Musicals
“Audiences are like strangers to me. They’re the best friends I’ve got in my life.”
-Elaine Stritch
Mamma Laudicina
Book, Music & Lyrics by Paulie Pecorella
Picture it: Sicily, 1972, Castellammare del Golfo. Wine, volcanic soil, citrus trees, and blood-stained hands. Mamma Laudicina is about to bestow one of her three sons with the family’s hundred-year-old vineyard; however, when the expected heir and favorite son Cristiano denies his inheritance, the family implodes. This Sicilianu musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear begs the questions: can a family be too close?
Daniel: An Ordinary Tragedy
Book, Music & Lyrics by Paulie Pecorella
Daniel, my oldest and most personal piece, is the story of a young writer struggling with the addicts in his life and navigating the loneliness of Manhattan. Daniel lives in his mother’s rent-controlled upper west side nightmare while slinging showtunes all around the city, but never quite breaking in. When he meets Jay, a piece of rough downtown trade, he falls hard and quick, and becomes swept up in a journey of self discovery - whether he likes it or not.
Daniel has been workshopped at Long Island University, and was a New Voices Finalist for the Academy for New Musical Theatre (ANMT) in Los Angeles. Daniel has also been presented at the Duplex and the West End Lounge.
Plays
Was Nana Elaine Stritch?
By Paulie Pecorella
Little Vinny has just lost his biggest supporter and best friend: his Nana. Vinny’s widowed Dad, at a loss for how to cope, announces that they’re moving from Brooklyn to Maine. Horrified, Vinny dreams up an advocate to get him through this tough time: Elaine Stritch, who he has the fondest memory seeing in “Elaine Stritch at Liberty” at the Public Theatre with his Nana. This play about loss imagines the most unlikely of pairings: a thirteen-year-old lonely boy with too much to say, and an eighty-six-year-old show business legend with just the right words.
Staten Island Holiday
By Paulie Pecorella
Staten Island Holidays follows a Sicilian-American family living in Staten Island as they less-than-breeze through the holidays of the year. From New Years to Valentine’s Day to the Fourth of July to Thanksgiving, Dolores and her two sisters grapple with their deteriorating father. In the midst of turmoil and change, two things are certain: there is always an arancino and an argument.