2010/11 season > The Composer is Dead
The Composer is Dead
written by lemony snicket
music by nathaniel stookey
set, costume and marionette design by phantom limb
directed by tony taccone
main season | roda theatre
november 26, 2010–january 15, 2011 
world premiere
the play
The show must go on? But the actor is mute, the director is crying, the dancer is lazy—and the composer is dead! This holiday season, Berkeley Rep presents a deliciously silly world premiere from beloved Bay Area artists. The Composer is Dead features text by bestselling author Lemony Snicket and a score by (living) composer Nathaniel Stookey. It’s a new theatrical adaptation of this wildly popular piece. Tony Taccone’s raucous production unleashes laughs through classic clowning and plenty of uppity puppets from the pioneering Phantom Limb Company (Jessica Grindstaff and Erik Sanko, Co-Artistic Directors). When Geoff Hoyle pops up as an outlandish inspector bent on solving a murderous riddle, the show crescendos into comic absurdity. To the delight of children and adults alike, The Composer is Dead comes alive on stage.
the players
Lemony Snicket (a.k.a. Daniel Handler) penned A Series of Unfortunate Events, the fantastically successful collection of kids’ books, as well as three novels for adults.
Nathaniel Stookey is the youngest composer ever commissioned by San Francisco Symphony’s New and Unusual Music Series. His works include Big Bang, Junkestra, Wide as Skies and Zipperz.
Tony Taccone’s productions of Bridge & Tunnel and Wishful Drinking moved to Broadway, Brundibar and Taking Over played off-Broadway and Continental Divide transferred to London.
Geoff Hoyle has performed on Broadway, off Broadway and under the big top. Audiences at Berkeley Rep saw him in The Convict’s Return and Geni(us) before those shows toured the world.
Phantom Limb’s puppets have been spotted with distinguished artists like Danny Elfman and the Kronos Quartet in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Los Angeles, New York and Paris.
the buzz
“A hugely enjoyable undertaking for young and old alike…The piece seems destined to become a classic.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“He has become the Roald Dahl of our day, plying 11-year-olds with eloquently gleeful nastiness…Under the preposterous pen name of Lemony Snicket, he is a superstar, whose children’s books, collectively entitled A Series of Unfortunate Events, have all been international bestsellers.”—London Guardian
“Older children will pick up more of the satirical nuances in the tale, but any young listener is sure to enjoy the animated sounds as Stookey’s score playfully evokes the character of each instrument in turn. Parents, meanwhile, will relish the witty quotations from well-known pieces by Beethoven, Chopin, Stravinsky and others.”—Time Out New York
“A grimly humorous detective story…Author Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket) is an unapologetic champion of classical music, and with Stookey, another San Francisco native, he has created perhaps the best response to the tiresome trope of the death of classical music.”—Washington Post
“It’s a great piece of music, with spectacularly lousy text.”—Daniel Handler
For the holidays, beloved author Lemony Snicket (a.k.a. Daniel Handler) brings his deliciously silly humor to Berkeley Rep with the world premiere of The Composer is Dead.
(Photo by Meredith Heuer)
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