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[0:00] Martín Acuña: Hi, everyone. I am Martín Acuña, and you are listening to Backstage Talk.

[0:18] Martín Acuña: Hello, everyone. Welcome back. I am excited today to have over a writer and composer of musicals.

[0:29] Martín Acuña: I have Jeffrey Schmelkin with me. He is a musical theater writer, composer, and music director based in New York City. His work has been presented around New York, including 54 Below and the Midtown International Theater Festival. Under his belt, he has four shows. One that will be premiering off-Broadway tomorrow. That is really exciting. Jeffrey, welcome to Backstage Talk. It's an honor to have you.

[1:01] Jeffrey Schmelkin: Thank you so much. Are you kidding? I'm so glad to be here. It's an honor that you asked me to do this.

[1:07] Martín Acuña: Tell us a little bit about yourself. Introduce yourself for our listeners.

[1:13] Jeffrey Schmelkin: Hi, I'm Jeffrey. I write music, and I write musicals. I got my Bachelor of Science in Music Composition at Hofstra University. From there, I really put my own emphasis on musical theater. Your intro covered it all. I've done some work for festivals and at 54 Below. And yeah, just living it up here in New York City, trying to make it all work. It's a little challenging at times, but we love it. And I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else. It's a nice challenge to tackle. I mean, it's New York.

[2:06] Martín Acuña: Yeah, and it's beautiful. How did you end up in the entertainment industry?

[2:14] Jeffrey Schmelkin: That is a good question. So when I was six years old, I have an older sister. I have two sisters, but my older sister, when I was six years old, she was a super Broadway fan. Still is, not so much anymore, but still passionate about it. And I remember I saw Wicked right when it opened. And that A minor that opens the show, that's really... I remember in that moment just feeling so in awe of theater and the whole process and the whole industry. But when I was six and then very young, I was sort of told that theater isn't a viable career option. So then I come from a medical family. So then forever I thought, I'm going to be a doctor. I was very passionate about genetics and maybe I'd be an endocrinologist or something in medicine.

But then I realized it's probably better for the patient if I'm not a doctor. So in middle school and high school, theater and early music had been more of just a passion, a hobby. And then it wasn't until the end of high school that I realized, oh, maybe I can go into this as my career. And that's really how it started.

[4:00] Jeffrey Schmelkin: And that was the beginning of it all. Started with Wicked, going through high school, and music was the road to go. Not medicine.

[4:12] Martín Acuña: Not medicine. So you went to college, you got your degree in music, in music composition, right?

[4:20] Jeffrey Schmelkin: Yes.

[4:21] Martín Acuña: And from the start, you knew that it was going to be musical theater, not anything else.

[4:28] Jeffrey Schmelkin: Yeah, that's true. So when I went into it, I had already had my first musical, Furniture the Musical, premiere at the Midtown International. Natalie Leifson wrote the book, I had music. And yeah, so from the end of high school, so the summer after senior year is when we premiered the show. So that's really what solidified for me. I'm going to go to school for music. But then from doing that show, I realized, like, I want to do theater. But the amazing thing is that my degree is not in musical theater, it's in music. So I learned all these different techniques and all these different influences and backgrounds and history and all these different ways of looking at music, not just Western tonal. And, you know, I think that having that education and having all those different perspectives on music really aided in, you know, the composition process for anything, and especially in theater.

[5:54] Martín Acuña: I love it. Let's talk a little bit about your past projects before we go deep into the show that's premiering off Broadway. You have three other musicals. They are titled Untitled Time, Furniture, and What's Wrong with the World, right?

[6:08] Jeffrey Schmelkin: Yep. Talk to us a little bit about Untitled Time, then Furniture, then What's Wrong with the World.

