Kevin Massey, Lori Marinacci, Matt Lutz, Mick Bleyer, Sierra Rein & "Kay"

Just look at this cast. Aren't they cute? Fun? Talented? — oh my God, yes! They are all doing my new show/gig/concert at The Duplex Oct. 5th, 7pm. You might remember Kevin Massey, because he not only performed in my show HoliDaze, debuted songs of mine at the Lincoln Center Songbook Series and other places, but he also played the creepy doctor (via video) who gave me a hearing test in "Jay Alan Zimmerman's Incredibly Deaf Musical." Oh yeah, and sometimes I let him do other people's shows like Tarzan, Big River, and currently, Little House On the Prairie. Sierra Rein & Matt Lutz you might remember from my show at Dillon's (R.I.P.), and Matt did three more at The Duplex a few months ago — I wrote the "Smokin!" song for him and he knocked it out of the park. This is my first show with Mick and Lori (who just finished Hairspray on Broadway), but Lori's sister Lisa, did my show HoliDaze. They're all coming together for ONE NIGHT ONLY, because they are all crazy busy, so I highly recommend you grab this opportunity to see them. It's gonna be.... SMOKIN'!

new show coming up Oct. 5th

Mark your calendars, folks, I'm doing a new show at The Duplex, on monday 0ct. 5th, 7pm! Before I tell you about it, I'm going to let you in on a couple secrets: First of all, the next day is my birthday, so instead of giving me a present this year please come to the show instead. Second, I'm allergic to smoke, but if I drink enough I want to have a ciggie. It's bizarre, because then I'll start hacking and turning blue which isn't my best color. Plus I might use a lighter on my nose. Why the heck would I want to smoke when I can't? Well... why do YOU do the stuff you know you shouldn't? You know, like smoke, drink, eat donuts, and fall in love with the wrong people? Hmmm. Think about it. Then come to the gig. Cuz it's called "Smokin'!"

Two shows, one night

May 17th, I'm doing two events in one night. If you are in NYC, come and join the parade!

First up, I'll be premiering some songs from a new show I'm developing, called POMES: The Tru Storie of Wergle Flomp and Othr $49.95 Poets. In the late 1990s, the English Poet David Taub set out to expose the International Library of Poetry scam (aka poetry.com) by writing deliberately horrible poems -- which I have set to equally horrible (and hilarious) music. The poems include "Wots A Pome," "Nicky Nacky Noo" and "Yew Gotta Larf." Mr. Taub's creations inspired the annual Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest, which you are free to enter... Perhaps I'll set your disturbing poem to music as well!

Now, what setting would be perfect for a "deaf composer" to sing horrible poems? Why the Liberace Birthday Bash, of course. The infamous cartist, HOOP, is throwing a party in honor of Liberace at the Westbeth Community Room, 55 Bethune St., NYC. You'll find me there at 6:30pm, it's location "A" on the map below.


Next up, we'll march over to The Duplex (location "B"), for the new cabaret show of Matt Lutz at 9:30pm. He's doing three of my jazzy songs: "Time To Give In," "Nice Guy" and the premiere of "SMOKIN" -- about a guy who looks cool smoking but he's allergic to smoke.

It's a fun filled evening, so don't miss it!

JAY

APRIL 13th @ LAURIE BEECHMAN THEATRE

Raissa Katona Bennett is an amazing singer and Broadway veteran (a Phantom diva), and she also happens to know sign language. So when she saw me signing with Kevin Massey at John Znidarsic's Songbook Series at Lincoln center last December (where we were both performing for the holiday concert), she immediately signed "hi."

She then invited me to the Algonquin Salon -- a very fun gathering of composers, singers, and music lovers at the Algonquin hotel -- and we premiered my new song IN THE MIDDLE. Jennifer Wren saw me there and that lead to my BIG NIGHT OUT at Dillon's last month, with Raissa performing of course. During rehearsals, I showed Raissa some other songs that I thought might be good for her and she said one of them, CHILDREN OF THE WORLD, would be perfect for her benefit for children with AIDS. So I rewrote it for her, and now we're doing it at the Laurie Beechman Theatre at the Westbank Cafe, April 13th, at 9:30 pm!

Just goes to show: 1) it's good to get out of the house, and 2) you never know who you'll meet while signing...

Please join me on April 13th to support such a worthy cause.

BIG NIGHT March 5th

with: Raissa Katona Bennett, Kelly Ellenwood, Doug Shapiro, Kara Lindsay, Sierra Rein, Mark Lutz, and hosts Jennifer Wren & Bill Zeffiro.


