We’re Only Alive for A Short Amount of Time
“Matthew Dean Marsh is a find.”
“The songs come when they have to, when someone is reaching, struggling to break out of themselves. They’re about longing, freedom, and glimpses of the weird and beautiful. They are the flight of wingless creatures. ”
“The music Cale and Marsh weave into the story is profoundly moving and—at times—beautifully odd to an ear trained on the likes of traditional musical theater…..an extraordinary story instilled with remarkable music…..a near-perfect fusion of words, music, tragedy and hope.”
“The music is rhapsodic; with a six-person orchestra accompanying behind a scrim, the dozen or so songs (or wisps of songs) about regret, alienation and even rage seem to reach for a higher plane in which disaster is transmuted into its opposite.”
“David Cale, Robert Falls and Matthew Dean Marsh all clearly have worked hard for “We’re Only Alive” not just to be a story of survival but of striving to transcend. And that is accomplished work.”
“A DREAMY TOUR DE FORCE OF SURVIVAL.”
“The choruses of the songs have been pared down resulting in amazingly perfect, complex and beautiful strains, some of which have the romantic affect of classic standards from the likes of Gershwin, Porter and Berlin.”
“If ever you had any doubt about the healing and transformative powers of art, “We’re Only Alive For a Short Amount of Time,” will set you straight.”
“LYRICAL STORYTELLING AND SONGS THAT FEEL LIKE POETRY!”
“The songs conjure mid-century melancholy like a medium conjuring a spirit.”
“An astonishing piece of theater.”
“The arrangements reminded me of what early demos of Joanna Newsom’s “Ys” might have sounded like or the more involved instrumental sections of Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois.”
“The original music is as heartfelt and revealing as the story itself. The lush orchestrations evoke a rich, mid-century tone, especially when played capably by Marsh and an accompanying quintet.”
ROMEO & JULIET
“The composition and arrangement is sheer genius.”
“A poetic rock opera.”
“Marsh’s melodies are gentle and plaintive and never distract from the drama or falsely accentuate it. His contribution is key to the show’s success”
“Shakespeare’s familiar verse is given fresh life in the transcendent music of Matthew Dean Marsh. In Marsh’s subtle settings, the lines of poetry rise and fall in melodies that seem woven out of the same fabric as the text.”