I am very very proud of this @LoveHateNation Track By Track I wrote for @playbill. Not sure if I'll get the opportunity to communicate my thoughts on the score as in depth as I did here, so I really made it count! She ain't fluffy. Give her a read.
Joe Iconis' Love in Hate Nation released a cast recording via Ghostlight Records February 11 featuring the cast of the musical's 2019 world premiere at New Jersey's Two River Theater, which included Sydney Farley, Amina Faye, Jasmine Forsberg, Lauren Marcus, Kelly McIntyre, Lena Skeele, Emerson Mae Smith, Ryan Vona, and Tatiana Wechsler.
With a book, music, and lyrics by the Be More Chill songwriter, Love in Hate Nation is a love story about two women caught in the middle of a changing America in the 1960s, centering on teenagers Susannah and Sheila and their time at the oppressive National Reformatory for Girls. The Two River production was directed by John Simpkins and featured musical direction and arrangements by Anastasia Victory and music supervision and orchestrations by Charlie Rosen.
Iconis takes us through the songs, artists, and stories behind Love in Hate Nation in this exclusive track-by-track breakdown:
“And if we meet again / how I hope the world is different then…”
Hello, again. The first track by track I wrote for Playbill was in the early spring of 2018 for the original cast recording of my musical Be More Chill. I thought I was writing what would essentially function as a lovely remembrance of the Be More Chill score.
The backstory: My musical opened at the gorgeous Two River Theater in New Jersey in 2015, got a bad New York Times review and was destined to live out its days where most small-scale original musicals that get bad New York Times reviews out of town live: in the memories of those who saw it, in the bootlegs of show-cultists and theatrical schadenfreudists, and absolutely nowhere else.
To the surprise of everyone (especially me), the album went viral two years after its release and my track by track ended up being more birth announcement than eulogy. You know what happened next. Cue James Corden, Sara Bareilles, and Josh Groban singing unauthorized parody lyrics to “Michael in the Bathroom” on the Tony Awards. Life as a musical theatre writer is strange.
In 2019, Be More Chill opened (and closed) on Broadway, my brand new original musical Broadway Bounty Hunter opened (and closed) Off-Broadway, and my other my brand-new original musical Love in Hate Nation opened (and closed) in New Jersey. Life as a musical theatre writer is… a lot.
I’ll save the trials and tribulations that occurred post-opening of Love In Hate Nation for the coffee table book, but they involved another disappointing New York Times review, lots of behind-the-scenes drama that had nothing to do with the actual show, a global pandemic, a surge, another surge, another surge, and many other disasters both natural and otherwise.
But after all of that, the long-awaited (by me and my mother) original cast recording of Love in Hate Nation is finally here. I never thought it would happen, but the fine people at Two River Theater and Ghostlight Records made it possible. My eternal thanks to those hardy souls who have stood by me, supported me, advocated for me, and believed in me over the years. This album exists because of them. So don’t blame me.