(jazzy piano music plays) - [Woman] Krista made a great video on how to get tickets, so if you want to share that on your page, it's very helpful.

(group chattering) - [Man] One, two, three.

(group singing) - Don't get too far into yourself.

- (laughing) Anyway.

We'll start with Lily of the hats and get all the guys in.

- Oh, 'Overture'.

Oh yeah.

That's that... That's that thing that Krista and Barb are doing.

(piano plays bass melody) (cast rehearsing) - (laughing) I mean, Krista said, "You wanna write a show?"

And I've worked on things and over the years but I'd never just sat down to write a show.

- Does this take us through the kiss?

- I don't know.

- I don't know either.

- That's why we have, if we could talk through it.

- Yeah, that's what I wanted to do, just- - Oh!

- So it was, it was daunting and overwhelming and you kind of fake it till you make it as far as I'm concerned.

- Okay.

So if we finished the music that's an easy cutoff and an easy cue for sound (vocalizes).

- Yup.

Let's try that one more time with the dialogue.

- Overture is really a Kansas City story.

We were interested in taking the story of the Kansas City Philharmonic in one year, one season of their existence: 1953.

(Kansas City Philharmonic plays energetically) And the reason that we thought it was so fascinating is because they were always struggling for money.

I mean, there were nearly bankrupt every single year but in this year they got a brand new director, Hans Schweiger, who came in and he was created in his promotion.

He just would not give up on this orchestra.

(women giggling) - Oh, yes!

Yes, I'm going to test your symphony IQ.

- As these women came in and said, "We're going to save this institution in Kansas City, so it has a world-class symphony orchestra."

♪ Sally forth and stay the course ♪ ♪ For our Philharmonic Orchestra ♪ (cast chattering) - It is an old book musical.

It's a standard it's, well you don't see them as much anymore.

But I think that's what was in our heart to write.

And that's what the story needed because set in the fifties and Kansas City, it it kinda lent itself to be an old book musical.

And we were able to get a book and interview people and talk to people who were involved in it, which gave us so much material.

So we weren't just creating it from whole cloth.

We had characters to draw from, real life characters.

And once we had that foundation and we had all of that information it made everything kind of piece together.

And then we knew we wanted this love story.

So we knew we had the fictionalized piece too.

(Joel humming) - No, we're not touching.

- Oh that's right.

- And then we added two fictional characters of which Lily was one of those fictional characters.

♪ I hear an oh... ♪ ♪ Oh he speaks and the sound of his voice makes me stop ♪ ♪ His touch makes my knees buckle and drop ♪ ♪ He is the favorite song I've wished for ♪ ♪ All along ♪ - Christopher is the other fictional character.

And Joel played Chris.

♪ The haunting of a song leaves me reeling ♪ ♪ Moves me with me to a time, a place ♪ - He's not a historical character, like some of the others are based on real people, he was just fictional.

Working for the symphony at the time as an assistant to the conductor and did a lot of the grunt work for him.

But he was highly trained in piano and violin.

And just when we meet him in the show is feeling very frustrated that he's not really allowed to do what he thinks is his full potential.

(piano ballad plays) ♪ 18 years I spent at the piano ♪ ♪ 18 years I conquered violin ♪ ♪ 18 years I dreamed of a decision ♪ ♪ Move away and try to break in ♪ (Valerie counting and clapping in tempo) - A one, a two, a three, a four!

(cast harmonizes) - Five, six, seven, eight!

- [All] Eight, seven, six, one!

- Right after he stops singing, so that's a good when the tempo changes is when you should move.

Four, five, six, seven, eight!

(Valerie directing while clapping) - The first time I finished the first song for Overture I hadn't even told her I was writing a musical.

- And so the next day, I believe the next day she sent a song - And I knew I had my text ready.

I was going to Facebook message her and say, "Oh do you want to help me with this song?

Do you want to help?"

Because I knew as soon as I did it that I would have to finish the whole project.

- She was singing it.

She had arranged it and sent it to me.

And I could just see it in my mind.

- That first song is Lily's first song.

It's the very first thing you hear in the show after the orchestra tuning up.

(various orchestral instruments warming up) (dramatic drum roll) ♪ There it was ♪ ♪ I can't recover ♪ ♪ No, it's tumbling down, falling 'round my ears ♪ - I just said, well this is G-rated.

I said, "Holy (beep).

This is like your first try?

It's amazing.

Let's talk about it."

- And the idea for the song was that this woman who loved music more than anything else in the world was getting a chance to listen to her favorite sounds.

And me, I love when orchestras tune up.

I think it's a magical experience.

♪ What's better than the start ♪ ♪ Of my favorite sounds in the world ♪ ♪ What's better than the beginning ♪ - And I wanted Lily's first song to reflect that.

