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Ray Leslee

RAY LESLEE

  

Nationality:    USA
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    David H. Friedlander, esq

award-winning composer of over 100 original scores for Dramatic plays and musicals, produced Off-Broadway and thru-out the regionals. Known for emotional melodies combining jazz, classical, and rock styles in a distinctly original voice. For the concert hall, a theatrical symphony for the Buffalo Philharmonic and many chamber music pieces, often including actors or singers. Recorded and published by RCa Victor, BMG Classics, albany Records, Innova Records, the Folger Shakespeare Library, Samuel French, Dramatist Play Service and many others. awards and fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts; Yaddo, the Richard Rodgers award, and the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla award for lifetime achievement in musical Theatre, to name a few. Manhattan School of Music and SUNY at Buffalo (Masters in Music and Theatre). www.rayleslee.com

Research:    Member of the Dramatists Guild of America (as at 2015)

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below is a list of Ray Leslee's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

        Avenue X         Chamber Christmas Carol, A         Good Man, A         Romeo & Juliet For Orchestra & Actors         Standup Shakespeare



Avenue X

Synopsis:
Set in a racially divided Brooklyn neighborhood in 1963, avenue X captures both the nostalgic harmonies of an innocent age and the rumblings of future discord. as in New York and other American cities in the late 1950s and early 1960s, teenagers gather on stoops and sidewalks to pass the time singing together-the best groups win contests and dream of record deals. In avenue X, the Italian American and African American groups wouldn't think of singing together-until Pasquale and Milton find that their shared love for the music transcends the escalating racial tension.
Press release

Notes:
Music by Ray Leslee, Book by John Jiler

1st Produced:
Playwrights Horizons, New York    1994

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French, Inc.   -

Music:
Original cast recording: RCa (9026-63208-2) 1997

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  cast of 8

Further Reference:
-

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Chamber Christmas Carol, A

Synopsis:
a new concert-theatre version of Dickens's beloved classic, featuring a rich and melodic original score by award-winning composer Ray Leslee. a virtuoso cast of five actors and five musicians brings ebenezer Scrooge's transformative journey through the past, present, and future to life on stage.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Morgan Library & Museum    2010

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  1            Other:  Five musicians

Further Reference:
-

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Good Man, A

Synopsis:
Just after World War II in rural Mississippi, albert Clayton, a black sharecropper, decides to paint his tenant house white, and his world turns upside down. He struggles with a desperate wife, a frightened landlord, a sexy sister-in-law, and a furious, closed-minded town.

Notes:
Music by Ray Leslee; lyrics by Philip S Goodman; book by Philip S Goodman

1st Produced:
Vienna Chamber Opera    2006

Organisations:
amas Theatre

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
musical

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Romeo & Juliet For Orchestra & Actors

Synopsis:
Shakespeare's play combined with a rich symphonic score. Three actors portray Romeo & Juliet and everyone else in the story.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Buffalo NY    2000

Organisations:
the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Shakespeare In Delaware Park, Inc.

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Standup Shakespeare

Synopsis:
sets the timeless language of the Bard to the exciting rhythms of jazz, baroque, samba and gospel-rock original music. a fractured love story is performed by a modern-day Fool and two glorious singers.

Notes:
words by William Shakespeare, music by Ray Leslee, book by Kenneth Welsh

1st Produced:
Off-Broadway, New York    -

Organisations:
the Shubert Organization

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1998   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
comedy Drama Musical

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  1-4 musicians (flexible casting)

Further Reference:
-

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