Brave New World Welcomes Aboard John McDaniel and Bill Russell

Brave New World is about receive some talented new team members. John McDaniel and Bill Russell will join the creative team of Brave New World: The Musical currently in development. McDaniel and Russell join as co-composer and lyricist respectively, alongside the previously announced book writer Ben Andron and co-composer Jonnie Rockwell. Sheryl Kaller (Mothers and Sons) will direct, with McDaniel as music director. The musical adaptation of the classic Aldous Huxley novel received an industry-only workshop last year, starring Kyle Dean Massey.

McDaniel has served as the music director for several Broadway productions, including Catch Me If You Can, Annie Get Your Gun and Grease. His musical supervisor credits include Bonnie and Clyde, Brooklyn and Taboo. McDaniel also served as the lead composer and producer of The Rosie O’Donnell Show. Russell received a Tony nomination for the book of Side Show and shared a nomination with composer Henry Krieger for the show’s score. His additional book writer and lyricist credits include Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens, Pageant and Lucky Duck.

Brave New World is set 500 years in the future, a world with no war, disease or poverty. But perfection comes at a price. In order to maintain social stability, humanity has been stripped of the very things that make us human. True love has been replaced with free sex, art and faith have been replaced with mindless sport and distraction and citizens are brainwashed and drugged into a perpetual state of happiness. Humans don't even reproduce anymore; they are hatched in test tubes to avoid the dangers of family. But there are places—savage reservations—where people still live according to the "old" ways. These savages are fenced in and know nothing of the outside world, until one such savage—John—is given special permission to leave and experience the wonders of civilization.