Where do I find info about In My Life, by Joseph Brooks

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 5/31/18 at 10:13pm

So, I'm sure a lot of us have heard of In My Life, the show written, composed, and directed by Oscar-winning jingle writer Joseph Brooks, which has often been cited as the most bizarre Broadway Musical ever made. To quote Playbill's summary of the show:

"A love story between a young woman journalist who has obsessive-compulsive disorder and singer-songwriter with Tourette syndrome, its characters also included a slovenly, jingle-loving God who wears a baseball hat, and a transvestite angel who has a dance number with a skeleton. The finale featured a giant lemon."

Here's the deal: This sounds like the most amazing train wreck ever. I've seen so-bad-it's-good movies, but I've never heard of a so-bad-it's-good stage musical, at least not of this caliber. You can't just dangle an auteur-piece with mental illness-laden romance and a musical number involving giant citrus fruits in front of me and not expect me to find this show.

The issue is, I can't find anything about this show, save for two promotional pictures on an article about the opening. There's no cast recording, no promo footage, no bootlegs, nothing I can find about this show. Anyone have any ideas about where to find some of it?

I can't be deprived of a garbage pile as glorious as In My Life.

[NYadgal]

Posted: 5/31/18 at 10:21pm

Oh, it was gloriously awful. I’m sure there are threads about it in the BWW archives.

Did anything come up using the search?

The memories!!

[NYadgal]

Posted: 5/31/18 at 10:23pm

I don’t know how I got it (maybe my ticket purchase) but I have a CD single of one of the songs.

[tourboi]

Posted: 5/31/18 at 10:55pm

I worked on the show for a bit. Feel free to DM any questions. It was... unique. 

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 5/31/18 at 11:01pm

I have the CD single, too. They were handing them out the night I saw DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS. No, I don’t know why. I don’t think I ever listened to it.

Updated On: 6/1/18 at 11:01 PM

[Famebroadway2]

Posted: 6/1/18 at 9:13am

I saw it too! I will never forget the dancing skeletons, the gigantic lemon, or the dead girl riding around on a scooter. I seem to remember the filing cabinet set (in heaven?) being pretty impressive.

[musikman]

Posted: 6/1/18 at 9:36am

Saw it from the front row during thanksgiving weekend. Must have been only 300 people in the audience at best.

I think by the time I saw it, after hearing reports of it being the most ridiculously campy train wreck ever, I just found it to be bizarrely and boringly bad. Sure it had plenty of ridiculous campy moments (the giant lemon, the random Italian aria, the dancing skeleton number - which most of the audience sincerely laughed and clapped with - the character with Tourette’s, etc...), but when it wasn’t campy, it was just plain old mind bogglingly BAD.

I remember David Turner looking down at us at the curtain call with a face of “why aren’t you clapping and cheering loudly?!?” He did the best he could with a ridiculously over the top, campy stereotype and managed to garner a few honest laughs.

I recall parts of the audience genuinely enjoying it and not understanding particularly why. I spoke with Jessica Boevers after the show as someone in the group I was with knew her. There was a bit of a look of pity on her face. They all knew they were in something utterly ridiculous and bad (and they admitted as such) but it was still a job and they gave their all. I admired that.

Updated On: 6/1/18 at 09:36 AM

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 6/1/18 at 10:38am

If you want a semblance of a clue of what the show was like, you could check out the Broadway Abridged version. It was by far more entertaining.

[Kylechristopherwest]

Posted: 6/1/18 at 11:29am

I have a 21 track demo recording. Email me at [e-mail] and I can send it your way.