Just how she is unabashedly in love with music.

I didn't know the song was gonna be the start to a whole show, but I knew it was good enough to possibly fit into a show somewhere.

(piano plays flirty tune) - Tape.

Loosen up, you look great, and we need all the help we can get.

We charm, they give money.

We farm, they give money.

We get them to drink, they give money.

- [Kay] "I'm writing this, this show.

This is a song I'd like you to sing."

I think you told me at the moment that I would be opposite Kipp, so I was like, "Okay, when do we, okay, today?"

I mean, it was just, you're not gonna get that gift again.

Oh, come on now.

Just because you people don't get it doesn't mean the public won't love it.

- [Barb] Okay one more time, I need more, audible.

- My name is Kay and I played Inda Beasley.

Now listen, I am in charge of ticket sales here for a reason.

I get those suckers sold!

- [Kipp] You know, I've done original musicals before but I've never had a part like written specifically with me in mind.

So of course I said yes!

(both laughing) - Not the great Inda Beasley?

The Inda Beasley who never says die?

- Here lies Inda Beasley.

- Well, mostly what Inda had to talk about was, of course, the story we were telling was about the symphony having to make a certain amount of money over a certain period of time.

And that amount of money it moved around throughout the process.

- Those 5,000 new season ticket holders and 20,000 total subscribers.

We're looking at the Jewel Ball numbers today and we'll close the gap.

- We just thought this story could be really sweet, hopeful story about the arts surviving.

- I hate these kind of parties, shuffling around with my hand out, "Save us!"

We need a new savior every year.

- Actually arts organizations everywhere are dying and they're struggling for every single dollar.

(glass clangs) - No, I don't do that yet.

- [Both] Attention!

- Attention, ladies and gentlemen.

- [Woman] Did it take some convincing to get you guys to be a part of this musical?

- No.

- Nope.

(Stasha laughs) - Good afternoon, Mr. Wangerin and Ms. Beasley, and oh!

Who might you be, my dear?

- I'm Ms. Brooks!

- Oh, Ms. Brooks!

How do you do?

I'm Mrs. Henry McCune, Marie McCune, but you may not call me Marie.

(cast laughing) - I kind of felt like we were, we were a character.

- I can though (laughing).

And I am Mrs. Burnham Hockaday of the Hockadays of 47th Street.

- To be a part of something brand new, you know, something to originate the character, to play the role.

And so any others that come after me will be compared, I'm just kidding.

- We didn't set small goals.

We knew we wanted to have a complete script.

We knew we would have to get a piano vocal score done so that we could raise money to have a production at the Kansas City Fringe Festival.

- Then I think we landed on, what if we did Fringe and we got some of the money from that to keep propelling us forward to the next goal, which was to do the whole show.

And we knew we were going to try to do the whole show.

- Extra ones if that doesn't work out.

- Do you have any assigned?

- Yes, the ones, all these have- - One that says JC.

- Well 'hellur!'

- I am JC, and I was one of the women of the ensemble.

♪ Cut, chop to the top ♪ ♪ Cut, chop to the top ♪ ♪ It will come out right on time ♪ - Very good, very good.

All right, thanks.

- I think Fringe was probably the most fun just because it's the first time we had done it.

No one had seen it.

- And you know, the wonderful thing it forced us to do was crystallize and condense and, as they say, "kill your darlings."

And get down to what we needed to, to tell the story.

(soulful piano ballad plays) - [Woman] Everybody gets two comps, so if you would let me know as soon as possible that you want to, or if you would like to use those.

- Show ready.

- Okay and how much like of it am I playing?

- [Woman] I'll go like this.

I don't know how much I want to hear yet, until it's in his monologue.

- My brother is Sean and he was our accompanist.

- I'm just gonna, I'm going to give you more than you think you need, because that's what preschool people do.

- All right.

I had been practicing Krista's music for geez, two, three months just constantly before that first rehearsal because I knew I was the new kid in town.

(playing triumphantly) Working with Krista's so easy.

I mean I've done it so long, I just know how she operates.

And it's, it's always smooth and it's, it's fun.

I always enjoy it.

- Are you hurting your neck?

- That's why I never won.

(cast and crew chattering) - [Woman] Please don't hurt it.

- Oh yeah, don't hurt "it"?

- Barb was able to organize these house fundraisers, these concerts.

- I could not go to my friends and my family and say, (laughing) "I need you to give me money.

I need you to let me come into your house and invite people and ask them for money," if I didn't believe that this show is worth doing that for.

