10-MINUTE MUSICAL COLLECTION
Music by Jonathon Lynch
Lyrics by Kit Goldstein Grant & Gil Varod
Book by Gil Varod
Comedy
Time Travel Makes Complete Sense
When Crystal's oddball blind internet date whips out a meal replacement shake he invented instead of having a cupcake at the Magnolia Bakery they both decided to meet up at, Crystal pops into the bathroom and is torn by indecision as to whether she should escape out the window. Little does she know that her internal debate is about to be interrupted by various versions of herself from the future, each one with a different opinion on how the date should have gone.
Overview
Cast Size
8 (2m, 6f)
Duration
25 Min.
Setting
A Magnolia Bakery. Now, and not in the future. Not yet.
Subgenre
N/A
Themes
Regret, dating, science, technology, love, absurdism
Target Audience
All ages
Style
Musical Theatre, Pastiche
Instrumentation
Piano/Vocal
Additional Resources
Melody Guides, Demos, Backing Tracks
Cautions
N/A
Casting Information
CRYSTAL: Woman in her 20s or 30s on a first date. Extremely indecisive, easily impressionable.
STERLING: Somewhat awkward but sweet male in his 20s or 30s.
FUTURE CRYSTAL: Older version of Crystal, maybe by just a few years, maybe a few decades. Indecisiveness has led to regret. Can be older than CRYSTAL or around the same age.
FUTURE CRYSTAL 2: Same age as Future Crystal, being stifled has led to regret.
FUTURE CRYSTAL 3: Same age, but from a war-torn version of the future. Is missing an arm, and regret is now replaced with cold unfeelingness.
FUTURE CRYSTAL 4: Same age, from a happier future, but still isn't happy.
FUTURE STERLING 4: Married to Future Crystal 4. Fed up with Crystal's indecisiveness and regret.
BUSGIRL: Probably same age range of the other Future Crystals, and is otherwise enough like the other Future Crystals as possible in order to be convincingly mistaken as one of them.
Note: The future Crystals do not need to look anything like Crystal or the other Future Crystals. In fact, it's funnier if they don't! Same goes for Future Sterling and the Busgirl.
Songs
Media
Production History
“Time Travel Makes Complete Sense” originally premiered at the 2018 Across a
Crowded Room Festival at the New York Library for the Performing Arts in Lincoln
Center through the Billy Rose Theatre Division.
CAST:
CRYSTAL: Alina Gatrell
STERLING: Christopher Michaels
FUTURE CRYSTAL: AJ Freeman
FUTURE CRYSTAL 2: Emily Ray Baraf
FUTURE CRYSTAL 3: Laura Cetti
FUTURE CYRSTAL 4: Kate Leonard
FUTURE STERLING 4: Anthony Castellano
BUSGIRL: Erin Oechsel
“Time Travel Makes Complete Sense” was chosen to be part of the 2024 season of
“Bite Sized Broadway”, a 12-time award-winning podcast that broadcasts mini musicals
as fully-produced radio plays.
Author Bios
JONATHON LYNCH [Music] wrote “The Baroque Cycle” (best score nominee & best singer winner, Winterfest NY), and “The Turing Test” (Gallery Players), and composed “The Carousel of Inevitability and Certain Foreboding” (fellowship winner, NYPL Performing Arts Library), “Again and Again and Again” (development award winner, Unsung Musicals Co), “Time Travel Makes Complete Sense” & “RansomWHERE?!” (Lincoln Center), and “Slam!” (TheatreNow NY). He's also the composer of “NewB” (award-winning webseries), “Elimination” (video game), and “Canta! Songs for Learning Spanish” (album). His podcast, "Bite-Sized Broadway", which won multiple awards in its inaugural season, showcases mini-musicals of new musical writers. He also music directed “Micro-face” (NPR), assistant music directed “Finding Neverland” (pre-Broadway workshop); music directed, dance arranged, and was on-stage trumpeter of “The City Club” (Minetta Lane); and music directed & arranged “Giant Hoax” (Theatre Row). A BMI Workshop & Northwestern Alum, he's a music director at AMDA & 92NY. For more information go to jonathonlynchmusic.com.
KIT GOLDSTEIN GRANT [Lyrics] is a composer, lyricist and librettist. She wrote the NPR Planet Money economics superhero musical Micro-Face, and her musical THE NOSE has been produced multiple times in South Africa and in NYC. Her musicals have also been seen in New York at Theatre Row (The Giant Hoax, Indieworks Theatre Co.), the Strawberry One-Act Festival (The Commuters, Indieworks Theatre Co., voted Audience Favorite), The Players Theatre (Where Angels Fear To Tread, Moxie Arts), and Theatre for the New City (The Wrong Box). Five of her musicals for young audiences have toured schools with the Schenectady Theatre for Children, including It’s Raining Tamales!, which is published by YouthPLAYS. Kit has studied at Juilliard, the BMI Musical Theatre Writing Workshop, Union College, and she holds a M.M. in Composition from Brooklyn College. She is also a teaching artist, and the founder of Paper Kite Arts. Kit is a member of ASCAP, the Dramatist’s Guild, Composer’s Collective, and Theatre Now New York's Musical Writers Lab - www.tnny.org. www.kitgoldstein.com
GIL VAROD [Book] is an award-winning book writer and lyricist. His musical “Oedipus for Kids!” has had productions at NYMF, 54 Below and internationally, and can be licensed via Concord Theatricals. Other notable works include “Merry Christmas You Ridiculous Gentiles” (The Duplex), “Again and Again and Again” (UnsungMusicalsCo Writer’s Lab), “The Commuters” (Riant Theatre), “time et al” (FringeNYC), “The Complete Works of Walt Disney Abridged” (Disney Imagineering), and BroadwayAbridged.com. His musicals “RansomWHERE?!” and “Time Travel Makes Complete Sense” were performed as radio musicals by “Bite-Sized Broadway”, and both are available for license by MTI along with the one-act edition of his musical “The Carousel of Inevitability and Certain Foreboding”. With Jonathon Lynch and A. J. Freeman, he was awarded a Billy Rose Theatre Division Fellowship to workshop the full-length edition of “The Carousel of Inevitability and Certain Foreboding” at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ Billy Rose Theatre Division. Gil is an alum of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop.