MONKEY MIND: A MUSICAL
Book by Terri Weiss
Music by Gerardo Herrera Benavides
Lyrics by Bill Berry
A teen aged girl with an overactive mind (Monkey Mind played by three characters) tries to get her father out of depression by winning a singing contest. A singing teacher notices her brain is running her life and tries to teach her to control it by “staying in the now”. The stubborn girl thinks, “Ya Ya” and doesn’t try. She falls for the teacher’s nephew but worrying about her father, (in the hospital) maybe not being good enough to win, and a fight with the boy, drive her to near suicide before she realizes her mind is, indeed, ruining her life and is ready to try to “stay in the now”. A serous subject done with a lot of humor.
Cast Size: 2M 2W 3GN
Running Time: 90+ minutes
Royalty Rate: $75 per performance
Listen to the Music
OPENING
HATE SONG
I KEEP EXPECTING YOU
ONE WITH ME
SINGING LESSON
ANSWERS
ONE STEP AT A TIME
ONE WITH ME
KEEP HOLDING ON
EVERYBODY’S GOT A MONKEY MIND
BECAUSE OF ME
NOW
BE HERE NOW
Order Digital Download (Will NOT download to phones, cannot be printed)
About the Creators
Terri Weiss (Writer) Terri (professionally performed as Terri Baker), felt the urge to write a musical when she realized her singing students had a real problem focusing on their lessons, being distracted by negative mind chatter. Terri, an alcoholic with 38 years sober, learned to control her own mind using a simple method that she’s passing on.
Deciding her show needed contemporary music, when a young composer from Peru, Gerardo Herrera, showed up at her doorstep one day to rent a room in her home, she decided it was fate and reworked the show. Thrilled with the end result, the show was produced in 2019 at the Hollywood Fringe.
Terri’s career spans decades from appearing on Broadway, in FADE OUT FADE IN with Carol Burnett and understudied Betsey Palmer in SOUTH PACIFIC at Carnegie’s Judsen Hall, to film where she worked with luminaries such as Jack Benny, Toni Randall and Jane Fonda. She studied voice with all the majors of her day and studied dance with Martha Graham and Matt Mattox. Terri also sang, on the road, for 7 years working at times with the famous Lionel Hampton orchestra.
Review Monkey Mind: A Musical.