Closer Than Ever

JBMT presents another Off-Broadway gem by Maltby & Shire

”What would you give to buy some electric eye that would let you spy on what’s behind those doors“? Even as we share everything from our food presentations to our relationship status on social media, there’s still so much that we like to hide. "Closer Than Ever," the hit off-Broadway musical revue that opened in 1989, dares to look behind those private doors. The intricacies of our social, work and love lives are revealed to the audience through a series of smart, clever songs by Richard Maltby Jr (Lyrics) and David Shire (Music). 

“Closer Than Ever” is Jewel Box Musical Theater’s follow up to our first show “Starting Here, Starting Now”, which was written by the same composers. It’s almost a sequel. Where “Starting Here, Starting Now” was about fresh dreams, new ambitions and first-times, “Closer Than Ever” delves into the complicated lives of people in their 40s and up. Themes of romance, friendship, marriage, parenthood, aging, second chances, and the everyday challenges we all face, like "Who’ll watch the kid today?” form the spine of this set of relatable, interconnected stories.

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Set in a small apartment in an unspecified  big city, “Closer than Ever takes the audience on an intimate journey through the lives of four close friends. The stories they tell open our eyes to their sensibly-adjusted hopes, closely-held fears, quirky idiosyncrasies, and periodic nervous breakdowns. Sometimes it’s the story behind the story that reveals the truth.

JBMT is thrilled to welcome actor Mariano Skroce as a new cast member, who completes the circle of friends (along with returning actors Krissy Dorn, John Rinaldi and Merel Zeeman). We are also excited to bring the “Starting Here, Starting Now” creative team back together with Heike Werntgen as our Stage Director, Frans Heemskerk as Musical Director, and Maarten Helsloot at the piano.

While they may not be as famous as Rodgers and Hammerstein, Andrew Lloyd Webber, or Stephen Sondheim, Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire are equally formidable composers. Their first Broadway credit was for contributing a song to “New Faces of 1968”. Together, they wrote the scores for “Baby” (1983, which Maltby also directed) and “Big” (1996). Both “Baby” and “Big” won the Tony Award for Best Original Score. Their musical “Take Flight” was presented at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London in 2007, “Love Match” played at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles in 1968, and  “How Do You Do, I Love You!”, played in summer stock in 1967. A number of their songs have also been recorded by Barbara Streisand, who used them on her albums and TV specials. The Original Cast Album of “Starting Here, Starting Now” (1977) won a Grammy Award for Best Original Cast Recording.

David Shire is well-known for his film scores to “All The President’s Men”, ”Saturday Night Fever”, ”Short Circuit”, and “The Conversation”, (the latter directed by Francis Ford Coppola). Richard Maltby, Jr. is best known for the two Tony-Award-winning revues he conceived and directed, ”Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “Fosse”, both of which enjoyed long runs on Broadway. He was also the director and Co-Lyricist (with Don Black) for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Song and Dance” starring Bernadette Peters (1986), Co-Lyricist for the Broadway production of “Miss Saigon” (1989), and Lyricist for “Sousatska” at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto in 2017.

Maltby and Shire met at Yale in their student years, and have been occasional collaborators ever since. They are currently working on a new musical revue, which we hope to bring you in a year or two.