(heartfelt piano tune plays) ♪ If I could, turn the phrase with one lilt ♪ ♪ All are amazed at song and flight ♪ ♪ I can make it sing ♪ ♪ Make it sing ♪ - We knew that we had a budget immediately.

As soon as you say, "Let's do a musical," the next thing you hear in your head is ching-ching-ching ching-cha-ching-ching, there are so many dollars we have to raise.

- We needed the money for orchestrations.

We were producing it.

We were trying to get the costumes.

- By the solution.

- I mean, for the first year round, I don't- - [Man] I'll do a different sport coat for that.

- [Woman] I've trapped myself in this bracelet.

Oh there we go.

- Pretend like you're doing something.

(women giggling) - What do we have to do next?

We knew that promotion was going to be, it was our kind of live or die place to be because no one knows this show.

- Want one of her looking off too, not just right at the camera but sit how you are and just look off.

Mm-hmm.

That's lovely.

- Oh, she looks lovely.

It's all about the hat.

- I love that suit.

Is there a white thing right by his lapel?

- I mean you're fighting for each butt in a seat.

- [Woman] Welcome to the jungle.

(Stasha laughing) - What could be free and how do we leverage that to make this work?

- Do you know what producing a musical is?

It's listening to webinars on producing musicals, while burning merch CDs for your own show while answering emails.

Barb what do you want to tell people why you're ironing?

- Well we open a week from Friday.

- Do you know what producing a musical is?

- It's having tools handy so that you can see if casters will fit.

- Hey Mackenzie, know what producing a musical is?

- What is it?

- Loading and- - [Together] Unloading and loading and unloading and loading and unloading.

(set scuffling) - Fringe is a whole different beast compared to just a regular production.

- Right we did the Fringe Festival, which was just the First Act.

And I remember having to shorten songs and take out lines and we fit in our, our time period.

- You just had to be quick.

You had to be efficient.

Our load-in time, I think you get 15 minutes to pull everything onstage, absolutely everything.

- It, it was not thrown together in the slightest because there was so much work that goes into it.

But it felt like a cluster.

- You know, our cast did most of our set changes.

So it's not just, it was my job to make sure everything was prepped to make sure that the actors could do what they need to do.

- But I'm sure I was in charge of costume things.

That sounds like, that sounds like me.

- Yeah, I was moving speakers and cymbals and drum stuff.

- But everybody, you know, was a kind of a well-oiled machine.

You know?

- Yeah!

- I don't think anything can prepare you for, you have a 15 minute load-in and a 15 minute load-out when you're doing kind of a non-Fringe type show at the Fringe Festival.

- Don't tell Christopher.

- Why, I keep wanting to say, "forever why not?"

which isn't really a sentence.

- It's nice.

- Why ever not?

(both laughing) (Krista clapping) Why not?

Is it, "Why ever not?"

- [Woman] "Why ever not?"

- Why ever not?

- Forever why ever not?

- Forever why not, ever, why?

- Let's start over.

♪ So far ♪ - Lily, you don't have to- (both laughing) (mellow tune plays) - How these songs come in my head, I mean they're like, I describe it as they kind of, knock from the inside out until they get out.

You guys are gonna laugh at us.

Here's the front page.

This is my Dolly book.

I love Dolly and I used up this entire book that a friend gave me for writing the entire show.

I dated it 12/22/16, so four years ago.

I literally wrote on one of my composition books, "Don't censor yourself, let it all come out, edit it later.

Don't worry about what's coming out now."

Because I'm so, if you have one voice that goes, "That sucks!

Change that note."

And the other side that says, "Don't censor yourself."

Here's "Worth Waiting For".

This is Christopher's love song to Lilly.

And it's one of my favorites.

"First kiss, first dance.

First time holding your hand."

♪ Well it's worth waiting for ♪ ♪ First glance, first chance, fumbling romance ♪ ♪ I'll play the fool if it's worth waiting for ♪ - I think Lily, I think I was able to draw on that and just, you know, I was like, what would be her main obstacle to her, her best thing is loving music.

So what would be the worst thing?

Losing the ability to hear it.

- The pain, the pain here (sighs).

- If you want, help her up.

If things are feeling better then you'll help her up.

And then you can say, "What was..." - What was that?

- I can't, I can't hear sometimes.

That's where the deafness came from and I thought it would, the audience would get to see a slow progression of her suffering.

The doctor said, eventually I wouldn't be able to hear anything and honestly, I never thought it would happen.

But the clock just seems to be ticking faster now.

Everybody has an obstacle in their life.

Something that has stopped them from doing what they wanted to do, and they had to figure out a way to change direction.

And so Lily's struggle is trying to figure out how to change direction.

Did you know I was at the conservatory?

- No.

- Full scholarship, and First Chair Violin.

