S1E11 The Girl From Oz
S1E11: The Girl From Oz Featuring Carmel Dean
This week, composer, musical director, and arranger Carmel Dean stops by the stage door! Carmel’s credits include music direction of Broadway’s If/Then starring Idina Menzel, as well as the national tour. Other Broadway credits include Hands on a Hardbody, American Idiot, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Carmel’s first musical, Renascence made its debut in 2018 by the Transport Group and was awarded Best New Musical at the 2018 Off-Broadway Alliance Awards.
Carmel also talks about her experience writing her debut musical, Renascence, and what it’s like working with a lyricist who’s been deceased for nearly 75 years (The lyrics were all poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay).
In addition, we chat about the role of a critic in the arts and mediumship, why they’re not needed, and how the real beauty comes when we let go of expectation and live in the now of what we create.
Jimmy chats about what it’s like to give uncomfortable (just awkward, not scary) messages to a client when Spirit is insistent they be relayed, and Carmel parallels that with what it was like giving corrections and notes to the incredible Betty Buckley during Elegies, and how to overcome the nerves of working with big names by remembering what the vision of the work is.
As usual, we’ll discuss Jimmy’s reading with Carmel as well what it was like conducting Idina Menzel’s Tony Award performance from a toilet stall on the fourth floor of Radio City Music Hall. Oh, the glamour.
Learn more about Carmel by visiting her website
Carmel conducting from a bathroom
Book a reading with Jimmy here: Stage Door Medium
Editing: David Ray Design
