There’s a hot new musical theater company in NYC and it launched on Monday, April 25, with a VIP reception and EP release party at Manhattan’s popular Beauty Bar. Self-described as “a genre-defying bolt of lightning in the dark,” Iconoclast Theatre Collective specializes in works of daring storytelling filled with “urgent narratives, bracing pathos, and scathing wit,” under the appropriately iconoclastic motto, “We understand the rules. It’s time to break them.”
First conceived during the pandemic shutdown in 2020, ITC made its digital debut with the original podcast series and Webby Award honoree The World to Come by founding members and frequent collaborators Rachel Klein (director of Off-Broadway’s Red Roses, Green Gold and Around the World in 80 Days), Andy Peterson (associate conductor and keyboardist for Broadway’s Tootsie), and Erik Ransom (recipient of London’s 2019 Off West End ‘Offie’ Award for Best New Musical for GRINDR: The Opera). The collective has since expanded into live in-person shows, while also continuing to reach worldwide audiences with its virtual offerings.
Among the announcements celebrated at the launch party was the release of the new seven-track original cast EP recording of The World to Come: The Fellowship of Fiveboro, available now for download and streaming on Apple Music and other popular music platforms. Set in a futuristic post-apocalyptic world of battles and whimsy, with no internet or electricity, the musical narrative follows five disparate factions vying for dominance in the city-state of Fiveboro, as each tribe worships the pop-culture references of a bygone era and relishes the stories of film and television they’ve never actually seen.
Ransom also confirmed at the event that a staged concert production of his award-winning hit GRINDR: The Opera, a sung-through musical parody of the gay dating app, will be presented at The Green Room 42, in partnership with TOSOS (NYC’s oldest and longest-producing LGBTQIA+, theater company) for Pride Month in June, with a cast TBA.
GRINDR: The Opera plays on Friday, June 17, and June 24, at 9:30 pm, at The Green Room 42, 570 Tenth Avenue, 4th floor, inside YOTEL, NYC. For tickets (priced from $15- 79, which includes a $10 food and beverage voucher), call (646) 707-2990, or go online. Everyone must show proof of full vaccination and a photo ID to enter.
