Below are the entire ten episodes from my first Webseries “The Manhattan Boys”. Watching the whole series will take you about two and a half hours, and I hope you will enjoy it and that you will keep watching to the tenth and final episode. Trust me, it gets better as it goes along.
The Manhattan boys started filming in December of 2008 and premiered on YouTube Jan 1, 2009. Charlie Hagerty (who plays Bruce) and I were in the Chicago cast of WICKED together and we had both been hired to join the newly forming second national tour. I had never toured with a musical before and wanted something to work on while traveling. I came up with the broad idea of filming the life of a musical on tour… while actually on tour. But I didn’t want it to be completely autobiographical or a travel Blog. Charlie suggested I make it a crappy children’s musical tour. And then I thought… how about “Dumpster Baby” the musical?
So the story was set with Charlie and I in the lead as two jaded New Yorkers who went from town to town judging everything in our paths. Alicia Albright came on board as the third cast member and completed the cast with her hilarious portrayal as “that stereotypical musical theater girl everyone is annoyed by”.
We filmed the first three episodes in Chicago and had a blast figuring everything out. It was my first time actually writing scripts down on paper, and taking the directing hat. I was also learning how to edit and use a camera properly. On tour though, it was more difficult to film. Fluctuating schedules and travel days left us with very little time to ourselves, let alone to film an entire episode in every city Wicked played. We lasted pretty long though; Eight different cities are featured throughout the run of the series.
I learned an incredible amount doing this series and as I continue to make videos I look back at “The Manhattan Boys” as a time of growth in my film making. Episode to episode I see my editing and filming techniques improve. More importantly, I see my friends and fellow actors growing as artists and allowing themselves to settle into some pretty amazing on camera performances (who says musical theater people can’t act?).
Even with articles on Playbill, BroadwayWorld and TubeFilter, The Manhattan Boys never managed to find a large audience. I like to think of it is a little hidden gem waiting to be discovered. The Manhattan Boys remains my biggest loving tribute to theater thus far and I am grateful to have helped create so many amazing characters. So sit back, grab a drink, and enjoy the show.
