DOWNTOWN Comes to the SI Playhouse at Empire Outlets This Week

Downtown is set to open Friday, July 7 and run for four shows through Sunday, July 9 at the SI Playhouse at Empire Outlets (55 Richmond Terrace). The production is about two men in NYC with big ambitions in the 1960s.

“I didn’t think this show would be relevant a year after it was written. Two years on, it feels even more so.” says Gavin Matthias, 21, who has written and directed the new musical.

It is the second original musical for Matthias, who made his writing and directing debut with “The Fourth Wall: An Unoriginal Musical”. It was first staged in his Randall Manor driveway in the fall of 2020 and had its most recent run at the NY Theatre Festival last spring, where it was nominated for Best Score and Best Production.

Matthias is an alumnus of the International Baccalaureate Program at Curtis High School and is a rising senior at Fordham University where he studies music and history. He is the son of Alice Knisley-Matthias, a former Miss Staten Island and Miss New York. 

The majority of the cast of “Downtown” met at Curtis High School. Many of them are current or former members of the Curtis Players, which has been under the direction of Brownyn Fugate for over a decade. Matthias, a 2020 graduate, cites her as a massive influence in the directing field. 

“The show is worth watching because it combines classic musical theatre styles with an unorthodox plot,” explained Matthias. “All the characters have many glaring problems in their personalities but are still relatable.”

Matthias started writing “Downtown” when the pandemic started in March 2020. “I wrote the show over the course of about a year. I figured it was the perfect opportunity to write another show,” he said. “For a while I was going to make it a satire on the theatre industry, but it felt like something I had written before.

“I had a eureka moment when the 2020 election rolled around. I saw how insane elections can get and I decided that it would be a really cool challenge to make a comedic show about politics.”

Matthias, who dreams of a career in theatre and/or music education, hopes to have his original work on Broadway someday. For “Downtown,” there were admittedly moments he feared he’d run out of ideas or fall flat about how a song would end.

“Those moments were challenging,” he said. “But completing the show was very rewarding, as is watching other actors perform my work on stage.

“That’s how I know all the agony that comes with writing a musical is worth it in the end. That’s why I do it at the end of the day. It’s my greatest passion.”

Producer Quran Fugate- also a Curtis IB graduate- says, “it has been an honor to be a part of this slow yet methodical rehearsal process and to watch these actors perfect their craft.” This will be the first musical produced by his new company Verrazzano Media. You can follow @vzmedianyc on Instagram for all performance updates. 

Tickets are available for $20 at vzmedianyc.com or at the door. 

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