Composer Brad Alexander on the incarnation of "See Rock City & Other Destinations"

Adam and I met at Raw Impressions back in 2005, where we had 10 days to create a 10-minute musical.  We met on a Friday night, had to deliver the first draft by Sunday, and opened on Thursday.  The theme was "a dangerous choice".  We all wrote stories for 10 minutes about a dangerous choice - fictional or true, or a little of both.  Everyone threw their stories in a hat and we picked one about Angel's Landing at Zion National Park and one about a terrified bride.  From those stories, Adam created the libretto for “Greetings From Niagara Falls,” which is now the final piece in SEE ROCK CITY & OTHER DESTINATIONS.

I knew right away that Adam was a master architect, having an uber-keen sense of how a story should ebb and flow and resolve, and a true gift for dialogue.  His writing was clean and contemporary, and we felt like a good match.  We had a great time, the piece was well-received and I figured that was the end of that.

Several months went by when Adam called me to say, "How about a whole evening of shorts at a whole bunch of American tourist destinations?"

I said, “Let me think about it,” but I thought, “No.”

When I next saw Adam at BMI, I tried to avoid him.  I just wasn’t sure how I felt about doing a collection of short pieces versus one long story.  He cornered me after class and didn’t say a word, just handed me a script like he was delivering a subpoena.  It turned out to be the libretto for “Rock City”.  When I read it, the choice was made.

4 readings, 2 workshops, 3 productions, 2 (3?) temper tantrums and 100 rewrites later, we're thrilled to be working with Jack Cummings and Transport Group for our NYC premiere.  And we're so grateful to friends, family and colleagues for their incredibly smart feedback, constructive criticism and generous support of all kinds, which helped us arrive at a show that finally feels almost – but never really – finished.

- Brad