Asphalt Beach



In the fall of 2006 following on the heels of the crowd-pleasing production of The Boys Are Coming Home, AMTP launched another world premiere musical -- Asphalt Beach. Asphalt Beach is a "rock" musical set in Asphalt Beach, New Jersey, and home to "Our Lady of Suppressed Desire Academy for Rambunctious Young Girls," where a rag-tag band of misfit girls struggle daily to break free from the dominating head mistress, Sister Severia. The adversity leads them to discover that family isn’t just something you inherit; it is also something you create.

Asphalt Beach featured music and lyrics by acclaimed composer/lyricist Andrew Lippa, book by T.C. Smith and Northwestern alum Peter Spears and was directed by new Northwestern faculty member Amanda Dehnert. The Gilman and Gonzales-Falla Theatre Foundation and Louise and Thomas Middleton were the honorary producers. "The amazing thing about Asphalt Beach", says Dehnert, "is that while it's very sarcastic, there's also a real heart to the piece. It's about people finding family in the least likely of places."

Andrew Lippa, widely considered one of today's hottest young songwriters for musical theater, wrote the book, music, and lyrics for The Wild Party, which won the Outer Critics Circle Award for best Off-Broadway musical. Lippa has also written A Little Princess, john & jen and contributed three new songs to the 1999 Broadway revival of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, including "My New Philosophy" for Tony-Award winner Kristen Chenoweth. His musical Jerry Christmas was presented at the National Alliance for Music Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals in New York in early October.

"From the moment I read the laugh-out-loud outline for Asphalt Beach, I knew it would make a hilarious musical," said Lippa. "What I found out, however, was that it was very funny AND terrifically moving. I never went to an all-girl Catholic high school (me: Jewish Boy). But if I had gone to one I would have laughed and cried all the time. Hey, I do that now."

Writers Spears and Smith co-wrote and directed the Sundance Film Festival hit, Ernest and Bertram. Spears just completed the film Careless starring Tony Shaloub and Colin Hanks; and Smith's screenplay Slings and Arrows was recently awarded a $25,000 Fellowship in Screenwriting from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

According to AMTP Artistic Director Stuart Oken, "There may not be another theatrical score as fully realized as Andrew's The Wild Party in the past 10 years. Having him in residence, along with Peter Spears, T.C. Smith and working with new NU faculty member, Amanda Dehnert, couldn't say more about the vitality of our initiative."

Performances of Asphalt Beach were held from Oct. 27 through Nov. 12 at the Josephine Louis Theatre.