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Lizzie

RAGE! SEX! BETRAYAL! BLOODY MURDER!

  • Full Length Musical
  • Drama
  • 90 minutes

  • Time Period: 19th Century
  • Target Audience: Teen (Age 14 - 18), Adult
  • Cautions: Mild Adult Themes
  • Orchestra Size: Small

  • Performance Group:
  • College Theatre / Student, Blackbox / Second Stage /Fringe Groups, Professional Theatre
In the heat of late summer 1892, Andrew Borden and his wife were found murdered in their house. The main suspect in the murders was Andrew's youngest daughter from a previous marriage, Lizzie Borden. 

Using a searing rock score, and based on the historical record, Lizzie explores the heady and heated days leading up to the murder and Lizzie's controversial acquittal of all charges and the creation of a new American myth. 

REVIEWS:

"A gothic rock ritual with a 'riotgirl' attitude... an eerie hybrid of rock club and turn-of-the-century New England parlor."

 The New York Times

"Lush tunes which retch sex, rage, dyke heat, misanthropy, and incest... Surreal glee and gallows humor... Finally, a rock musical you'd wanna mosh to."

 The Village Voice

"This is the greatest American musical since Sweeney Todd."

 British Theatre

"Lizzie is absolutely brilliant, fantastic right up there with the best of them. This is a rock opera, as raunchy and outrageous as any good rock opera should be."

 West End Wilma


  • Casting: 4F
  • Casting Attributes: Ensemble cast, All Female
  • Chorus Size: No Chorus

  • LIZZIE BORDEN (high belt: F#3-F#5, belt to A5 is possible) is damaged, twisted. She can turn on a dime from fragile, broken, meek and obedient to conniving, sinister, furious and terrifying. She is a wounded animal backed into a corner, terrified but enraged. We find her at the moment she realizes she has nothing to lose. She is transformed through an act of unspeakable transgression, turning her own historical infamy into an ascension to legend.
  • EMMA BORDEN (alto/mezzo belt: F#3-D5) is the older sister, eclipsed by the younger. She must content herself by playing a motherly Lady Macbeth to Lizzie, dripping her own hatreds into Lizzie's ears over the years, stoking the fires of Lizzie's rage, disappearing when the deeds must be done, and suffering with guilt afterwards. Emma is a woman who has come to see that every opportunity for happiness has passed her by. She's furious, but she's also desperately sad.
  • BRIDGET SULLIVAN/MAGGIE (contralto/low alto: F3 with E3 pick-up/ghost notes in one number) - Eb5 (E5 opt. in one ad lib) is the Borden's Irish maid. She may be a Banshee, called to wail at the Borden's door. She always seems to know what is going to happen, does things once step before anyone else. She's put upon, angry, and as resentful of the Borden sisters as she is of the parents. Bridget is the Sex Pistols rock and roll nihilist; ready to fuck things up because she knows that's the only way anything is ever going to get better.
  • ALICE RUSSELL (high mezzo lyric/mix/belt: G3 with F#3 pick-up/ghost notes in one number -A5 legit soprano) is the Borden's next door neighbor. She is a luscious pear, the sensuous mother-sister-lover which is sorely lacking in Lizzie's life. She appears to Lizzie in her greatest moments of need and attempts to lead her away from a path of destruction and toward one of love, truth, and affection. Lizzie may have true feelings of affection for her, or she may be using Alice's feelings to build an alibi.
  • Name Price
    Digital Perusal Material Shipped immediately. This is optional. Order Now

    1 x Cast Script/Vocal Score Sample

    $10.00
    Pre-Production Pack Shipped upon receipt of a signed License Agreement and full payment of all invoices. This is optional.

    1 x Cast Script / Vocal Book
    1 x Director's Script
    1 x Piano/Conductor's Score

    $75.00
    Rehearsal Material Shipped a minimum of 3 months before the last performance. This must be hired as a condition of the License to produce this show.

    4 x Cast Script/Vocal Books
    2 x Director's Scripts
    2 x Piano/Conductor Scores
    1 x Stage Manager's Script

    $450.00 +$135.00/pm
    Orchestral Material Shipped a minimum of 1 month before the last performance. This is optional.

    Keyboard 1/Conductor
    Guitar 1
    Guitar 2/Keyboard 2
    Cello
    Bass
    Drums

    $250.00 +$135.00/pm
    Sound Effects Package Shipped upon receipt of a signed License Agreement and full payment of all invoices. This is optional.

    Our easily downloadable SFX package includes all the necessary noises to enhance your production. No additional software is required so you can simply run these from a computer, phone or tablet.

    $75.00