Vicky & Frank is being developed by 8-time Tony-Award-winning producer Joey Parnes and Carson Gleberman. A workshop will be presented in NYC on June 22nd and 23rd. Please contact the Parnes Office to discuss attending, as well as potential partnerships.
Vicky & Frank is a gothic musical comedy set in middle America circa 1950 and loosely based on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. It follows Vicky Godwin, a brilliant 17-year-old who’s building a reanimation device in her garage. After petitioning the school to allow her to take shop class, Vicky befriends Frank Neetins, a popular boy hiding his own dark secret: he’s gay. Finally, she succeeds in reanimating a dead dog—Prince Charming—who promptly grows to monstrous size and starts eating people. As if that weren’t enough, Vicky misinterprets her burgeoning friendship with Frank as romance…and ends up pushing him off a cliff. (Don’t worry. She reanimates him, too.) But when local police mistakenly attribute the rash of killings to Frank, Vicky will have to clear his name herself—all while navigating the murderous canine, a suspicious local journalist, her doting police chief father, her fraying friendships, and her complex feelings for Frank.
Tommy Wallach
Tommy is the author of five YA novels, including the New York Times bestseller “We All Looked Up,” and creator of the miniseries Unspeakable: The JonBenet Ramsey Murder, starring Melissa McCarthy and Clive Owen. Tommy is also the owner of Hatch Escapes, creators of the THEA Award Winning immersive experience “The Ladder” and tabletop game “Mother of Frankenstein.” He was signed to Decca/Universal as a singer-sonwriter.
Book, Music, & Lyrics
Catie Davis
Catie’s recent projects include: The Ghost of John McCain (Off Broadway), Forget Me Not (Riverside Theatre), and The Magnificent Seven (Flint Rep). Catie associate directed Beetlejuice (Broadway, Australia, National Tour), Moulin Rouge (Broadway), Company (Broadway), Baby J (Netflix), and Ben Platt Live from Radio City Music Hall (Netflix).
Director
Set DesignBeowulf Borritt
Beowulf has designed 34 Broadway show, including the Tony Award winning New York, New York (dir. Susan Stroman) and the Tony Award winning set for Act One (dir. James Lapine). He has received four additional Tony Award® nominations for his designs for The Scottsboro Boys and POTUS (dir. Susan Stroman), Flying Over Sunset (dir. James Lapine), and Therese Raquin (dir. Evan Cabnet).
Music DirectorAndrea Grody
Andrea is an Olivier and Drama Desk Award-nominated music director, arranger, and composer. She is currently the Music Director & Music Supervisor of the Broadway musical Suffs, for which she also wrote vocal and incidental arrangements. Andrea was the Music Director, Music Supervisor, and Additional Arranger for the Tony Award-winning musical The Band's Visit (Broadway, Nat’l Tour) and the Broadway musical Tootsie.
Katie Spelman
Katie made her Broadway choreographic debut with The Notebook. She was the associate choreographer on Moulin Rouge for the Boston, Broadway, and Australian companies, as well as a dance consultant on the West End and first US national touring productions. She was an associate on Amelie, American Psycho, and Once on Broadway.
Choreographer
Linda Cho
Linda is a two-time Tony Award winning Costume Designer based in New York City. She received the Tony Award of a Broadway musical for The Great Gatsby and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and she was nominated for a Tony, Outer Critic’s Circle and Drama Desk Award for the Broadway production of Anastasia. Her work in ballet and opera can be seen at The Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, American Ballet Theater, and others.
Costume Design
Sound DesignJessica Paz
Jessica has collaborated on the Broadway productions of Hadestown (Tony and Drama Desk Award), A Beautiful Noise, Dear Evan Hansen, Bandstand, Disaster! The Musical, The Assembled Parties, and Fela! (Tony Award). Off Broadway & Regional credits include: Little Shop of Horrors (Westside Theater); Twelfth Night, Othello, and Julius Caesar (The Public Theater); Water for Elephants (Alliance Theater; SUZI Award); and Kiss My Aztec (Berkeley Rep, CT Critics Circle Award).
Puppet Design
Nicholas Mahon
Nicholas has worked on projects for Michael Curry Design, Walt Disney Entertainment, Broadway, The Jim Henson Company, Blue Man Group and many more. Recent projects include the 2018 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony (Pyeonchang), Little Shop Of Horrors (NYC 2019), and Sesame Street Television (2013-present), Islamic Solidarity Games Opening Ceremony (Baku 2017). His work on the 2015 European Games was nominated for an Emmy.
Cast of Most Recent Reading*
VICKY
Kuhoo Verma (Film: Plan B, Murder Mystery 2, The Big Sick; Theater: Dave Malloy’s Octet)
Vicky’s dearest desire is to be a scientist, but 1950s America makes it tough…so she’s carrying out some secret reanimation experiments in her garage. Like you do.
FRANK
Michael Thomas Grant (TV: Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, Gray’s Anatomy)
Frank is the resident dreamboat at the school. He turns out to be a rebel with a cause: he’s a gay boy growing up in Middle America in the middle of the 20th century.
LINUS
Asher Muldoon (Dear Evan Hansen National Tour)
Linus is a dorky kid with a big crush on Vicky. His family owns a mortuary. He and Samantha have a great duet in Act II. (And a reprise post pitchforking.)
SAMANTHA
Morgan Dudley (Broadway: Jagged Little Pill, current Eurydice in Hadestown; Film: The Prom, Descendants: The Rise of Red)
Vicky’s best friend, sweet-tempered and kind, perpetually steamrolled by Vicky’s enormous personality. She eventually gets pitchforked through the chest. Ouch.
TAFFY
Hailee Ferrier (Broadway: Dear Evan Hansen; current Christine in Masquerade; Regional: Sunset Boulevard at Kennedy Center)
Frank’s ex-girlfriend, Taffy is the catty prom queen type. Not a genius. (That’s a euphemism.)
TUBER
Wes Williams (TV: And Just Like That; Regional: Escape to Margaritaville)
Frank’s best friend, Tuber is a homophobic douche. Thankfully he gets eaten by a monstrous reanimated dog in the second act.
RIGHTY
Courtney Bassett (Broadway: Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812; Off-Broadway: Titanique)
A journalist whose dearest desire is to get moved onto the crime desk. (She also knows all the cool secret LGBT spots.)
MIKE
Clifton Samuels (Broadway: Follies, Amazing Grace; Film: Hail, Caesar)
Vicky’s father: He’s a single dad and a cop. He begins to suspect his daughter might be involved in the strange murders sweeping the community.
MRS. LLEWELYN
Julie James (Program director of SiriusXM’s “On Broadway” channel)
The home ec teacher who initially refuses Vicky’s petition to take shop class, Llewelyn is also a major antagonist. Like Tuber, she eventually gets eaten by a reanimated dog.
MR. HIBBARD
Jeremy Morse (Broadway: Waitress; National Tour: Waitress, Frozen)
Both the high-school principal and its shop teacher, Hibbard is the story’s primary antagonist, used to getting his way and extremely resistant to change.
ENSEMBLE
Molly Model (Favorite Roles: Jovie in Elf, Miss Scarlet in Clue, Mrs. Wormwood in Matilda)
ENSEMBLE
Devin Cortez (Off-Broadway: Americano at New World Stages)
* May ‘24 at Open Jar Studios.