What the fuck?! A musical at the Black Cat? WAIT! Let me warn you folks that Titus X isn’t just any showtuney Broadway show where people croon about dying from AIDS or puppets sing about porn. DC native Shawn Northrip built a following and gained the attention of the music, theatre and performance art scenes after graduating from Tisch School’s famed Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU. His musicals: explosive slices of pop angst and rock anthems, have attacked and embraced everything that is near/dear and anathema to our generation, from the nerve-ridden years of middle school self-discovery to the nasty nasty nasty corporate rape of young impressionable cartoon-loving minds, and everything in between. And along the way, you end up laughing yourself to utter wetness. After a sold-out critically acclaimed NYC run of his harshest, most middle-finger-to-the-world piece, Titus X, a no holds-barred adaptation of Shakespeare’s bloodiest play, Shawn Northrip returns to The Black Cat with bandmates, director and actors in tow, to recreate a concert version of what is truly a punk rock dramatic piece…no drum-playing trannies or green-faced witches involved.

DC scenewhore, film writer, BYT contributor, actor, and self-aggrandizer El Chico Cesar has a bloody heart-to-heart with Shawn Northrip to find out just why Titus X is more entertaining than a downtown New York line of Grade-A blow circa 1982.

(Photos by Colin Hovde)

BYT: First of all, Shawn-o, congrats on the BC. I couldn’t think of a more perfect place for this show than the back room there. So you’re a DC native? Where did you go to school?
SN: Washington-Lee High School in Arlington. I used to go to football events dressed as a General, and a friend would dress up as the opposing team’s mascot; then I’d beat him up, until we got a complaint that it was unsportsman-like. It was not an action offically sanctioned by the school at all.

But what I really loved about W-L was that it was down the street from H.B. Woodlawn, an “alternative learning” program. I used to go see lots of punks shows there. Regular 11th graders could be rock gods on Friday night. That’s where I started developing my interest in music.

BYT: That’s sweet. So obviously your music is influenced by some punk supergreats. I even got a whiff of the Sex Pistols from one of the songs. What are some of the bands that influenced Titus X?
SN: If you do a punk musical, there should be at least one homage to the Sex Pistols.
How can you grow up in DC and not be influenced by Fugazi? Or Minor Threat? And I love Bad Brains. We had the drummer from Branch Manager playing in the show for a while. But it’s not all DC Hardcore. If you listen closely there may be hints of Gwar, Type-O Negative, Rancid, Suicidal Tendencies, Tsunami Bomb, Hole, the Ramones, and Mr. Bungle.

But the bands that influenced this show the most were the bands of my friends, the bands that no one has ever heard of. The bands I would play with when I was in high school and college. They directly influenced how I played and how I wrote music.

BYT: What the hell were you doing at the musical theatre writing program of NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts?
SN: Mostly creating problems. I remember we spent hours debating the “Love Land” ending to Follies, and I rose my hand and said, “Maybe we’re over thinking this? Maybe the show just needed to end with each of the leads singing an awesome solo.” I was shot down.
I really bungled into that opportunity, but I am so happy I did. It was a very influential two years of my life. I can honestly say I learned something. The difference between my writing before and after is profound.

BYT: Did people think you were different because you weren’t writing songs about talking felines, AIDs cases or murderous barbers (achem Johnny Depp’s next movie is a remake of a classic musical theatre piece)?
SN:The show I wrote was about alien-abduction. We all had our own little niches in that program. No two of us wrote the same way. That’s one thing I loved about being there. That, and everyone was so incredibly good at what they did that there was a lot I could learn from all of them. I absorbed them all like a sponge.

BYT: What have you been up to locally recently? You’ve gotten a lot of response from DC critics and audiences on your works. Do you have highlights?
SN:We had a reading of my newest show on last Monday. Apparently it’s a huge disaster. I can’t figure it out, I thought it was the best writing I’ve done, and instead all I seem to be getting is volatile hatred coming my way. People can be so harsh. Bob Mondello [DC theatre critic] wrote, “What’s not to love about Titus The Musical?” That’s as good as it gets.

