Sometimes an actor's best backstory is their own.
On April 29, 2010, Sherie Rene Scott's quasi-autobiographical musical Everyday Rapture opened on Broadway. The musical recounted her life as a young woman on a psycho-sexual-spiritual journey from her Mennonite upbringing to a career in show business.
The show slipped in at the end of the 2009-10 season when Roundabout Theatre Company shut down rehearsals on Lips Together, Teeth Apart, due to Megan Mullally quitting the production. Scrambling to fill the spring slot at then-named American Airlines Theatre, Roundabout invited the cast and creatives of Everyday Rapture to remount their show, which ran Off-Broadway in 2009 at Second Stage Theatre.
The hard-to-define meta-theatrical musical mixes pathos with absurd humor while drawing from an eclectic pop songlist, including tunes written by Fred Rogers (of Mister Rogers Neighborhood), Tim Rice, Elton John, David Byrne, Harry Nilsson, Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, Johnny Mercer and Harry Warren, Gabriel Alexander Roth, Tom Waits, David Byrne, and more. The show had been developed in benefits, concerts and rehearsals since 2006; at one time it was called You May Now Worship Me.
Tony winner Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening) directed Everyday Rapture for Second Stage, and returned to stage the Broadway production. Scott (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Last Five Years) played a hyper-theatrical version of her own persona. Her 2009 Second Stage cast mates came with her, including Eamon Foley (13) and Lindsay Mendez and Betsy Wolfe in the early stages of their careers. Riley Costello and Natalie Weiss served as understudies.
Scott received a Best Actress Tony Award nomination for her performance, and shared a Best Book Tony nomination with writer Dick Scanlan. A limited run, the production closed July 11, 2010, having played 11 previews and 84 performances.
The Everyday Rapture creative team included choreographer Michele Lynch, orchestrator and arranger Tom Kitt (Next to Normal), music supervisor Michael Rafter and music director Marco Paguia. The design team included Christine Jones (sets), Tom Broecker (costumes), Kevin Adams (lights), Brian Ronan (sound) and Darrel Maloney (projections). The Sh-K-Boom Records/Ghostlight cast album was released on iTunes. While the show is occasionally produced regionally, much of it hinges on Scott's presence, making wider distribution impossible.
To learn about other theatrical milestones that also occurred April 29, visit the Playbill Vault.
