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Tinsletown Tiptoe

Tinseltown Tiptoe

In Development

Story by Nicholas Coster & Heather Reid
Book by Nicholas Coster
Music and Lyrics by Heather Reid
Directed by Spencer Liff
Orchestrations by Tom Kitt and Steve Sidwell
Executive Producer Christine Russell

Tinseltown Tiptoe is set in a fictional 1950s Hollywood. The old studio system is in tatters and television is taking over. In 1950 there were 3 million TV owners in the US, by the late 50s that number had swelled to 50 million. Old movie studios saw their profits sink as they struggled to catch up with and capitalize on this new media sensation. Talent, old and new, was repurposed for television. Writers churned out westerns, cop dramas, game shows and comedies, desperately trying to fill the airwaves and attract advertisers. Actors who'd barely made a mark on the silver screen were now a sought after commodity. With the glut of celebrities came the scandal sheets.

Tabloid newspapers and magazines fed America's bottomless appetite for gossip; the more lurid and explicit the better. Hollywood, rife with illicit drugs and homosexual sex, was the perfect hunting ground. Careers were ruined and lives lost with the swipe of a pen. Against this background we meet Dora Gentry and Clifford Stone on the set of Dora's variety television show. Dora is fighting to escape from the man who controls her career, studio head Mason Blackwell. Clifford is a rising star with the world at his feet, as long as the world doesn't discover his secret. Together with their found family they fight to control their own destinies and find true happiness.

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dear bernard

In Development

book, Music & Lyrics by Heather Reid

New York City - 1973. The city is awash in excess, playing host to the hottest parties and people of the moment. “Dear Bernard” tells the timeless tale of a small town English girl seeking fame and glamour in in America - with a twist.

Chelsea Mills - our exuberant English import - arrives in New York and is quickly discovered by the Liberace of fashion photographers, who propels her to the top of the “body part model” biz.

Her legs light up the hosiery billboards in Times Square and her sparkling teeth adorn the bus stops across Queens and Brooklyn, hawking the latest toothpaste flavor. Caught up in the swirl of glamour and money, fragmented in both her personal and professional life, Chelsea strives for success at any price. Real “success” seems just beyond Chelsea's reach. But how do you know when you're there? Who congratulates you upon your arrival? And if the people congratulating you are strangers - have you succeeded? These answers, high kicks, sexy body part models and great songs can be found in the new musical “Dear Bernard”