The Logline

Questions about my musical nobody asked

Question 1: Why did I write this?

Answer: I’ve addressed this before, but I’ll explain again. I’ve observed an alarming trend in the church community of adopting red-pill mindsets toward woman as faith-mindsets and watched the twisting of scripture to justify those mindsets. Especially where manipulating and abusing women, girlfriends, and wives is concerned. I’ve also watched women try to justify terrible behaviors and their own sin as a response to the red-pill content mindset. Both these mindsets stemmed from reasonable feelings of injustice that have taken root because of the constantly inflamed gender wars in film and on social media. However, neither offer healthy solutions and ways to turn inward and focus on knowing when to build better for yourself rather than beat a dead horse expecting others to change.

This musical started with a tongue-in-cheek song about the seven deadly sins trying to convince a young woman to revel in her sin and join them in Hell. It was quite a simple beginning and frankly, I didn’t expect it to amount to much. However, during Covid, what else was there to do but sit and watch the world burn. As I watched the red-pill content and toxic back-and-forth misogyny/misandry skyrocket, my mind wandered back to a silly little pseudo-jazz song I wrote about the seven deadly sins trying to tempt a young woman who was dissatisfied with how injustice was being addressed in life. From there, Naomi’s story grew to create the character I described in the last two posts.

Question 2: Why the stylistic choices?

Answer: A Church in New York was written in a pseudo-jazz style because the seven deadly sins, especially Pride and Lust, are often associated with slinky jazz and old-money style opulence. I say pseudo-jazz because the true jazz style has always eluded me and because not all of the songs are written to sound jazzy. Some of the music sounds purely dramatic and even cinematic at some points.

Question 3: Were there any other musicals that inspired mine?

Answer: The music of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Steven Sondheim ended up being the most prominent inspirations (I say music because I don’t much care for Sondheim’s more vulgar plots). Songs like Memory from Cats inspired Naomi’s big ender for act one and there’s an overall frontal narrative element that feels reminiscent of Into the Woods. Most of the inspiration I took was subtle and abstract, rather than a clear homage. Only looking back on the near finished product was I able to tell what had subconsciously inspired me.

Question 4: How did I decide to balance spoken text and music?

Answer: Vibes. But honestly, I started out planning for at least one song for each major character, and then songs for the critical moments. If there was an attitude moment or a big emotion, it got a song, which is not uncommon in musicals. The big decision was would it be sung-through or have spoken text breaks. Ultimately, I wanted to leave spoken space for especially the comedy. I intend to leave the actors creative liberty in the spoken moments to improvise and follow the funny. There is absolutely a concrete script for the important information, but it is the guideline, not a restriction. Overall, there will be about 17-19 songs and the musical will run roughly one hour and forty-five minutes, including intermission.

Question 5: What considerations did I take for the actors/singers?

Answer: Consideration for the singers was another deciding factor in how many songs and how frequently there would be singing. No single character has more than two songs with major vocal participation back-to-back. Each song is designed to be comfortably within a particular range. Faster songs have less pitch variety and more “kick-off” syllables as I call them, or sharper consonants to push off from. Slower songs play more with pitch and of course, often express deeper emotions.

Question 6: I write movies for families, but this musical doesn’t seem family friendly?

Answer: I would say this is one of the few things I write that I reccomend for 15+. Mostly because the concepts being handled are meant for a more mature audience that can process with familial discussion. The themes related to death, murder, and impending judgement can get rather dark. Ultimately, I would say it’s subjective to each family. It’s not as dark as Passion of Christ, but a little more aggressive than Clue.

Question 7: Will this ever be performed?

Answer: Truthfully, I couldn’t say. A Church in New York is in the process of undergoing its most severe editing phase for both music and script. Hopefully starting summer of 27, I’ll be sending the package to various theaters accepting new works. Even then, who could say if or when it will be accepted. I am stubborn but a realist, so I won’t give up, but I lack the ego to say it will be a sure thing. Either way, anyone who happens upon this blog can join the journey and see what comes of my various projects.

Anyway, here are the answers to a few questions no one is asking. Find me @em.thelogline on Instagram and thanks for reading!