Boy Detective doing quite well for himself, as it turns out

A young musical theater composer named Adam Gwon is the winner of the fourth annual Fred Ebb award, which he picked up in New York last night. Great, I support supporting young musical theater composers.

I'm fairly certain Gwon's work, which includes adaptations of the Fitzgerald story "Bernice Bobs Her Hair," Wharton's Ethan Frome and Wedekind's Lulu along with several original works, hasn't been seen in Chicago. But what's of note to us here (aside from the whole supporting-the-continuing-health-of-the-musical bit) is buried deep in the last graf of the press release (oops, I mean "article," sorry Playbill.com!): "He is currently working on an original musical with playwright Sarah Hammond, commissioned by Broadway Across America, and an adaptation of Joe Meno's The Boy Detective Fails, commissioned by Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA."

Joe Meno is, of course, a Chicagoan (and not-for-nothing one of Time Out's Cultural Heroes). More to the point, Chicago theatergoers know that Boy Detective has already been adapted for the stage. Meno's own version was produced by the House Theatre two summers ago, months before the book itself hit the shelves (aside from the shelves of the House's swag booth at the Viaduct).

Gwon's one of a handful of young composers with musicals in development thanks to a grant program administered by Signature and "under the guidance of Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer" (careful with that). Hard to tell how involved, if at all, Meno is in Gwon's work; perhaps he'll weigh in here.

Comments

[Ed]

I don't think this was Gwon's version, but a musical version of "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" has played Chicago recently. It was "Bernice Bobs Her Mullet," and I think Thirteen Pocket did it at Theatre Building Chicago last year.

"The Boy Detective Fails" as a musical??? I'm having trouble thinking of moments in the House version of the play (which admittedly is not the same as the book) which really lend themselves to song, but if someone does the musical version here in Chi, I'll check it out.

[Mark Jeffries]

I had to look it up, but Joe Major wrote "Bernice Bobs Her Mullet." Technically, an entity of Mark Minton and his GF Jenn Rhoads called Southern Fried Productions did the show, but Thirteen Pocket may've been involved. Cute show, although Jess Godwin and Jenn could sing the phone book and I'd be captivated.

[Ed]

Eek! I just got another one. Stop sending me these doomsday emails, oh unnamed theatre company! You can count on me buying a full price ticket when you actually do the damn show. Till then, stop scaring the shit out of me.

[Meg]

Boy Detective was one of the sweatiest shows I've ever attended. I can't remember much about the play other than how uncomfortably hot I was the entire time.

[Bilal]

Honestly, the second email from Unnamed Theatre Company was off-putting. Not because I received a second one, but because the basic premise of the ask this time sounded like Chicago's entire theater scene would die a slow, agonizing death if this theater were to go under. I like the UTC, a lot, and think their work is stellar. But please.

[Mark Jeffries]

Well, they did try to temper it with a few jokes from Public Radio Quizmaster/Board Member. I thought maybe PRQ/BM was going to toss it to Old Guy Public Radio News Anchor/Wacky Sidekick to see if a contributor would get OGPRNA/WS to record a message for their answering machine.

Meanwhile, I stand behind what Cast Member Who's Not a Company Member told me and that the show's getting produced despite the dire threats of the E-mails.

[Bilal]

FYI, I think Mark and I are in danger of approaching acronym overload, PDQ.