The Playwrights Database
RAY LESLEE
Nationality: USA
email: Click here to contact Website: Click here
Literary Agent: David H. Friedlander, esq
award-winning composer of over 100 original scores for Dramatic plays and musicals, produced Off-Broadway and thru-out the regionals. Known for emotional melodies combining jazz, classical, and rock styles in a distinctly original voice. For the concert hall, a theatrical symphony for the Buffalo Philharmonic and many chamber music pieces, often including actors or singers. Recorded and published by RCa Victor, BMG Classics, albany Records, Innova Records, the Folger Shakespeare Library, Samuel French, Dramatist Play Service and many others. awards and fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts; Yaddo, the Richard Rodgers award, and the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla award for lifetime achievement in musical Theatre, to name a few. Manhattan School of Music and SUNY at Buffalo (Masters in Music and Theatre). www.rayleslee.com
Research: Member of the Dramatists Guild of America (as at 2015)
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below is a list of Ray Leslee's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Avenue X Chamber Christmas Carol, A Good Man, A Romeo & Juliet For Orchestra & Actors Standup ShakespeareAvenue X
Synopsis:
Set in a racially divided Brooklyn neighborhood in 1963, avenue X captures both the nostalgic harmonies of an innocent age and the rumblings of future discord. as in New York and other American cities in the late 1950s and early 1960s, teenagers gather on stoops and sidewalks to pass the time singing together-the best groups win contests and dream of record deals. In avenue X, the Italian American and African American groups wouldn't think of singing together-until Pasquale and Milton find that their shared love for the music transcends the escalating racial tension.
Press release
Press release
Notes:
Music by Ray Leslee, Book by John Jiler
1st Produced:
Playwrights Horizons, New York 1994
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Samuel French, Inc. -
Music:
Original cast recording: RCa (9026-63208-2) 1997
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Musical
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: cast of 8
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageChamber Christmas Carol, A
Synopsis:
a new concert-theatre version of Dickens's beloved classic, featuring a rich and melodic original score by award-winning composer Ray Leslee. a virtuoso cast of five actors and five musicians brings ebenezer Scrooge's transformative journey through the past, present, and future to life on stage.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
The Morgan Library & Museum 2010
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 1 Other: Five musicians
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageGood Man, A
Synopsis:
Just after World War II in rural Mississippi, albert Clayton, a black sharecropper, decides to paint his tenant house white, and his world turns upside down. He struggles with a desperate wife, a frightened landlord, a sexy sister-in-law, and a furious, closed-minded town.
Notes:
Music by Ray Leslee; lyrics by Philip S Goodman; book by Philip S Goodman
1st Produced:
Vienna Chamber Opera 2006
Organisations:
amas Theatre
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
musical
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageRomeo & Juliet For Orchestra & Actors
Synopsis:
Shakespeare's play combined with a rich symphonic score. Three actors portray Romeo & Juliet and everyone else in the story.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Buffalo NY 2000
Organisations:
the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Shakespeare In Delaware Park, Inc.
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageStandup Shakespeare
Synopsis:
sets the timeless language of the Bard to the exciting rhythms of jazz, baroque, samba and gospel-rock original music. a fractured love story is performed by a modern-day Fool and two glorious singers.
Notes:
words by William Shakespeare, music by Ray Leslee, book by Kenneth Welsh
1st Produced:
Off-Broadway, New York -
Organisations:
the Shubert Organization
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1998 -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
comedy Drama Musical
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: 1-4 musicians (flexible casting)
Further Reference:
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