Homer hits a home run with Rocket Boys The Musical which opened with sold-out shows and standing ovations. Now the team is gearing up for the final weekend in West Virginia's Cliffside Amphitheater in Grandview State Park.
The play relates to all audience's and is a story very well known in the Mountain State. The Coalwood, West Virginia native Homer Hickams Rocket Boys is a New York Times #1 bestseller and was made into the hit Hollywood movie October Sky. The book was a runaway worldwide hit, has been translated into dozens of languages, and is now considered a modern American literary classic. In fact, by most accounts, Rocket Boys has become the most read book by students in U.S. schools.
Now, the beloved story that put the far southwestern corner of West Virginia on the world map has been re-imagined as a Broadway-bound stage play Rocket Boys The Musical.
When it comes to the songs for the show, it was key to get the right people involved, and I couldnt be happier with the creative team of Diana Belkowski, Dan Tramon and Carl Anthony Tramon. These Broadway veterans have composed a terrific soundtrack for Rocket Boys; I wouldnt be surprised to see some of these songs wind up on the pop charts, said Hickam of the family team behind the Rocket Boys The Musicals memorable soundtrack. The multi-talented trio includes brothers Carl Anthony Tramon, (who co-wrote the playbook) and Dan Tramon, and sister Diana Belkowski, who serve as lyricists and composers of the shows top-notch soundtrack.
The Artistic Director Marina Hunley-Graham is an excellent stage director and so positive and "uniting" that the impossible can be achieved on a regular basis! Traits of my brother Carl, by the way, so no wonder they operate so wonderfully directing the show together, along with the equally talented eye of co-director Rich Jagunic. And, the cast is just terrific. The two terrific leads here in West Virginia, Chris Bellinger (Homer) and Katherine Yacko (Elsie) are easily Broadway-worthy, just exceptional actors. I know Carl is enjoying sharing a stage with this talented cast while bringing his own Broadway experience with. Everyone here shines in his or her own way, or we wouldn't have cast them. And the tech department in this show should take their own bow each night! The pyro' effects and lighting design personnel are terrific and tireless, according to Diana, referring to the challenges the crew faces in bringing the famous rocket launches and Coalwood Olga coal mine to life nightly on the stage.
Before the current fully staged production by Theatre West Virginia, the trio was instrumental in Rocket Boys The Musicals successful industry readings in New York City, Los Angeles and Huntsville Alabama, where Hickam now lives. The show was a winner of the New York ASCAP / Disney Musical Theatre Workshop and ANMTs Search for New Musical Voices, and is likely headed to Broadway, where its already well known to theatre insiders there.
The brother-sister-brother creative team assembled an all-star cast for the ASCAP reading in New York including Broadway vets like West Virginias own Mark McVey (Les Mis
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