Meet The W*rk Lab's Britt Bonney
To begin, Sappho is our “muse.” Would you say you have a writing muse? If so, who?
My family. It’s common for me to write something that is advertently or inadvertently about them in some way, and I also tend to imagine them seeing, hearing, or reacting to my work as it’s created.
Your project MONTGOMERY is a part of The Sappho Project’s inaugural W*rk Lab. Tell us about it and what inspired you to write this particular piece.
MONTGOMERY tells the story of Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old arrested nine months before Rosa Parks for the same offense but deemed too poor, too “mouthy,” and too dark-skinned to be the public face of a city-wide bus boycott. It’s a coming-of-age adventure with all the vibrant energy a teenager bent on saving the world would warrant! The musical language explores the relationship between blues and rock & roll: influences include Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, and the great Rosetta Tharpe (if you’re looking to grin for three minutes straight I highly encourage you to look up Rosetta Tharpe – her guitar skills alone will leave your jaw on the floor.)
I’ve been researching this story for a few years now, read an embarrassing number of books on the subject, visited Montgomery – even spoken with Claudette herself (now 81!). When I first stumbled across a news article about her a few years back, I was shocked that I’d never heard of her. The more I learned about Claudette’s story, the more I became convinced that it must be re-told now, and that a musical was an excellent vehicle for it.
The year prior, I’d been teaching voice at a performing arts school in Harlem when the theater teacher asked if I could recommend any good show options for her students, the overwhelming majority of whom were Black teenage girls. Of course, they could do any show, but we were hoping to choose one they might feel ownership of, one that would allow the students to find actors that looked like them when they inevitably YouTubed every song. I was mortified at the time to realize that I could count on one hand the number of available shows I knew that fit this bill. (Mercifully, since then, many excellent writers have penned many excellent musicals that help fill this gaping hole in the literature. Still a long way to go, of course, but there is exciting work happening). I decided then that the next full-length musical I wrote would star a black teen girl, and feature multiple black female characters. When I learned about Claudette and the many women responsible for the Montgomery bus boycott, it seemed imperative to get these hidden stories in front of an audience, and I’ve been working on it ever since.
How are you finding your voice as a writer within the musical theater landscape?
It’s an ongoing process! To be honest, characterizing my “voice” as a writer is often more a matter of hindsight than intention. I look back on things I’ve written and think “huh, many of these are about women from American history” or “oh, look, I wrote another song with a fun and peppy groove, a kooky piano texture, and a lot of fast words.” Over time, I’ve developed a deep appreciation for whimsy and wordplay, for subtext and subtlety, and for the dynamic nature of harmony in music and how it can elevate a dramatic moment.
What is giving you LIFE right now?!
My collaborators on MONTGOMERY! I’m in awe of these phenomenal artists and so grateful they are taking the time to work on the show. It’s joyful and humbling and a much-needed spark of creative hope after this interminable, theater-less shutdown. Just today, I had a recording session with exceptional guitarist Steve Bargonetti, and the delight of simply being in the room (vaccinated!) to hear a top-notch musician play my songs cannot be overstated.
What are the themes and ideas you're most excited about exploring within your writing?
The reason I became a writer was to lift up underserved communities, shining a light on stories that challenge our implicit biases and unmask the lies we tell ourselves. These goals remain at the heart of everything I write.
Much of my work has a substantial gender exploration component, as I seem to have penned many shows about women navigating their way through our patriarchal American history: Claudette Colvin and Jo Ann Robinson in Montgomery (1955), Celia Cooney in The Bobbed-Haired Bandit (1924), and Belva Lockwood in Lady Lawyer Lockwood Rides Her Tricycle (1884). A few years back, I was able to fulfill a personal goal by writing an original children’s musical with no gendered characters or gendered pronouns in the script: any student performing the piece could be cast in any role.
Of late, I’ve also come to enjoy chasing the elusive magic that is making an audience laugh: I’ve written many silly short musicals about such whimsical topics as spoiled cats, baby fashions, and perpetually tardy supersheroes.
Who is your target audience and how are you hoping to impact them?
My target audience thoroughly depends on the project at hand: I hope to captivate whoever is coming to the theater the day my show is playing. Increasingly, I like to try to write for people who have seen difficult days and are in search of some levity and hope, which is to say, all of us at the moment.
Is there a song that encapsulates your artistic identity?
