Up Next

Hannah Bakke, Jaron Barney,

Jet Jameson,

Valerie Work & Evan Johnson,

Andrew Mullins & Ari Raskin, and Miriam Pultro.

“OKAY, I’LL BITE…

WHAT IS THIS THING?”

UP NEXT is a curated cabaret for adventurous musical theatre and other musical nonsense. We are hosted by BEDLAM at the West End Theater, and we do a monthly variety show featuring a grab-bag of exciting artists working to combine music and narrative in novel ways.

Musical theatre development is often a lengthy, bulky, expensive, and bureaucratic process. Up Next is the opposite. Up Next is focused on solo performers or small groups doing something immediate, unpolished, explosive, and interesting. Our goal is to develop a community of people who help to propel the musical forward.

As an audience: Expect a wild night. The next number might be puppets. It might be drag. Comedy. It might be dance. You’ll never quite know what’s… up next (sorry). Tickets are cheap ($15), and it’s on a Sunday, the wildest night of them all.

As a performer: Expect a supportive audience, license to dive deeper into your artistry, and an evening with no institutional agenda, except to encourage you to do exactly what it is that you want to do next.. We want to encourage you, specifically you, the person reading this, to create the thing that you think no one else wants to see. We want to see that exact thing, I swear, at Up Next.

What the evening looks like: A host will do an opening number, and then emcee as six-ish different acts perform over the course of the hourlong show. The acts will be a grab-bag of artists working in a “downtown” aesthetic, whose work involves music. This could be anything from a segment of a new musical to a clown routine. Their material will be rehearsed enough for the evening to feel put-together, but loose enough to feel a little wild. At the end of the evening, maybe the host does a closing number, then we all go to a bar or something.

Why? Musical theatre works best when it collides with other forms, genres, and worlds. Up Next is an addition to the network of places in New York where those collisions can happen. When musical theatre is siloed off in a corner, it becomes about outlines and plans and commercial worries. When it can come out into the open, it can be about the pure joy of creation.

Above all, Up Next is concerned with giving people a ‘reason’ to make something they’ve been meaning to make.

CAN I PLAY?!?

Hell yes. Fill out this form and we’ll make something happen.

WHO WE ARE

John Coyne (Producer, Host, etc.) is a composer and lyricist for the theatre. He’s on a quest to start a fun hub for slightly alt-MT. Won’t you please join him :-) johncoynejohncoyne.com

John’s Friends (everything else) - John’s friends love him and they will do things like run the box office and check to make sure the camera is still recording. This will probably be a combination of Alex Knezevic and Olivia Matlin (his sweetheart <3). He loves them forever. One day this section will be for real and we’ll have a structure and titles and everything. Until then, we are just vibing.

elmo’s on his way to up next… are you?

PAST ARTISTS

Erin "Terrence" Dugan is a stand up comedian and actor in New York City. He's so excited to bring you this snippet of Fun Home, a one act musical from 2015 he never shuts the fuck up about. Thanks to John for this opportunity, as well as dykes everywhere. Find me at @the_erin_zone and come to my awesome show @t4tcomedy.

Dillon Feldman - Dillon's original musical, Siren, held a 29-hour AEA reading in NYC in April 2022, produced by Con Limón Productions in association with The Shubert Organization (Semi-finalist, 2023 Eugene O’Neill NMTC), and has been seen in concerts across NYC. He composed music for Allerleirauh (NYC Workshop, Alvin Ailey Theater, March 2023). He is also a composer on the folk musical this old haunt, which has been performed at Carnegie Mellon University, and had a developmental workshop at NYU Tisch New Theatre in January 2024. Film: Halflight Productions—e.ro.sion(noun), Deus Meus Adiuva Me. Video Game (In Development): Sorrowtide. Instagram: @dillon_feldman

Santa Claire Hirsch - Santa Claire is a New York City performer who grew up in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Recently Santa debuted her first cabaret in New York, Night Of My Nights, at the Green Room 42 Directed by Marilyn Maye. Her most recent performance in SMA was the new musical, “Bikers in Camelot” where she played one of the starring roles, Holly. Other credits include a multitrack in “King Lear” (BRT) directed by Eric Tucker. Santa has produced many of her own cabaret shows in Mexico and has appeared in Bill Solly’s “Solly’s Follies” in New York. Santa’s one-woman show “Two Worlds Colliding” appeared in New York at Tongue in Cheek’s Plus One Solo Festival, directed by Jake Lipman. Santa is a proud member of Actor’s Equity. santaclaire.com

Amy Jo Jackson (they/she) won a 2022 Bistro Award for their solo Tennessee Williams cabaret act, The Brass Menagerie. Fav stage: Singin’ in the Rain (Weston), Fun Home (SpeakEasy Stage), Matilda (Constellation), Little Mermaid (Arkansas Rep), Cymbeline (Opera House Arts), Boeing Boeing (Seven Angels). Film: Sister Tammy in Dicks: The Musical (A24), Under the Boardwalk (Paramount). AJJ’s original musical Hatchetation was a 2021 selection at the O’Neill (NMTC). They were a finalist for the 2022 Larson Grant and is the recipient of a 2023 EST/Sloan Commission. Amy Jo is also a voice/text coach and nightlife artist.

Nick Mayfield is an NYC comedian and theatremaker, specializing in Clown, Commedia, and Immersive. Pace University IPE, BTWHSPVA. You can currently see him as the gay clown wizard emcee of The Fantasy Tavern @thefantasytavernnyc @nickdemay www.nick-mayfield.com

PG Pillitteri (Playwright/Composer) has recently directed a successful staged reading of his new musical, “Class of ’69,” at the Church of the Village in Greenwich Village. His last musical, “Immigrant Son,” won “best score” at the NY Theater Festival’s Summerfest in 2018 at the Hudson Guild Theater. He is a proud member of the Bedlam Theatre’s Veterans Outreach Program and a proud son of immigrants who bravely left everything they knew to come to America and start a new life.