I WANT YOU to head down to Dillons Reprise Room (245 West 54th St.) Thursday, March 5th. BIG NIGHT OUT chose me to be their featured composer this month and I just couldn't stop myself from turning it into a big production. Songs from my past, present, and future will be sung by the amazing vocalists above and the whole thing concludes with song premieres from my new show: I.M. -- The Invisible Man Musical !

My music starts at 10pm, and there is a pre-show open mic at 9pm. Cover charge $10 with a one item minimum. It's worth it -- let me be your stimulus!

Blurbs here and there

To catch up: Kara got sick before the Holiday Songbook, but Kevin Massey stepped up to the plate and we debuted my new song, "I'm Listening" -- which I wrote for his upcoming CD. Blurb on the Holiday Songbook here in PLAYBILL. Kara happily has recovered and will debut a new song of mine on March 5th during the Featured Composer's Series at Dillons. More on that event and the other amazing vocalists joining me in a later post. Meanwhile, for those of you just tuning in, here's some old press --
BROADWAY WORLD re: Zipper shows
PLAYBILL re: Zipper shows
WASHINGTON POST re: deaf musical
WASHINGTON POST review of deaf musical
WASHINGTON CITY PAPER re: deaf musical
(p.s. I hate that photo! That's me pretending to be five, and it ain't purty.)

Songbook Dec. 14th!

Save the date, folks. December 14th at 2:30 Kevin Massey and Kara Lindsay (romantic leads of the new Little House On the Prairie Musical) will be premiering my brand-new song for the holidays.

I've written a new song or arrangement for Christmas every year since I was 12 and over the years they've gotten less religious. For example, last year I took "Deck the Halls" and made it "Gay Apparel" featuring the drag queen of the year, Miss Peppermint. So this year, I've gone back to good ole romance with "Mistletoe Manipulation" -- though I'm still using a sprinkle of curse words, sorry. Can't seem to get through this season with out at least one *#$!!!

This concert also includes many great new songs by tomorrow's Broadway composers, including the recent Fred Ebb winner Adam Gwon. Check it out.

The Holiday Songbook: Lincoln Center's Bruno Walter Auditiorium: 2:30pm
111 Amsterdam Avenue (just south of 65th Street) Phone: (212) 870-1630
more details at www.artsandartistsatstpaul.com

PLUS: A big oops! I got so busy that I forgot to post about the last concert. It was another Songbook at Lincoln Center, October 27th. Thanks to Kevin Massey for doing an exciting and hilarious performance of "Double Dare" -- one of my halloween songs -- in which he had to sing and vomit simultaneously!

SCREENING OCT 24th!

EVIL EYE is in the can (well, on the hard drive) and I'm madly cutting it together for the rough-cut premiere at Chashama gallery: Friday, October 24th, 2008, 8pm. It will be shown as a part of the opening reception party for artist Lisa Ingram's solo exhibition called Visual Conversations. She's an amazing artist and I like her so much I married her. So come join the party! The reception starts at 6pm.

CHASHAMA 461 GALLERY
461 West 126th Street
(between Amsterdam & Morningside)
New York, NY

EVIL EYE in production

Strange, the odd connections in life. My first New York City apartment was near Edgar Allan Poe street on the Upper West Side, where the famous writer apparently resided (briefly) in the mid-1800s. We also share a middle name and an affinity for dark and twisted tales, so naturally one of my early musicalized works had to be based on a Poe story. Composed almost 20 years ago and first produced by Lou Levy at my NY debut show, EVIL EYE is my take on The Tell-Tale Heart -- a tale of man driven insane by the sounds in his head: which is my life essentially now that deafness causes me to hear mostly the ringing of my own ears! However, it is much fun to be filming a new version of my old score just blocks away from Poe's street, and I'm blessed to be working with the amazing Dirk Weiler and adventurous producer Ben Pitts. Check back soon -- I plan to screen a rough cut here in NYC for Halloween. Moo-ho-hahahahahaha!!!!

R O B O T I C U S

Here's some excerpts from my new art installation / performance work, Roboticus, debuted at LEMURplex March 28, 2008. The
residency was fantastic and I learned a ton. It's very hard to capture the piece on video as the robots filled the room, but this gives you an idea.

ROBOTS!

Let's see, so far this season I've worked with aerialists, Broadway singers, opera voices, rock n' rollers, a drag queen, and now -- ROBOTS! Those of you who saw my Incredibly Deaf Musical in DC heard me mention how I'd rather be composing for robots than singing about becoming deaf. Well now my dream has come true. Here is my new friend, the GuitarBot.