A song of mine, or any song? My favorite song in the world is “Over the Rainbow” – not sure it encapsulates my artistic identity, but what a tune, what a lyric (I believe it’s been voted the most popular song of the 20thcentury)! Throw in “Being Alive” from Company and “Razzle Dazzle” from Chicago, and the mix starts to close in on what I hope my artistic identity will one day contain (the deeper truths and piano textures of “Being Alive;” the earnestness and soaring joy of “Over the Rainbow”; the wink and the fun of “Razzle Dazzle”).
As for my own songs, last fall, I was lucky enough to work with the fabulous Prospect Theater Company on a short musical about Belva Lockwood, a 19th century female presidential candidate. For the show, I wound up writing a little tune called “Let a Man Take Care of It All,” which is sort of… what Gaston would sing if he were trying really hard to be a good guy. It has a lot of things in it that are to my taste: an exploration of gender politics, earnestness and joy from the character but subtext galore, wordplay and light comedy, an accessible groove with dynamic harmonic motion, and a few kooky meters/piano textures.
When you think about the reopening of Broadway, what does it look like in your wildest dreams?!
Oof! In my WILDEST dreams, we’d pay everyone a living wage commensurate with the workload and required expertise, and limit hours such that working on a Broadway show doesn’t preclude things like caring for family or seeing to health issues. That may sound a bit mundane, but I strongly believe that budgets are moral documents, and that two of the greatest barriers to equal representation on and offstage are (a) the expectation that artists should work around the clock for little to no pay and (b) the huge investment of money and time required to build Broadway-level skills. It’s incredibly difficult for anyone to “break in” to the business, but for the last decade or two it’s been approaching impossible for those without some sort of financial support early in their careers.
This, of course, would be in conjunction with the ongoing efforts of groups like Maestra Music, MUSE (Musicians United for Social Equity), Black Theatre United, The Sappho Project, and others working to chip away at the implicit and explicit barriers between Broadway jobs and women, TGNC artists, and BIPOC artists. I also have a wild hope that we’ll see more ages represented on Broadway (particularly women and TGNC artists over 40), and that theater owners will utilize this forced downtime to make their backstage and audience areas wheelchair accessible.
One more thing (I like this question): as we all try to preserve our mental health amidst the trauma in the world around us, I would really like to see more funny, silly, goofy, whimsical or satirical shows. This is not to say that we shouldn’t tackle difficult and controversial issues in our writing – quite the opposite! I simply believe we’ll have more success in changing minds and hearts if we take the audience on a fun ride while we’re at it. And while we’re at it… I’d love to see more people in the audience, the result of more accessible ticket price points and increased excitement for live theater!
What was the musical that made you think: musicals are for me?
Probably The Sound of Music: It’s a family favorite. When I was a bit older, my sister pushed to get me interested in Kander & Ebb: CABARET and CHICAGO were my first exposure to theater that tackled social issues in a kooky, creative way.
Where can we hear your w*rk?
Lady Lawyer Lockwood Rides Her Tricycle is available here (it’s only 16 minutes long): https://www.prospecttheater.org/lady-lawyer-lockwood-rides
Demos of a few of my favorite tunes are up on SoundCloud as well:
“Don’t Make Me Compete (with Ryan Gosling)”: https://soundcloud.com/bcbonn-1/dont-make-me-compete-with-ryan
“Make A Move” from Montgomery: https://soundcloud.com/bcbonn-1/make-a-move
And you can tune in on May 1st to see a short digital concert of songs from Montgomery!
Britt Bonney (she/her) is an award-winning music director and composer whose eclectic vocal arrangements have been featured on The Weather Channel, the Fox network, and in Broadway houses. In response to a reading of her new musical MONTGOMERY at the Kennedy Center, DC Metro Theater Arts declared, “Britt Bonney… has already made a mark on American musical theater.” She is an alumna of the BMI Workshop, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, and a New York Songspace grant, and recently received an honorable mention from the Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award for female composers. Music directing credits include THE BIG ONE-OH at the Atlantic Theater, Orfeh & Andy Karl’s LEGALLY BOUND concert in San Francisco, and the DC premiere of Todd Almond’s GIRLFRIEND at Signature Theatre, for which she received a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Musical Direction. Britt’s vocals can be heard on 2017’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST film as well as Disney’s HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME cast album, which she also mixed and mastered together with Stephen Schwartz. At the start of COVID-19 pandemic, Britt was serving as the associate music director for Broadway’s SING STREET, and is currently working as the music supervisor for a new student revue show with Disney Theatrical Group.