Skip to main content

Winner Take All ( A Rock Opera) : A NYC Fringe Winner




Winner Take All ( A Rock Opera) is the story of two (possibly teen) lovers -- Catie (Anna Eilinsfeld ) and Ricky (Jared Zirilli), who get entangled in the cosmic musical battle between the bands of heaven and hell.


Trent Armand Kendall is the Narrator - someone between God and a Sunday preacher - who keeps the story moving. Jacquelyn Graham is Sally, the archangel who encompasses all the glories of soul and jazz. Her two angels are Ivory (charming Darren Lorenzo) and Chardonnay (sassy Kyle Lamar Mitchell).


The Devil is star of course. Brian Charles Rooney can do things with his voice and his charm that are a match for his role. The two Devilettes: Zakiya Young as Scarlett and Kat Nejat as Beaujolais are, of course, irresistible.


Winner is in every sense an opera, not a musical. The songs move the story along with only the briefest dialogue between sets.


The characters might at first all seem stock from the everlasting character prop shop--but they are cleverly drawn from a variety of myths. The star crossed lovers (Romeo and Juliet anyone?) Those two Devilettes trying to get Ricky and then Catie to sign a contract (sounds like Faust?) Ricky with a guitar and having to go across a river to get Catie back. (Orpheus with lyre, going to Hades, to get Euridice?)


Without spelling it out quite that bluntly, the plots of some not-Rock operas are there, cleverly wrapped under a smooth coat of the infinite variety of genres of rock music.

From Catie’s poignant arias on love, to the Devil’s ranting showmanship, with the rhythm and blues, soul and jazz of Sally and her hip-hopping Angels, this is a whirl wind world musical tour.


Whether in trios or ensembles, the heaven and hell teams step up to the plate and bat 110 % each time.


Skip Brevis, the writer with Claudia Brevis, as well as Musical director and Keybooardist/Conductor is the major force behind the show.


While there were some moments when the words were not clear due to acoustics of the venue (45 Bleeker), the combo of classic stories with re-freshed rock compositions were a piece that could continue well beyond the New York International Fringe Festival.


Check out at Website: http://winnertakeallmusical.com/index.html


Picture: Brian Charles Rooney with Zakiya Young and Kat Nejat (photo credit: Russell Rowland)

Popular posts from this blog

  Once is here again!   The Brooklyn Gallery Players reach into the treasure chest of great musicals to bring Once alive and on stage in Brooklyn (until to December 17, 2023). Director Mark Gallagher , and Music Directors David Fletcher and Brendon McCray have crafted a vibrant production, seamlessly integrating the 15 member cast in roles  as both actors and musicians. Set in Dublin, the  formula for the poignant love triangle  is simple. Patrick Newhart  plays Guy, an Irish musician who has given up  on love as he sings the award winning classic  Falling.  Newhart mastered the bombastic busking guitar style and performed each of his songs with intensity and passion Sophie Smith-Brody  is Girl,  a Czech woman  who will inspire him to try again both in  love and with music. Smith-Brody performed each of her disparate songs with aplomb,  from the opening classical piece to her plaintive solos – If You Want...
Read more
  Sarah Ruhl’s Orlando — sparkling wit and ageless wisdom —   at   Constellation Theatre — gone but not forgotten In Virginia Woolf’s Orlando A Biography ,  the eponymous hero undergoes many changes over the centuries— from roles in society and relationships to sex change.  Since the time travel gender bending work was published in 1928, this his/her story has continued to undergone adaptions to its original form, from analytical scholarly critiques to crowd pleasing  movies and stage plays.  Constellation Theatre Company continued  the tradition with its amazing presentation of Sarah Ruhl’s narrative play Orlando .    Five actors  take on dozens of roles as characters or in the  chorus to keep the story at its rapid pace,  condensing events spanning almost five centuries into 100 minutes.   Orlando (Mary Myers) is  ever the aristocrat whether as a page in the court of  Queen Elizabeth I (Alan Naylor)...
Read more
From EUGENE ONEGIN  to  DER ROSENKAVALIER  (Or Everything you want to know about love is at the MET OPERA) Great music and great literature meet on a great stage at the Met Opera’s production of Eugene Onegin on the big screen on April 25, 2017.  The words are Pushkin’s from his  Russian novel-poem.  The music is by Tchaikovsky  for what he termed “lyrical scenes.” Tchaikovsky’s music is forever embedded in our consciousness  with his fantasy ballets like  Nutcracker   and Swan Lake .   Pushkin’s work has provided the inspiration for dozens of musical works, including another famous Russian opera, Boris Godunov.     This team of Tchaikovsky and Pushkin is a sure thing but while there are many scholarly interpretations of Pushkin’s work, there is none that so gets it at its core as this opera. Using the very words from Pushkin’s poem,  Tchaikovsky built the opera through a series of powerful co...
Read more