| DIVA: Live from Hell | |
|---|---|
| Music | Alexander Sage Oyen |
| Lyrics | Alexander Sage Oyen |
| Book | Nora Brigid Monahan |
| Setting | Hell (cabaret act), high school (flashbacks) |
| Productions |
|
DIVA: Live from Hell is a one-man musical with a score by Alexander Sage Oyen and book and characters by Nora Brigid Monahan. [1] The musical is a dark comedy following Desmond Channing, a deranged high school theatre student, as he retells the events that drove him to murder his drama club rival to an audience at his long-running cabaret act in Hell. [2] The show was originally developed by Less Than Rent Theatre as a short solo comedy under the title Diva and premiered at Theatre Row as part of the 2013 United Solo Theatre Festival. [3]
The world premiere of DIVA: Live from Hell opened at Theater for the New City in Manhattan on March 23, 2017 and played 16 performances, closing on April 9, 2017. [4] It was directed by Daniel Goldstein and starred Nora Brigid Monahan (then appearing under the name Sean Patrick Monahan) [5] as Desmond Channing and all of the other onstage characters. Broadway veterans Penny Fuller, Charles Busch, and Seth Rudetsky made voiceover cameos in the original production. [6]
In 2018, DIVA: Live from Hell was given a one-night performance by Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera as part of the SPARK festival of small-cast musicals. [7] For this performance, Monahan once again played Desmond Channing and Oyen served as musical director and pianist.
In 2020, a London production was announced to open at the Jack Studio Theatre, directed by Joe McNeice and starring Jak Malone of Operation Mincemeat . [8] The production was slated to begin performances on March 17, 2020, but was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [9] In 2022, a new production directed by McNeice opened at The Turbine Theatre in London starring Luke Bayer, who received rave reviews, [10] as well as an Off West End Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. [11] Bayer returned to the show in 2024 in a remounted production that played London's King's Head Theatre before a critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. [12]
A Portuguese translation of the musical premiered in Rio de Janeiro in 2025 under the title Diva: Ao Vivo do Inferno! The production was directed by Hugo Kerth, who also starred as Desmond Channing. [13]
Other productions include a second Pittsburgh production in 2023 at the Steel City Arts Foundation's Sunken Bus Studios starring comedian Matty Malloy [14] and a Philadelphia production in 2024 starring Jack Taylor as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. [15]
A Diva: Live from Hell original cast album was released in 2019, featuring a new studio recording of the score as well as live recordings from the 2017 world premiere production. [16] The double album featured Nora Brigid Monahan as Desmond Channing and the following track list:
In 2023, a London studio cast recording featuring Luke Bayer was released, which featured a larger band with new orchestrations as well as several additional excerpts from monologues in the show [17] on the following track list: