Kerrigan&Lowdermilk review.

I am still trying to see what kind of content you would like to see here, and because I want to be a reviewer I thought I would share a piece I did a few years ago.
When you say the names Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk, not many people, even people who love theater have any idea who they are. Kait Kerrigan who graduated from Barnard College and Brian Lowdermilk who went to Harvard and NYU

These two up and coming composers whose work includes the following: an adaptation of Henry& Mudge which had an off Broadway run at the Lucille Lortel Theater and is now touring the country with Theaterworks USA. The latest work they have out is titled The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown was most recently developed at a workshop at Manhattan Theater Club directed by Christopher Ashley. You can download a Demo from the workshop.

They have also collaborated on two other musicals The Women Upstairs and Wrong Number both were featured at New York Musical Theater Festival.

Kait and Brain have received the 2006 Jonathan Larsen Award, and a 2004 2005 Jonathan Larsen Fellowship at the Dramatics guild.

They have a CD of songs called Our First Mistake. When you look at the music of Kerrigan and Lowdermilk you see a reoccurring theme about love. For example in the song it’s Not a Love Story sung on Our First Mistake by Kelli O’Hara with a lyric “It not a love story not a coming of age”. Another song that talks about love is called Run away with me sung on Our First Mistake by Michael Arden. With a lyric “Run away with me let me be your ride out of town let me be the place that you hide we could build our lives on the go run away with me”.

One of the up tempo songs on Our First Mistake is called My Heart Is Split sung on Our First Mistake by Laura Osnes and Meghann Fahy. With a lyric “My Heart is Split between home an here two beds to lives and I’ll live in between”

They have toured across the country, and they have released a new life album from that tour.

I find them unique and different because they are what make Broadway fun for everyone, they to me are the very definition of Musical Theater and the direction that it is going in. Broadway is not what it used to be, and it is now more about the younger up and coming composers as well as the ones that we all know and love. We as theater goers are looking for new, and creative ways to see shows and this includes the music and the lyrics that we listen to. As much as we do love the old music we need ways to keep Broadway and the theater world fresh, if it were the same old same old less people would go because they’ve seen it before it’s nothing new. We as theater kids and theater goers like the new things, the new stories that the people of a younger generation have to tell and they might be more relatable to the younger kids as a viewing audience.

The music that Kerrigan and Lowdermilk write is a lot about real life, and the stories that the average everyday person goes through. This is one of the reasons that I love them, they make their work relatable, and they make their characters seem more like real people not just people on the stage. The lyrics they write are relatable to everyone, and each song they write has a little bit of a different vibe to it, it’s what keeps you from getting bored or tired of listening to their lyrics. This is where some of the theater world if heading I feel like new work, by young and up and coming composers and the more they write the more people will be interested in them I feel like.

The character in the most famous musical that they have written for” The Unauthorized Biogeography of Samantha Brown”, is really about the ups and downs of a girl finding herself after she graduates high school. Every single person that has graduated high school, if they want to admit it or not has had the same thoughts or feelings in some way they might not have been the exact same thoughts, but it is more of the general idea that they are trying to get across. People might not like their work as much of they didn’t make their music and lyrics so relatable, it’s more music about life then music for a show.

They’re also a way of introducing new people to the world of Theater, just because of the fact that they use lyrics that are so relatable. If it weren’t for them some people might not discover the world of theater and Broadway. Whether you are a fan from the beginning, or you’re just getting introduced to them I feel as though Kerrigan and Lowdermilk is for everyone. The theater kids and just the average everyday person who is just getting introduced to their world.