WHY JUST SAY IT WHEN YOU CAN SING IT?
(SAMPLES BELOW)
Ever since a certain fourth grader mounted the stage in Haddonfield, NJ to sing the theme from Man of La Mancha, Ira’s had a deep appreciation for the best of musical theater. While this influence was always lurking in his songs, it came to full fruition when, in 2014, his local reputation brought him to the attention of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, a Tony-winning political theatre ensemble that’s anything but silent. Ira wrote the songs for four acclaimed SFMT shows, gradually building his understanding of dramatic structure to the point where he left the Troupe in 2019 to develop his own original musical, The Unseen World. This show, about parallel dimensions and a mythical invention by Nikola Tesla, won the New Stages Competition and received its first public reading in May, 2020, with a follow-up in late July. Dramaturge Allison Berman: “We see a lot of work that’s good, but not original. Or original, but not very good. But this is both.”
“Ira’s compositions are smart and instantly memorable...and the arrangements are always exact and perfectly suited for the material. Ira Marlowe is, without a doubt, one of the most talented (and virtually unknown) songwriters we’ve heard in years. His ability to write melodies that stick in the mind is amazing. And his ability to transfer his ideas and feelings through his music is 100% effective and real.”
SONGS FOR THEATRE:
From Ira Marlowe's 2004 one-man multimedia perfomance, "How to Write a Song", which chronicled his misadventures…