THE FITZGERALDS OF ST. PAUL Album Launches Kickstarter Campaign

A Kickstarter campaign has launched to raise money for the upcoming star-studded concept album of the new musical, The Fitzgeralds of St. Paul. The two-actor chamber musical dramatizes the tumultuous marriage of Jazz Age literary legends F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald – two brilliant artists struggling with addiction, mental illness, professional jealousy and secret ambitions – whose love for each other was as poetic as it was mutually destructive. 

Featuring book, music and lyrics by Christie Baugher, winner of the American Theatre Wing’s 2022 Jonathan Larson Grant and the ASCAP Foundation’s Harold Adamson Lyrics Award, The Fitzgeralds of St. Paul is part memory play, part gin-soaked vaudeville – dreamlike and hypnotic, witty, and heartbreaking – a devastating love story that spans decades and continents. 

The album will feature performances by Heidi Blickenstaff, Jewell Wilson Bridges, Jessica & Santino Fontana, Grace McLean, Shannon O’Boyle, Tiffany Topol, and Alysha Umphress, in addition to newly announced performers Raúl Esparza, Judy Kuhn and Julie Benko. Additional talent will be announced at a later date. This recording will feature the complete score from the show – orchestrated for an ensemble of 12 musicians – and with each song performed by a different theater star. 

 This project was made possible through the generous support of the American Theatre Wing, and a Saw Island Foundation Recording Grant, and in collaboration with Switchboard Operations and Brainstorm Theatrics. The creative team includes film director Sarah Wilson Thacker (The Bright Side), director/choreographer Danny Mefford (Broadway’s Kimberly Akimbo, Fun Home, Dear Evan Hansen), and music producers Frank Galgano & Matt Castle (Brainstorm Records). Tiffany Topol (Once the Musical and Xanadu, national tours) and Jewell Wilson Bridges (Voodoo Macbeth, feature film) star as Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald. 

A “preview production” The Fitzgeralds of St. Paul was just staged at the Irish Classical Theatre Company in Buffalo in November 2024, directed and choreographed by Danny Mefford and starring Shannon O’Boyle and Jewell Wilson Bridges.