Conversation with Elise Marra, composer/writer of "Frankie! The Musical"

Broadway ReFocused is in conversation with 17-year old composer and writer, Elise Marra. In May of 2020, Elise’s sixth musical, Frankie! The Musical was released on Broadway Records making her the youngest female in history to release a cast concept album. The show has been developed with New York Theatre Barn and featured on Playbill.com and Broadwayworld.com. In this podcast, we learn what the show is about, where it’s at in its development process, and we get to listen to one of the first tracks off the new cast album. Learn more about Elise at www.elisemarra.com. And follow Frankies’ journey on Instagram: @frankiemusical.

MWI - Ep 1 - '“Frankie, the musical”

Spencer Williams:  Welcome to the first podcast of Musicals with Impact. And we're very excited today to welcome a Elise Marra -- composer, book writer, lyricist, everything of Frankie, the musical.

Elise Marra: Thanks for having me.

Spencer Williams: Yes, absolutely. Thank you for being here with us today. Why don't we go ahead and start with, giving us a little bit of background about yourself and definitely don't forget your age because I'm impressed.

Elise Marra: I'm Elise. I am from Michigan currently in Michigan. I'm the writer of Frankie, the musical, and I'm 17.

Spencer Williams: Amazing. So, at 17 you already have a cast album of your musical up on Apple music, Amazon, Spotify, and anywhere you can get music.

Elise Marra: Yeah.

Spencer Williams: Congratulations. That's amazing. Why don't you tell us a little bit about the journey of Frankie, the musical and how you started writing it and a little bit about it?

Elise Marra: I started writing Frankie, the summer after my freshman year of high school. It's based off true events based on this girl, I knew in high school. I started it, writing it then got a first draft on that summer. And then that summer I met Joe Barros works in New York Theater Barn -- great dude. And then it was about Spring of 2019, I started talking to him about, him coming on as a director for the project. And then I had my producer, Ashley K. Adams who's amazing. And we wound up doing a New York industry read in August 2019. Which was super dope, got the show a lot of traction and kinda, you know, everyone wanted to hear the music. So, we were like, I guess the next step is recording this cast album. So, that's what we did.

Spencer Williams: That's incredible. You're the only one on your writing team then?

Elise Marra: Yeah.

Spencer Williams: So you've done it all.

Elise Marra: It appears that way.

Spencer Williams: What was the experience like with developing your show with New York Theater Barn. And then also your studio cast recording with Broadway Records?

Elise Marra: New York Theater Barn. It just, you know, it felt natural to work with them because we had Joe on as the director and he's the Artistic Director of New York Theater Barn. So, they were, it was New York Theater Barn and AKA productions that produced the industry read in August. We worked with them on that and some of the songs have been featured on their New Work Series that they do, which are super cool and super awesome.

And then when we started talking about the album and I think it was probably after we had it all like cast. And like kind of ready to go. We were approached by Broadway Records as far as partnering with them for distribution and release.

Spencer Williams: Tell us a little bit about the story of Frankie.

Elise Marra: Yeah. So, Frankie is about a girl in high school and, she kind of struggles with her mom, is mentally not all there. And she has two younger sisters, the younger of which is adopted and she takes, she, you know, she's in high school, but she steps into this, parental role in her family, sort of maternal role in her family. And halfway through the show, she gets struck with a mystery medical illness but she's struck with this and she kind of has to figure out what her priorities are.

And, she has to figure out how to be there as a parental role for her younger siblings, but also taking care of herself which is really important.

Spencer Williams: Within the music, how are you integrating that into the story and how does that all fit together?

Elise Marra: I mean, I guess that goes back to like the writing process of it. When I started, I kind of got plot points out for the show and I was like, this is kind of where I want it to go. And of course that changed so much. So much, but I did start by writing the music and kind of figuring out I'm like, what moments, what plot points, you know, would just be better if they were sung and not just, you know, could it be dialogue, could be a scene, it started with writing the music and then sort of knowing where I had songs, what songs I had and filling in the gaps with dialogue.

Spencer Williams: Now that you've created a concept album of Frankie. Do you think that you are going to update any of the songs in a new production or possibly a development process of your show? Or do you believe that these are the songs and this is it. And is there any new songs that you're writing?

Elise Marra: Always working, also the concept album is not all of the songs, so it's only 10 of them.

And so I doubt those 10 will change significantly, but there's, you know, I think six others that no one's heard them really, so they could change it and like people wouldn't noticed, but those could change or some could be added. But yeah, the ones that are on the album probably will not change.

Spencer Williams: So, there's six more songs?

Elise Marra: That's what my head says. Six. I want to say six to eight. I haven't looked at it in awhile.

