Review Fix chats with the team behind Fifth Avenue, A Jazz Musical Comedy, Dan Seidman’s and Susan Crawford.
About the Production:
Fifth Avenue – A Jazz Musical Comedy
will be presented at that bastion of Broadway ballyhoo,
Don’t Tell Mama, 343 W 46th St, New York City.
Where better to present a musical about opening a 1928 nightclub in Hell’s Kitchen, than in a nightclub in Hell’s Kitchen?
Running Monday nights from January 8 to February 12, 2024, at 7:00 p.m.
Reserve your seat for the first new musical of 2024!
$25 Cover / $20 Minimum (must include 2 drinks) per person / CASH ONLYFood Menu Available Doors open at 6:15RESERVATIONS HERE
Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this project?
Dan Seidman: Fifth Avenue, A Jazz Musical Comedy grew out of my combined interests in jazz and history, and was inspired by my good friend Albert Fried’s book “The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America.”
Susan Crawford: I grew up with a lithograph in my house of “three nightbirds.”
I always wondered what they were like. I believe the picture captured my imagination as a kid and helped inspire the story for Fifth Avenue. You never know where inspiration lurks!
My father loved Broadway shows. He wrote musicals while commuting by train to work in NYC from Connecticut. I still have all his songs, with him singing them. He recorded them on his old wollensak tape recorder with his friend Herb Schutz on the piano. One of them is in our show with some new lyrics to fit the 1920’s plotline.
Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?
Seidman: Originally, I wrote the first version of the show 5th Avenue: A Jazz Musical Comedy while working during and after college at the switchboard on the sixth floor of the Sardi Building for The Shubert Organization. I gave it to one of the in-house producers, Warren Caro. He called me at the switchboard and asked me to come up to his office on the fourth floor above the Shubert Theater. When I got there, he listened to it with me, and went over each song. He advised me to workshop it and gave me a book on how to write lyrics by Ira Gershwin. It’s a book I still have.
Crawford: We have now worked on four evolving versions of the show. After each version we played it for a wide circle of people. I listened to all the comments and that has helped the show evolve to where it is today!!
Review Fix: What makes this different or special?
Seidman: “Fifth Avenue, a Jazz Musical Comedy,” at Don’t Tell Mama is a comedy about Prohibition, American business, and the “American Dream” in 1928 Hell’s Kitchen.Don’t Tell Mama is a nightclub and cabaret in Hell’s Kitchen, which fits the theme of the show — 95 years later! During the pandemic in 2020, I took the master tape of the show out of the trunk in my closet. Instead of baking bread, Susan Crawford (book and co-lyricist) and I (composer and co-lyricist) started working again on the songs and the book. We then did some new recordings at Dubway studios. It’s been off to the races with Fifth Avenue: A Jazz Musical Comedy ever since!!
Crawford: It has been especially exciting to reach the stage where we were ready to cast and rehearse the show. We put an Ad in Backstage and got 1000 responses for 7 roles! We have now had three and a half weeks of rehearsals! I have been touched by the way the actors are portraying the characters and by watching the show coming to life! The casting seems just right.
Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself through this process?
Seidman: You really need to love the theater and believe in what you are doing to make a go of getting a show up on its feet! Thank god I also love my day job.
Review Fix: What are your ultimate goals for this production and for the future?
Crawford: I would love for people to receive it well! My goal is to make it successful at Don’t Tell Mama and then, who knows!
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