a new musical
He teaches her how to be alive.
She teaches him how to be dead.
A love story.
Adapted from the 1945 novel, The Ghost and Mrs Muir is the impossible love story between a young widowed mother, Lucy Muir, and the ghost of Captain Daniel Gregg, whose seaside cottage she moves into in an attempt to take charge of her life.
Daniel’s restless spirit, dead before his time, continues to cause as much haunting havoc as he can but comes up against Lucy’s dogged determination to create a settled home for herself and her children.
A joyously romantic musical about making the most of your life, even when it is over.
Carmel Dean Music & Lyrics
Grammy-nominated Carmel Dean is a composer, arranger, musical director, and pianist based in New York City. Her first musical, Renascence, was produced Off-Broadway by the award-winning Transport Group, and it was subsequently named Best New Musical at the 2018 Off-Broadway Alliance Awards. Her song cycle,Well-Behaved Women, premiered at Joe's Pub, starring LaChanze, Bonnie Milligan, Liz Callaway, and Andrea Burns among others, and is now available as a Broadway All-Star studio recording. As a Musical Supervisor and Arranger/Orchestrator, she most recently worked on the Broadway production of The Notebook with music by Ingrid Michaelson. Carmel's Broadway credits include Funny Girl (revival), If/Then, Hands on a Hardbody, American Idiot, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Her Off-Broadway credits include Everyday Rapture, Vanities, and Elegies. TV: Hulu’s Up Here and Disney's Johnny & The Sprites. Carmel is a native of Perth, Western Australia, holds a BMus from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, an MFA from NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, is a Fulbright Scholar, and is a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Workshop. https://carmeldean.com
Penelope Faith Book
Penelope Faith is a novelist and playwright. Novels include Hello, Mr. Magpie and From A PastLife, both published by Flame. Her plays have been performed at Edinburgh and Camden Fringe Festivals and at various venues across London. Most recently she has been writing audio dramas for Big Finish for the Dr. Who and Dark Shadows ranges for which she has been nominated for a Scribe award. Being both a prolific musical theatre goer and old movie watcher, writing the book for The Ghost and Mrs Muir is a dream opportunity to combine two of her favorite things.
Josephine Leslie Novel Author
Josephine Leslie was born in Wexford Ireland in 1898. She wrote under the pseudonym R.A Dick, taking the initials from her sea captain father Robert Abercromby. It was generally accepted that male novelists had a greater chance of having their work published with an increased likelihood of both sales and success.
She most famously wrote the 1945 novel The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. 20th Century Fox immediately purchased the film rights to the novel, published only in the United Kingdom at that time. The film starred Rex Harrison and Gene Tierney and was shot entirely in California. The novel was subsequently adapted into a TV series which ran from 1968 to 1970.
Leslie also wrote Duet for Two Hands (1960) and The Devil and Mrs Devine (1974).
Josephine died in 1979.
Kenneth Hoyt
Director & Producer
Kenneth is an American director who lives in London. Credits include: The Blue Hour of Natalie Barney (Arcola Theatre- world premiere), Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful (Courtyard Theatre - UK premiere), and Eugene O’Neill’s The Sea Plays (Old Vic Tunnels).
In the mid 1990’s Kenneth founded a new theater in Provincetown Massachusetts, often referred to as the “birthplace of modern American drama” because of Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams who both created work there in their early careers. Provincetown Repertory Theatre presented new works by Edward Albee, Paula Vogel, Craig Lucas and Norman Mailer among others. Kenneth produced and directed more than thirty productions. Their first musical The Gorey Details; A Musicale by Edward Gorey moved to The Century Theatre Off-Broadway. The REP then launched a capital campaign to build a new theater for Provincetown as the playhouse had been lost to arson many years prior. The Provincetown Theatre opened its doors in 2003.
Kenneth worked as a resident assistant director at The Old Globe to Jack O’Brien and Mark Lamos as well as AD to Charles Nelson Reilly on multiple shows. He is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He also studied with Geraldine Page and Charles Nelson Reilly and for many years at H.B. Studios with Uta Hagen.
He first enquired after the stage rights to The Ghost and Mrs.Muir in 1996…and then every six months thereafter…for 27 years.
Alix Ritchie
Producer
Alix Ritchie is an independent media strategy consultant, activist, and self-described agitator. She is a political leader in the women’s and LGBTQ equality movements. She was the founder and publisher of the Provincetown Banner, a community newspaper covering the outer arm of Cape Cod, which was the recipient of the New England Press Association Newspaper of the Year Award. She has long been a feminist activist and is on the boards of LPAC, the Feminist Majority PAC, and the advisory board of Ms. Magazine. She is a member of the Board of the Center for Coastal Studies. She has led regional and national efforts to create consensus between economic and environmental interests. She has been involved with and supported numerous arts organizations and is currently a producer of several Broadway shows and two films.
Alix has received numerous honors and awards, including the New England Press Association Award for Serious Columnist, Certificate of Appreciation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Appreciation Award from the Educational Facilities Center for outstanding contribution to the advancement of education in America, Environmental Recognition Award from the Massachusetts Secretary of Environmental Affairs, and the Person of the Year and Regional Leadership Award from the Planning Commissions and Councils of New England. She was selected as one of Cape Cod's 25 most influential people. She was chosen by the U.S. Presidential Commission on Executive Interchange to serve as a consultant to the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, U.S. Treasury Department.
