MIDVALE — A Utah-born musical debuting in London shines a light on the talent and creativity in Utah’s theater scene.
“A Little Piece of You: An Atypical Musical” will be performing at the historic Royal Theatre Drury Lane on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. The play, which highlights mental health and generational trauma, has been developed in Utah over the last three years.
The music for the show was written by 17-year-old Kjersti Long, who lives in Eagle Mountain. After some feedback from her theater-involved family and a Broadway executive family friend, who thought the music sounded theatrical, Kjersti and her father decided to make the songs into a musical.
They reached out to her uncle, Joshua Long, to be the director. He is an award-winning high school theater teacher who has taught at Hillcrest High School almost 20 years.
At first, Joshua Long was hesitant to sign onto the musical, as he felt it wasn’t his story to tell — it revolves around a female, mother-daughter experience. However, as someone who loves working with teenagers, because he feels they have “great passion” and “a lot to say,” he eventually agreed to help.
“Maybe that’s why I really latched onto this project with Kjersti. I really believe teenagers, particularly, have a lot to offer our society right now,” he said. “In talking to Kjersti, I realized I did have a vision to help shepherd these feelings of hers and stories that she felt could benefit other people. And I realized I saw that very clearly.”
Joshua Long told his niece and her father if they wanted the show to be good, they needed a good playwright, and he suggested Melissa Leilani Larson. They connected with Larson and brought on Shelby Gist as a co-director, who they say has been “fundamental to the success of the project.”
The impact of a story
With a larger audience, Joshua Long hopes Kjersti’s music can impact a wider group of people.
“I’m excited for that, but also feel a big sense of responsibility to shepherd that well and make sure that we’re telling that story honorably,” he said.
The director hopes people who see the show will be affected by the music and reminded every person has a story to tell.
“Our stories are all valuable and can impact people. Not just the big writers in New York and London, … but a 14-year-old girl from Utah County also has really valuable things to impact the world,” Joshua Long said. “That’s what I hope, is that (the show) sends that message to other people that their stories are valuable.”
He is crossing his fingers as he waits to see what happens with the future of this show.
The director said, on the heels of “Shucked,” a Tony-award-winning musical that was partially developed in Utah, “Little Piece of You” could help “put Salt Lake City on the broader theatrical map. I don’t know if it will, but who knows?”
Larson, who has produced 22 plays throughout her career, has been hard at work revising “Little Piece of You” to be the best it can be. She said it’s been exciting seeing the show get some recognition, as writers always hope what they create will get to live on and be produced in other places.
“I don’t want to say, ‘Hey, the show is going huge,’ and then it doesn’t. But it does seem like we are potentially going somewhere big with this, and that’s great because it’s been a lot of hard work, and it’ll be nice to see it pay off. Fingers crossed,” she said.
Larson hopes the show helps people in Utah see how exciting the local theater scene is. Utahns love the arts and musicals, but they can be wary about newer works, she said.
“It’s a different kind of musical; … it’s not like other shows you have seen, and I think that’s a good thing,” Larson said. “I hope people will give it a chance because there are a lot of people here making new work and devising new work, and sometimes it’s hard to get an audience to come to a show that they don’t know.”
She hopes this show, which so many Utahns contributed to, encourages people to take chances on new works in local theaters. She said “Little Piece of You” has the opportunity to draw attention to the “vibrant” Utah theater community that is filled with a “ridiculous” amount of talented artists.
“All of the plays people love, there was a time when they were new and someone took a chance. It had to be new for it to become a classic,” she said. “When you support new work, you are supporting what could be the next big thing.”
Getting ready for the debut
“This whole journey has been like, ‘OK, we will do this next step, and then who knows what’ll happen?’ Then we just go back to our lives, and then it’s like, ‘No, no, no. Come back! We’re doing this next thing,’ and I’m like, ‘OK,'” Long said with a laugh.
Long is currently in rehearsals with his Hillcrest students for “Hadestown” and getting them ready for a Shakespeare competition. But he and co-director Gist meet virtually with a London director every day to prepare for the debut.
“It’s been really good working with her. She knows the London scene better than we do, but Shelby and I know the story really well. And since it’s such a fast turnaround to get this up, we found those strengths working really well together to make it happen,” he said.
The cast will only have two weeks for rehearsals before performing. With exciting technical, visual and audio effects, it’s going to be a wild ride getting everything to run smoothly when they only get to enter the theater the morning before the show.
Long said it’s been “so great” juggling “Hadestown,” the Shakespeare competition prep and “Little Piece of You.” Even though it’s a lot, he loves it.
When Long first became a teacher, he thought he would do it for a year and then move to London to focus on theater and directing. But he ended up feeling so fulfilled by teaching that he decided to stay for another year. Nineteen years later, he still loves teaching the high school kids.
“I’m 41 years old and have had only one full-time job in my life. Every year, I love it more, and now I’m actually going to London,” Long said. “I’m a lucky person who gets to do something I love every day, and people pay me for it.”
Larson said Long is an “excellent” teacher who is a “very talented director and knows how to inspire kids to do this crazy hard thing.” She said it is impressive how he instills a love of the arts in the many students he has impacted over the years.
