By SHARON EBERSON
As In Clay readies its Pittsburgh debut at City Theatre, its London-based creators mused about it finding a fandom in China, before being introduced in the USA.
“It’s so bizarre,” admitted Jack Miles, whose music was the catalyst for the show, written with librettist Rebecca Simonds. “We’d gone from a 120-seat [venue, with a piece of] French theater, around to the other side of the world.“
In Clay, based on the life of French ceramist, painter and sculptor Marie-Berthe Cazin, is the duo’s first collaboration.
Simmonds and Mile share lyric credits for the one-woman musical that became their “lockdown baby.” The show finds Cazin (played by Alex Finke) in her Parisian apartment in 1938, awaiting her estranged childhood friend, the celebrated artist Henriette Tirman. Surrounded by her own work, Cazin reflects on a life devoted to making art.
Photography)
“I was coming out of a musical theater degree looking for collaborators,” Simmonds said, “and someone had shared some of Jack’s music, which I got very excited about, and so emailed him out the blue saying, ‘Hi, have you ever considered writing with anyone else?’ ”
At the time, Miles was exploring Gypsy jazz, or jazz manouche, a vibrant style of swing music that originated in France during the 1930s.
“There was this instrumental piece … that had a bass rumbling away, and then somebody played keys, and then something that was like a little violin thing, and it kind of built, gradually, gradually, gradually, and it just sort of struck my mind’s eye as very similar to somebody making something. So I went looking for stories about artists that made pottery, because that was kind of the closest thing.”
And that’s when he discovered Cazin.
Her art — she also was a landscape painter and sculptor — was praised and exhibited in her lifetime, and today, her sculpture“The Young Ladies” resides at the Musée du Luxembourg. Yet it was rumored that her husband would often take credit for her work.
Simmonds and Miles began working on the show during the pandemic shutdown, “and it took three years to perfect it,” he said, with his writing partner on a Zoom call from the UK.
When Miles initially shared Cazin’s story, there were “a couple of things that stood out,” Simmonds said.
“One, it was about why we make things, and it was the height of the pandemic, and we just committed to this career, this musical thing. … So you’re like, OK, well, what happens if we write all this amazing stuff and no one ever sees it?”
Their research inevitably led them to the successful artist and Cazin’s friend, Henriette Tirman, who “Cazin consistently compares herself to.” When Cazin’s husband died at a relatively young age, she and Tirman moved in together and stayed together. They both lived into their 90s; Cazin died at age 98, in 1971.
“And so we had those facts to dramatize, and we pieced together a plot from her contemporaries and from general art history,” Simmonds said.
In Clay’s success was set in motion by winning accolades at UK festivals, and Marie’s “I am” song, “Talent” — the first song written for the show — was nominated for the Stiles & Drewe Best New Song of 2023. The first production, at Upstairs at the Gatehouse, in Highgate, in the spring of 2024, earned seven Off West End Award nominations, including Best New Musical and Best Musical Production.
The production of In Clay that opens City Theatre’s 52nd season is directed by Kimberly Senior (Broadway’s Disgraced; Little Gem at City Theatre) and originated at Signature Theater in Shirlington, Virginia.
A BroadwayWorld review said, “Through 14 meticulously crafted songs, we witness Cazin’s evolution — her triumphs, frustrations, and eventual reclamation of identity — all embodied with astonishing depth and dexterity by Alex Finke, who delivers a commanding, career-defining solo performance.” The Washington Post called Finke “tenacious and captivating.”
From the first production in the UK to Pittsburgh, theater companies have partnered with local potters. At City, dozens of ceramic pieces displayed on set will be crafted by local Pittsburgh artists through a partnership with local ceramic center Union Project, and patrons can purchase items after the final performance.
There also is a collaboration with MCG Jazz in the works. Music for the show is led by arranger-orchestrator Matt Herbert, working alongside Pittsburgh based musicians Mila Shadel (guitar), Justin P. Bendel (bass), and Stephen Weiss (guitar).
In Clay, while it is features art that is shaped and molded and seen, it has its roots in the music of the 1930s that he was “just playing around with” when he got the call from Simmonds.
“The timeline of the show and the timeline of the genre, it’s like the foundations of Gypsy jazz. They happen at the same time. But there are lots of different flavors that you can kind of pull from. … All the players that have ever played the score have kind of said, this is so good, because it’s so much fun to play and it’s challenging, and it’s exciting.”
They both had nothing but praise for Finke, whose Broadway stints included Come From Away and Les Misérables.
“Honestly watching her do it, you’re like, I can’t believe she’s not like selling out massive Broadway houses. Like, it’s only a matter of time,” Simmonds said. “It feels like you’re really seeing someone who’s just becoming someone else, which is really, really amazing.”
TICKETS AND DETAILS
In Clay opens City Theatre’s 52nd season September 19 – October 11, 2026, on the Mainstage, 1300 Bingham Street, South Side. https://www.westminsterextra.co.uk/article/review-in-clay-upstairs-at-the-gatehouse
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