[6:14] Jeffrey Schmelkin: Yeah, so Untitled Time is, I guess, what you could call my passion project. It's a show that's very personal to me. I wrote the score, the book, the lyrics, all of it. And it really tackles mental health. I feel that in a lot of mainstream culture, there's not glorification, but sensibilization of mental health issues. And while I do recognize that that is getting better slowly, I really wanted to put a piece out that's more accurate. I feel that when we start accurate conversations, that's really when we'll, you know, start to get more accurate answers and reduce stigma and hopefully save lives.

[7:08] Martín Acuña: Yeah. I love it. And how about Furniture?

[7:17] Jeffrey Schmelkin: Furniture is, so I was on Skype with my friend Natalie in high school. And she said to me, wouldn't it be funny if I wrote a monologue about a chair that's in love with its human, but the human doesn't know? And I was like, yeah, go, go for it. And she wrote this monologue and I was like, that's amazing. And eventually we developed it and we turned it into a musical all about sentient furniture. When people ask about it, I say, think like Toy Story, but R-rated.

[7:57] Jeffrey Schmelkin: And yeah, so that's a really fun one. And what's wrong with the world?

[8:08] Jeffrey Schmelkin: What's wrong with the world was my show at 54 Below. I moved to Manhattan in the summer of 2018. I'd been living here every summer while I wasn't at school. And I had a job lined up, but then last minute, you know, it's all through. And I found myself in New York with nothing to do. So I got a different job that supported me. But then I was like, I want to do a show. I still want to do a show. I was supposed to be working on a different show. So very, very quickly, probably too quickly, I wrote the song cycle, What's Wrong With The World? And we produced it in a month at 54 Below. And it was a lot of fun. Just, you know, having something to work on and working with my friends. It's always a nice time when you're making theater and making art with people that you really enjoy.

So yeah, and that's really about, it's self-reflection. And it goes into topics of, it's a very raunchy show, probably the most that I've done to date. But it goes into all these different areas of life. And then it closes out with What's Wrong With The World? Like, that's the question. And then the last song is called Is It Me? And yeah, but it's another very, very fun project.

[9:57] Martín Acuña: Okay. For Furniture, one of your friends had a monologue and you worked towards that, right? For the other two shows, what was the beginning of the project? How did you start writing the songs? Did you start it with lyrics or with music? What's your working process?

[10:16] Jeffrey Schmelkin: I get this question a lot, actually. And it's different for every project. Smaller, actually, it's different for every song. So for Untitled Time, I actually had written a short story when I was in middle school. And then, you know, over the years, it grew to a play and then it grew to a short musical. And eventually now it's a two hour, 45 minute, fully orchestrated show that we're trying to get up somewhere. But the process, it really depends. Sometimes I start with a little musical hook and I expand it and then I add lyrics and, you know, go from there and make edits. Other times, for the most recent show, actually, that's very lyric heavy. I'm a composer. I don't claim to be a lyricist. But, you know, we do it.

And so I really started with the lyrics for my most recent works. And then I go from there where I'll, you know, like make little voice memos of like, ooh, like this on this word or this fragment, this should sound like this. And then I'll go and I'll notate it and then play around with harmonies. And then the fun part of really using my composition background, going through, you know, who I want like an applied dominant here or, you know, it's just the whole process of painting, painting a score. It's, yeah, it's art.

[12:22] Jeffrey Schmelkin: It's like building a Lego. You have a lot of pieces and you just mix them up.

[12:27] Martín Acuña: Yep. Okay. Choosing the best ones.

[12:30] Jeffrey Schmelkin: Yeah, absolutely. Let's talk about the show you're taking off Broadway. It's called The Parts I Keep Inside. What does the musical sound like?

[12:36] Jeffrey Schmelkin: What does it sound like? Ooh, come hear it.

[12:44] Jeffrey Schmelkin: I'm just kidding. It's very contemporary musical theatre. It's very introspective. It's probably the most personal work I've done. You know, talking about the parts I keep inside, like, yeah, it can be a little ambiguous, but no, it's the things I keep inside that I don't tell anybody in a musical.

