Twelve Singing Jurors: Asolo Rep presents a musical twist on classic drama

You wouldn’t be the first to ask composer Michael Holland and writer David Simpatico what they were thinking when they created a musical version of the classic Reginald Rose drama “Twelve Angry Men.”

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the debut of the television drama about a New York jury of 12 men deliberating the fate of a young man accused of killing his father. For 90 minutes they debate, reveal their biases and racial hatred as minds slowly begin to shift about the young man’s guilt or innocence.

Rose adapted the TV drama into a play and then into the Oscar-nominated 1957 film version that starred Henry Fonda in the pivotal role of Juror #8.

For all these years, the jurors talked, yelled, threatened and cajoled. But they never sang, until now in “Twelve Angry Men: A New Musical,” which closes the Asolo Repertory Theatre season.

Producing Artistic Director Peter Rothstein is directing the production that he first staged for its world premiere two years ago at Theater Latté Da, the Minneapolis company he co-founded and ran for 25 years before moving to Sarasota.

Holland, who wrote the music and lyrics, said he was approached more than a decade ago by a producer about turning the play into a musical. “I thought it was an unlikely but fascinating project. I had to cast far and wide for a writer who was foolish enough to join us.”

That writer is David Simpatico, who may be best known for turning the Disney Channel film “High School Musical” into a stage show, along with other projects. It turned out that “Twelve Angry Men” was “a favorite movie of mine. I jumped at it and that’s where we met.”

Holland said he’s “always drawn to counterintuitive projects. The ones where you color inside the lines don’t interest me. The ones where it’s a challenge interest me, and I thought, this one is mine.”

Finding a musical voice

Holland heard a musical style in his head even before a note was written, and they developed a show that may not quite fit “what you’re thinking of a musical as a specific sort of thing with jazz hands and show choir numbers. This is not that at all. There are so many iterations of what musicals can be.”

He said the music is “informed and evocative of a lot of late 1950s club jazz, with nods to vocal groups like the Hi-Lo’s and Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. It has its own language. It’s not pastiche, but you will get echoes of that.”

Though there have been variations of the play – such as “Twelve Angry Jurors,” which may feature all women or a mix of men and women in the cast – the Rose estate insisted that the creators stick to an all-male jury. But Holland and Simpatico were able to diversify the jury pool. And the setting was moved up to 1959. “We wanted to be on the cusp of the 1960s as Martin Luther King Jr.’s influence was growing," Simpatico said.

“Nothing was sacrosanct, but we had such respect and love for the story and staying as close as possible,” he said. “It’s all about toxic masculinity and about fathers and sons. At heart is the story of a young man accused of killing his father.”

The show came together quickly in its initial iteration, but “it didn’t click with the producer and laid fallow for seven years,” Simpatico said. After seeing the Ritz Theatre in Minneapolis where Theater Latté Da is based, Holland said “something in me knew it was going to happen there. It was one of those premonitions.”

They sent the script to the theater, where Rothstein said it was championed by Associate Artistic Director Elissa Adams, who is the director of new works. Rothstein said he and Adams often wrestled with figuring out which new works wanted to sing. “She read it right away and said it’s so good, you have to read this,” he said.

Production features some familiar performers

The show had its premiere in 2022 (delayed from 2020) with many actors who will be returning to their roles at Asolo Rep, including two who have been prominently featured this season in Sarasota. Curtis Bannister plays the Fonda role of Juror # 8 and Sasha Andreev plays Juror #4 (portrayed on film by E.G. Marshall).

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune described it as faithful to the original play “but to watch it is to experience the thrill of the new.”

Critic Chris Hewitt added that Holland’s songs are “syncopated and don’t resolve in the tidy way that most musical theater songs conclude. Appropriately, they create a tension not released until the jury decides the unseen defendant’s fate.”

Musical director Jenny Kim-Godfrey, who previously worked on Rothstein’s productions of “Inherit the Wind” and “Man of La Mancha,” said the score is like nothing else she has experienced. “There’s something for everyone, it’s so jazz-infused but with contemporary elements that folks can relate to.”

Music is played throughout the show, with underscoring during dialogue scenes as you might hear in a movie. It is through-composed with underscoring during dialogue scenes. “One of the things we discovered working with Peter is that there should be no applause breaks” Simpatico said. “That’s integral to how this piece works.”

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What has long enthralled audiences is the way the jurors begin to work through their different opinions, starting with Juror #8, who is the lone holdout in deliberations from the start.

“The idea of changing your mind is one of the things I like most about this,” Rothstein said. “The play would say changing your mind is a historic act and we are in a society that does not do that. If you change your mind you’re spineless. You’ve lost your moral compass. Politically that’s why we’re living the way we are right now because no one is interested in changing minds.:”

Kelli Foster Warder, who has worked with Theater Latté Da since 2013, is the choreographer but Rothstein said she’s not creating dance routines.

‘We decided early on that it had to be pedestrian movement and we heighten that through tempos, slow motions, the use of a freeze,” Rothstein said. “There’s not a lot of unison movement, but it’s definitely crafted with the same specificity as if you were doing a dance musical.”

Holland said that even though the show features an all-male cast, “the vocal range is through the roof and through the floor. I love all the different colors we get to use vocally. It’s not 12 angry baritones.”

‘Twelve Angry Men: A New Musical’

Music and lyrics by Michael Holland, book by David Simpatico. Directed by Peter Rothstein. Runs May 8-June 9, Asolo Repertory Theatre, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Tickets are $35-$98. 941-351-8000; asolorep.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Musical “Twelve Angry Men” adds a jazzy 1950’s score to classic drama