MUSICAL NUMBERS 1. The Girl Who Drove Away .............................................. SAM 2. We're Just in Your Head ............................ SAM, KELLY, ADAM, BEVERLY 3. Freedom ................................................... SAM, KELLY 4. Ordinary Senior Year ........................................... SAM, KELLY 5. My Mom is a Statistician ...................................... SAM, BEVERLY 6. Sam Failed Her Driver's Test ........................ SAM, KELLY, ADAM, BEVERLY 7. Top Ten .................................................... SAM, KELLY 8. Simple as That ............................................... SAM, ADAM 9. The Proposal ................................... ADAM, SAM, KELLY, BEVERLY 10. There Was a Party ............................................. SAM, KELLY 11. The Mad Ones ............................................... SAM, KELLY 12. I Know My Girl .................................. BEVERLY, SAM, KELLY, ADAM 13. Miles to Go .................................................... BEVERLY 14. Say the Word ................................................ SAM, ADAM 15. Moving On ..................................... SAM, KELLY, ADAM, BEVERLY 16. Go Tonight .................................................. SAM, KELLY 17. Yellow SUV ........................................................ SAM 18. Run Away With Me ................................................. ADAM 19. Drive ......................................... SAM, KELLY, ADAM, BEVERLY 20. I Didn't Say Goodbye ........................................... SAM, KELLY 21. Remember This ................................. SAM, KELLY, ADAM, BEVERLY CAST Sam ................................................. KRYSTINA ALABADO Kelly ..................................................... EMMA HUNTON Beverly ................................................. KATIE THOMPSON Adam ................................................. BEN FANKHAUSER MUSICIANS Music Director/Piano .......................................... PAUL STAROBA Violin ................................................... ROBERT ZUBRYKI Guitar .................................................. CRAIG MAGNAMO Harp ................................................... LYNETTE WARDLE Percussion .................................................. DAN GARMON Krystina Alabado (Sam) and Emma Hunton (Kelly) in the Prospect Theater’s production of THE MAD ONES at 59E59 LINER NOTE I first met Brian Lowdermilk under a tent when they were a young Side called “Makor.” It was in this basement bar/venue that I first met artist-in-training with me at the Interlochen Arts Camp near Traverse Kait Kerrigan, who Brian had somehow convinced to take their lyrics City, Michigan. Brian was studying composition, while I was exercising and book and make better sense of them. I remember finding her my desire to perform in musical theater. It was a brief but important incredibly confident and intelligent. It was in this basement that I first introduction. Little did I know that I would end up singing their music sang their glorious song, “Run Away With Me” to a young Celia Keenan- in readings, in concerts all over the world, on their debut album with Bolger in a cast that also included Sara Chase and Alison Fraser. Kait Kerrigan, and wind up working with them as director of their new In the years following, the piece received numerous workshops and musical, REPUBLIC. developmental readings all across the country. It became more adult and, as these writers grew into adults, with spouses and children, so Several years after our initial introduction under the pines of grew the emotional depth of the characters in the piece. Interlochen, in the summer of 2003, I received a letter addressed to my dressing room at the American Airlines Theater, where I was making It has been thrilling to watch Kait and Brian grow, not only as a writing my Broadway debut as Tom Sawyer in the Deaf West production of team but as humans in search of a higher truth. It seems to me that BIG RIVER. Brian had written to me to ask if I would participate in a THE MAD ONES is an exercise in growth, a quest for a dialogue with reading of a musical they had written the music and lyrics for called the innermost parts of ourselves where our pilot light exists. That light “The Wheel.” I didn’t even listen to the demo CD they had sent along, I that, despite the winds and sometimes storms of change, growth, and simply said yes. In retrospect, this was my first offer without an audition, maturation, guides us to our simplest desire. It took Kait and Brian and I jumped at the chance to sing material for the first time. Upon a while to get there, back to that flame, but I think that they have listening to the CD, I fell in love with their work. To be honest, I don’t unlocked something quite universal in this piece. As Ralph Ellison remember much about that first reading of the