Seth Kimball-Bass & singer; Michael Bitterman-Piano; Ferdi Serim-Drums; Horns arranged by Seth Kimball

Lost Tuesday-(music & lyrics-Michael Bitterman) Seth Kimball

Recorded at Tower Sound (CBS) 1970-Seth Kimball-Singer; Neil Rosengarden-Piano; Harvey Brooks-Bass; Richie Ritz-Drums; Bob Rose-Guitar; Neil Schiller-Flute; Arranged by Neil Rosengarden

By A Fireplace Brightly (music & lyrics-Michael Bitterman) Seth Kimball

How Much Better Can It Be?

Fran

Fly into the night

Not Enough Time

Arleen

Annie

Allyson

from the musical -The Demigod of E. 78th St
Music: Michael Bitterman
Lyrics: Dennis Drogseth
Singer-Lia Sumerano
Michael Bitterman-Piano; Mike Guglielmo-Drums; Drew Karch-Bass
soundcloud.com/michael-bitterman/sets/the-demigod-of-e-78th-st

The Demigod of E. 78th Street was scheduled to open at the Woodstock Playhouse, Woodstock, NY for the 1984 summer season. 
Janet Hayes Walker, founder of the York Theatre, was set to direct.
I remember playing the score for her in a little room at the old York Theatre on an upright piano.
The show was listed in the NY Times theatre directory for the '84 season.
Then, 2 months before opening, Harris Gordon, the producer, cancelled the show afraid of putting on an original musical. He didn't think his audience would come.
Instead, he played it safe with another Agatha Chrisie play.

Sung by Vivian, in the face of too much wealth and too many choices, 
about her ambivalence to Tom and men in general.

IT'S ALL THE SAME TO ME (The Demigod of E 78th St)

from the musical THE CELLAR
Book, Music & Lyrics by Michael Bitterman
singer-Susie Taylor
http://www.midmod.com/cellar.html

THE CELLAR deals with mature themes, namely, the sexual fetishes of five characters who represent the thousands of fetishists throughout the world who feel guilty for their obsessions. These are people you probably know and see every day of your lives but are unaware of THE CELLAR they are forced to live in because "society and the law" frown on them.

After lighting the shabbat candles, Nina puts on her leather skirt and boots, gets her whip, and becomes Mistress Flora.

MISTRESS FLORA (The Cellar)

from the musical FIVE AFTER EIGHT
Music & Lyrics: Michael Bitterman
the original cast-Sally Funk, Alan Sorenson, Dina Olstad, James Handakas, Barbara Walker
Musical Director: Ron William
Produced by Michael Bitterman
http://www.midmod.com/five.html

Original Cast recording on Original Cast Records

The New York Finale asks the question-'How can you write a song about Manhattan when they've all been written before', while parodying the songs of Rodgers & Hart; Leonard Bernstein, Comden & Green, Stephen Sondheim, Harry Warren & Burton Lane

New York Finale w/The Closing Song (Five After Eight)

from the album WHOSE FANTASY IS THIS?
music & lyrics: Michael Bitterman
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bitterman2

Vinny Martucci-piano
Lou Scott-Bass

DO YOU EVER THINK OF ME? (Whose Fantasy Is This?)

from the musical THE CELLAR
Book, Music & Lyrics: Michael Bitterman
Singer: Harold Shlurman

THE CELLAR deals with mature themes, namely, the sexual fetishes of five characters who represent the thousands of fetishists throughout the world who feel guilty for their obsessions. These are people you probably know and see every day of your lives but are unaware of THE CELLAR they are forced to live in because "society and the law" frown on them.

Harold is an adult baby in a big playpen wearing a diaper, a bonnet and holding a rattle.

AUNT MINA'S NURS'RY SCHOOL (The Cellar)

from FORLORN HOPE-The Donner Party Musical
Music & Lyrics: Michael Bitterman
Book: TG Harpster
singer-Lia Sumerano
Produced by Michael Bitterman
http://www.forlornhopemusical.com

Springfield Il, April 1846
87 people leave their home to find their 'eden of the West' in California by taking a wagon train on an unknown route.
They get stranded in the worst snow storm in California's history.

