Paul Loesel: "Wicked" Keyboarist and "Up and Coming" Composer

I was recently able to talk for a bit with Paul Loesel, keyboardist of "Wicked," and half of the composing team Burkell and Loesel who are planning the opening of a show Off-Off-Broadway and the release of their first CD this November. Here is the result, for you, my lovely followers… Loesel started his college career majoring as an organ player. He grew up playing it in church, knew he loved music, and decided the life of an organist was for him. This changed when one night, taking a break from his practice room at Western Michigan's school of music, his attention was caught by some choral music down the hall. "I stuck my ear to the door and looked in, and it was the theatre department rehearsing the school's production of Sweeny Todd… There was a woman down there playing piano, and I'm like, 'I wanna do that!'" He immediately switched his major to piano performance, set on becoming a pit musician. And a pit musician he became, starting with Off Broadway and smaller shows, working up to substituting for keyboardists on Broadway shows such as "The Lion King", and finally landing the position of keyboardist for the smash hit "Wicked." "Wicked is my first full time, when I have my own chair," he says of the show he's played for from its opening, "It's the best gig in the world!" Loesel has also found time, when not delighting audiences of one show or another with his keyboard skillz, to write several shows and even more hilarious cabaret songs with his writing partner Scott Burkell. They met doing summer stock at the Barn Theatre in Michigan. "…towards the end of the season, [Scott] just randomly said, 'Have you ever written a song? A theatre song?' And I said, 'No.' He said, 'Do you want to?' And I said, 'sure.'" And thus the partnership was born. The two have collaborated on two musicals, "The Extraordinary Ordinary" (originally "Six of One") and "Ella Minnow Pea." "The Extraordinary Ordinary" is set for an Off-Off-Broadway opening in November at the Clurman Theatre in Theatre Row, and a transfer to Off-Broadway after its limited three week run is in the works. According to Burkell and Loesel's website (www.ScottandPaul.com), "This contemporary musical follows a year in the life of six close friends. The characters, most in their early thirties, question everything: careers, friends, marriages, and even sexuality. This optimistic musical comedy examines the fact that one's life is mostly lived in small day-to-day ways, sitting with a friend and talking about the weather, but in that very smallness is where one often finds the most extraordinary things." The show has had several readings and workshops at Cap 21 and ASCAP and was produced in full at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. It was then set on a shelf for awhile until a representative from Dreamlight Theatre Company approached Burkell and Loesel about the show. "(He) wondered what was going on with the piece and wondered if we were interested in looking at it again. And we thought, 'Well sure, why not?' … In the past year we've really improved the show. We've ripped it to shreds," says Loesel. Five songs were replaced with other songs, new scenes were written, and two new readings have put them to the test. Opening night is set for November 30th at the Clurman. "We're very pleased with where the show is now; very excited to get into our production!" Along with their upcoming show, Burkell and Loesel are planning the release of the first CD of their work. "It's just a collection. We'll say it's the songbook of Burkell and Loesel," Loesel said when asked what material would be included, "We're going to have 13 tracks. Three of those 13 are from 'The Extraordinary Ordinary.'... The other ten songs are cabaret songs we've written over the years: both old, from 12, 13 years ago, and new that we just wrote in the last year or two." The two have a myriad of Broadway friends lined up to take part in the CD: Marin Mazzie, Jason Danieley, Stephanie J. Block, Kate Baldwin, Christopher Fitzgerald, Liz Callaway, Brian D'Arcy James, Jennifer Laura Thompson, Lisa Howard, etc. How were these stars amassed? "[Marin and Jason] actually did our very first reading of 'Six of One.' They were friends of both Scott and I from the Barn Theatre (and)…. I met Stephanie doing Wicked… It's just a matter of Scott and I getting our name out there as new, 'up and coming' composers. That phrase 'up and coming composers' is strange because we've been writing together for 18 years, but still, we're 'up and coming.' " The CD will be released sometime in November, and will most likely be accompanied by a Birdland concert to recreate it live. Loesel's advice for aspiring composers? "Take classes, study with someone, but once you leave college and you're off on your own, feel free to explore and break the rules that you learned. You have to follow your own ear and what you're drawn to musically, whether someone says that's right or wrong, because that will lead to a new sound." And we can't wait to hear the new sounds Burkell and Loesel will be treating us to this November! For more information about the duo and to hear music from their musicals and cabaret shows, visit www.scottandpaul.com. Till latah, Jess