Preview: IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT, TYLER PRICE! at Hudson Theatre

It’s been 17 years since Ben Decter started writing a musical about his daughter, Addie’s, battle with childhood epilepsy and how it has changed his family. Now, after numerous rewrites, readings, workshops, and emotional rehearsals, the show is finally making its stage debut.

“All this stuff in the past 20 years has just been me processing” said Decter (Operation Homecoming, Netflix’s Lucifer) who based the show’s main character on his son, Leo, as a way to give voice to the siblings of kids with disabilities.  “I was really trying to give voice to Addie and Leo, and what we were were all feeling.” 

It’s All Your Fault, Tyler Price! will run Nov. 7 through December 15 at the Hudson Theatre in Hollywood. 

Directed by Kristin Hanggi, who directed Rock of Ages on Broadway, the show centers on a middle school boy named Jackson who punches the school bully (Tyler Price), defending his epileptic sister, Lucy. Everything unfolds from there when the school principal demands that Jackson make a public apology and Jackson decides to stage this apology as a musical peek into his life. 

The show stars CJ Eldred (The Book of Mormon, first national tour) as Jacksons’s father, Daniel; Jenna Pastuszek (Off-Broadway’s Smile) as his mom, Emma; Faith Graham (Musical Theatre West’s The Wizard of Oz) as Lucy; and Charlie Stover (Ahmanson Theatre’s A Christmas Story; Sound of Music, global tour) as Jackson

In the end, Decter said this isn’t a show about epilepsy; it’s about family. And it should resonate with all audience members, whether or not they have experience with a serious illness.

“I think it will make people feel joyful and lucky,” he said. “And it will remind people that if they do have things that they’re dealing with——which I think everyone does—they can handle it.”

BroadwayWorld sat down with Decter and Hanggi to get the scoop on the new musical. 

So, I just want to say that I’m really excited for this show. I’ve seen clips online and heard the music, and it looks so good! 

Kristin: Thank you so much! I appreciate that. 

How long have you been working on it? 

Ben: [Laughs] Oh, more than a few weeks. 

Kristin: We first met in 2007, just to give you that background

How did you meet? 

Ben: I live here in LA, in Silverlake, and one day I was playing the piano and my neighbor came over and asked me, “What are you working on?” And I told him I was working on some songs . . . And the only thing I remember him saying is, “You have to meet my friend Kristen.” 

Kristin: There was an album Ben had done called, "Another Big Day," with songs inspired by his daughter, Addie . . . And I listened to it and I was really touched. There’s a song on there called, “Sometimes I Want to Be Alone.”  And I was really touched by the idea that he went into his daughter’s experience and was like, ‘Sometimes I want to be by myself, I want my own time.” And that kind of empathy . . .  I was so moved. I was like, “I don’t know what this is, but I want to meet this person.”

So, tell me about your daughter.

Ben: So.. When my daughter Addie was 17 months old, we didn’t know what was going on but it was clear something was off. It was a whirlwind that turned into a diagnosis of infantile spasms, which is considered a catastrophic childhood epilepsy. 

All this stuff in the past 20 years has just been me processing that. But I’ll speed up to today and tell you that she’s doing great.

How old is she now—and how is she doing? 

Ben: She’ll be 28 on Halloween. She is a fascinating person, she’s unlike anyone I’ve ever met. She’s the most empathetic and nonjudgemental person. She helps run a place called The Children’s Ranch, that my wife founded. That was her response to all this. They see kids and young adults with all kinds of issues, from anxiety and autism to everything under the sun. And they work with my daughter, who’s also a martial artist; she’s a brown belt in jiu-jitsu now. 

How did all this turn into a musical? 

Ben: We started working on the songs in 2007, and Kristin said, “I don’t want to work on a kids musical,” and I said, “I don’t want to do a kids' musical.” So we just started playing more songs and meeting, and within two years, we had a workshop on Broadway. Kristen had a little show called Rock of Ages that was just getting going. 

And then? 

Kristin: In 2010 we did our first reading . . . What we learned is that this is a really hard story to tell. And I would say from 2010 to 2019, we did all these readings and workshops, trying to figure out, “How do we tell this story?” There were two stories: There was the story of the parents and what was happening with their daughter when she was first born. And there was the story of this family trying to figure out their way when the kids were in middle school. The songs just emerged from both periods of their lives. 

We kept playing with it, and then Ben would get a TV show to score; I’d go out and direct a show. This happened over the course of years. We’d work, and then one of us would get pulled away for 6 months, and then we’d come back together. 

So [to Ben], the main character is based on your younger son? 

Ben: Yes. Addie has a little brother named Leo who we based this character of Jackson on. So it’s told through his imagined perspective in middle school of what it was like. 

Kristin: There is a true story of when Leo was in middle school and there was a boy who had said something insensitive about Addie and Ben told me the story about how Leo would not accept his apology.  And I thought that was so cool, the moxie of that. 

