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"FIVE AFTER EIGHT" is a show business show about five actors who have just completed a long run of a musical. From there they all try to find other jobs (hopefully in the theater) and, seeing an ad in Show Business one day, they all try out for the same show called "FIVE AFTER EIGHT". They go through auditions and call backs and, despite some set backs in their personal lives, they all end up in the same show that starts and ends with THE CLOSING SONG.
 

 1-SPIRIT SONG
Sally Funk; James Paul Handakas; Dena Olstad; Alan Sorenson; Barbra Walker
Is the show really over? Doesn’t a good show stay with you forever? The spirits of the actors sing to a newcomer explaining what happens when a show closes.

2-TWO OF A KIND  1977-Jeff Moretti & Linda DeMarco
Written for WE’RE NOT WHO WE THINK WE ARE and almost put into FIVE AFTER EIGHT, this is a simple ‘soft shoe for 2 lovable clods’.

3-YOU BETTER WATCH OUT FOR ME-Sally Funk; Dena Olstad; Barbra Walker;
Written for MANHATTAN, my first musical, this was originally sung by Paula, the prostitute as a come-on tease.

4-IT’S NOT WORKING OUT-Dena Olstad
Although it was written into MANHATTAN, it was actually a song reflecting my own life at the time. Written more for a Sarah Vaughan type singer.

5-25 YEARS 1977-Cindy Marcus
Although used in FIVE AFTER EIGHT, this was written for the first scene is Elmer Rice’s play, THE ADDING MACHINE. The character, Mrs. Zero, rants and raves in this monologue about how she’s slaved for her husband of 25 years. This version is not from FIVE AFTER EIGHT but the original demo.

6-WHAT IS FUNNY?-Arthur Alan Sorenson
 Originallly written as a song for an adaptation of Saul Bellow’s, THE LAST ANALYSIS, this was written for an old vaudevillian comic.
 
 
 

                                                        DEMIGOD OF E.78th ST. 1985
                                        Music: Michael Bitterman  Book & Lyrics: Dennis Drogseth

What happens when the miraculous visits the material world of well-off Upper East Siders ˆ where art is fashion and fashion is money?  In this musical comedy, a paunchy satyr-like deity ˆ Faunus ˆ drops in unannounced from his pastoral Eden into an urban world full of mistrust and betrayal. Unwittingly, Faunus becomes the catalyst to sort through fractured relationships, fiscal disasters, and a varied suite of identity crises ˆ which afflict both the spoiled and the hard working with equal
tenacity.  But Faunus, the comically seductive demigod, is himself seduced by the human vulnerabilities and desires around him.  In the end the show it is Faunus own desires that bring about both a reckoning and a reconciliation to the dramas at hand.

8-I REMEMBERED-Leslie Ritter; Pat Dodge
Faunus inspires the rest of the cast to remember a better time when
humans lived more closely in harmony with nature and with each other.

9-ALEX, WOMAN-Amy Fradon
Alex, a driven attorney, with a soft spot for lost causes finds that
she, herself, is becoming something of a lost cause.

                                         WHOSE FANTASY IS THIS?  1985
                                                      Book,  Music & Lyrics; Michael Bitterman

What happens to a man after his wife walks out on him after 6 years? Can he find happiness again on the trail of broken hearts, lost dreams, and nights that go on forever? This album follows our protaganist through the many adventures he encounters while looking for true love.
 

10-THERESA FROM CLUB MED-Michael Bitterman w/Amy Fradon & Leslie Ritter
   Desperately needing to escape, our protaganist goes into the New York Club Med office and while making a reservations for a getaway to Martinique,  he falls in love with the sales lady.

11-THAT SWEET LITTLE MARYLAND TOWN-Michael Bitterman
   We follow our friend to a trip down south where he stops at a restaurant and once again falls in love with the waitress who not only makes the best home fries in these parts and has the sweetest little rosebud in the sweetest little statre, but who, once again, liles to play with hearts.

12- DO YOU EVER THINK OF ME?-Michael Bitterman
     Alone in the middle of the night in bed, with the memories of many recent women and one night stands, he still longs for true love and looks to the one that broke his heart the most.

                                  RASPUTIN  1981 & 2000
                                        Music: Michael Bitterman Book & Lyrics: Dennis Drogseth

Rasputin has been a figure of myth in the 20th Century, a kind of bogeyman.  Yet the real Rasputin was more a mixture of good and evil than simply a villain.  It is his fall from grace that becomes the core of the story.  The show begins with a child‚s simple visions, and ends with a vaudevillian rendition of Rasputin‚s destruction and a cry that heralds the coming tragedy of the Revolution.  The fantastic historical backdrop unfolds upon a stage that becomes an instrument of destruction,
while as a counter point, the music and dialog retain a childlike simplicity and humor. The exhibitionistic Prince Youssoupov, the de facto narrator of the show, and the historical killer of Rasputin, adds to the cabaret-like irony of the production. At the end the audience is left to confront the bogeyman icon that Youssoupov, and a willing media, have left to historical posterity.

