‘Foreverman’ Pegged For Broadway Production

By Nancy K. Crevier

Newtown resident Brett Boles, whose original musical Foreverman was one of a dozen productions chosen from 400 submissions for this year’s the Next Link Project of the New York Music Festival, was thrilled with the positive reception the piece received when it was performed in July at the PTC Performance Space on 42nd Street in New York City. But Foreverman truly goes on.

“A producer, Dasha Epstein, saw the show in July and loved it. She has gotten behind it and we are working out details now,” Mr Boles announced on Monday, September 10. “It’s the best thing that could possibly have happened,” he added.

Ms Epstein is the recipient of Tony Awards for Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Children of A Lesser God, as well as two Drama Desk Awards and the Drama Critics Circle and Outer Critics Award for Master Harold and the Boys. She has produced 16 Shows on Broadway and is the producer, said Mr Boles, of Same Time, Next Year, and most recently, Chinglish, a 2011Broadway play by David Henry Hwang.

Mr Boles, who wrote the script, music and lyrics for Foreverman, is now working with the creative team assigned to him during the New York Music Festival, and with Ms Epstein, to tighten up the production.

“The most important thing I have to do right now, is to rework the script,” said Mr Boles, who is using suggestions from the producer and the creative team. “I knew there were things that I needed to clean up,” he said.

If all goes according to plan, a workshop production of Foreverman may be on stage at the Goodspeed Opera House next summer. Other options for workshop productions include the Eugene O’Neill Theater in Waterford or the New York Stage and Film. Mr Boles is hopeful that Foreverman could be produced on Broadway within three years.

Most of the musicals selected to be a part of the New York Music Festival each summer do go on “to some other life,” Mr Boles said, but only very few continue on to become Broadway productions.

 “It’s exciting,” he said, “but until it happens, we can’t really know where it will go.”

Brett Boles will be participating in this weekend’s Newtown Arts Festival. He is scheduled to offer a program about Foreverman on Saturday, September 15, at 4 pm.