It was created by the folks at www.lemurbots.org, who are letting me play with all of their bots via a March residency. Come see the concert March 28th at the LEMURPLEX in Brooklyn. I'm attempting to create my very first "visual symphony" while playing with all the cool toys.

space, time, and imovie

it's amazing what one can create with a laptop camera, imovie, and wiki commons. We've come a long way from my first mac, an SE, with serial ports. Here's my latest visual exploration -- it's a bit "trippy" -- but a fun way to share one of my scores with you. See if you can guess what the opening sound is...

"SAFER" from J@Z show Nov 19th

Here is an experimental movement/aerial piece from my November variety show at The Zipper Factory Theater.

HO. HO? HO!!

Who's in the show?: Miss Peppermint, Santa (Blake Sherman) and Melvin Bell III. Come find out who's been naughty and who's been nice this year...

J@Z SHOW DEC 17: HO. HO? HO!!

Hey folks, Monday, Dec 17th, 9:30 pm I'm doing a special holiday show at the Zipper! It features Kelly Ellenwood (Phantom), Melvin Bell (Rent, Black Nativity), Renee Pugh (aerialist), Blake Sherman (Lounge Lizard @ the Ritz, as a rock and roll santa!) and drag star Miss Peppermint, all doing my wild, wacky, and yet often--meaningful--holiday songs: "When Reindeer Fly" "Twas The Night" "Ring Ring Ring goes the Cell Phone" "Gingerbread Man" and much much more. With some sing-along, plus party with the cast at the Zipper bar after. Hope you can come! Get your tickets via the zippertheater.com website or click here.

J@Z : In The News

The show is mentioned in Playbill and Broadway World! Google it, then get your tickets now please.

I'm constantly amazed at how great this cast is and how willing they are to let me push them beyond the conventional. I mean, how often do you get to see someone dance while layering their performance with real, complex emotions? Or watch I guy share his heartfelt love with a gal on a cloud swing? See a woman struggle with relationships while surrounded by animated punctuation marks? Working with them has been a real treat, and a special thanks goes out to Angel Desai (recently in Company) who has stepped in at the last minute. Oh, and did I tell you drag diva of the year, Miss Peppermint, joined the cast too?

This is truly a never-seen-before/never-seen-again event and I hope you will join the party.
— JAY

J@Z: ZIPPER THEATER NOV. 19th!

I wish I'd written the Pointer Sister's song "I'm So Excited" because that's what keeps echoing in my head... along with all the material for the show of course! So many great things are happening now and it's a fantastic cast. Jessica Phillips is gonna wail on some of my best songs, Kevin Massey will seduce you while Kiepoli Calnek dances in air on a cloud swing; Kelly Ellenwood (a former Phantom diva) sparkles in my multimedia song cycle; and Susie Williams in going to surprise us with a new piece on the rope. Meanwhile, yours truly will attempt to sing, rap, and play the piano without hearing all the notes.

Three ring circus? Nope, just my new show at the Zipper Factory theater. I wanna make it feel like a party because I'm celebrating my return to NYC and new life as a "deaf composer." Come dance with me!

The Sunlight Zone

Kevin O'Connor is an amazing aerialist and emerging choreographer—he also worked with me last year by trying to get my two left feet to dance for my Incredibly Deaf Musical. We work well together so when he asked me to compose music for his new aerial project with 6 aerialists, I said yippie! Then I asked, "how long should it be?" Answer: 20 minutes. "How long do I have to create it?" Answer: 3 days. Yikes!! But I did it, using a combination of found sounds, recycled compositions, and quick decisions, and I'm happy to say it was a wonderful project. Plus I met Susie Williams, Kiepoli Calnek, and Justin Carty who are all working on my new show at the Zipper. That's showbiz, folks...

my Incredibly Deaf Musical

Right, the whole title is reaaaallly long, which I consider the Orville Redenbacher version of advertising, but at sure spells out what you're going to see: "Jay Alan Zimmerman's Incredibly Deaf Musical"
Since the fantastic response at the Capital Fringe Festival last summer, we've been improving the show and the plan is to open Off-Broadway in early 2008. I've written a bunch of new songs, learned to dance (a bit!) and constantly working on how to make the tech better -- a must have for any deaf performer who's doing music.
Visit the show website — www.deafmusical.com—for updates, links to the reviews, and more.
You can also find clips of the show HERE.