Originally mounted back in 2014, we were asked to help update the music production and create additional orchestrations for a new production of The Realness – An Urban Musical at The Big House in November 2023, performed by care leavers.
We worked with the composer Kath Gotts and musical director Joey Hickman to ensure the tracks we produced worked seamlessly with the live band of two and cast vocals, to create a beat-led score that still maintained the push-and-pull needed for a theatrical, story-led performance.
Jay Johnson is fresh out of prison and determined never to go back, but for all his efforts to stay on track, he finds himself making a detour back in the wrong direction. Finally he’s faced with the hardest choice of his life and only then does he understand what he has to do to change things for real. The Realness has an upbeat score ranging from rap to reggae, gospel to grime.
The production won an Offie Award for Best Production under the Community Outreach Youth category.
