Cast size: From ten to fourteen+ (dependent on doubling and chorus size)
- 1 female-identifying lead
- 1 male-identifying lead
Length: 105 minutes (60+45)
Setting: A large unnamed Canadian city, and Barnabus Bay (a neighbouring small town)
Current Status: Four readings (two informal, two with audience). Demos recorded for all songs. Workshopped by Arts Club in Vancouver, August 2022. Artistic Director: Ashlie Corcoran; Director: Barbara Tomasic; Dramaturg: Stephen Drover. Further dramaturgical development by Robert McQueen.
Recognition: Armchair Confidential was shortlisted for the 2023 Tom Hendry Playwriting Award for Best New Musical, and was recently named #1 Stage Play of the Month by Coverfly.
SYNOPSIS
Lucy, a brilliant but neurotic 40-something accountant by day, true crime-binging introvert by evening and weekend, discovers a pattern in the serial murders that have recently plagued the quaint neighbouring town of Barnabus Bay.
“READ OUR FIVE STAR REVIEWS
WE’RE A HOME RUN ON EACH FRONT
OUR LOCAL SHOPS
ARE MOM AND POPS’
NO STARBUCKS MAR THE BEACHFRONT”
She enlists her longtime bestie, Aldo – a recent father with a five-month-old strapped to his chest – to help crack the case. Through arguments and escapades, they learn that tackling their emotional baggage may be even harder than catching a killer. Armchair Confidential is a buddy comedy/mystery musical that playfully riffs on existential crises while exploring our society’s morbid fascination with murder.
Click here to read Armchair Confidential Script Sample
Click here to view What Are the Chances? Piano Vocal Score
DEMO TRACKS
(featuring Alana Bridgewater, Eric Craig, Dan Duran, Bruce Dow, Sara Farb, Hailey Gillis, Kaylee Harwood, Arinea Hermans, Aaron Jensen, Linda Kash, Ryan Kelly, David Lopez, Jeff Madden, Whitney Ross-Barris, Nick Settimi, Sarah Strange, & Paula Wolfson)
Why the Hell Are You All Still Here? (Ensemble)
The Game’s Afoot! (Lucy)
In Barnabus Bay (Ensemble)
Throw Me A Line / Sure Seems Fishy to Me (Teuta, Shepherd, Pascal, Donna, Lucy)
Why Armchair Confidential?
I believe that now more than ever, audiences are hungry for entertainment. We could all benefit from a little escape. Armchair Confidential carried me through a winter in quarantine, and provided a lighthearted creative world for me to explore. The concept was dreamt up by my wife, who like so many others, is obsessed with True Crime. She asked: “What does it say about our society when Netflix can’t keep up with the demand for new murder shows? What fuels this obsession? Morbid curiosity? Underlying fear? The desire for neatly tied-up resolutions in the battle of Good v.s. Evil?”
“NEED SOME DRAMA TO DISTRACT YOU FROM THE BLEAK AND BLACK ABYSS?
D’JA COME TO RECONNOITER? GET ROPED IN BY A FRIEND?
COMPELLED BY SCHADENFREUDE? LORDY, HELP ME COMPREHEND
WHO’D DELIBERATELY SUBJECT THEMSELF TO THIS?”
So began this journey.
My ambition in writing Armchair Confidential has been to create an entertaining, satirical new Canadian work that evokes the catchy numbers and clever wordplay of Golden Era musicals while telling a timely, relatable story. On the surface, it’s a scrappy buddy-comedy, but underneath the gags, the show tunes, and the dance numbers, Armchair Confidential probes the dark corners of human nature. It meditates on themes of avoidance, superficial social media culture, and existential crises. It’s a story about facing fears, mending fences, and taking a chance on life.