musical that would said in his damning and enlightening novel INVISIBLE MAN, “When I eventually morph and expand into THE MAD ONES, which you are discover who I am, I’ll be free.” THE MAD ONES challenges the idea listening to right now, other than we premiered it at The York Theater of what it means to start something. They have written something on the East Side of Manhattan and it was a story about a girl deciding that captures that moment in a person’s life where the future is both whether or not to drive her car toward her planned life; college and the limitless and overwhelming. It’s no wonder that these songs have rest, or into the great unknown. What I do remember is that the score resonated so deeply with young people as they begin their autonomous was extremely vocally demanding, which to a twenty-year-old singer, lives and drive into the great unknown of adulthood, defining that word was very exciting. as they go. I can’t wait to see where the car stops next and what songs they will give us along the way. In 2005, I was asked to participate in a reading of THE UNAUTHORIZED AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SAMANTHA BROWN in a — Michael Arden series produced by the 92nd Street Y at a space on the Upper West SYNOPSIS 18-year-old SAMANTHA BROWN sits in a hand-me-down car with the keys clutched in her hand. Caught between a yearning for the unknown and feeling bound by expectation, she telescopes back to a time before her world had fallen apart. As she relives her senior year, we meet Sam’s well-intentioned helicopter mother BEV and her high school sweetheart of a boyfriend ADAM, but it’s her painfully alive best friend KELLY that haunts her. Kelly was everything Sam is not – impetuous and daring. She pushed Sam to break rules and do the unexpected. When Kelly’s killed in a car wreck, Sam loses not only her best friend but also the part of herself that was learning to be brave. Now, Sam has to make a decision. Will she follow her mother’s dreams for her, or will she summon the courage to drive away from her friends and family into a future she can’t imagine? Krystina Alabado, Emma Hunton, and Ben Fankhauser (Adam) in the Prospect Theater’s production of THE MAD ONES at 59E59 THE DAWN IS BREAKING, KELLY Memories burst like a soap bubble 1. THE GIRL WHO THE SUN'S NEARLY WAKING THE Fine. Go. and are gone. DROVE AWAY LIFE INSIDE ME... SAM SAM Lights rise on a girl. IF ONLY I COULD TURN THE KEY. I'm supposed to leave for college Sorry. I think of one memory and today. they all come flooding back in a big SAM A moment passes. She holds the key jumble. IT STARTS AS NOTHING, in her hand. Can she turn it in the KELLY JUST A THOUGHT OR A DREAM. ignition? Go! KELLY THEN ONE DAY YOU'RE IN THE mocking DRIVER'S SEAT, SAM Not a memory jumble. THE KEY IS IN THE IGNITION, I'm the valedictorian. The AND NO ONE GAVE YOU 2. WE'RE JUST IN valedictorian goes to college. SAM PERMISSION. YOUR HEAD Shut up. IT'S ONLY YOU IN THE CAR. KELLY AND ONLY YOU KNOW HOW KELLY Oh I know. SAM UNCERTAIN YOU ARE, Where were you headed? This is your fault. All of this. I was HOW YOUR HEART IS RACING. SAM figuring out who I was - the whole STILL YOU REACH FOR THE SAM But what if - year - saying what I wanted, doing it, MOMENT I don't know. It's not like I have a and then one day the phone rings. YOU'LL FINALLY SAY map or anything. KELLY A memory flashes. Kelly, in another I'M THE GIRL WHO DROVE AWAY. But what if she doesn't? Oh, twist. time and place. One of those moments KELLY that just sticks to your brain matter. LEAVE THE FEAR AND DOUBT Well. Maps are for brain deads. ADAM BEHIND. HEY SAM, KELLY CHOOSE THE ROAD LESS SAM I WAS WONDERING out of context, distinctive TRAVELED I was just daydreaming. WOULD YOU BE MY DATE WHAT - YOU THINK IT'S GONNA NOT THE MEM'RIES TOO REAL, TO THE FRESHMAN FLING? BITE? NOT THE GUILT THAT LEAVES YOU KELLY HEY, SAM. PARALYZED. Technically, you still are. A moment passes. Sam is lost in her CLOSE YOUR EYES, AND BEVERLY own thoughts. EVERYTHING'S CLEARER. SAM SLIDE THE CAR INTO GEAR, YOUR LIFE'S IN THE REAR VIEW You're not here. I'm sitting alone in a EASE YOUR FOOT OFF THE BRAKE. SAM MIRROR. parked car - to audience IF NO ONE KNOWS WHO YOU THAT'S IT. Kelly and I - we were - KELLY WERE, THAT'S ALL IT IS. She trails off. My car. THE LINE BETWEEN THE DREAM NOW YOU LET IT GO. AND YOU STARTS TO BLUR. KELLY Beat. STANDING AT THE CROSSROAD: KELLY Ok. Give me the keys. THERE'S THE GIRL WHO WAS LET'S GO. SAM LET'S GO. SAM WRITTEN IN YOUR DNA, Yeah. OR THE GIRL WHO DROVE AWAY. What? SAM Chord. Kelly takes the keys from Sam. KELLY REMEMBER? IF I COULD FEEL IT - Talking to yourself. THE WAY THE DAY BLOWS REMEMBER? KELLY ACROSS THE SKY, Get in the car, loser. SAM KELLY AND HOW THE MILES KEEP ON I need to go back inside. FLYING BY. YO! Snap out of it. SAM KELLY DRIVING FOR THE SAKE OF SAM What are you doing? stage aside DRIVING ANYWHERE.