New Musical from Jill Santoriello in the Works

Could we be seeing a new Broadway show from Jill Santoriello?

The A TALE OF TWO CITIES songwriter is working on a new musical, IT HAPPENED IN KEY WEST, a dark love story based on the true account of Carl Von Cosel, an X-ray technician who attempted to cure a young Cuban patient and in the process fell in love with her, but after she died, he could not let go.

Book and additional lyrics are by Jason Huza, and the project is produced and conceived by Jeremiah James. Click here to listen to the first song from the show, "What More Could I Wish For?" recorded by Mandy Gonzalez.

Carl Tanzler, or sometimes Count Carl von Cosel, was a German-born radiologic technologist at the United States Marine Hospital in Key West, Florida who developed a morbid obsession for a young Cuban-American tuberculosis patient, Elena Milagro "Helen" de Hoyos (July 31, 1909 - October 25, 1931), that carried on well after the disease had caused her death. In 1933, almost two years after her death, Tanzler removed Hoyos's body from its tomb, and lived with the corpse at his home for seven years until its discovery by Hoyos's relatives and authorities in 1940.

Jill Santoriello is an American musician, composer, lyricist, and author. She is a self-taught musician (playing piano "by ear") whose award winning first musical A Tale of Two Cities was an Outer Critics Circle Award nominee for Outstanding New Musical in 2009.

Santoriello was born in Summit, New Jersey and grew up in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, and graduated from Governor Livingston High School in 1983.

On September 18, 2008, Santoriello's Broadway musical adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities officially opened at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in New York, from previews on August 19. The musical's producers announced on November 4 that the show would be closing on November 16, but closed earlier than expected on November 9.

In addition to the 2009 Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for Outstanding New Musical, "Tale" also received an additional Outer Critics Circle nomination for Best Actor and 3 Drama Desk Award nominations. The world premiere production at the Asolo Theatre was nominated for 12 Sarasota Theater Awards and won 10, including "Best Musical".

In 2009, Santoriello adapted the musical for the concert stage and co-produced a television filming of the concert at the historic Theater Royal in Brighton, England. This television program will be broadcast on public television, WGBH-Boston in December 2009 and a DVD of the show will be made available. Santoriello also co-produced an accompanying studio recording of the score for simultaneous release with the television show.

She also contributed to the music and lyrics to the musical version of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander. Music by Kevin Walsh and lyrics by Mike Gibb.

She is currently writing a musical of the 1913 Eleanor H. Porter novel Pollyanna.

Source: Adweek