Tag Archives: tragedy

Premiere in New York City!

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What a joy it was to witness Nietzsche surge to its feet this past October in an Off-Broadway Theater in New York City!

Over 30 artists collaborated to create a “a total artwork on a small scale, as it brought poetry, song, dance and music together” (The Agonist).

All four shows were all (or nearly) sold out, and the audiences were on their feet as soon as the curtain calls began. Geoffrey and I were thrilled and delighted with how the cast came together to bring this story to life, and grateful to Off-Brand Opera for helping it happen.

One pair of reviewers summed up our feeling: “We look forward to a bigger production where more stories from Nietzsche’s life can be included with a bigger ensemble of musicians and a wider stage for dancers’ broader and freer movements” (The Agonist).

Yes, please! Stay tuned.

In the meantime, enjoy these beautiful production photos of director Liz Bealko’s formidable staging and my choreography, taken by John Beier @johnfromjohns.

RESPONSES

“It was a beautifully layered piece and I enjoyed the storytelling and the breadth of it. I look forward to thinking about it and turning it over. And the music was delicious!” – M. Duffield

“The musical thankfully avoids an overly tragic end and does not venture into the melodrama of nihilistic despair… Nietzsche, or “Fritz,” is first and foremost a human being… Fritz, who is very convincingly played by Will Paddock, is an enthusiastic and occasionally exuberant young man who is at the same time conflicted and shy… The viewer is made to feel for him.” — The Agonist

“Female energy is… present throughout the whole play with four dancers, who constantly enter and exit the scene, adding musicality and movement to the personal and intellectual disputes… In popular culture, there is… often a certain heroism associated with Nietzsche, especially with the Ubermensch, who is always, seeming unavoidably, male. Contrary to it, the dancers represent ever-flowing emotions, a ground of existence deeper than rationality, which is much more in tune with Nietzsche’s own view of human existence.” — The Agonist

“We were so damn impressed!!! It was so smart and entertaining. You are able to translate philosophical thought so well without losing the underlying complexities. Of course you’ve been doing that over decades but I think it’s particularly challenging in a song+dance form! Your creativity is so inspiring. And loved *loved* watching Kyra [as Lou Salome], who was absolutely terrific. I hope you are getting the raves you deserve and that the show has a future!!” – J. Foulkes, Professor, New School

“Much of the country is involved in a spiritual revolution, not necessarily reported on the mainstream media. Your work touches that. In fact your work bespeaks that same type of hope. God works in mysterious ways.” — J.K.

“In telling the story of Nietzsche in large part through the women that made the popularization of his works possible, you beautifully revealed both the intimacies that illuminated his ideas, and the inherent relationality of philosophy (and of life!)…. I was also so struck by how you portrayed his relationship to dance. It is one thing to read about a philosopher who was enticed by the idea of movement, and another to witness a young man truly seduced by the prospect of embodied freedom. I was left with the simple feeling that a free life is a dancing life.” – P. Whitehead-Bust

Why Write a Musical About Nietzsche? (The first three reasons.)

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Surprising though it may sound, there are many reasons to write a musical about a notorious white, male philosopher who went insane at age forty-four.

1. A relevant life.

Though Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) lived in the second half of the nineteenth century, he wrestled with the very same societal prejudices that continue to harm people around the world today, every day – including anti-Semitism, Christian imperialism, and xenophobic nationalism.

For Nietzsche, moreover, these prejudices were not simply academic. They confronted him in the words and actions of people he loved: his sister. His mother. His surrogate father, the composer Richard Wagner.  Nietzsche was appalled.

Much of his writing, especially the later works, was driven by his intense need to excavate the sources of such prejudices – to unmask the hatred, anger, and bitterness that animate them – and to do so in such a way that alternative paths appear.

He urged readers to create new values that affirm life, and, in the words of Nietzsche’s alter-ego, the fictional Zarathustra, “remain faithful to the earth.”

Now, today, we need Nietzsche’s insights more than ever.

2. A dancing life.

Throughout his writing, from his first book to his last, Nietzsche uses the image of dancing to describe the practice and the fruit of resisting hatred and affirming life.

As Nietzsche describes, he wanted to write books that would teach people to dance – that is, teach people how to cultivate a vibrant, sensory joy that overflows in a capacity to love life — all of it.

A model for this kind of dance, as he sees it, was present in the tragedies of ancient Greece, where the chorus danced and sang at key moments in the drama. According to Nietzsche, this dancing and singing evoked in the spectators a sense of their own visceral connection with the elemental rhythms of nature. Spectators were able to witness the failure or death of a hero and nevertheless, leave the theater suffused with joy and love for the ongoing generativity of Life.

What better way to advance Nietzsche’s message of affirmation than through musical theater — Greek tragedy’s singing-dancing-acting, modern-day heir?

3. An unfinished life.

Days before his mental break, Nietzsche was planning his next work – his complete revaluation of values. He never had a chance to finish it. For the next forty-six years, in a great irony of history, Nietzsche’s sister controlled his legacy, misrepresenting him and his work as sympathetic to the very anti-Semitic, imperialist, nationalist values he rejected. His story needs to be told.

What better way to reassert the truth of Nietzsche’s perspective than by providing an opportunity to experience the tragedy of his brief life as a reason to continue the work he began – and love life even more? Singing and dancing all the way!

Effecting this kind of transformation is exactly what musical theater can do.