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MIDDLE SCHOOL MYSTERIES
Music and lyrics by Daniel Maté
Book by Daniel Maté & Marshall Pailet
commissioned by Two River Theater Company (Red Bank, NJ)
Inspired by, and conceived and developed with the participation of the original cast and creative team: Cassidy Boylan, Jake Cameron, Jeffrey Carrano, Destyni Cooper, Imani DeAngelo-Cobbs, Owen Doherty,
Jack Fink, Maggie Franzreb, Hannah Friedman, Sophie Halpern, Adrian Hernandez, Sophia Jackman, Jackie Nagle, Jon Erik Nielsen, Francesca Reznik, Vici Saunders, Chloe Triolo, and Isabel Wallace.
Directed by Kate Cordaro; assistant directed by Luisa Inés Garcia.
THE STORY OF THE SHOW
In the film-noir-soaked halls of Phillip Marlowe Middle School, two 6th-grade super-sleuths—the hard-boiled veteran Rick Taylor and home-schooled new arrival Melissa Lewis—form an unlikely alliance, and set about solving the biggest mystery of their respective careers: The Case of the Missing Middle Schooler. But can they handle the truths they uncover, about others and themselves? Or will their sleuthing unleash a torrent of pent-up tween angst that could tear the school apart?
THE STORY BEHIND THE SHOW
Originally written in 2011 for an ensemble of 18 young actors in Two River Theater Company’s (based in part on their own reports of what middle school was like for them) as part of a youth program at Two River Theater Company’s Education Department, Middle School Mysteries soon took on a life of its own. When Two River commissioned a new version in 2015, we brought aboard Marshall Pailet (Baghdaddy), who’s helped tighten the plot and give the piece even more comic film-noir flair. Blending the mystery genre with musical theatre storytelling has been a fun challenge and we look forward to this show reaching young sleuths everywhere.