THE NUTSHELL
Like an offspring of Dear Evan Hansen and FX’s English Teacher, MISTY MAKES IT BETTER is a seriously funny original musical that explores the perils of doing what’s right for all the wrong reasons. Told with a compact cast of five and a driving indie pop score, the show takes a dark, provocative dive into virtue signaling and gender expression that’s sure to spark debate on the trip home after.
THE PLOT
Misty Riggs crafts like nobody’s watching... and they’re not. The oddball teenage optimist livestreams daily to an audience of zero about her passion for all things sequined, glittered and puffy-painted. But when her spontaneous takedown of a school bully goes viral and a flood of followers start following, Misty suddenly discovers her calling: she’ll be a champion for the LGBTQ+ community!
Ignoring the misgivings of her BFF (and only F) Alixandra, naïve Misty sets out to make genderfluid classmate Jacey the star of a campaign he never asked for. Meanwhile, Alix and Jacey unexpectedly click, and their budding romance not only threatens Misty’s grand plan, it also blindsides Alix’s guidance-counselor mom, who’s got her own complicated thing going with the school principal. Increasingly isolated, Misty vows to win over Jacey and prove herself a hero—no matter the cost.
THE DEVELOPMENT
MISTY MAKES IT BETTER was developed at the Johnny Mercer Writers Grove at Goodspeed Musicals, New York SongSpace, and Musical Theatre Factory, where Alex Brightman directed a staged reading featuring Chris Dwan, Marcy Harriell, Gizel Jiménez, Drew McVety, and Jacey Powers, with musical direction by Paul Staroba.
I started my career writing plays for counter-culture icons like talent tornado Justin Vivian Bond, trans pioneer Candis Cayne and drag legend Sherry Vine. As a budding queer artist, watching them in action really set the bar for what it meant to live authentically.
Flash forward to a few years ago. Like a lot of us, I had activism on my mind and I ran across the story of a girl suspended from school for wearing a protest T-shirt. It was a lightbulb moment. I started thinking about a character like that girl, but turned on its head: what if her heart seemed to be in the right place, but her motives were not purely altruistic…?
Suddenly obsessed with the notions of performative allyship and virtue signaling, I wrote a play called LIKE A BILLION LIKES. It won some contests and got a lovely premiere, but the piece didn’t yet feel finished to me. There was more emotion and complexity to mine from the material. A little voice in my head said, “It should sing!”
So I turned to the songwriting team of Brad Alexander and Jill Abramovitz. Jill, a whip-smart lyricist and Broadway performer, had been the star of an earlier musical I co-wrote. I knew Brad was a genius composer and the winner of the Richard Rodgers Award, which is A Very Freaking Big Deal. To my delight, the material sparked for them, and we dug in. In addition to stirring numbers, brilliant dramaturgy and, like, a billion other things, they brought their invaluable perspective as parents. The characters and story deepened considerably, and we’re proud of what we’ve created — a darkly funny tale of allyship gone very wrong… with songs!
A NOTE FROM THE BOOKWRITER
THE team
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Jill Abramovitz LYRICS
A contributing lyricist on Broadway’s IT SHOULDA BEEN YOU, Jill is the English language translator of the award-winning Israeli musical BILLIE SCHWARTZ. She is the lyricist of TheatreworksUSA’s MARTHA SPEAKS (book by Kevin DelAguila, music by Brad Alexander), which toured nationally, and the lyricist/co-bookwriter of THE PACK with composer Aron Accurso and co-bookwriter Leah Napolin (Weston Playhouse New Musical Award, Jerry Bock Award, NAMT 2011 and Goodspeed’s Festival of New Artists 2012).
With Brad Alexander, she adapted the film BREAD AND ROSES, currently in development. Jill is a past Dramatist Guild Fellow, a Harrington Award winner in the BMI Workshop, and a past member of the Musical Theatre Factory writer’s workshop where she, Brad and Erik developed MISTY MAKES IT BETTER.
Jill is also a Broadway and TV actress, having recently appeared as Maxine/Juno in BEETLEJUICE, Susan Charles in CHICAGO MED (NBC) and Stevie in THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL (Amazon). jillaonline.com
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Erik Forrest Jackson BOOK
Erik’s comic drama LIKE A BILLION LIKES is the winner of the Southwest Playwriting Competition and the Chesley/Bumbalo Playwriting Award. His musicals include the Goodspeed premiere of CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT, adapted from the Warner Bros. classic (co-book Patrick Pacheco, music by Jason Howland, lyrics by Amanda Yesnowitz), and BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO, featuring the songs of Neil Sedaka (co-book Ben Winters, arrangements by Tom Kitt).
New York premieres include: a comic adaptation of Stephen King’s CARRIE; DOLL, a twisted take on Ibsen’s A DOLL'S HOUSE; the comic thriller TELL-TALE (GLAAD nomination, Best Play of the Year); and the comedy CHARLIE! He adapted the beloved TV series CHEERS for a live stage event and authored the MUPPETS MEET THE CLASSICS humor series for Penguin Books and Disney. Residencies: Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Monson Arts, Chulitna Artists Residency, and the Johnny Mercer Writers Grove at Goodspeed Musicals.
Erik serves on the Advisory Board of the American Theatre Wing and the selection committee for the Clive Barnes Foundation Awards. erikforrestjackson.com
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Brad Alexander MUSIC
Brad wrote the music for SEE ROCK CITY & OTHER DESTINATIONS (book/lyrics by Adam Mathias), which won The Richard Rodgers Award, BMI Foundation Jerry Bock Award, Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical, and received six Drama Desk nominations, including Outstanding Music.
He has collaborated with Kevin Del Aguila on multiple TheaterWorksUSA shows, including DOG MAN: THE MUSICAL and CAT KID COMIC CLUB: THE MUSICAL—New York Times Critic’s Picks based on Dav Pilkey’s bestsellers, now touring North America and Australia. Brad and Kevin also wrote MARTHA SPEAKS with Jill Abramovitz, contributed to WE THE PEOPLE: AMERICA ROCKS! (Lortel nomination), and teamed up with Billy Aronson on CLICK, CLACK, MOO (Drama Desk, Lortel noms).
His screen credits include Lead Composer for CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG (Amazon/PBS Kids), PBS’s Emmy-winning PEG + CAT, VH1’s “Celebreality” campaign, SUBMISSIONS ONLY, and Showtime’s THE L WORD.
In development: BREAD AND ROSES (book/lyrics by Jill Abramovitz). Member of NAMT, DGA, SAG-AFTRA, BMI Workshop. bradalexander.com
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