You decided to tell the whole story from the little brother’s perspective. Why? 

Ben: Before, it was a little too much. Adding the little brother’s perspective didn’t just soften it; it gave us a different way in. 

Kristen: It balanced it. We did a reading at The Pasadena Playhouse and I remember walking out and thinking, ‘This is heavy.’ You could feel it in the audience. It was so much emotion. So to addd in this playfulness of the brother, and that world, against this intense crisis — it helped it find itself. The balance became really important. 

Ben, how has your family been personally involved? 

Ben: There are so many levels. In our earliest workshops, my son played the little boy. And now he’s playing in the on-stage band. My wife played the mom when we first did the workshops. This whole darn thing we’ve been working on forever has really helped us learn how to communicate. It’s really helped our family talk about it.

Kristin: I got to go to Addie’s Bat Mitzvah—and that is actually a plot point in the show. When Addie announced that she wanted to have a bat mitzvah, she had never read in public before. 

Ben: It was classic Addie. She didn’t learn to read until she was 13, and when she learned how to read—we’re not a particularly religious family— but she just announced that she was going to have a bat mitzvah. And in my head, I’m like, “You can’t read.” But. . . . Why would we ever stand in the way of her dreams? She had her bat mitzvah, so the first thing she ever learned to read was transliterated Hebrew. This is not in the musical, but at her bat mitzvah, there was a standing ovation. 

[To Ben] Is it hard to have your whole life put on stage for everyone to see?  

Ben: [Pause] It is a lot. I am really glad I have healthy outlets. Going to the boxing gym or going running. I have to have an outlet. It is hard to stay open to all the emotions. I’m truly not a crier, but I’ll sit there in rehearsal in the back row by myself . . . It is intense. 

Kristin: Every day in rehearsal, we laugh and we cry. We take turns.  

You’ve had a lot of readings and workshops, but when this debuts [Nov. 7], will this be the first actual show? 

Ben: Yes. Kristen said to me the other day, “All these years and you’ve never actually seen me do what I do.” That has been really fun to watch. 

Kristin: It’s a long time to be in partnership. It’s really about communication, but it’s really about families and how to talk about hard things. . . . We always joke that we don’t want people to think this is a kids’ musical, but it helps to have that innocence and wonder and joy because it makes it easier to go into the more challenging emotions. The kids, watching their parents go through these things and stumble in the conversation, is part of what we’re looking at. What is it to actually be intimate with your own family.

What age is the musical appropriate for? 

Ben: I think 10 and up. But I think it depends on the kid. There isn’t anything explicitly out of bounds or inappropriate. There’s one really well placed swear word that earns its place. Keep in mind, there’s four kids in the cast—and two understudies—they’re all 11 or 12 years old. 

Kristin: They’re so fun to have in rehearsal. They’re so precious. It does bring this wonderful life into the rehearsal room. 

It's true—kids really do lighten up a show and make it more relatable. 

Kristin: Yeah, one of the things I didn’t know is that being the sibling of a child that has challenges you can feel really invisible and also really responsible. And definitely, there should be a conversation about how to support the siblings in this process. 

What do you feel like people will leave with? Is it a feeling of hope? Is it sad? 

Ben: I think people will be feeling joy. Just joy. I think they will relate to things that they have dealt with. We have a song that almost started off as a joke in the show, called, “Everybody Struggles with Something.”  And that’s the song everyone talks about. It’s just simple. 

Kristin: The show is very joyful, especially at the end. It’s definitely a balance. I’ve heard people after workshops say they want to call a family member. I think it makes you want to be close to the people you love.

Where will you take the show after this? Do you hope to take it to Broadway? 

Kristin: Of course, I think that desire is there to take the show to New York, but I also feel that it will become clear, as we do this show, what the next step will be.

Ben: That’s a very Kristen answer. I would say that’s exactly what we want to do. . . . But we’re just trying to make the best show we can. Whatever happens next, we’ll see.

Kristin: I just want to add that one of the big blessings of this process has been all the community support we have gotten. From the Epilepsy Foundation of America to Epilepsy Los Angeles to Cheerful Helpers, there’s been so many wonderful community partners and sponsors that have come together to say, “We believe in this, and we think it will help people.”

It certainly sounds like it. And, it sounds like it’s already helped you both, too.

Ben: This whole process….[Tearing up] It’s really something. 

Kristin: Not to be so sappy, like the journey is the gift, but in this case, the journey is the gift. Just getting to watch this family and watch their whole trajectory and seeing how much they love each other and getting the chance to do this. It’s so beautiful. 

It’s All. Your Fault, Tyler Price! will play Nov 7 through Dec. 15 at the Hudson Backstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood. Tickets are available at www.TylerPriceMusical.com.

*All photos courtesy Jim Cox.

 

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