And I, I had to drop out my sophomore year.

I couldn't hear the dynamics of the sections anymore so I went from First Chair to Last.

And I don't really know, I mean she could have, I could have chosen any obstacle.

But I think I picked the one that would break her heart the most.

- Mom heard the Philharmonic was touring and coming to Topeka High so so got us tickets.

And she got out her best hat.

- Barb asked me to make it like a memory piece that didn't distract from the main scene too much.

♪ A conductor's twist, they moved the same ♪ ♪ She removed her hat ♪ ♪ And as she did ♪ ♪ I heard the tap, on the stand ♪ ♪ My ears at command as each arm bowed into space ♪ ♪ An arc of grace and color ♪ ♪ I flew from one world ♪ ♪ To another ♪ - She wanted us to visualize the story that Krista is speaking and singing.

♪ Another hat ♪ ♪ And just like that ♪ ♪ Another hat ♪ ♪ [Christopher] Another hat ♪ ♪ Another hat ♪ - (tearfully) I don't want it to be over.

(cast and crew laugh) - Should we try the whole scene?

- Lily, can you pull yourself together?

- It was beautiful.

It was just beautiful.

That was so lovely.

Oh, thank you.

So lovely, thank you.

- I'm so glad you love it.

- Oh I love it so much!

- Listen to the Philharmonic, she'll be followed by Joel Morrison who plays Christopher Peters, and his song deals with the frustration of the menial work that comes with being an assistant conductor.

- And so Fringe would ask us to do these promotional things.

And of course we're like, "We need people to know about our show!

We will do anything you ask us to do."

- So we were wearing a lot of hats.

We were writing and trying to fundraise and directing.

- Yeah, I would, I would forget sometimes which hat I was wearing.

Sometimes there would be pressing details.

Barb and I had to go straight into rehearsal and we had to schedule interviews with news crews.

Or we had to schedule our next fundraiser.

Or we had to schedule, how how are we going to print the programs?

And how much are they going to cost?

And oh, Krista you're on!

(laughs) (drummer warming up) (bag zipping) (crew chattering) - There's nothing like opening night, nothing like it.

- She, she was mad that I made her come here so early.

Cause I was anxious.

- I'm not mad.

- She wasn't mad.

- I'm never mad.

- She was mildly irritated, with a kind lilt in your voice.

- I wouldn't say I was irritated, I just thought we'd be sitting in her car, but it all worked out for the best.

- Have you seen the lines outside?

- I have not.

- Is there a line?

- It's an interesting place.

- I know it's cool.

- Yeah, definitely go check how long he's gonna be.

(cast and crew chattering) - Richard?

- This sad sack can't be the Inda Beasley, who, may I remind you in '48 declared boldly while standing on a table in front of- - And it's making this whole thing light up.

- Take them off, we're not going to use them.

And we're sold out.

We are sold out!

- We're sold out and we have no mics.

- All mics off.

Project.

We've been hearing you just fine.

- (whispers) Break a leg, Krista!

- Places.

- Love ya.

- Love ya.

- I usually pray.

I usually just try to calm my breathing down and I didn't think, I didn't anticipate how loud my feet would be on this stage.

Going out as Lily, as the first thing you see, it's dark.

You hear the orchestra, lights up, and I heard click, click, click, click, click.

(Krista's heels echo loudly as she enters stage) (low drum roll) ♪ There it was ♪ ♪ I can't recover ♪ ♪ No, it's tumbling down, falling 'round my ears ♪ - Who are you and what in the world are you doing here?

This is a closed rehearsal.

Why do you have his baton?

(crew whispering) ♪ Victor!

♪ ♪ [Ensemble] Victor!

♪ ♪ Victor!

♪ (all harmonizing) ♪ Eight, seven, six, one!

♪ (audience applauding) (jazzy tune playing) ♪ Grace and color ♪ ♪ I flew from one world ♪ ♪ To another ♪ (women vocalizing) - We have a mighty goal, my sisters, a mighty goal of 17 thousand dollars but- - Don't tell Christopher.

- Why on Earth not?

- Don't!

Tell him.

I don't want his pity, and I don't want to sympathy.

- Would that be so bad?

(Rhumba music playing) (Lily yells) - Lily, why are you saying this, come with me!

(audience applauding) (audience cheering) - [Krista] Thank you so much for coming.

The story will continue, September 21st through the 30th, right here at the Arts Asylum.

We hope you join us at that time and thank you so much for spending the evening with us.

(audience applauding) (set clattering) (cast and crew chattering) - I have it brought over there.

- Oh okay, it goes, it goes- - I feel so happy that there's a cast party after this where we can all celebrate.

It went so great.

I couldn't have asked for better.

