CHANTECLER, A MUSICAL FABLE

A Note of Welcome from Sunrise Music LLC

Sunrise Music LLC, an organization dedicated to the support of new musical theater works and the commercial entity representing the professional development of Chantecler – A Musical Fable, welcomes you to a premiere staged reading of the current libretto and music.

The music is by Michael Colicchio, book and lyrics are by Anthony Piano. The director of the showcase production was renowned Broadway director Edward Berkeley. Since 2021, all three original collaborators are deceased. 

Chantecler, A Musical Fable premiered as a limited run Equity showcase at the 47^th St. Theatre in New York in November 1981. The musical is inspired by and based on Edmund Rostand’s iconic play Chantecler, which opened in Paris in 1910. At its base, Rostand’s play incorporates elements both of the medieval fable of Chantecler, a cock-rooster who believes he makes the sun rise with his morning song, and themes from the overwhelming success of his masterpiece Cyrano de Bergerac, written ten years prior. Rostand considered Chantecler his favorite play.

Michael Colicchio was the recipient of seven Emmy awards and an Academy Award nomination. Colicchio’s primary credits also included numerous film soundtracks and incidental music for the Broadway production of Mary Stuart. As a young man, Anthony Piano was a music director at NBC radio (incl. Mitch Miller), an arranger/producer for Columbia Records, and finished his career as an award-winning advertising copywriter and a director at ABC and producer at CBS. Chantecler was both collaborators’ first musical. Additionally, the Colicchio/Piano collaboration (they were first cousins) was noted for songs sung by renowned artists including Johnny Mathis. 

Like Rostand’s Cyrano and Chantecler, Piano’s book honors and echoes the heightened poetic/blank verse language found in the original play. The cast size for the original showcase was 20 with doubling of roles.

The reception for the original showcase was enthusiastic and producing entities strongly encouraged Colicchio and Piano to continue developing the material for future production. For a number of reasons, the collaboration stalled and ended with Colicchio’s death in 2006. Piano’s daughter, Claudia, holds the copyright and extant materials both from the original showcase and unproduced revisions by her father, as well as Colicchio’s music. Since the only production of the material was a limited Equity showcase, and the material has not been licensed or published, Chantecler is considered under development as a new musical.

Revisions and advancement has been generated by the current director, Scott LaFeber, who was also the production stage manager for the 1981 showcase. Reflecting on correspondence by the late writers regarding potential edits, this workshop script has been slightly modified for clarity of character and revision of the end of Act II. A large portion of the original 1981 script has been retained; other edits were utilized from revisions by Piano in 1983 as well as additional lyrics he wrote over the course of two decades following the original showcase production.

For the 1981 production, Chantecler was played by Ralph Bruneau, recently off the Broadway production of March of the Falsettos. Kate Dezina, singing Ondine, had performed on Broadway in productions including Jesus Christ Superstar and at the time was currently starring in television’s All My Children.

Sunrise Music is deeply grateful to Emerson Stage and Emerson College for the opportunity to engage the material as well as welcome back three exceptional alumni to lead a cast of students and faculty in this workshop. After careful consideration of feedback from this reading, Sunrise Music will move the next reading into New York, slated for later this year.

We are profoundly indebted to those wishing to support our progress of Chantecler: If you wish to participate, you are invited to donate, tax-free, to our donation page sponsored by Theatre Resources Unlimited (TRU). The link for that page can be found below.

Again, we thank you for attending the staged reading, and for supporting exciting new musical works in progress.

— Sunrise Music LLC