Spencer Williams: You've had the opportunity to work on the show and the New Work Series, and then also creating your concept album and some of these different readings. Have you seen the show from top to end and what's next?

Elise Marra: Yeah, we did a staged reading of it last August, which is kind of seeing it. It's kinda not, you know, there's not like a lot of blocking and like choreo. But I did get to kind of see it start to finish, but then there was a lot of changes made after that. So I haven't really seen it.

I'd be excited to!

Spencer Williams: So it's been a year since you've seen it really right?

Elise Marra: Yeah.

Spencer Williams: And how much has it changed since then?

Elise Marra: Probably it's, you know, it's recognizable. Like, you'd be like, "Oh yeah, I know that." But before then, when we involve Joe in the project, there was a lot of, you know, just like -- talking about the script with him. And then we did table reads, smaller table reads where I could hear it out loud and there's a lot of changes made in between like May of 2019 to like August of 2019. You probably wouldn't recognize it. But since the reading a few things, not much.

Spencer Williams: Have you been working on it during the pandemic?

 Elise Marra: Not really. I haven't, I haven't looked at in a while.

Spencer Williams: It's good to take some space sometimes from your show.

Elise Marra: Well, it's also just like, theaters having a moment right now, so there's no rush,

Spencer Williams: So, to clarify, so you've had these opportunities with New York Theater Barn, your concept recording. I'm just wondering, like, what's your next step? What's going to happen next for Frankie. So, many great things have already happened for it, but you know, there's always a next step in development. So, what are you thinking?

Elise Marra: Oh, golly, gee, I mean, like I said, theaters having a moment, so we have had a talk of like switching mediums, which is always fun. So, that's out there. That's about it. Yeah.

Spencer Williams: What other mediums are you looking at?

Elise Marra: Probably to like, film or, you know, just cause that's happening right now. You know, like people are filming stuff right now and you can reach a wider audience and like a shorter amount of time, which is nice.

Spencer Williams: If we had an artistic director or producer sitting next to us in this conversation, what would be your next step for Frankie? Like what do you need as a writer to move this story and this show forward ?

Elise Marra: Yeah, definitely a next step would be to put it on a platform where I can see it on its feet with choreography, with blocking. And I know before the pandemic, we were reaching out to regional theater companies and then also universities, to see if we could just, you know, get a production of it up to see it. So, I think, I think that's what we were talking about, but again, it's been a while, so.

Spencer Williams: Is most of the cast younger and the character is younger in this? Or is there some older characters as

Elise Marra: well?

Character wise it's yeah, it's a bunch of teens. There's the mother and the father who are older. There's one nurse character who's not really older, but like adult and then, the teens.

Spencer Williams: So, it really could be a great spot at a university.

Elise Marra: Yeah.

Spencer Williams: Or even, you know, a college age students. I had the opportunity to produce my own show at Michigan State University and to see it with students was amazing.

It could be really, potentially, an awesome next step for you, seeing college aged students on your show, right? Definitely. I think it's good.

Elise Marra: Yeah.

Spencer Williams: Now that we have COVID, there's this pause for theater and we're reexamining what stories are on the stage and what voices we're lifting up. Tell us a little bit from your own words of why you believe this story needs to be told in 2020, and then also, you know, moving forward.

Elise Marra: I love a story with a lot of women, it has a lot of strong female characters. We love to see it in 2020. And I mean, two other things, but one of 'em kind of, you saw us in Dear Evan Hansen a bit. We've been seeing this a bit. You're actually, we're getting to this point where we're getting to see teens and like younger people have real emotions, which is kind of wacky to think of, but it's not just like, they're there to be the kid. I don't know. But we're actually getting to like, see teens have real emotions and more teen characters people can relate to, which is awesome. And then the main thing I like to say about Frankie is, it is an LGBTQ story and, but I always say like, if Frankie was straight, the story wouldn't change, you know what I'm trying to say?

Spencer Williams: Yes, absolutely. I totally get what you're trying to say.

Elise Marra: Which I think is where we're coming on that. And we've had so many great musicals and shows about, you know, the coming out process and all that, which is so important. But I think people also like to see a moment of like, she's not in turmoil because of it. Maybe she's in turmoil because of other things, but not because of like you just going to watch her be kind of happy about it, which is, which is fun.

Spencer Williams: Yes. And it's absolutely needed in the musical theater cannon, not every story in the LGBTQia+ like characters need to be about coming out. You know, we don't see that in the heterosexual community where, you know, every story is about them coming out. That's not even a thing. So it's good to normalize some of that experience that characters have different experiences than that.

