Musical-theater creators flocking back to Goodspeed for annual writers retreat

Goodspeed Musicals’ Johnny Mercer Writers Grove, an annual winter retreat where musical-theater creators work on new shows, will return to its in-person set-up this month after having to meet virtually last year because of the pandemic.

The Goodspeed is best known for its public performances at the Goodspeed Opera House in the summertime, but the theater is a year-round enterprise dedicated to American musical theater in all its forms, from classics such as “Cabaret” and “42nd Street” (both of which are part of the 2022 Goodspeed season) to musicals that haven’t been written yet. The Goodspeed partnered with the Johnny Mercer Foundation to create the Grove retreat a decade ago. Johnny Mercer was the lyricist whose hits included “Moon River,” “Autumn Leaves”, and “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive.” His foundation is dedicated to helping the careers of up-and-coming songwriters.

At the Johnny Mercer Writers Grove, musical-theater composers and writers live and work together in some of the many small houses that the Goodspeed owns near the opera house. They meet regularly in yet another house to share their work and receive immediate feedback from peers, in a casual setting that resembles a salon or open mic event. Experienced playwrights and composers are on hand to mentor and assist the Grove residents, as are members of the theater’s music department. The Goodspeed also has a formidable library of musical theater scores, history books and other items.

This year’s retreat will feature its largest group in years — 30 participants working on 15 new musicals. Goodspeed Musicals says the Grove will follow strict COVID protocols.

For most of its 10-year history, the Grove has happened adjacent to another major wintertime Goodspeed event, the Goodspeed Festival of New Musicals, which many of the Grove participants would attend before their retreat started. The festival, which offers readings of several new musicals-in-progress as well as talks with musical-theater writers, producers and historians, hasn’t been held since its 15th anniversary edition in January of 2020.

Among the musicals that were worked on in the first decade of the Johnny Mercer Grove are Michael R. Jackson’s “A Strange Loop,” which won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama after a successful off Broadway run in 2019, and is expected to be on Broadway this coming spring. The Goodspeed itself has furthered the development of several Grove-born musicals by giving them full workshop productions at its Norma Terris Theatre in Chester, among them “Passing Through,” “Private Gomer Jones” and “Darling Grenadine.” The Judy Garland biomusical “Chasing Rainbows” was partially developed at the Johnny Mercer Grove and went on to have major productions at the Goodspeed Opera House and elsewhere.

Among this year’s Grove participants is the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jake Bernstein, whose book “Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite” was made into the Steven Soderbergh film “The Laundromat.”

Jonathan Brielle, executive vice president of the Johnny Mercer Foundation, serves as the retreat’s writer/producer in residence. Brielle’s credits range from doing the music and lyrics for the Broadway musical “Foxfire” to founding the streaming musical-theater playform Vala Musicals. The Grove’s resident dramaturg will once again be Clifford Lee Johnson III. Also attending as a producer in residence is Blair Russell, producer of Jeremy O. Harris’ landmark “Slave Play.” The Goodspeed’s artistic director Donna Lynn Hilton is also actively involved in the Grove.

This year’s other Grove participants are Melis Aker, Avi Amon, Native American choreographer/performance artist Ty Defoe, writer/director/producer Nolan Doran, self-described “scholartist” Dr. Amma Y. Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin, Alex Hare, Elliah Heifetz, Paul Hodge, jazz trumpeter Alphonso Horne, “Good Kids” playwright Naomi Iizuka, Jessica Kahkoska, Jesse L. Kearney, Jr., Zhailon Levingston (director of the recent Broadway play “Chicken and Biscuits” by Connecticut native and Johnny Mercer Grove alumnus Douglas Lyons), film/TV orchestrator Nevada Lozano, Peter Mills, Cheeyang Ng, Hayley Gene Penner, Kyle Puccia (co-author of the hit record “Kids in Love” by Kygo), TV’s “Trickster” and “Jamestown” actor Kalani Queypo, Cara Reichel, Jorge Miguel Rivera-Herrans, Benjamin Scheuer, Rona Siddiqui, Eric Sorrels, Khalil Sullivan, Saudi Arabian performance artist Rotana Tarabzouni, Joshua Williams and Zack Zadek

Many of the participants are already recognized musical-theater talents who have already won significant awards and developmental grants for some of their work.

You can find a list of the writers, their projects and their bios at goodspeed.org/special-programs/jmf-writers-grove

Christopher Arnott can be reached at carnott@courant.com.