"Arts Alive" w/ Bill DeYoung 7-20-24: Jeremy Douglass
Season 1, Episode 7754, Jul 20, 10:29 PM
“I’m having the most fun I think I’ve had onstage in over a decade,” Jobsite Theater musical director Jeremy Douglass says on today’s edition of the Arts Alive! podcast.
“No slight to the other shows that we’ve done, they’ve all been great. I loved them all like my children – but man, there’s something about this one.”
This one is The Rocky Horror Show, onstage through Aug. 4 at the Jaeb Theatre, the larger of the two Straz Center venues where Jobsite typically lives. Rocky is in the Jaeb because it’s a big show, a bright, bold, bizarre, loud and lascivious musical comedy – the sort of thing the company excels at.
Douglass, a longtime professional musician (he is a jazz pianist of considerable renown) began transitioning into theater work eight years ago. He has scored myriad productions for Jobsite, composing and designing soundscapes for the shows that aren’t musicals, and arranging things for the live bands (which he always leads) for the shows that are. Like Rocky, for example.
Douglass (right) with saxophonist Ronnie Dee, onstage in “The Rocky Horror Show.” Photo: James Zambon Productions.
Musically, “Rocky Horror is sort of like the squared-off ‘50s and the more free-form ‘70s. And what happens when those things clash together.” His arrangements, he explains, harken back to the original Los Angeles run of the show in the early 1970s, as opposed to the famous film adaptation or more recent big-stage revivals.
He’s thrilled that life has taken him in this new direction. “I’m no longer out trying to sell booze,” he says, referring to the grueling bar-to-bar schedule of a performing musician. “I’m actually part of a team that creates experiences.”
Next April, Douglass will revive his big band the Florida Bjorkestra for another “Buffyfest” – songs from the sole musical episode (“Once More With Feeling”) of TV’s late and lamented Buffy the Vampire Slayer – at the Palladium Theater, the first such show by the estimable ensemble (26 people this time around, including strings and horns) since pandemic times.
#stpetecatalyst #artsalive #stpetecatalyst #jobsite #billdeyoung #jeremydouglass #tampabay #radio #radiostpete
“No slight to the other shows that we’ve done, they’ve all been great. I loved them all like my children – but man, there’s something about this one.”
This one is The Rocky Horror Show, onstage through Aug. 4 at the Jaeb Theatre, the larger of the two Straz Center venues where Jobsite typically lives. Rocky is in the Jaeb because it’s a big show, a bright, bold, bizarre, loud and lascivious musical comedy – the sort of thing the company excels at.
Douglass, a longtime professional musician (he is a jazz pianist of considerable renown) began transitioning into theater work eight years ago. He has scored myriad productions for Jobsite, composing and designing soundscapes for the shows that aren’t musicals, and arranging things for the live bands (which he always leads) for the shows that are. Like Rocky, for example.
Douglass (right) with saxophonist Ronnie Dee, onstage in “The Rocky Horror Show.” Photo: James Zambon Productions.
Musically, “Rocky Horror is sort of like the squared-off ‘50s and the more free-form ‘70s. And what happens when those things clash together.” His arrangements, he explains, harken back to the original Los Angeles run of the show in the early 1970s, as opposed to the famous film adaptation or more recent big-stage revivals.
He’s thrilled that life has taken him in this new direction. “I’m no longer out trying to sell booze,” he says, referring to the grueling bar-to-bar schedule of a performing musician. “I’m actually part of a team that creates experiences.”
Next April, Douglass will revive his big band the Florida Bjorkestra for another “Buffyfest” – songs from the sole musical episode (“Once More With Feeling”) of TV’s late and lamented Buffy the Vampire Slayer – at the Palladium Theater, the first such show by the estimable ensemble (26 people this time around, including strings and horns) since pandemic times.
#stpetecatalyst #artsalive #stpetecatalyst #jobsite #billdeyoung #jeremydouglass #tampabay #radio #radiostpete