This is a short (9 minute) documentary video about our history as dance/theater artists working in Philadelphia in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s – a glimpse into our pre-musical theater work when we began discovering and creating “performance art musicals”. The other artists featured in the film are Jano Cohen, Terry Fox, and Ishmael Houston-Jones. The film is by Carmella Vassor Johnson. In 2010 Philadelphia Dance Projects commissioned us to re-envision and re-stage several of these works using young local dancers.

Our new musical MARRY HARRY had a reading at New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Season at Vassar College in July 2011 and is being workshopped by AMAS Musical Theatre in NYC in April 2012.  The music is by Dan Martin and lyrics are by Michael Biello.  The book is by Jennifer Robbins.  Directed by Kent Nicholson.  This clip is an excerpt from YOU OPENED A DOOR – the final song in the show.  Sung by Harris Doran as Little Harry and Jill Paice as Sherri.  Fred Lassen is the pianist.

Hear a clip from Marry Harry

Hear a clip from Breathe

Christine Barbush, J.J. Criss, Jillian Louis, Robin Marcotte, and Seth Peterson sing the Prologue from the 2004 Philadelphia cast recording of our musical Breathe.  Jeff McDonnell is the musical director and pianist.  The Prologue is the first of seven musical “rituals” that introduce each of the show’s musical stories.

From Rob Lester’s CD review at TalkinBroadway.com (2/17/06): “Composer Dan Martin and longtime partner lyricist Michael Biello can dazzle you with a complex, contemporary witty patter song and then turn around and devastate you with naked emotion … The cast embues their multiple roles with personality and open-hearted singing … The music is varied, sometimes presented mosaically in bits that spurt and repeat or come at you in fragments …   Other melodies have a legato elegance and satisfying completeness.  Nothing is pat, but while the melodies are challenging and daring, they are not esoteric or inaccessible.  The listener is allowed to breathe, too.”

The CD is available online at www.cdbaby.com/cd/martinbiello

Hear a clip from Sticks and Stones

Piano music Dan wrote and recorded to accompany an outdoor sculpture show in 2005 – Sticks and Stones: the making of a sculpture garden.  Curated by Eileen Tognini at the home of Lis and Mike Kalogris.  Invitation photo is by Debra Rosenblum.  The music from this except was written to accompany sculptor Martha Posner’s fabulous Red Bed.

Hear a clip from Why Not a Fairytale?

Erin Dilly and Randy Redd sing Why Not a Fairytale from The Cousins Grimm.  Jeff Caldwell is the pianist.  Photo is of Danni Smith as Jackie Grimm and Chad as Leon Grimm in the Chicago production (2009).

Hear a clip from Strange Now

Dan sings a techno-pop song on our 1992 album Human Being (out-of-print).  From Will Grega’s review in the All Music Guide: “Compassionate, raunchy, romantic and beautiful, Martin and Biello’s talents seem unending. Two of the most covered and cherished songwriters in our community.”

Hear a clip from Evening Meditation

Instrumental music for Debi Dunn’s CD of guided meditations.  Susan Hui wrote in New Visions Magazine “… Dan Martin’s floating music transposes one to the peaceful realm of contentment and bliss …”

CD available at Amazon.com

Rooms shouldn’t be designed in a way where everything has to be in the exact right place, avoiding what I like to call “disturbing perfection”. I prefer to design an interior that surprises, does not have a historical style but a humorous or theatrical statement. My interiors reflect a sense of identity so rooms never appear ordinary and are expressions of a mood or attitude. The plexiglas vintage letters from a hotel that is no longer in business are my surprise in this room for this summer. Humorously they bring into the room my mood, attitude or just my statement for this coming summer: HOT. I found these letters in a vintage-antique store during my Memorial Day weekend at the beach. It was a very HOT day and people in the store were really into the pair of gold sneakers I was wearing. Someone defined them as very HOT (the shoes or me?!). And the HOTEL HOLLYWOOD apparently was a very HOT spot for the summer down there. I decided: those letters were mine, but not all of them. I choose just three: H O T, the statement-mood-attitude of my summer and hopefully yours too. Stay cool but be HOT.

Ciao Ciao,
Carlo