By SHARON EBERSON
“Because after all, everyone deserves one song …”
That goes for the female serial killers of RealTime Arts’ true-crime concert musical Angelmakers, which returns starting Thursday, October 24, with the promise of “new songs, new singers and a new band.”
The engagement at The Funhouse at Mr. Smalls, upstairs from the Millvale theater, features R&B singer Jacquea Mae and musical theater stalwarts Julianne Avolio and Drew Leigh Williams, with “guitarist/clarinet-shredder” Lenni Green, bass player Allier Reefer and drummer Cassie Prentiss.
at Mr. Smalls; Drew Leigh Williams at music director Joe Stamerra’s grand piano; Julianne Avolio harmonizing with Jacquea Mae and Liz Berlin; Jacquea Mae bringing down the New Hazlett rehearsal space. (Images: RealTime Arts)
Angelmakers “explores the moments and motives of female serial killers through history. With music ranging from post-punk to indie rock to country and beyond, this concert-play is a howl full of bad luck, pathos, and feminine rage.”
Written by RealTime’s Molly Rice and directed by Rusty Thelin, the show was first performed with Milia Ayache in “a crumbling Slavic dancehall” in Lawrenceville in 2017. It went on to be produced at New York City’s 54 Below in 2018, directed by Thelin, with a cast including Gelsey Bell (Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 on Broadway) and queer icon Viva DeConcini.
In 2022, Angelmakers, directed by Cynthia Croot, was performed in the Strip District’s Pittsburgh Winery, with a cast comprised of Ayache (on guitar), Samantha Ainsworth, Julianna Austin, Meg Booth, Angela George, Angela Hsu, Mai Khôi, Hazel Carr Leroy and Linette Taylor, plus musicians Michele Dunlap (drums) and Zorahna (bass, keyboard), who have been with the show since it began.
“We hope this piece will evoke responses of discomfort, fascination, distance,and compassion – responses that, in a larger sense, we all need to learn to negotiate if we hope to understand those who are fundamentally different from us,” Rice told BroadwayWorld in 2018.
Each show at Mr. Smalls features special guests and opening bands:
- October 24: Mai Khôi & Mari Frazé-Frazénko (PosterChild)
- October 25: Mai Khôi & Mari Frazé-Frazénko (Frazé-Frazénko and the Happy Lovers)
- October 30: Liz Berlin & Mari Frazé-Frazénko (Frazé-Frazénko and the Happy Lovers)
- October 31: Liz Berlin, Mai Khôi & Mari Frazé-Frazénko for the “Halloween extravaganza,” with costumes encouraged (Liz Berlin).
TICKETS AND DETAILS
RealTime Arts’ Angelmakers is at The Funhouse at Mr. Smalls, 400 Lincoln Ave., 2nd floor, Millvale, October 24-25 and 30-31, 2024. Tickets: https://mrsmalls.com/events/angelmakers/. More information https://www.realtimearts.org/projects/angelmakers-songs-female-serial-killers.
MR. SMALLS TO OPEN THE SANCTUARY IN 2025
Categories: Company, Our Posts, Show Previews
Thank you Sharon and Onstage Pittsburgh! And thanks for coming to see the show– loved seeing you there!