Learn more about this virtual production that took place during academic year 2020/2021.
JAN 16 | SAT
7:30 PM
MSM Musical Theatre presents:
Le Comte Noir
A new musical by writing team Burwell & Sasser about the real Count of Monte Cristo
Catie Davis, Director
Andrew Gerle, Music Director
Charles Vincent Burwell, Composer/ Lyricist
James D. Sasser (BM ’98), Book Writer/ Lyricist
André Zachery, Choreographer
MSM will stream the premiere film production of Le Comte Noir, featuring a company of MSM Musical Theatre students. The production was shot on location in NYC with COVID-19 safety protocols, and around the country with students studying remotely or in quarantine.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Le Comte Noir is a new musical about the man who changed the face of the French Revolution, and the son who struggled to keep that legacy from being erased. It follows famed novelist Alexandre Dumas’ attempt to finish his latest novel while suffering crippling writer’s block. To complete it, he must reconcile his father’s history as a Haitian-born son of a French nobleman and a slave, and his journey to become a leader of the French Revolution and rival to Napoleon. His father’s heroism and forced imprisonment would inspire The Count Of Monte Cristo and much of his Dumas’ other writings. The musical fuses classical influences and Afro-Haitian music and dance, while exploring the author Dumas’ unresolved questions of identity, democracy, and legacy. Book and lyrics by MSM alumni James D Sasser (BM ’98), music and lyrics by Charles Vincent Burwell.