- It looked like it was running like clockwork.

- Well, practice makes almost perfect.

(Kay vocalizes) Almost, break a leg!

I have always felt, and I know Barb has always felt that Overture is this moving forward story.

- But Krista is a person who just kind of grabs you by the hand and says, "We're doing this!"

I mean, you know that poster from West Side Story with Maria and she's got Tony's hand and they're running down the street?

Well, I'm Tony, I'm hanging on and she's going.

I see right where we're going.

And she just gives you this confidence that you're going to do it, and figure out a way to do it because you don't want to let her down.

(heartfelt music playing) - You know, it's always fun to add the orchestra and you kind of know what to expect because you're doing Chicago but to hear this come to life is just a dream come true.

- Things changed from Fringe to when we did the full production, which was really great because you don't really know, especially with a new work what it's going to be like until you put it in front of an audience.

(both harmonizing) (all performing jazzy number) - It's one of those musicals that just, it feels good when you see it.

You're, you just feel like your spirit is is raised watching the show and it's just so well written.

The music is so beautiful.

♪ [Lilly] My heart's involved and I'm moved away ♪ ♪ [Christopher] Somehow something lingers, and ♪ ♪ [Both]Beauty in the empty it's the place where something ♪ ♪ [Christopher] Longing in the something ♪ ♪ [Both] I want to be with something ♪ ♪ [Both] Still ♪ - Four.

- Come up on five?

- Four.

♪ Idle party chatter doesn't matter, over my head!

♪ ♪ I stand here rehearsing not conversing ♪ (crew chattering) ♪ All I earn, say goodbye to bucks of mine ♪ ♪ One cup, half pint ♪ ♪ Two cups, one pint ♪ ♪ Two pints, one quart ♪ ♪ Two cups butter, equal pound, one ♪ - You've heard of Overture but have you heard of - [Together] Of the Doilies?

- Oh the Doilies.

Okay, so the Doilies, the women of the ensemble formed a gang.

- My girls, JC and Whitney are my fellow Doilies.

- So in the world of musical theater, you have the Sharks you have the Jets and you have the Doilies.

- And you didn't mess with the Doilies, you know?

We were tight, we were super tight.

(all wheezing) - It's not flirty and sassy it's- - Man, did we grab a hold of that and run with it?

And I, it's truly the gift that keeps on giving.

- And everybody wanted to be a Doily.

- They're what everyone wants to be, including Krista.

- What's the Doilie symbol like the Doily hand?

- I can't, I can't tell you what it is.

You're not a Doily.

- I'm not a Doily?

- I'm sorry!

- God dang it!

- Who attempted but failed to become a Doily.

♪ Jump to the top ♪ ♪ Let's jump to the top ♪ ♪ Let's jump to the top ♪ ♪ They will come out to our show!

♪ - Okay, Krista, how about a ticket update?

Where are we tonight?

- I think we might be real close to sold out tonight.

- We, we are close to sold out.

- And we're sold out tomorrow.

And there's that lump in your throat, you think, "Oh, is it really over?"

And I didn't want it to be over.

- Thank you all for promoting the show and putting out such a fabulous product.

Then people are talking about it and telling their friends and saying you have to get here and see the show because that always happens the second weekend.

And that's exactly where we are.

- I didn't want overture to end in September.

I wanted, I wanted to see where it could go.

(cast laughing) - Can I leave you with the word focus?

(all chuckling) Break a leg!

- [All] One, two, three, break a leg!

Woo!

(audience applauding) ♪ There it was ♪ ♪ I can't recover ♪ - (whispering) We haven't had any major sound or light issues, overall I would absolutely say it's been a success.

- (whispers) Awesome.

(waltz plays) - Ask him to turn off his phone while we're singing.

No he's in the very back, sitting against the wall.

- What are we talking about?

- We're talking about which people turning their phones on during the show and how I want to go up and do a Patti LuPone and go, "Mine now, sucka!"

- Look her in the eye and say, "I love you."

- I love you.

- Yes!

(audience laughs) (audience cheering) - At our bow, our final bow for our Kansas City full premiere I thought, "This is it.

This is all we're going to get to do.

I may never, ever, ever play this role again.

I will never ever, ever be in this group of people again, to do this show that Barb and I wrote."

(audience applauding) The brass ring for me was the New York Musical Festival.

It's called NYMF, N-Y-M-F. - You know, I'm like, well, what's next?

I'm going to go direct this over here.

And Krista was like, "I think we need to apply for musical festivals."

And I was like, here, I'm again, here, we're running down the street and there's Tony and Maria down the street.

And I'm like, okay.

- I did not feel that we had any chance.

We were an old book, old style, 1950s, Midwest musical.