[13:10] Martín Acuña: Yeah. And what does this story cover? Talk a little bit about the characters, the storyline.

[13:24] Jeffrey Schmelkin: Yeah, so I guess each character, they're not really named, but each one is a different part of myself. And so really the conception of this work came right out of COVID. I wanted to put something out there that, you know, like right now we're missing human connection, and we're missing contact. And I actually once had a conversation with Sam Carter, and we were talking about building songs from a story point of view. And he was explaining to me that the more specific you can get with your details, the more an audience will relate. And so I got super specific. And, you know, the show does talk about my own experiences, but the goal and the hope is that anybody listening will be able to listen to these stories and listen to this music and say, oh, maybe I wasn't in this exact same situation, but I completely understand the feeling.

And yeah, it tackles embarrassment and vulnerability and a little romance and a little heartbreak and a little bit of everything. I literally wrote down a list of things I don't tell anybody, things that I'm a little embarrassed to tell people, things that I, you know, want to keep secret. And then I turned each one into a song. You know, some fiction here and there as, you know, artistic liberty. But generally, yeah, that's really it. And you can track really a character arc through each song. And does that answer your question?

[15:42] Martín Acuña: It does. It does. And I love it. And I'm actually excited to, like, listen to it and to see it. How has been the journey to taking this show to Off-Broadway?

[15:53] Jeffrey Schmelkin: Oh, it's been scary, but amazing. I have a friend, Ryan Myers, who recently started his own production company called Rye Entertainment. And he's really passionate about this project. I was talking with him and he was like, yeah, let's produce this. He's been amazing producing this. You know, I've been self-producing for many of my previous works, but it's really, really nice to sort of pass those reins over to Rye. And yeah, so after we chatted about it, I think I only had like two or three songs ready. And, you know, this was like June 2020, you know, pandemic's not going away anytime soon. So I really had the luxury, which I actually hadn't had before, to take my time writing these songs, making them exactly how I wanted them to sound.

You know, the pandemic was and still is awful for everybody. I don't want to say that it was a luxury. It was not. But Silver Lining, I did have that time that I normally wouldn't have had. So yeah, so I ended up finishing all the music and then I sent it to Rye and he loved it, which was amazing for me. I wasn't expecting that. And just how passionate he is about the work, it's really great to see, great to hear. So yeah, so he reached out to many of his contacts and he booked us at the Triad Theatre, which is an off-Broadway space, which is amazing and super exciting. And yeah, as soon as that contract was signed, we, you know, we went right into casting. We went right into preparing all the materials. We went right into marketing. You know, it just, once that, once the time and date was set, we hit the ground running. We were like, all right, here's what we have to do. Let's get it done. And yeah.

[18:37] Martín Acuña: I love it. So you're premiering this week.

[18:44] Jeffrey Schmelkin: Yes.

[18:45] Martín Acuña: When, where, how, how much is this show? Like you just mentioned the theatre, but will you have a limited run or how is that going to work? So our listeners can get a bit of information if they're in New York and they want to see the show.

[19:01] Jeffrey Schmelkin: Yeah, of course. So right now we are a one night only performance. You know, coming right out of COVID, we really have to gauge audience and every little aspect of the industry to see, you know, like, do we, are we going to take this for a limited run? Are we going to, it's all, all at the mere things that there were things that we're discussing. So right now it's only, it's a one night only thing. I'll let you know if that changes, but we will be July 31st, 7pm. Tickets are on sale at triadnyc.com. We have $30 tickets and a two drink minimum. It'll be a nice, enjoyable, hopefully, experience for everyone, everyone involved, everyone in the audience. And we're just, we're so excited. We're actually going to be one of the first shows to be back at a hundred percent capacity.

When Ryan and I started talking about this, we decided, we were like, we don't know when this is going to be. Is this going to be in March? Is this going to be, you know, in 2023? Like when is this, when are we doing this? And we decided that as soon as it's feasible to be back at a hundred percent capacity, that is when we were doing this show. And it's, it's, you know, it's a, it's a welcome back in a sense to theater lovers, theater goers, theater makers. And we're just, we're so excited to be able to share it. And after the show, will we get a cast recording or will you record it for further promotion? People outside New York, outside the States, will be able to see it for a fee or something?