Elise Marra: Yeah, their sexuality isn't what's like hindering them in the story. Like, it's just, Oh, it's cool. Like I get to see myself and be like, ah, like people in the audience can see themselves in it, but not be like, Oh, why does it, why does everyone so mad at them?

Spencer Williams: It's great that we have a woman centered story. And then also an LGBTQia+ centered story. Those stories need to be told. And it's also really important that as an audience member or as a teenager growing up, that they have representation of who they are on the stage. I know that was an important piece for me as I listened to RENT in the nineties. So yeah, it's important.

Elise Marra: Yeah which is so great.

Spencer Williams: One of the things that we're going to do on Musicals with Impact is listen to a song together from the show that we're discovering. So today, tell us a little bit about the song that you chose to showcase and give us a little bit of background. We're excited to hear it.

Elise Marra: Yeah. Okay, so the song is, "Take a Deep Breath Prologue/Keep it All Together", which, you know, I felt it was appropriate. It's opening number. So, there's not much to get confused by. Yeah, it's the opening number. You just kind of see the hecticness of Frankie's day to day.

Spencer Williams: Who is playing Frankie on your studio cast recording?

Elise Marra: Yes. In this song, you get to hear Caitlin Kinnunen sings for Frankie and then you also have Autumn Hurlburt and Jason SweetTooth Williams as their parents, Allie Trim and Delfi Burridge. And then there's also Jason Gotay.

Spencer Williams: So, here is "Take a Deep Breath, Prologue/ Keep it All Together" from Frankie, the musical.

Great job.

Elise Marra: Fun, fun song.

Spencer Williams: What's it like to listen to the song again? I'm, I'm sure you've had some space from it. So what's that like?

Yeah, no, I haven't listened to it in a while. Cause it's like, I always listen to music in the car and I'm not driving anywhere. So I feel like I just like, don't listen to music anymore. It's bad, but, you know, it just, it brings back good memories. Fun time.

Absolutely. It's definitely a catchy opening number and it peaks your interest to listen more. And as we've said, for listeners who are new to Frankie, you can listen to that on Apple, Spotify, you know, where they can get music, but where are some other places where we can learn more about Frankie, the musical.

Elise Marra: Yeah. we have an Instagram page, @Frankiemusical. I want to say is the handle. If you Google us you'll get some fun Playbill articles. If you want us to know music. Yeah. Spotify, Apple music, Amazon, someone put it on YouTube, not me, but someone did so you can listen to it on there if you want, I guess, yeah.

Spencer Williams: That's great. Now, if you had a dream production of Frankie, the musical, and there was a producer sitting here saying I have all the money in the world and I'm going to give it to Frankie, what would that dream production look like? What's that dream in your head? We're curious.

Elise Marra: I, I love in the round. I got to say I'm a huge fan of in the round. I, This is really specific. I really like the Booth theater cause it's a smaller it's on the smaller end and that's what I kind of like about in the round. Because it's such an, it's an intimate experience, which is hard to get like a huge theater, like, like the Longacre, or like the Broadway theater, you know, and probably, you know, at the Booth would be nice.

Spencer Williams: On the technical side of your production, what's your dream about tech? Like you didn't have any issues with money, what would you like to see on the stage?

Elise Marra: Yeah, no, I think I'm thinking definitely minimalistic and I pretty sure, our director, Joe would probably agree with me. Because you just have to let the, the music and the dialogue tell the story and the actors tell the story, because I think, you know, the telltale sign of a good show is if you could like put them on stage with nothing and still enjoy it.

You know, and you don't even need like a chair, like you can still enjoy it. So I'm like, why get fancy if you don't have to. And of course, for some shows, it's like, you got to get fancy. Like, no one's going to do Saigon in a black box.

Spencer Williams: I'm kind of here for that idea. I definitely would watch Miss Saigon in a black box. As a new listener or someone who would like to produce your show. What would be the best way to get in touch or, you know, join the conversation about Frankie, the musical.

Elise Marra: I have a website it's just www.elisemarra.com that you can contact me through. I also have an Instagram page which is just @EliseMarra you can DM me I'm on there, like 24/7. And you can also go through the production company on the project, AKA studio productions, which you can also find on Instagram.

Spencer Williams:  Thank you so much for being here today Elise.

Elise Marra: Thanks for having me. Yeah.

Spencer Williams: It's been wonderful to talk to you, Elise, about Frankie, the musical, and we're really excited to follow your journey on what's next. And hopefully when we come back, we'll be able to see a live production of it.

Elise Marra: Me too.

Spencer Williams: Well, thank you for being here with us on Musicals with impact and sharing your story about Frankie, the musical. Please find that on Apple music, YouTube, Spotify, Amazon, and enjoy a new musical.