About the Project
The show begins with everyone singing with how excited they are to be on the trip with the song “Away We Go”. The show continues with Hadley leading a more detailed explanation of what he’s expecting to see on the road and gives a laundry list of landmarks and destinations to help us visualize what they’re going to see. The opening moment ends with Daisy who feels like the outsider of the group who knows her friends understand the basics of her being, but don’t know the details and laments about finding/expressing these things in her song “Details”. While on the road, Charlie tells a story of going to see his ex-girlfriend before the trip that everyone is waiting to hear. The song is presented as a two-part moment with “Off to Atlanta” that leads immediately into “Stay” as the Micah character doubles as Charlie’s ex who sings about the reasons she left and why she needs to stay and Charlie should not. The story of unrequited love triggers Frankie to give in to her dormant desires for Hadley and goes in for a kiss when the moment strikes. The song “The Kiss” centers on the aftermath of the kiss between longtime friends and each person’s expectations thereafter.
While driving at night, Daisy still looks for details and feels like everything she says goes unheard and bounces back to her and sings a song “Echo” to express her frustration of the trip not going to plan. When they arrive to New York City, Micah thinks about all of the history of the city and can’t help of celebrate in the song “Dancing in the City”. After the song, Charlie finds himself on the top floor of a building and has a Hamlet-esque moment of existential crisis and heartbreak to which he considers jumping off the building and wonders what it would feel like to be “Weightless” on the way down. The next day, Daisy receives a call that her ailing mother has been sent to hospice as her dementia has worsened and grapples with how to handle the news and if she should continue the trip in the song “The Call”. After the song she decides she wants to go home and leads the trip home.
While driving at night, Micah starts to feel the fatigue of a road trip and starts to feel the nights are longer in the song “Short Days and Long Nights”. After the kiss between Hadley and Frankie, they share “A Moment of Clarity” and understand they won’t have a future together, but happily reflect on what might have been. When they get back to town, Cole songs “Slow Down” to help Daisy cope with her life going so fast and to day life a day at a time. Charlie notices Daisy’s frustration and expresses his feelings for her that he developed on the trip in the song “Right in Front of You”.
The show concludes “Autumn Leaves Fall” with everyone going their separate ways with happy memories of their trip, new motivation moving forward, but underscored with trepidation about the unknown of what’s coming next for each of them.
Production Team
