Broadway director writes musical about Singing Revolution
Inspired while on a vacation to Tallinn, Broadway director Tony Spinosa has written a musical about Estonia's Singing Revolution.
"The Baltic Way and the attack on Toompea Castle and the defense of the Tallinn TV tower were just incredible events that demonstrated the power of peaceful resistance," Spinosa told ERR.
Spinosa worked on the musical for a couple of years and had a general idea of what it would be about. Later, he met with Irish screenwriter and playwright James Bearhart, together with whom he wrote the script.
"This is a love story between an Estonian and a Soviet woman," explained Bearhart, the coauthor of the musical. "This story spans four decades, against the backdrop of the entire history of the Soviet occupation, and it moves backward and forward in time in order to show the beginning and end of the relationship. The second act then explains what happened in between."
According to Spinoza, the music for the production was composed online.
"I worked together with various producers in New York, Nashville and Los Angeles," he said. "We cooperated online — shared a lot of files, words, melodies — and we developed a very unique-sounding blend of europop and EDM.
Typically it can take years for a new production to reach the Broadway stage, and Spinosa noted that it would be just as difficult to predict any sort of timeline for "Singing Revolution" either. Right now, he added, the most important things are to find investors and a producer for the project.
According to Valev Laube, an Estonian involved in the marketing of the musical, it's clear that if everything goes according to plan, the biggest winner in all of this will be Estonian culture itself.
"If the Singing Revolution musical reaches the Broadway stage, it would constitute one of the biggest accomplishments in New York as well as worldwide," Laube said. "Productions featured on Broadway often go abroad as well; they get picked up by other theater production companies."
"Singing Revolution" will feature 22 actors, however as negotiations are still underway, Spinosa declined to reveal any names. He did, however, stress that the cast would include Broadway veterans.
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Editor: Aili Vahtla