13-GOOD THOUGHTS-Harriet & Paul Tomasko
It may seem incredible to modern Americans, but all evidence points to a lasting and devoted marriage between Rasputin and Praskovye. His odd mix of spirituality and sensuality was in the end no secret from his wife, who seemed to understand him from within rather than to judge him from without.  Their marriage was a melancholy affair ? mostly because of his absence and the pressures of political intrigue that eroded both him and their time together.  Some of the lyrics, including the title ?  think only good thoughts ? were taken from Rasputin’s own writings, which were simple, peasant homilies, often designed to encourage people wrestling with fears and doubts.l

14-THE WORLD OUTSIDE-Stephen Scarpulla
Alone, but graced with a child‚s creative imagination, the Tsarovich
sings The World Outside to actors dressed as toy sailors on a toy ship ˆ
all lost to an interior fantasy world inside the royal palace.  The song
is a harbinger of things to come, and a testament to grace and courage
in the face of tragedy.

15-YOUSSOUPOV’S SONG-Steve Quint
In Youssoupov’s Song, Youssoupov reveals his character, ambitions and motives ? which take him far beyond those of a passive narrator.  The actual Felix Youssoupov, who in fact was educated in England and idolized Oscar Wilde, was a cool, logical and ingenious man.  His hatred of Rasputin, however, was irrational and highly personal ? itself a mystery confused by an odd mix of sexual ambivalence, showmanship and cynical exploitation.
 

                             DISCOVERING MAGENTA 1998
                         Music: Michael Bitterman   Book & Lyrics: James Corey Kaufman

Discovering Magenta is a psychological musical for today. Henry, a mental health worker, finds himself stuck in a rut- pining for his ex-girlfriend, and spending too much time with his bumbling roommate Eliot. Suddenly, he finds his ideas of what's normal and what's expected challenged by his classmates, Cole and Rose.  As his outlook on life changes, Henry meets Katrina, a catatonic mental patient, and struggles between wanting to help her deal with her tragic past and wanting to succumb to his own desires for her.  As Katrina's past threatens to destroy her present, Henry must set his own emotional issues aside to help Katrina.  In doing so, he has to find the specks of goodness hidden in life -- he must discover magenta.

16-THIS AIN’T OZ-Vicki Russell
 Life isn't a fairy tale, and this can be all too painfully true for some people.  Rose sings about how the world can be a cruel and difficult place filled with creatures more scary than lions, tigers, or bears.

17-WAKE UP-Mark Rust
is a lullaby, to be sung to a young child upon waking up and starting a day.  While the song itself is quite innocent, it plays a more
sinister role in the context in the musical.

18-CLICHE OF LOVE-Doug Farrell; Amy Fradon
Knowing that you love someone - and yet equally knowing that things are not meant to be - may be one of the hardest things in the world.  In this song Henry and Katrina sing about how sometimes love is  not enough.

                                                           THE CELLAR 1997
                                                    Book, Music & Lyrics: Michael Bitterman

THE CELLAR is a psychodrama musical that deals with mature themes, namely, the sexual fetishes of five
 characters who represent the thousands of fetishists throughout the world who feel guilty for their obsessions. These are people you probably know and see every day of your lives but are unaware of THE CELLAR they are forced to   live in because "society and the law" frown on them.
 The characters in the CELLAR go between being in a group-therapy class and their own ‘cellar’.

19-CLAUDIA-Louis Dall’Ava
 Recalling a girl he saw the other day in a grocery store, Max shifts back to his childhood and a visit from the doctor.

20-AUNT MINA'S NURS'RY SCHOOL-
Harold is an adult baby.

21-MISTRESS FLORA-Susie Taylor
 After lighting the shabbat candles, Nina puts on her leather skirt and boots, gets her whip, and becomes Mistress Flora.
 

  and the finale from FIVE AFTER EIGHT
22-NEW YORK FINALE (cast same as SPIRIT SONG)
followed 13 seconds later by hidden track of NOTHING CAN STAND IN MY WAY-Galen Blum

THE THEATRE'S NEVER DARK is available at :

FOOTLIGHT RECORDS
And at CD BABY

Produced & Recorded by Michael Bitterman at Midnight Mod Recording, Saugerties, NY

Musical Direction & Orchestrations by Michael Bitterman except for FIVE AFTER EIGHT where Ron Williams did musical direction & orchestrations.
Ron Williams-pianist on TWO OF A KIND
Raphe Crystsal-pianist on 25 YEARS
Musicians for FIVE AFTER EIGHT: Ron Williams:Keyboards; Michael Kollmer: Percussion & Vibes; Pat Perrone: Winds; Scott Harris-Bassist
Musicians for DEMIGOD:  Michael Bitterman-Keyboards; Mike Guglielmo-Percussion; Drew Karch-Bass on ALEX
Musicians for  WHOSE FANTASY IS THIS? Michael Bitterman-Keyboards; Eric Parker & Nicholas Parker-Percussion; Richard Morton-Bass; Horns arranged by Josh Schneider. DO YOU EVER THINK OF ME: Vinny Martucci: Piano; Lou Scott: Bass
FIVE AFTER EIGHT is available on Original Cast Records. DISCOVERING MAGENTA  is distributed through Original Cast Records.
www.midmod.com /resume.html  ©2000 by Michael Bitterman