#happy birthday joe im trying to get more people to talk about ur show

[neverheardnothing]

Love In Hate Nation - a new musical by Joe Iconis

Intro

Hey, y’all, wonder what our favorite Tony nominated composer is up to these days? Well, a lot. He has 3 upcoming musicals, but we’re gonna talk about one in particular, his next one. It’s called Love In Hate Nation, for which he is writing the music, lyrics, and book.

Here’s the description from Joe’s website:

A turbulent rock romance set in a 1960s Juvie Hall, Love in Hate Nation uses classic “bad girl” movies as the inspiration for the story of young people caught between eras of a changing America. Sixteen-year old Susannah Son is carted off to the National Reformatory for Girls to get her head put on straight. There she meets the aggressively incorrigible Sheila Nail, and a relationship forms which leads to an all-out “revolution in the institution” as they attempt to break out of the boxes society has created around them. Girl Group Wall of Sound harmonies are filtered through a punk rock spirit in this rebellious and romantic new musical.

The show will make its world premiere at Two River Theater in New Jersey (the place where BMC started!) and will run from November 9th to December 1st 2019. 

TICKETS ARE CURRENTLY ON SALE! CHECK OUT THE LINK ABOVE!

Cast/Creatives

The cast will feature Sydney Farley (Gloria “Ya Ya” Meeks), Amina Faye (Susannah Son), Jasmine Forsberg (Brenda “Rat” Ratowski), Lauren Marcus (Miss Asp), Kelly McIntyre (Sheila Nail), Lena Skeele (Dorothy Donaldson), Emerson Smith (Kitty Minx), Ryan Vona (The Guy), and Tatiana Wechsler (Judith Ramone).

The rest of the creative/design team includes: scenic designer Meredith Reis, costume designer Karen Perry, lighting designer Jen Schriever, and sound designer Palmer Hefferan. Orchestrations and music supervision are by Charlie Rosen, with music direction by Geraldine Anello, and choreography by Mayte Natalio.

Although this is its world premiere, there actually was a previous production of this show in 2018 by Penn State’s musical theater program (where John Simpkins works), who originally commissioned Joe to write the show. The cast included Amina Faye, Katie Griffith, Talia Suskauer (a swing in BMC!), Lena Skeele, Jasmine Forsberg (cast member of Broadway Bounty Hunter), Morgan Hecker, MiKayla McKasey, Caleb Smith, and Kevin Dort. Amina, Lena, and Jasmine will be reprising their roles. 

Press/Reviews

Jennifer Ashley Tepper wrote a review of the 2018 production on her Facebook, which has some information about the characters.

Review from The Theater Times

Review from Sun Gazette

Review from PSU Underground

About the initial development of LIHN

Songs

If you want to hear what we currently have from the shows, I’ve made a YouTube playlist of all the videos I’ve found. It contains some songs, scenes, and interviews.

Since there’s a lot of duplicates, I’ve linked my favorite of each version here:

I Hope

Three Failed Escape Attempts of Sheila Nail

Revolution Song

I Was A Teenage Delinquent (this song was actually written way before the show was commissioned!)

Susannah’s Song

Generally Rebellious

Lovelier

Revolution Song (which is my favorite). Featuring Rachel Lee, Alexandra Ferrara, and Danielle Gimbal at an Iconis and Family concert.

But if you only listen to one of these, listen to Three Failed Escape Attempts of Sheila Nail. It’s an incredible song and an incredible performance which speaks for itself. Go, watch it. I beg you.

Three Failed Escape Attempts of Sheila Nail sung by Talia Suskauer at the Be More Swing show.

Pictures

And now here’s some pictures from the 2018 Penn State production below the cut if you want to see what it looked it!

Amina Faye as Susannah Son

Amina Faye as Susannah Son and Talia Suskauer as Miss Asp

Katie Griffith as Sheila Nail and Amina Faye as Susannah Son

Talia Suskauer as Miss Asp and Lena Skeele as Dorothy

Morgan Hecker, Caleb Smith, Jasmine, Mikayla McKasy, Lena Skeele, and Katie Griffith