Interview: Theatre Life with Chris Nee, Michael Kooman, and Christopher Dimond

Today’s subjects Chris Nee, Michael Kooman, and Christopher Dimond are the creators of a fantastic World Premiere Commission Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) musical at Kennedy Center called Finn. The show runs through December 22nd in the Family Theater. The trio collaborated on the book, music, and lyrics with Michael Kooman providing the dance arrangements and the underscoring.

Chris Nee is the creator and executive producer of Disney Junior’s Doc McStuffins (Peabody Award) & Vampirina (Emmy Nominated). Under her own company banner, Laughing Wild, she created and executive produced Ridley Jones (GLAAD Award) at Netflix and in partnership with the Obamas she created and produced We the People (Emmy Award) & the adaptation of Ada Twist, Scientist (Emmy Award). Her writing versatility has been seen on everything from Sesame Street to The Deadliest Catch. You can’t get more different than that.

Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond are one of those songwriting teams that I feel are very underappreciated. Just look at these credits and you’ll see why I feel they should be more well known by the general public.

Their past theatrical works include Dani Girl, The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes, Romantics Anonymous, and Golden Gate.

You might also remember their past TYA musical at Kennedy Center a few years back called Orphie and The Book of Heroes.

Their cd of songs entitled Out of Their Heads is a must listen. Trust me on this one.

Kooman and Dimond wrote more than 150 songs for Vampirina. The show reached over 100 million viewers in 115 countries. Other television works include the Netflix series Ridley Jones, Dead End: Paranormal Park, and Spirit Rangers.

They are the recipients of the Fred Ebb Award, a Jonathan Larson Grant, the Mary Rodgers/Lorenz Hart Award, the Samuel French Next Step Award, the Burton Lane Award, and the Harold Adamson Award.

Finn is one of those shows that I hope will continue and maybe even expand to a full length musical. Chris Nee, Michael Kooman, and Christopher Dimond’s oceanic spectacular is one show you definitely need to see to be sure.

Grab your tickets and catch Finn at Kennedy Center before it swims away later this month. This trio of artists’ work will make your holiday season “Sparkle and Shine” and show you how they are living their theatre lives to the fullest.

Chris: How did you get involved with Finn?

Christopher, Michael and I had been working together in TV for quite a few years. The first time we collaborated was on a series on Disney Junior called Vampirina. When I cast Patti LuPone and Brian Stokes Michell as the grandparents on that series, Kooman and Dimond knew that I loved musical theater. After working on a few more series together and getting nominated for an Emmy together for an all musical episode of Vampirina, we finally had a gap in series work. The guys reached out and asked if I was interested in writing a musical with them. Easiest yes ever.

Christopher- How did your collaboration with Michael get started?

Michael and I met while we were both students at Carnegie Mellon.  I was in the graduate playwriting program, and he was an undergrad composition major.  We took a class in lyric writing together, sat across the room from each other all semester, and didn’t speak once.

Towards the end of that year, Michael was asked to write some songs for the senior acting and musical theatre majors’ showcase trip.  He asked me if I’d be willing to collaborate on a few self-contained cabaret songs.  We clicked immediately, mainly over a shared twisted sense of humor.

The following year, I convinced him to work on my thesis project with me, which became our first musical, Dani Girl. We’ve been collaborating ever since. 

Chris- Can you please tell us where the idea for Finn came from?

The shows we’d done previously had centered on strong female characters. Michael and Christopher were interested in writing about a boy character and finding a way to address different kinds of masculinity. We bounced different ideas off each other, and Finn was the winner.

Chris- Can you please give us a brief overview of the show?

Finn is the story of a shark who is crossing the threshold from childhood into young adulthood, and for him that means doing what is expected of him by joining the rough and tumble Shark Guard. But Finn has always felt a little different than the other sharks. On his journey of discovery, he realizes he has a fish inside of him. He wants to sparkle and sing and dance, which is definitely not allowed by sharks. When Finn redefines power as a ‘sparkly kind of strong, he makes everyone question the norms of the sea.

Michael- What musical styles make up the score to Finn?

In the world of Finn, we divide the ocean into two distinct groups: Sharks, the tough predators and Fish, the more dance-driven and expressive creatures of the ocean. Our sharks have a bold, grittier kind of sound. There was something about the sound of Blink 182 that felt right for these cool, tough, but not super bright sharks. Our fish have a much more dance-driven type of music. Their world is populated by percussive bongos and colored with string flourishes. All of the music exists in a wide spectrum of sound, but in essence, it’s closest to the classic 90’s Disney animated features that most of us on the creative team grew up with. With this score, I wanted to create music that would make kids and families want to sing, dance, and enjoy the beautiful, varied world of the ocean. One that might look and sound a lot like our own.

Michael/Christopher- Your musical Orphie and The Book of Heroes also started life as a Kennedy Center TYA production. Did you find any difficulty in making Greek mythology palpable for a TYA audience?

Michael- Not at all!  The world of Greek mythology is so rich, filled with vibrant, heightened characters and huge, over-the-top stories.  One of the most fun elements of that project was finding ways to make those characters really pop on stage for a young audience.  The world lent itself incredibly well to musicalization.

Christopher- We had a fantastic experience bringing that story to life with that team.  That’s what made the Kennedy Center the obvious first choice to pitch Finn.

Chris- You worked on a project called We The People where you worked alongside the Obamas as Executive Producers. Can you please talk about that experience? Was it a “Where can I possibly go from here” moment in your career?

I’ve been lucky enough to work with the Obamas a few times. We’ve collaborated on two series, We the People and Ada Twist, Scientist, and won the Emmy for best series for both of them. We the People was particularly special. It was such a passion project to talk about civics for high schoolers. We got to work with the talents of Cordae, Lin-Manuel Miranda, H.E.R, Janelle Monae, Bebe Rexa and more. And President Obama was very involved. Giving notes by saying, ‘The President says…’ is very effective it turns out.

And where can I possibly go from here? To work with Kooman and Dimond on a musical of course. 

What is the best part of creating a brand new musical for a TYA audience?

Chris- We’re so grateful to be working with a team at the Kennedy Center who is championing new works for the TYA audience, and making sure they are creatively as fully realized as any other theater. It’s so vital. This is how we create our future audiences!

Christopher- For me, it’s getting to watch the audience.  It’s thrilling to see the way that kids react to the show, especially when it may be the first live theatre experience some of them have ever had.   In our current climate, it’s critical to cultivate audiences for the future, and it’s inspiring to watch children discover the magic of theatre right before your eyes.

Michael- The best part was writing this show for my three year old nephew Simon. It’s been so much fun to watch him grow up, and since this piece has been a TYA piece from the very first idea, I decided that I would try, with every note and every phrase and every song, to write something that would make him dance, sing, laugh, smile, etc. My goal was to write something that he would love.

Here is a song from Finn entitled "Sparkle and Shine". Music by Michael Kooman with lyrics by Chris Nee and Christopher Dimond and an orchestration by August Eriksmoen.  The vocalist is Broadway's Zachary Noah Piser.

Special thanks to Kennedy Center's Senior Press Represenitive Brittany Laeger for her assistance in coordinating this interview.

Theatre Life logo designed by Kevin Laughon.

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