[21:06] Jeffrey Schmelkin: So that actually currently, it's something that we're discussing. I can't really say too much on that quite yet, but we are very hopeful that we're going to get recordings and we want to make it as accessible as we can for, you know, people who aren't maybe not in a place where they can come to New York or, but yeah, we're making everything happen and I will keep you up to date on that.

[21:39] Martín Acuña: Please do. Well, Jeffrey, this has been an amazing conversation. Thank you so much. It's been great knowing you, knowing your work. Listeners, if you're in New York, please go support The Parts I Keep Inside. I will post everything, any information you need to know in the podcast description. Jeffrey, before we go, one last question.

[22:00] Jeffrey Schmelkin: Yeah.

[22:01] Martín Acuña: Well, two actually for you. Top five musical theater composer influences.

[22:07] Jeffrey Schmelkin: Oh, that is a good question. All right. In no particular order. Stephen Schwartz, definitely, you know, because Wicked, first show, and just good music. Anything that he writes, I just, I connect with it so much. Tom Kitt. I love Tom Kitt. Yeah, I love it too. His time changes are really what get me. Jason Robert Brown, Janine Tesori, and oh man, there's so many. One more. Oh, one more, one more. Yikes. Hold on. Still a little early. Let me look at my, look at my books. Who do I have? Yeah. Beethoven, honestly, I connect with his work. In my studies, you know, there are those composers that like you play because you have to. But whenever I would be assigned to play or to study Beethoven, that was the most, the most fun for me. The most, I feel like I have a connection to him. He died however long ago. But yeah, those five.

[23:42] Martín Acuña: Awesome. And top five favorite musical theater shows.

[23:42] Jeffrey Schmelkin: Oh, don't do this. Well, number one is Wicked, probably. Number one is Wicked. I love the last five years. I love Fun Home. I love, honestly, I love Bear. I love Next to Normal for so many reasons. And, you know, back on the Tom Kitt train, If Then. The music in If Then is one of, some of the best. You can tell I'm very, very contemporary. Yeah. Oh man, wow. But those were five, six actually. That was five? Yeah.

[24:29] Martín Acuña: Oh, okay. Then we're good. I did it.

[24:37] Jeffrey Schmelkin: Yeah. Jeffrey, thank you so much for coming over. It's been amazing. I wish you the best with this show. I know it's going to be great, and I cannot wait for what the future will bring for you and for this show.

[24:47] Jeffrey Schmelkin: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. And I would just like to add, you know, while, um, while we're on a platform such as this, just to anyone listening, be kind. I, I feel that there's, you know, so much going on in the world right now, in, you know, almost every aspect. And we're, we're working and we're trying to make it better. But I think that a lot of it, you know, just, just be kind, treat each other nicely. I'd, I'd love to see some more kindness in the world, but, um, yeah, I just wanted to, wanted to add that while, while we have people listening.

[25:39] Martín Acuña: Of course. But yeah, but thank you so much for having me on. Honestly, so, so honored and humbled when, when you reached out, I was like, me? Because I, I had heard of your podcast before. I knew, um, others you've talked to. And I was like, me? What have I done? Like, why do you want to talk to me?

[26:03] Martín Acuña: Well, why not? You're taking a show off Broadway. You've, you've written a couple musicals. So that's nice.

[26:08] Jeffrey Schmelkin: Yeah. Well, I really appreciate it. And it's been so lovely meeting you and chatting with you. And hopefully we can, you know, hang out when you're in the city.

[26:20] Martín Acuña: Of course.

[26:25] Jeffrey Schmelkin: Thanks everyone for listening to this new episode of Backstage Talk. Remember to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Backstage Talk Podcast.