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Connor Russell, Erin Dilly & More Set for Musical Web Series About Teenage Gay Bullying

By: Oct. 14, 2013
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A free musical web series about teenage gay bullying, THE HINTERLANDS, was conceived by the writing team of Michelle Elliott and Danny Larsen (Cloaked, The Yellow Wood). Created as a response to the flood of suicides by bullied LGBTQ youth, THE HINTERLANDS will be available online beginning October 28, 2013.

Meet Paul. He's 16. He's into theoretical physics. He lives in the middle of nowhere. And he's gay. Being a scrawny, queer science nerd practically makes him a bully magnet. And as the harassment piles up, Paul contemplates taking his own life.

In THE HINTERLANDS, a six-part musical miniseries, Paul (Connor Russell, Disney's Aladdin world premiere) struggles to keep his head above water as he confronts intolerance, his sexuality and the rocky path of adolescence. Paul's family is performed by Tony Award-nominee Erin Dilly (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Nice Work If You Can Get It), John Bolton (A Christmas Story, Curtains, Spamalot) and Zoe Considine (A Christmas Story).

Accessible to kids across the country, THE HINTERLANDS will be available via a FREE website that will also include resources and information for kids, parents and teachers who deal with the issue of bullying. The first episode will launch on Monday, October 28, 2013, with subsequent episodes to release weekly thereafter.

THE HINTERLANDS features an array of established and rising Broadway musical theatre stars, including David Andrew Anderson (Meet John Doe), Caitlin Kinnunen (The Bridges of Madison County, Spring Awakening, next to normal), Daniel Quadrino (Newsies, Bye Bye Birdie), Andrew Brewer (Off-Broadway's Cougar, The Musical and Nymph Errant) and Brianne Wylie. Actors from the Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan make appearances as students Paul encounters at school.

THE HINTERLANDS was directed by Brandon Ivie (A Christmas Story, First Date), and was conceived and created by the writing team of Michelle Elliott (script and lyrics) and Danny Larsen (music and lyrics). Alums of NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, Elliott and Larsen have collaborated on Cloaked, for which the team was awarded a Jonathan Larson Grant and Elliott received the Kleban Award for the Most Promising Librettist, and The Yellow Wood, which won a Richard Rodgers Development Award and Daryl Roth Award. Their shows have had productions, workshops and readings at the New York Musical Theatre Festival (winning the Excellence in Music award), National Alliance for Musical Theatre, CAP21 Theatre Company, Vital Theatre Company, and Village Theatre, among others. They are currently working on Maiden Voyage, a musical about the legendary female pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonney.

For more information on THE HINTERLANDS, please visit http://www.hinterlandsthemusical.com.




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