TV Exclusive: CUTTING-EDGE COMPOSERS CORNER- Nic Rouleau Sings Benjamin Velez's 'Neverland'

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This week's featured composer is Benjamin Velez. Benjamin Velez is a composer/lyricist and recent Columbia University graduate where he studied film and wrote the 114th Annual Varsity Show. He is a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater workshop where he was named the Jerry Harrington award winner for the 2nd year workshop. His work has been featured as part of AWOL's 8 Minute Musicals at NYMF, The Platform concert series, and in last year's NEO concert. He is currently workshopping his original musical Afterland with collaborator Kathryn Hathaway, and recently premiered the title song at Joe's Pub as part of the latest CEC concert. While originally from Miami, he is now happy to call New York home sweet home.

We are excited to share this video of his song Neverland, sung by The Book of Mormon's Nic Rouleau at CEC last summer:

Benjamin let us know about his writing process for this song:

"Neverland was written while I was still in college and was more a love letter to my mother than anything else, well a love/hate letter. I think one of the hardest times for everyone is navigating the transition from childhood to adulthood, and after spending most of the year living independently, figuring out the kind of adult you are, then having to come home for vacation and suddenly regress back to a state where every decision is questioned and criticized? It's incredibly frustrating. With this song I wanted to try and capture that feeling, as well as acknowledge how we always stay children in our parents eyes, and really, though we hem and haw, we're secretly glad to have someone always watching our backs. (but don't tell my mom I said that)."

Cutting-Edge Composers is a platform for the next generation of musical theatre writers who have not yet been produced on Broadway. Cutting-Edge Composers was co-founded by Director/Producer Laura Pietropinto and Josh Young, and and is co-produced by Jillian Robbins, with Music Direction by Julie McBride and Virginia Hart Pike. Stay tuned for original music by all of your favorite Cutting-Edge Composers sung by Broadway's hottest performers!