TV Exclusive: CUTTING-EDGE COMPOSERS CORNER- Sean Mahoney and Creighton Irons' 'Live Free or Die'

We have no tricks, but definitely a treat for you this week: a song from Sean Mahoney and Creighton Irons' musical Factory Girls! Brooke Sunny Moriber is on lead vocals, while Alison Cusano, Kate Ferber and Molly Hager sing backup in this video loaded with girl power from our CEC concert at the Canal Room.

Writer Sean Mahoney told us about the process for writing this song within the context of the show:
"We wrote 'Live Free Or Die' after we presented the first full draft of FACTORY GIRLS in April of 2008. We felt that the show's score needed a brighter, defiantly optimistic sound that could convey the country resilience these girls carried from their New England homes into the industrial city of Lowell, MA. Though the title phrase was not adapted as New Hampshire's official state motto until the mid-1900s, we saw it as the perfect expression of this spirit. The phrase's meaning is purposefully ambiguous: while the girls gained financial independence unlike any they would receive on The Farm, they also sacrificed the 'country air', trading the rhythms of the sun for the dictates of the bell; so, which is more free? What seems to be an exclamation becomes a conditional statement in the context of a musical; 'if I die, then you'll know I wasn't free'. In our most recent draft of FACTORY GIRLS with bookwriters Rob Ackerman (Volleygirls) and Sam Forman (Netflix's House Of Cards), "Live Free or Die" kicks off the second act."

CREIGHTON IRONS is a composer/lyricist originally from North Carolina. Full-length musicals include Factory Girls (with Sean Mahoney; NAMT 2009, Goodspeed, Boston Conservatory, Pace University), The Moon and the Sea, and Staying Wild (with Janet Allard) and Homefront (with Craig Slaight), commissioned by ACT in San Francisco. He works as a teaching artist with Lincoln Center, Roundabout Theater, and the Hunts Point Alliance for Children.

Sean Mahoney is a Manhattan-based rock musical theater writer. His works have been developed and performed at Goodspeed Opera House, Boston Conservatory, Pace University, ACT-San Francisco, Ars Nova, Lesley University, and NAMT. Recent projects include FACTORY GIRLS (with Rob Ackerman, Sam Forman and Creighton Irons), Prep School Musical (w/Forman), The Bride Comes To Yellow Sky (w/Irons), Sweet Cassandra-A Greek Rock Opera (w/Amy Burgess), Twilight-The Musical (w/Ashley Griffin and other composers), and the ten-minute musical Diaper Derby (w/Janet Allard). He has been a professional guitarist, DJ, and producer for the past 12 years and lives in the East Village with his family.