How in the world were we going to get to New York?

- The world's largest musical theater producing festival.

They produce typically about anywhere from 30 to 40 musicals a year in readings, in concerts, and in fully realized productions.

- We're not going to get in to the New York Music Festival, are you kidding me?

- So if you were one of the productions that was onstage that had performances that had lights and set and actors and all of that stuff off book, you were in sort of the top 5% of the applicants that year.

- We were notified in December that we were one of 20 finalists out of almost 200 entries.

And it said, "Congratulations, you are a finalist!"

I went, "What?!"

- And then Krista calls and says (laughs) "We've made it to the Top 20 out of 200 plus entries."

Well, then it gets real, very quickly.

- The daunting nature of what we were trying to pull off hit me.

And I thought, I have no idea how we're going to make this happen.

And so we submitted our content and all of the things we had to do.

And by that time we had an awesome soundtrack.

We had a great script, kind of put it out there.

And I really believe if things are meant to be they happen.

(broadcast jingle plays) And then heaven opened.

Heaven opened!

(jazzy spy music plays) - And I freaked out, called Barb.

She wasn't on her phone!

She was like mowing her lawn or something!

- I missed the call.

I missed the call.

And then I saw a text and then I call and she's like, "We are a main stage show.

We are top 10, we got in."

- And she finally called me back and we both were like giddy little kids.

- And I do remember just like skipping, running, leaping out of the back door.

- Cause then we got to tell everybody.

- I think I just texted "holy (bleep)" over and over again.

- I saw Krista's email and I was like, "What?!"

- What?

We, what?

It's happening?

- It was not a surprise at all.

Not to me.

I just, I just assumed we were going to go.

But then as soon as I got the nerve, like the news my stomach kind of fell.

I was like, "Oh my gosh, we're going to New York."

- I think my elation went from up here elation to absolute terror, because I thought of all we had to get together.

We were flying, planning on flying, just Barb and I to the writer's workshop we had to go to.

We were invited to sing at Sardi's.

I mean, you're invited to sing and play at Sardi's.

- Nobody had like dressed up, but us.

I remember thinking, well, that's what you were wearing earlier, but we didn't care.

We looked good.

- Okay.

We're here.

And my hands are shaking like this.

And I'm like, "Okay, Krista, you have got to get a grip because you have to play for yourself."

- Please let us seem as good as these other people.

♪ There it was ♪ ♪ I can't recover ♪ ♪ Notes tumbling down, falling 'round my ears ♪ - My first note was shaky, but we got through it.

♪ My favorite sounds ♪ ♪ In the world ♪ (playing piano triumphantly) (audience applauding) - I remember coming back with a real sense of purpose.

We were going to need $40,000, which is probably way lower than any of the other shows, thought they needed.

But we were committed to bringing our cast and keeping the costs low.

And that's what we started doing.

But then as things progressed and we found out we needed the lighting people to come out of New York and a special video person and a special slide person.

And you know, those are $400, $500.

All of a sudden our budget was up to $50,000 and I'm, Krista would have to confer.

But I want to say our budget ended up being about 62 to $64,000, which is unbelievable (laughs).

- We have to raise between 60 and a hundred thousand dollars.

I don't know how many people just have that sitting around.

I didn't.

- Our job every day is to ask people for money.

Beg people for money.

- I knew we had another mountain to climb.

So start climbing.

- Every day my goal was to get up and write 10 letters and send them out.

And, and then as money came in we would sit down and write, thank you notes.

- I felt it was my job to keep new content going.

- Know what producing a musical is?

It's folding programs.

Lots and lots of programs.

- We did the Fringe, got attention.

We did our full run, got attention.

All right, now we're going to New York.

This doesn't happen every day to a show from the Midwest.

And I was going to make the most of it.

(pensive piano plays) ♪ So we got into the NYMF ♪ ♪ Yes I said NYMF, NYMF, NYMF ♪ ♪ That makes me a proud NYMF-er ♪ ♪ That sounds weird but whatever ♪ ♪ Overture has lots to do between now and July 22 ♪ ♪ That's when we go to NYC ♪ ♪ We've got a crapton of money to raise fast ♪ ♪ I mean cash we need it ♪ ♪ We need you to help us to get there ♪ - Hello, Eric Huffman here coming to you from the Book of Mormon here in New York City, but I'm actually from Kansas City and I want to tell you about a show that's coming to New York directly from Kansas.

It's called Overture the Musical.

- Hi, I'm Janine Divita and I want to tell you about a show that's coming to the New York Musical Theater Festival from July 24th through the 28th.

It's called Overture the Musical.

And it's actually written by one of my good friends, Krista.

- The composers will be in New York City very soon.

