Hedwig and the Angry Inch composer Stephen Trask and Tony-nominated Stereophonic music director and orchestrator Justin Craig team up for a concert and discussion July 14 at Evans Hall at Connecticut College. Proceeds from the event will help the Congregation Beth El raise money to build a new synagogue, with both in-person and live stream options available.
The pair will perform songs from Hedwig and Trask's musical This Ain't No Disco, as well as covers. The following discussion will cover making authentic rock music in a theatre context, and the process Trask and Craig went through to create that authenticity for Hedwig and Stereophonic
"Beth El is an important part of my childhood and my family history," Trask said in an earlier statement. "My dad’s grandparents were founders of the synagogue almost a century ago. My parents met at Hebrew School there when they were five, and when they started dating, [they] were the puppy love teens who sat together and held hands at Shabbat services. My sister and I grew up only a short block away in a neighborhood where the elders of synagogue and the rabbi and Hebrew school director lived. This was where I celebrated my Bar Mitzvah."
Trask and Craig have been collaborating for nearly 20 years, including on the 2014 Broadway production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, where Craig eventually took over as music director for Trask's score.
"At this point, [Craig] is probably the artist with whom [I've worked] more than anyone else, and that’s saying something," Trask added. "We’ve locked ourselves alone in a room making music so many days and nights. When Neil Patrick Harris wanted a new arrangement of 'Sugar Daddy,' Justin flew down to my studio in Kentucky, and we hammered out the version that was featured on Broadway and on the Tonys. We’ve shared a stage dozens of times, but we’ve never performed a show just the two of us. Spending a night making music with him and chatting about music and theatre and the doggedly tricky act of making rock & roll and theatre fit together will be like taking our near 20-year friendship and making a little show out of it. We will be talking about staging Hedwig and Stereophonic and comparing and contrasting the two experiences. I’m really excited about this."
Click here for in-person tickets, or here for live stream tickets.