Richard Roland
Associate Director
Richard Roland is a fourth-generation performer and a third-generation Broadway veteran, having appeared on Broadway in Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and Follies, and in the National Tours of Titanic and …Millie. Off-Broadway audiences saw him in Zombie Prom, Forever Plaid, The Fantasticks, and The Cocoanuts. Among his regional performing credits are La Cage aux Folles, The Who’s Tommy, West Side Story, Damn Yankees, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Cabaret, The Sound of Music, Shenandoah, and Mame. He played Jason Sheffield on TV’s All My Children and appeared in several television commercials. Richard’s directing credits include She Loves Me, The Secret Garden, 110 in the Shade, Brigadoon, A Christmas Carol, Dogfight, Working, Forever Plaid, Barefoot in the Park, Souvenir, Urinetown, Avenue Q, God of Carnage (Raleigh Indy Week Best Director), Hairspray, Ragtime (NH Theatre Award, Best Direction of a Musical), Dear Ruth, No Way to Treat a Lady, Grease, …Millie, Chicago, Steel Magnolias, Metamorphoses, and served as Associate Director for the NYC premiere of Vanities: A New Musical.He holds a B.F.A. in Theatre from Denison University and an M.F.A. in Directing from Penn State, where he served on the School of Theatre faculty. He currently heads the Musical Theatre Department at Indiana University Bloomington.
Scott Ihrig
Producer
Scott Ihrig is a passionate liberal queer entrepreneur and the CEO of IMC, an experience studio he owns with his husband, Shannon Morrison. At IMC, he leads a team of event professionals that change people through unforgettable experiences.
Together they also lead Drama Club Productions, where they create first-class, thought-provoking stories with particular attention to LGBTQ voices, BIPOC creators, and emerging artists.. Current and recent theatrical projects include Pulitzer & Tony Award-winning A Strange Loop (musical on Broadway & London), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (musical in development), and Toby Tyler (musical in development).
Scott’s other theatrical credits include producer of The Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes, founding board member of a non-profit theater in the Midwest, and the only non-singing role in his high school’s production of Fiddler.
A life-long activist, Scott works to expand human and civil rights, develop opportunities for the disadvantaged, and assist those in need.
In what seems like a previous life, Scott was an associate at the Minneapolis law firm Gray Plant Mooty. At age 12, he started and ran his first company, Kaleidoscope Candies, in his parent’s kitchen. A native of Omaha, Nebraska, he earned a BA in political science from Grinnell College and graduated cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School.
Raymond Sage
Creative Consultant
Raymond Sage appeared in the Broadway and national touring productions of Camelot, Beauty and the Beast, and Titanic, as well as in regional theaters across the country, such as Pennsylvania Center Stage, Paper Mill Playhouse, Sacramento Theatre Company, and Dallas Summer Musicals. In London Raymond starred as Ludie in theUK premiere of the Horton Foote classic The Trip to Bountiful at the Courtyard Theatre and at the Old Vic Tunnels as Olsen in O’Neill’s The Sea Plays. He has made television appearances on Late Night with David Letterman, The Howie Mandel Show, and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Sage has written and performed one-person show Seeking Flight,based on the works of the great American playwright, Eugene O’Neill and The Muir Project, based on the life of famed naturalist and writer John Muir. Professor Sage is the head of graduate studies in musical theater voice pedagogy and a member of the voice faculty atPenn State University. A skilled puppeteer, Prof Sage is also the founder of the Penn State NU Musical Theatre Festival.
Shannon Morrison
Producer
Shannon (he/him) is a brave creator and a sought-after collaborator for Fortune 50 executives and professional creatives alike. Passionate about generating empathy, he uses sass, wordplay, and wit to create captivating theater as an award-winning writer and musical theater Doula.
He leads Drama Club as Artistic Director and has worked on Broadway incarnations of Thoroughly Modern Millie, Movin’ Out, Legally Blonde, the Pulitzer and Tony-Award winning musical A Strange Loop, and the off-Broadway hit DRAG: The Musical. Shannon is writing a new musical titled The Ascendants (with Stephen M. Barnett) and leads creative project development at Drama Club, including curating Drama Club Camp. Writing: Little Big Top (NYU Tisch); The Leading Man (Yale); Silence (Yale; John Golden Prize) Johnny Appleseed; The Aylee Inn; Ding-Dong!.
Alongside his husband and collaborator Scott Ihrig, he is also co-owner of IMC – a global top-10 experience production studio. As IMC’s Chief Creative Officer, he crafts bold, innovative brand experiences for Meta, Procter & Gamble, UPS, Novartis, and more. He is a graduate of Yale and NYU, and serves as a Trustee for Kents Hill School in Readfield, Maine.
A Little Bit Free
Lucy Muir’s I Want song.
Sung by Lisa Howard
The Colours I’ve Seen
Daniel’s love song to Lucy.
Sung by Will Chase
What Am I Waiting For?
Lucy Muir decides.
Sung by Lisa Howard