- They recently won entry into the New York Musical Festival with their show, Overture, based on the old Kansas Philharmonic Orchestra.

Kansas city writers, Krista Eyler and Barb Nichols putting piano note to paper, and it's paid off.

- Finding rehearsal space in New York, paying for that.

Figuring out the logistics of, God it was just so overwhelming!

- And then we'd fly home and then we'd figure out how we're going to fly back.

And we had to get a general manager, and we had to get a press agent, and we had to get all, I mean just thinking about it now makes my head hurt.

- I remember looking at every Airbnb or VRBO in Manhattan, in Brooklyn.

- So the lovely four story, 100 degree, Brooklyn brownstone that we had the honor of staying in.

- (laughing) It was, wow.

It was a little warm.

- Wow.

It's hot in here.

- Gosh it was so hot, it was 90 some degrees in my room with Whitney.

- I do recall Krista spooning with a fan up there.

- Itty bitty living space, like it was all of us on top of each other at least two to four people per room.

- So then Kay took the top bunk.

- Once I got up there, I couldn't get back down.

So people had to run errands for me and stuff.

So I was a little bit of a diva on the top bunk.

- The kitchen was about like this, is about this big.

- You would take a shower and then you would open up the curtain and already be sweating because it was so hot.

- Guess which two women drove into the city, unloaded with our brilliant stage manager, parked the car in Midtown by 9:05.

Go ahead, guess.

These two women did.

- You walked into a space where if you've ever seen a YouTube video of a Broadway cast in rehearsals, like, well, it looks pretty much like this.

- This is where we are.

Erica is here.

- Morning!

- So here's our rehearsal space.

And there's Erica, who is the first of the midtowners to arrive.

(upbeat piano plays) (all harmonizing) - Which way are we going, look at us!

We take up the whole block!

And there's the house.

- It'll be good, we're going to do it well.

- This is my brother.

- This is my sister.

- Yep.

- You know, Sean and I have been able to play play gigs at the White House.

We've been able to play concerts together.

But this journey through Overture together, it's a comfort to have your big brother playing for you.

Cause I can look over and he's there.

And I don't know if all little sisters feel that way about their big brother.

You don't share that common space anymore as you grow up.

Not in the same house.

You live in different States.

It's rare when you get to really hang out and do things together.

That's just life.

Know life kinda pulls you apart sometimes.

And this was an opportunity for us to just kind of come back together.

♪ I can't recover ♪ ♪ Now it's tumbling down, falling 'round my ears ♪ ♪ Invisible lightning hits me ♪ ♪ Here ♪ - To be able take a show to New York and do it with the people you love and know that it's probably been their dream.

- Satisfies something in me at least for a little while.

I mean, when I'm conducting, I love the sound and the feeling, and when it ends, I miss it.

- All different shapes, all different colors, all different sounds.

♪ I heard the pins release their grasp ♪ ♪ I heard the rustle of gloved hands ♪ ♪ My mother led them all ♪ ♪ A flick of her wrist ♪ ♪ A conductor's twist, they moved the same ♪ ♪ Music knowledge, she has spat ♪ ♪ Upon all the ladies in their eighties ♪ ♪ What do, what do you ♪ ♪ Think of that?

♪ ♪ Victor, Victor!

♪ ♪ Eight, seven, six, one!

♪ ♪ Victor, Victor!

♪ ♪ ♪ Eight, seven, six, one!

♪ ♪ Victor, Victor, sing that song ♪ ♪ But we can't hear it, one more time ♪ - Last time to knock this out of the park.

Enjoy it, but stay focused, work hard.

We have a really good house, like about 115.

- [Man] Wow.

Probably gonna have a few walk-ups after our very nice review, hopefully everybody saw that.

I'm not going to get all emotional or inspirational.

I just know we want to say thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for taking this journey with us.

It has been the adventure of a lifetime.

♪ On Christmas morn ♪ ♪ It's like love unspoken ♪ ♪ Just waiting for someone to open up the door, so!

♪ ♪ I'm knocking, I'll stop talking ♪ ♪ Show you how I'm walking ♪ ♪ Got to say, I love you now!

♪ ♪ Now say, say the words, say the words ♪ ♪ Say the words that you're feeling ♪ (audience applauding) - [Krista] Did that really happen?

It did.

It really happened.

And I was so proud of us.

(audience cheering) My dream from the time I was a young teenager when I first fell in love with musical theater that I even wrote a paper in my English class that I would be in a show someday in New York.

Not really ever thinking that would happen.

(audience cheering) - [Krista] And it was an extraordinary feeling of triumph, just triumph.

(audience continues applauding) - Hi, we're going to the closing ceremonies of the New York Music Festival at the Sony Theater at nine o'clock.

