INTERVIEW: ‘Insomnia,’ featuring Jeanna de Waal, to play Carnegie Hall
Photo: Blake Allen’s new work is called Insomnia, and it’s inspired by his own sleeplessness. Photo courtesy of Bryan Clavel / Provided by The PR Canvas with permission.
Composer Blake Allen, inspired by his own sleeplessness, has fashioned a two-part show built around the title Insomnia. The first part stars soprano Cree Carrico and is based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic short story, Sleeping and Waking, which is about an artist dealing with the midnight hour in Baltimore. The second part, called Of Which, Tomorrow, stars Jeanna de Waal and is based on Allen’s own experiences with insomnia.
Insomnia is set for a one-night-only presentation at the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 8 p.m. Audience members can expect a sound that melds together classical, opera and musical theater, according to press notes. In addition to Carrico and de Waal, helping to bring Allen’s vision to life will be the Argus Quartet and pianist Chris Koelzer.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox spoke to Allen and de Waal about the special engagement. Allen’s musical work has been performed by everyone from the New York Philharmonic to the New Jersey Symphony, according to his official biography. He is also known for performing on Broadway in Tootsie and Stephen King’s Misery. He is currently serving as musical director and collaborator for Tina Burner, star of RuPaul’s Drag Race. De Waal, on the other hand, is a Broadway performer known for playing the title role in Diana the Musical, in addition to several concerts in New York City and around the world. She has appeared at 54 Below and the Curtains Up Broadway Festival.
Here’s what they had to say …
On how Insomnia came together …
ALLEN: During the pandemic, I was looking for something to write. This is early 2021, and I went to Bookmark down in the West Village and found Collected Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald. And there was one called Sleeping and Waking. And I just started therapy at that time, and so I was diagnosed with anxiety and insomnia. And [Fitzgerald’s piece is] a journal entry about one night as an artist in Baltimore, and he experiences intense insomnia. And so then I was like, oh, I want to write this piece, but then I decided to write a companion to which Jeanna is actually doing called Of Which, Tomorrow. It’s my own experience, and I wrote this story only during my insomnia when I would wake up at 4 o’clock in the morning. It’s been a year and half process.
On deciding to perform in Insomnia …
DE WAAL: Before I read the material, the question came in a very flattering request of, ‘Hey, I’ve written something that I would like to shape for your voice,’ which is a very flattering thing to hear as a singer, you can imagine. ‘And by the way we’ll be performing at Carnegie Hall, and by the way, I’m going to pay you really fairly.’ So I was a yes from those three things, and it wasn’t until months and months later that I got the material. I sat down and listened to it. First of all, I don’t apparently listen closely enough and sort of thought I was doing a song, so when 40 minutes of material arrived, I thought, OK. But then I listened to it, and I had such an emotional reaction to it immediately that I had to text Blake and just say, ‘Wow, I’m so excited.’
On what audiences can expect from Of Which, Tomorrow …
ALLEN: It is meta. Some parts of the story are stream of conscience. Like I would wake up and just start writing lyrics, and so it’s my voice, but I used Jeanna’s voice, if that makes any sense. It’s really fun to have someone else tell a story that was using my voice as well. I’ve seen Jeanna in a couple things and listened to lots of her recordings, and so I molded the music off what she was capable of doing. So it’s been really fun to meld the two together.
DE WAAL: It’s extremely challenging. When people have asked me, ‘What is it?’ I say, ‘Well, it’s kind of more from the classical end of things in terms of I feel like I’m really being asked to use my voice as an instrument, and it’s really challenging.’
On the future of the project …
ALLEN: The interesting thing about Carnegie Hall is lots of times they are just one-night-only things. Obviously it would be fun if we could take this to other venues and perform it. It’s 70 minutes of material. It’s string quartet, piano and voice, and so it’s going to be more on the classical side, like what Jeanna was saying. … I was classically trained. I started playing piano when I was 4. Then I went to conservatory … My composition teacher told me to write how I feel. I kind of created this melding of genres, which I really respond to, so I’m really excited to continue to push boundaries. The classical world really doesn’t care for the musical theater world, and vice versa. They kind of put their noses up at both genres, so it’s really fun to force them to care about one another.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Insomnia, with book, music, lyrics and direction by Blake Allen, plays Tuesday, Nov. 8 at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Cree Carrico and Jeanna de Waal both star. Click here for more information and tickets.
