Eighteen original musicals spanning four decades — contemporary stories, literary adaptations, and works written for young performers. Every show page includes a full synopsis and recordings of the songs.
Contemporary Stories
- A Righteous and Perfect Man — A family saga told in retrospect by the uncles and aunts who watched it happen, and the question of what a good man’s losses are for. First produced 1985.
- Crowding — A small-town bus station in the early hours of a foggy morning, and the people passing through it.
- Next Time — A neighborhood barbershop, a vocal competition, and an unlikely group discovering the courage to begin again.
- Spirals and Dirt — Four people look back on the friendships and differences that began in kindergarten and shaped their lives.
- Dirty — A musical that began with a single line from a classic holiday cartoon.
- Hillsdale Blues — An eighteen-year-old wins a mayoral race, and poetic license takes it from there.
Literary Adaptations
- The Phantom Tollbooth — The Norton Juster classic, first staged in two parts across 1991–92 and revived in 2021.
- Animal Farm — Orwell’s allegory, from “Beasts of England” through “Full Circle.”
- Lord of the Flies — The highly unlikely choice, made in 1990.
- Eyes of a Child — A song cycle drawn from The Little Prince, from the lamplighter’s 1,440 sunsets to the king who owns everything he sees.
- Dr. Seuss (Takes On) — Three Seuss books staged straight, with an original song cycle interrupting between them.
- Aesop — The storyteller children adore and the powerful would silence, telling five fables from inside a cell.
- Ithaca Girl — The legend of Ulysses, found in a trunk in an attic.
For Young Performers
- A Hero — Students under pressure confront what it means for an ordinary person to act heroically.
- Eighth Grade Angst — One day in the life of an eighth grader waiting to hear from the high school of their choice.
- Cathedral of the Stars — Sixth-graders on their first overnight trip, and the talk that only happens after dark.
- Edward and the Ruy Lopez Opening — Saturday mornings in the park, and a kindly old chess teacher.
More from the Catalogue
- Mystery At The Men’s Club — A mystery with a moral at the end, written in 1996.
- Stranger Than Fiction — A story about how truth becomes a weapon.
- The Immigrant — Students researched their own families’ journeys to America, and staged the stories.
- Reunion — Written in 1988 for a school’s thirtieth anniversary, set thirty years in the future.
- On The Line — Basketball, determination, and what the music room next to the gym made possible.
- Peter, Who Writes In Spirals — The most organized, thoughtful, and intellectual musical in the catalogue.