- Nine o'clock!

We're going.

We don't think we're probably gonna win anything but we're just going to- (electronic music playing loudly) - And as the evening progressed, we didn't win anything and we didn't win anything.

- Overture!

And I went, "Did they just call our name for Best of Fest?"

They did.

- And I started laughing.

I just started laughing and I think I hit Krista.

And I was like, "Oh my God, we won!"

(laughs) - I think we all looked at each other and laughed, ran up there got our little award that Barb and I share custody of this award.

- Hi!

- Barb has something to show you.

This says, "Best of Fest Production."

The audience liked us.

- Woo-hoo!

- Thankful, grateful, pleasantly surprised.

I mean, it kind of was the little show that could.

- I mean, you just can't write this stuff any better.

And I think we went and we got milkshakes and just went out into the night feeling like we had this beautiful bow.

We had this beautiful bow on this experience.

(light clicks) - This is the big old folder.

- We had calculated about how much money we thought we were going to make.

And we wrote people at the festival and didn't get a firm response on when we would get our box office receipts.

Asking when we were going to get paid, asking for transparency.

And then we got a phone call from the organizers of the festival and they said, "We need to let you know what's going on."

And they were talking about how they'd been working without salary.

No artist had received any payment.

The Board of Directors had shut them out of any talks and Barb and I were just on the phone with our mouths open and it hit us, I think at the same time that I don't think we're going to get a penny of what we earned.

- And I think like the next day when we had that conversation the news broke.

- New York Musical Festival files for bankruptcy.

And when I saw that I knew it was over.

- So the next step was, how do we keep getting the show out there?

- Yeah, it'll go, it'll go here for now.

With the shoes.

- And we did, I guess you'd call it guerrilla marketing.

We made lists of every community theater, community colleges, colleges that had performing arts programs in the Midwest.

- And it turned out, Overture's getting another life.

- [Man] You probably don't know this show yet, but you will.

It's called Overture.

It's a new musical by Kansas City-based theater professionals, Krista Eyler and Barb Nichols.

- Overture has been licensed by a couple small theaters.

One was a college theater and we got to go see their show.

- Shows that get started writing and then get produced and then go to a festival and get licensed.

That doesn't usually happen in three years.

It just doesn't.

- I'm constantly saying goodbye to Overture, you know, and getting little reminders (sniffs).

And just for the fun of it, I Googled "Overture".

And one of the references that came up was a Wikipedia reference for the New York Musical Festival and under 2019 Best of Fest, Audience Choice Prize: Overture.

And I looked at that and I thought, well, there we are.

There's our little fingerprint.

There's our little mark that we were there, that we did it.

(inspiring string music plays) - I mean, Barb, Barb and I put something on the page but they're the ones who brought it to life.

They're the ones with their sweat and their time and their treasure, made it happen.

I would do it all over again.

And again.

And again, and again, only if I could do that with this group of people.

- Oh my gosh.

I can't imagine a tighter family than, than this cast.

- I keep having to like take myself out of this and look at, look at what's been done.

- It's one of those, it's one of those times that you remember, you know you remember different points in your life like you were there from like, you're looking at it again.

And that is one of the times that I will never forget.

- And you remember what it feels like?

- Yeah.

- Let's, let's do it again.

I don't care if we're all in a retirement home together.

Let's do it again.

- Yeah.

I happened to meet the love of my life during the rehearsal process and who knew, right?

- I noticed someone come in the door and I found myself staring and realized I had stopped playing.

- JC, what has been your favorite part of this week?

- Hm, that's a good question.

(JC laughing) - And you can't say each other, God, gross.

- Who knew that I would fall in love with and marry Krista's brother.

- And that's how it started.

And I knew, I knew that was it.

I knew that was it for me, so.

- Knowing they went bankrupt, knowing we weren't going to make a dime, knowing it would be the hardest thing I think I've just about ever done.

It was also the best thing I've ever done.

I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

- We had this one shot to make our dream come true and we were going to go get it.

And we did go get it.

(stirring overture playing) ♪ [Krista] An overture is a brilliant thing ♪ ♪ It bends and bows the start of everything ♪ ♪ I hear it where he is ♪ ♪ And here am I ♪ ♪ It's the Genesis, the spark, the flame ♪ ♪ It picks up speed, reveals refrains ♪ ♪ I hear it where he is ♪ ♪ And here am I ♪ ♪ An overture releases, an overture supports ♪ ♪ An overture leads places, an overture transports ♪ ♪ Never stays for long ♪ ♪ It keeps moving on ♪ ♪ I hear an overture ♪ ♪ I hear an overture ♪ (strings fade)