Nightmare Alley
A musical drama in 2 acts. Music/Lyrics/Book/Orchestrations by Jonathan Brielle: Based on the novel by William Lindsay Gresham and the Paramount film
Primary Stages (Theatre 3), Off Broadway Opened 16th November; closed 1st December, 1966 (15 perfs, 1preview)
Revised - World premiere Geffen Playhouse,
Los Angeles - April 13 – May 23, 2010
Synopsis
Stan is a bogus mind-reader in a small-time carnival who revives Zeena and Pete's long forgotten act as a means to get rich - with tragic results.
Nightmare Alley explores the darker side of human nature by taking us into the world of carnies, cons, and clairvoyants. With a score as wild as a funhouse and as emotionally evocative as a beautiful tightrope walker, this new musical tells the story of shocks that await you inside the big tent. Based on the darkly evocative 1946 William Lindsay Gresham novel of the same name, which became the subsequent cult-classic film noir, Nightmare Alley is a night at the theatre full of wondrous feats and enough spirit to make believers of us all.
Visit the Nightmare Alley website for more information
Cast:
- Stan
- Zeena
- Mrs. Peabody
- Molly Cahill
- Clem
- Pete
- Ezra
- Marshall
- Science Girls
- Major Mosquito
Musical Numbers:
- Opening/Ten In One
- Someday Sometime
- Tough Cookies
- Questions
- Kid
- Molly
- Interlude
- Shuffle the Cards
- Whatever It Takes
- Lucky Heart
- Human Nature
- This Is Not What I Had Planned
- Science
- The Code
- Indecent Exposure
- All Will Come To You
- Cross That River
- Caroline
- Hit 'em Where It Hurts
- Nobody Home
- I Still Hear It All
- Don't You Love to Watch What People Do
- Unpredictable You
- Get Her to Do It
- Nightmare Alley
- Song of the Road