Last night I attended a reading of a new original locally created musical, aka my favorite thing. Sarah Julius wrote the book, music, and lyrics for the semi-autobiographical musical Great Big Rainbow World, and is also the producer. GBRW already has a date and location for its first full production, next summer at Gremlin Theatre, and the team is raising money in support of that. I heard Sarah sing a song from the show at Musical Mondays this summer, and was intrigued enough to accept the invitation to attend to last night's reading. In her intro speech Sarah said this show was all about love and chosen family, and it definitely felt that way.
Great Big Rainbow World is a coming of age story about a lesbian rugby player named Katie (think Fun Home, but with less trauma and dysfunction). We follow her to Upper Midwest University and later to the big city of Minneapolis as she experiences first love, first heartbreak, becoming part of a team, career decisions, and figuring out who she is and where she fits in the world. All in song, with a fun and catchy folk/rock/pop sort of score. It's a sweet story that was "read" by a talented and passionate cast led by director Laura Leffler and music director Shannon van der Reck.
There's nothing I love more than supporting new voices in theater, especially voices we don't hear enough of. If you agree, follow Great Big Rainbow World on Facebook and other social media to find out what you can do to support them.