David Q&A

Durham Performing Arts Center has a brief interview with Memphis Composer (and our favorite curly-haired Keys Man) David Bryan:

What attracted you to write the musical MEMPHIS?
The story. It’s an epic American tale about the birth of rock & roll, I just love that we not only portray one of the first white DJ’s to integrate the radio, but we also dramatize an interracial love story (when it was against the law in many states to have a interracial marriage). Ultimately, it’s a story about how music helped bring about social change, and how this music helped bring people together.

Can you describe a most enjoyable part of writing a Broadway musical?
There are so many phases a show goes through and I love them all. It starts with Joe and me in a room, then we add actors for a reading, then we add a director, choreographer and creative team to put a production on stage. Then we’ll try out the show with a few out-of-town productions before we bring it to Broadway. And all this time, we’re constantly tinkering with every aspect of the show. We don’t stop until we feel we’ve gotten it right. Or, as I like to say, until we no longer feel as if we’ve gotten anything wrong.

What new musical are you and MEMPHIS collaborator, Joe DiPietro, working on now?
Joe and I have a new original show in the works called Chasing The Song. It’s about American songwriters from 1962-1964 based on the songwriters who worked in the Brill Building. It’s a fictional story about factual America. We’ve already written a bunch of songs and have a great script. We’re at the beginning where it’s just Joe and me in the room, but soon we’ll be ready to get to the next stage of development. We’re looking forward to creating and building a brand new work.

You can read the whole interview here.

~ Hath