CCM alumni unite to create new musical 'With Beckett'

Oberacker has become a successful conductor, composer and lyricist. His conducting credits include Cirque du Soleil’s Dralion and Kà (Las Vegas), national tours of The Lion King, Show Boat, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Music of the Night and Cats. Most recently, Oberacker wrote the music, book and lyrics for Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Bandstand: The New American Musical and he composed the score for a musical adaptation of The Great Gatsby, which premiered in Japan in 2017. He is also working on Bruce, an upcoming musical about the filming of Steven Spielberg's 1975 classic Jaws.

When Broadway shutdown in March 2019 due to the pandemic, countless performers, composers, conductors and theatre artists found themselves out of work. While attempting to handle the shock from this change, Hendy decided that this was going to be the time for her to work on a project of her own. She told Cincinnati Magazine: “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from show business, it’s that you have to have persistence. You have to believe when there is no belief to be had.”

When Broadway shut down in March 2019 due to the pandemic, countless performers, composers, conductors, and theatre artists found themselves out of work. While attempting to handle the shock from this change, Hendy decided that this was going to be the time for her to work on a project of her own. She told Cincinnati Magazine: “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from show business, it’s that you have to have persistence. You have to believe when there is no belief to be had.”

This project is intended to portray Hendy’s struggles as a single mother raising her son Beckett. Based on Hendy’s memoir, With Beckett is a personal one-woman musical that shares her story of a woman living her dream — a career in the big city and a perfect marriage — when her husband begins to suffer an inexplicable mental decline that slides into a terrifying psychotic break with reality. She is left with her young son to navigate a seemingly impossible new landscape with few resources other than an irrepressible sense of humor and a mother's determination.  It features a book by Hendy, with Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker, music by Richard Oberacker and lyrics by Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker.

The show is still in its building stages. The goal is to have a musical that can be performed when audiences can enjoy it safely. For more information about the show, visit the project’s website.