adrian Marchuk of this weekend’s Toronto Production of 35mm: A Musical Exhibition in an article for The Star. Directed by Melissa Jane Shaw with musical direction by Chris Tsujiuchi, the production stars Marchuk, Jeigh Madjus, Kelly Holiff, Marisa McIntyre, and Michael Esposito II. Brian Goldenberg co-produces. Get tickets here.

A picture is worth 1,000 words — what about a song? Can a picture inspire a song or fifteen? In 35mm, each photo creates an unique song, moments frozen in time; a glimmer of a life unfolding, a glimpse of something happening. A stunning new multimedia musical which explores a groundbreaking new concept in musical theatre… This intricately woven collection of stories told through song re-imagines what the modern American musical can be.