Echolocation
Book and Lyrics by Sam Norman, Music by Eliza Randall
Developed with Alie B. Gorrie
Book and Lyrics by Sam Norman, Music by Eliza Randall, Developed with Alie B. Gorrie
A road trip musical in the dark. A teenage love story without a map.
Echolocation is a one-of-a-kind show: a musical designed to be performed in pitch blackness.
Teenage best friends Ethan and Sadie are polar opposites – he’s a street-smart athlete who grew up inches above the poverty line, she’s a blind intellectual who’s sick of her overprotective family. When a DNA test reveals that Ethan’s long-lost father is alive, it’s a chance for him to chase the family he’s never met and for her to escape the parents who never let her go. And so the secret road trip begins.
Echolocation is currently under option.
What’s an audio-only musical? How can they be creatively exciting and widely accessible? Some thoughts here.
Listen to a demo song, sung by Mason McDowell
The Yellow Wallpaper
Book and Lyrics by Sam Norman, Music by Eliza Randall
Book and Lyrics by Sam Norman, Music by Eliza Randall
1892. A country mansion on the East Coast. A bright yellow bedroom.
A young woman is suffering from an unidentifiable postpartum disorder, and the doctor prescribes bedrest until she recovers. She’s not allowed to see her baby. But that night, while the rest of the house sleeps, she realises she may not be alone...
Dealing with themes of isolation, mental health and motherhood, this piece is a musical retelling of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s classic short story, written under the spectre of COVID. It received its virtual premiere courtesy of HARP Theatricals and its stage premiere at Alleyway Theatre, both in 2021; it was also a finalist for the Mazumdar Short Play Prize. It has been featured in the Irvington Theater Short Play Fest and performed by Blank Conversations Theatre Company at the Readers Theatre, New Mexico State University.
What Critics Say
“An impressive little musical... [which] amplifies its feminist elements” – Theater Talk
“Just as timely now as it ever could be” – Buffalo Rising
“The tale still resonates” – Buffalo News
“Eerie and strangely beautiful” – Buffalo Theatre Guide
“Unmistakable resonance” – New York Theater
Nice Guy
Book and Lyrics by Sam Norman, Music by Aaron King
Book and Lyrics by Sam Norman, Music by Aaron King
Told through a series of musical letters, Nice Guy is the story of an unfolding relationship. A student moves to London; she knows no-one and dislikes her course; and then she meets an attractive, pretentious, charmingly awkward man called Dash. Her letters home seem effusively happy – but do they tell the whole truth?
Created in partnership with the charity Clean Slate, infused with plenty of humour and hope, Nice Guy explores the darkness of what can go on in a relationship.
It received its premiere at the Burton Taylor Studio in 2018 (an extended sell-out run), a workshop with Emmy-winning director Hugh Wooldridge and students of the Guildford School of Acting, and was a 2020 Finalist in the Eric Weinberger Award hosted by Amas Musical Theatre. Over its lifetime, it has raised thousands of pounds for Clean Slate.
What Critics Say
“Gut-wrenching” – Oxford Opening Night
“Astounding” – Cherwell, 5* review
“Dazzled by its artistic quality” – Daily Info