Virginia Reed, 14 years old,  watches her pony, Billy, get smaller and smaller as her wagon train pulls away leaving Billy left to die. She recalls her love for Billy and how Billy will always stay in her heart

BILLY (Forlorn Hope-The Donner Party Musical)

from FORLORN HOPE -The Donner Party Musical
Music & Lyrics: Michael Bitterman
singer-Caleb Nelson
Produced by Michael Bitterman
http://www.forlornhopemusical.com

Only 25 years old, Luke Halloran is dying from consumption, and knows he will never see California.   Luke comforts Virginia by saying  when he dies, and is laid  to rest, he will sinkinto a one-ness with the earth, and become a part of the the West

PART OF THE LAND (Forlorn Hope-The Donner Party Musical)

Book & Lyrics: Dennis Drogseth
Music: Michael Bitterman
singer: Gregor Trieste

As if it were anticipating the cynical, post-Enron era, "Rasputin" tells a fable of hope and defeat, comedy and corruption in a world in which "cheating souls" unwind in "double-time." Beneath this cynicism is a story about both loss of innocence and the power of innocence. Was Rasputin an evil villain, a hero trying to save Russia, or something in between? Who can really tell the story?

Smoke & Mirrors

Everybody Loves you Patsy

Everybody loves you Patsy

How to separate the real from the fake

It's all the same to me

13 Long Town Suffer

MICHAEL BITTERMAN-(Composer/Lyricist) was writing musicals and Twilight Zone scripts when he was 11-that was back in '61. Although Rod Serling sent him letters of encouragement nothing materialized on TV but they lived in his dreams. Starting one of the first bands in Great Neck-The Long Island Sounds-in '65 as a rhythm guitarist, the band was one of the premier bands on Long Island. Being an outcast for being the first kid in school to have long hair, he found solace in Greenwich Village in the mid 60s eventually writing songs and performing at the Gaslight Cafe on MacDougal St in '68.
Signing an exclusive songwriting contract with Albert Grossman in '69 (manager for Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul &amp; Mary, Janis Joplin, The Band) he had many almosts as a songwriter-Karen Carpenter (The Carpenters), Mary Travers (Peter, Paul &amp; Mary), Mary Hopkin, Procol Harum, were all set to record his songs when one day Michael went into Albert's office with a copy of the Great White Wonder...
Starting the band MIDNIGHT in 1970 and playing concerts with David Peel &amp; the Lower East Side, MIDNIGHT was very close to being signed by John Hammond at Columbia. MIDNIGHT has a CD recorded in 1970 avail on CD BABY.
As one of the first Arp 2600 Synthesizer musicians/programmers in NYC, he has played on records of Barry Manilow, Janis Ian, and many others.In 1971 he worked as a rehearsal pianist for Alan Klein at Apple Records.
His love for musicals turned to writing when he produced and wrote the music and lyrics for FIVE AFTER EIGHT which played at the Cubiculo Theatre in New York in 1979 breaking all existing house records for that theater. Original Cast Records released the cast LP &amp; CD.Then, in '84, he wrote the autobiographical album, WHOSE FANTASY IS THIS?-released on LP &amp; CD.
THE DEMIGOD OF E 78th ST, with book &amp; lyrics by Dennis Drogseth, premiered at the Woodstock Playhouse, Woodstock, NY in 1984.
DISCOVERING MAGENTA, with book &amp; lyrics by James Corey Kaufman was selected for Oklahoma City University's New Musical series in 2007
Although his songs are bordering on romance and loss of love, this was never his intention-it's just the way it all happened.Despite the fact that he has written the scores for 9 musicals, his most recent, FORLORN HOPE-The Donner Party Musical, the songs he performs as an artist are all personal statements of his life from when he was a teen in the 60s-through his turbulent life of craziness in the mid 80s-to the present.



Michael Bitterman

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