BYT: Do you think you might be a little fucked up? I mean, your musicals are not quite for the young crowd eventhough you write mostly with young characters. Do you suffer from Peter Pan Syndrome?
SN: I am very fucked up. I need therapy. Lots and lots of therapy. My deepest pain gives people the most joy. I wrote a sock puppet musical called Lost Sock, about a sock that leaves its match behind to go see the world; which was really my way of dealing with the death of my father. Sitting in the house listening to the laughter made me feel better.
I like to write for my peers. A lot of us are still recovering from childhood. That inspires shows like Lunch and Trixie Tickles.

BYT: A lot of people think that musical theatre is gay. Like literally, for homosexuals who like to collect musical theatre soundtracks. But you yourself are not gay. Not that there’s anything wrong with being straight. How do you feel being in an industry that’s considered gay (this is so un-pc) and what are you doing to change it?
SN: It is true. I am straight. And there is nothing wrong with being straight.
I don’t really worry about what the industry is perceived as. I happen to work with a lot of really talented gay people. I also happen to know some gay people who know a lot more about sports than I do, does that make sports gay?

The changes I’m trying to make to the world of musicals has nothing to do with its sexual preference. I’d like to make an admission here: despite the fact that I’m a musical writer, I hate most musicals. As a form, I love it. Theatre is a performance, music is a performance, both are onstage and each heightens the other making for a great show. I love putting them together. But sadly, a lot of musical theatre struggles to keep doing exactly it has been doing since the 1920s. It’s like it is the only art-form not allowed to evolve. I try to show that the form can change and still be good. That it can entertain men and women of all ages, not just an elderly subscriber base. And most importantly, I’m trying to bring a sense of irony back into the world… in general. People have forgotten about irony.

BYT: How the h-e-double-hockey-dicks did you end up picking Shakespeare’s bloodiest most gruesome violent play ever and turning it into a punk musical?
SN: I knew I wanted to write a punk musical (because that was about the extent of my music writing capabilities). So I set out to find source material that I thought would compliment it. Titus seemed like a great match.

BYT: How did you get the gig at the Black Cat? They obviously liked Titus! enough to ask you to come back.
SN: We got the first gig at the Black Cat because my then-girlfriend drank a few bottles of wine with someone who works at the Black Cat (I’d say the person’s name, but don’t know if they would appreciate that, and I want to be invited back again). My ex asked that person to give us a chance on a slow night. We drew what I was told was “an impressive number of people for a Monday night.” And we were extraordinarily polite. So they invited us back. I wish it hadn’t taken so long to get around to it; but the performers all had tight schedules.
We love performing at the Black Cat. It’s awesome.

BYT: I know people are going to come to this thing and be all like, yeah, right, punk musical theatre? But the trust is this shit really is punk! Do you find that you’ve gained the attention of punk groups, those in the scene?
SN: I’m not sure whose attention we’ve gained, but people keep showing up. And that is awesome. What are “punk groups” anyway? As far as I’m concerned “punk” isn’t about how loud the show is, or how pierced we are, or how pink our hair or blue our eyebrows: it’s about making our own thing. Musical theatre fans might say we’re not musical theatre, punk fans might say we’re not punk, but people who see it will see it’s just musical and punk enough.

BYT: Titus X had a madly successful run in NYC. What did peeps there have to say about it?
SN:Lots of nice things.

BYT: Do you think your music is difficult?
SN: No. For two reasons. 1. It’s punk. Three chords. Not quite singing or shouting or speaking; 2. I don’t worry too much if the singers fuck up and shit gets changed. It’s organic in that sense.

BYT: So are all these theatres coming to you to skeet skeet skeet them with some of your work especially made for them? Have you been commissioned to do work? What have you enjoyed creating for others?
SN: I have been. One of the commissions was the aforementioned disaster this past week.

BYT: What do people expect from the good old American musical that you will absolutely not put in yours?
SN:Anything’s possible. I don’t forbid myself from doing something if the moment comes and I finally feel like it fits. At one time my director Shirley [Serotsky] accused me of be choreograph-aphobic. Which, as Trixie proved, is not the case (in fact, many people thought the choreography was the best part). I just want to make sure, if there is something like dancing, it does not feel unnatural or gratuitous.

