Review Fix Planet Connections Festival Coverage: Lenny Schwartz Talks ‘The Inside Of His Severed Head’

Review Fix chats with Lenny Schwartz, who discusses the production at this year’s Planet Connections in New York City, detailing the creative process and letting us know what to expect.

About the Production:

Planet Connections Theatre Festivity and Daydream Theatre Company is proud to announce the world premiere of the new musical “The Inside Of His Severed Head, Book by Lenny Schwartz and Music and Lyrics by Duncan Pflaster. The play will be directed by Lenny Schwartz with Musical Direction by Zachary Smallwood with choreography by Chelsea Cook.

The show will be performed on August 3, 2018, at 6 pm, August 4, 2018, at 9 pm and August 5, 2018, at 12:15 pm at the  LATEA Theater at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center, 107 Suffolk St, New York, NY 10002. Tickets are $25 Dollars and can be purchased at the door or at planetconnections.org

This comedic musical is about Willy Loman, an aging vampire hunter, who realizes his life is empty and he tries to fill it in the last 24 hours of his life. It is a musical about happiness, family, lies, love, and mental illness. And of course, killing some members of the undead.

It’s Death of a Salesman as a musical….if Willy Loman was a vampire hunter!

Review Fix: How did you get involved in theatre?

Lenny Schwartz: I was in high school and I was supposed to be in a journalism class. Well, my guidance counselor messed up and put me in a theatre class. While I was waiting to be switched back, I doubted I’d love the class, but eventually, I never wanted to leave.

And so I didn’t and I’m still here.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this project?

Schwartz: I really wanted to do a musical and try something different. I had the idea of Willy Loman as a vampire hunter for a long time. My good friend Duncan Pflaster is a genius and he has always offered to write music if I ever did one.  And so it took us a year and here we are.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Schwartz: It’s crazy, Patrick. Absolutely crazy. It’s always going. Even right now. I’m always living with the next story.

Review Fix: What makes this different or special?

Schwartz: I actually wrote this during one of the hardest trials of my life. I won’t say what. But it helped me find a part of myself I lost. And I’m happy and grateful for that.

Review Fix: How does it feel to be a part of the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity?

This is my ninth time. My first show with PCTF was in 2010. I love everyone there. I live in RI and they’ve been so inviting and so wonderful to me. Plus, they once accepted a play I wrote called ACCIDENTAL INCEST: SOMEONE FOR EVERYONE into the festivity.

So they are like family.

Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself through this process?

Schwartz: I learned that I’m 41 years old and I’m still doing writing and directing like I did when I was 18.

And I’m still having fun.

Review Fix: Why do vampires still matter?

Schwartz: They matter because Twilight ruined them. And we have an obligation as a society to bring them back and give them the respect they deserve.

Review Fix: How are your vampires different?

Schwartz: My vampires are a little less threatening, a little more fun.

They loved working with me!

As long as I fed them small children, they did anything I asked!

Review Fix: What’s next?

Schwartz: I have a play I have written and will be directing about Steve Ditko, the co-creator of Dr. Strange and Spider-man. That goes on in the fall in RI.

After that, will be a Play called Me Three: A Guide to New Beginnings. That’s spring 2019 in RI followed by Seduction of the Innocent(based on the Wertham book)

I also have a few films coming up as well that I have written called Higher Methods and Codename: Dynastud.

My next musical will be in 2020 and it’s called Pussy Hannukah Comes To Harlem.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Schwartz: Just that the cast led by Michael Thurber and Victoria Paradis are amazing. It is truly one of the best casts and crew I have worked with.

And that everyone who comes to the show gets a hug. For real.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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