Upcoming Shows
Claude McNeal Productions debuts “Songs for a New World” at McGowan Hall
Indianapolis, IN – Claude McNeal Productions is partnering with the McGowan Hall community center and event venue to present the first in a long series of theatrical productions to benefit Indianapolis residents of all ages. This unique partnership starts with the company’s debut performance of the off-Broadway smash musical, Songs for a New World, July 21-23, 2023, in the historic Old Northside building.
The first musical from Tony Award winner, Jason Robert Brown (Parade, Bridges of Madison County), this moving collection of powerful songs examines life, love, and the choices that we make, with a musical score that blends elements of pop, gospel, rock, and hip-hop.
Songs for a New World is that very rare beast: an abstract musical. There is no specific location other than the natural ambiguity of the human heart and mind. In each song, we meet someone who has reached a defining moment in their life. Even the most challenging events in our lives can inspire something powerful within each one of us. Songs for a New World embraces every turn, every unexpected bend, and strives to show us that renewal and survival are always within reach. These are the stories and characters of today, featuring an all-star cast of local professional performers.
Show times and dates:
Friday, July 21 @ 7pm
Saturday, July 22 @ 7pm
Sunday, July 23 @ 2:30pm
Ticket prices:
$5 to $15, with special discounts for students, Old Northside residents, and Knights of Columbus members. Indianapolis Summer Camp students FREE (up to 20) and chaperones (up to 4).
Tickets are ON SALE NOW by clicking HERE
Location: McGowan Hall, 1305 N. Delaware Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202
Box Office phone – 317-340-4258. For more information, contact Jeff Owen, Director - jowen@claudemcnealproductions.com or by calling the box office at the number above.
More about the show:
This contemporary song cycle weaves characters and history together, illuminating the timelessness of self-discovery.
It's about one moment. It's about hitting the wall and having to make a choice... or take a stand... or turn around and go back. These are the stories and characters of today, the Songs for a New World.
Brown transports his audience from the deck of a 1492 Spanish sailing ship to a ledge, 57 stories above Fifth Avenue, to meet a startling array of characters that range from a young man who has determined that basketball is his ticket out of the ghetto to a woman whose dream of marrying rich nabs her the man of her dreams... and a soulless marriage.
More about the composer & show creator – Jason Robert Brown
JASON ROBERT BROWN is the ultimate multi-hyphenate – an equally skilled composer, lyricist, conductor, arranger, orchestrator, director and performer – best known for his dazzling scores to several of the most renowned musicals of our time, including the generation-defining “The Last Five Years”, his debut song cycle “Songs for a New World”, and the seminal “Parade”, for which he won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Score.
Brown has been hailed as “one of Broadway’s smartest and most sophisticated songwriters since Stephen Sondheim” (Philadelphia Inquirer), and his “extraordinary, jubilant theater music” (Chicago Tribune) has been heard all over the world, whether in one of the hundreds of productions of his musicals every year or in his own incendiary live performances. Jason’s score for “The Bridges of Madison County,” a musical adapted with Marsha Norman from the bestselling novel, received two Tony Awards (for Best Score and Orchestrations). “Honeymoon In Vegas,” based on Andrew Bergman’s film, opened on Broadway in 2015 following a triumphant production at Paper Mill Playhouse. A film version of his epochal Off-Broadway musical “The Last Five Years” was released in 2015, starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan and directed by Richard LaGravenese. His major musicals as composer and lyricist include: “13”, written with Robert Horn and Dan Elish, which opened on Broadway on 2008 and became a celebrated Netflix musical in 2022; “The Last Five Years”, which was cited as one of Time Magazine’s 10 Best of 2001 and won Drama Desk Awards for Best Music and Best Lyrics (and was later directed by the composer in its record-breaking Off-Broadway run at Second Stage Theatre in 2013); “Parade,” written with Alfred Uhry and directed by Harold Prince, which won both the Drama Desk and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards for Best New Musical, as well as garnering Jason the Tony Award for Original Score; and “Songs for a New World,” a theatrical song cycle directed by Daisy Prince, which has since been seen in hundreds of productions around the world since its 1995 Off-Broadway debut, including a celebrated revival at New York’s City Center in the summer of 2018.