BYT: OK, Northrip, tell me if the following themes have ever appeared in your musicals and where:

Pedophilia
SN:This is a strong yucky word. But there is a reference to an illicit relationship between a gym teacher and a student in Lunch.

Necrophilia
SN: No. I can honestly say I have no necrophilia in any of my shows. Titus X comes close, but close doesn’t cut it when it comes to something of this sort. When I was a teen, though, I must admit I wrote a song about necrophilia. The drummer refused to play it.

Gothism
SN:Tamora [from Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus] is queen of the Goths.

School cafeteria storytelling
SN:Yes. Lunch: The Musical takes place in a cafeteria.

The beloved and all-telling game of M*A*S*H
SN:Yes. There is a MASH scene in Lunch. One of the best scenes.

Sock puppetry
SN:Yes. Puppets by [local actor and designer] Betsy Rosen.

Megalomania
SN:Yes. Everywhere. All of them. All the time.

Incest
SN:Yes. Titus X! Much incest between Tamora and her boys. It is icky. Sometimes it can even leave a bad taste in my mouth (depending on how far [DC/NYC actor] Joe Pindelski goes… and since Marybeth [Fritzky] is playing Tamora again tomorrow night… I expect ickiness to be off the scale).

Cannibalism
SN:Yes. These are the ingredients for death pie.

Marriage
SN:Yes. Titus! Cautionary Tales for Adults.

Divorce
SN:Yes. There’s a line in Trixie Tickles about how a gun can provide a quickie divorce. And does. Is that a spoiler. Looks like there will be a step-mom in the next episode.

Recreational drug use
SN:Yes. McMusical [an anti-McDonald's adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth] has a sing-along with the audience called “Pack That Bowl.”

Blood-letting or blood-sucking
SN:Maybe. I was working on a vampire piece for [local producer] Alex Zavistovich, which has been temporarily put on hold.

Child pornography
SN:No kiddie porn. Can’t say I’ve gone there… wait? No.

The raping of young American minds by cartoon franchises.
SN:Yes. Absolutely.

Farting
SN:No. I’ve done a lot of dick jokes, but for some reason, I can’t seem to think of any fart jokes.

Love
SN:Yes. All of them.

Suicide
SN:Yes. I do a lot of Shakespeare adaptations.

Good times
SN: I loved that show. Dy-no-mite!

Dancing
SN:The Many Adventures of Trixie Tickles had a lot of dancing, choreographed by Melissa-Leigh Douglass.

BYT: There are a lot of shitty movies out there. And a lot of shitty movies are being turned into musicals on Broadway. Most of the musicals are as shitty as the movies. Some are shittier than the movies. Is there a shitty movie that you might want to turn into a non-shitty musical?
SN:Nah. Aside from Shakespeare (who stole everything he wrote), I prefer to do original pieces.

BYT: What are your plans for the future? Do you plan to sell out and write a musical about dancing dogs or people dying from staph?
SN:Currently, I’m planning on moving to LA. Test the waters out there. I mean, every show I’ve done here will be brand new out there. But don’t fear, friends, I’ll still be back to do shows. DC is my home and will always have a big piece of my heart.

BYT: Shawn, you’re so punk!

Bouncing Ball Theatrical Productions Presents:

TITUS X

A ridiculous concert performance of a
take-no-prisoners adaptation
of Shakespeare’s bloodiest play!

Starring Jason Stiles as Titus Andronicus

with

Nathan Bonfiglio
Billy Bob Bonson
Marybeth Fritzky
Cesar A. Guadamuz
Andrew Honeycutt
Jacob Jackovich
Joe Pindelski
and
Casie Platt

Directed by Shirley Serotsky

Tuesday, December 18th - 9 p.m.
The Black Cat - Backroom
14th Street, between S and T Streets
All Tickets $8
At the door or at www.ticketmaster.com

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