New musical ‘The Crinolynns’ highlights human experience, brings Broadway stars to Saint Vincent

For Scott Logsdon, writing “The Crinolynns” — a new musical set to make its debut this weekend at Saint Vincent College — was one of the happiest and fun-filled parts of his life.

Featuring Broadway and television stars as the three female characters, the musical takes place in 1999 at a small theater in Branson, Mo., and the performance will include a four-piece rock band.

The Crinolynns is a fictitious girl group originally formed in the late 1950s and comprised of three biological sisters with the middle name Lynn.

“We wanted something that sounded like it would’ve been a girl group name, and then by putting the middle name into it it kind of made it, I thought, more interesting and fun,” said Logsdon, of Somerset.

Forty years later, when the musical takes place, the group is debuting a new act — still in the same 1960s pop vibe but with lyrics about “what life is really like,” Logsdon said, mentioning storylines of divorce, betrayals and shattered dreams.

“But it’s not tragic,” he said. “We were very conscious to not make them victims.”

Now that the characters have grown children, the girl group realizes it has more to say, which is the catalyst for The Crinolynns’ new act.

Donna Lynne Champlin, best known as Paula Proctor on The CW’s Emmy Award-winning musical TV show “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” Sally Mayes, Tony Award nominee for “She Loves Me,” and Valerie Wright, a vacation standby for the title role in the 2023 Tony Award-winning musical “Kimberly Akimbo,” will portray the three females who make up the group.

According to Logsdon, the cast has collectively appeared in 18 Broadway shows, 14 off-Broadway shows and 5 national tours, as well as on TV and in film.

“One of the downsides of showbiz is, especially for women, you amass these great things and … become very accomplished and then people are like, ‘Well, you’re not the hot Baywatch babe, so we don’t care what you have to say,” Logsdon said. “I find that horrifyingly repugnant.”

There is ageism present in Hollywood, according to Aaron Gandy, composer of the show, citing the women often seen on magazine covers.

“If you don’t look like that, you tend to be invisible in modern culture, and this show is meant to be a corrective to that in a beautiful way,” said Gandy, of New York City.

Logsdon said he conceived the show using inspiration from the girl group songs in “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” that have an upbeat, happy sound yet darklyrics.

“I am obsessed with the contrast,” Logsdon said.

So, he began writing lyrics to send to Gandy, who would set them to music and send them back just hours later, Logsdon said.

“We wanted to find a way to take these songs that everybody thinks they know … and then we subvert that with a comic twist,” Logsdon said. “We had so many ideas that we could just take it and run.”

He said some of the songs in the show could be “cousins to famous songs,” such as “Chapel of Love.” In the musical, the comparable song is about heading to the courthouse.

Though they’ve known each other for 30 years and have written with other people, The Crinolynns is the first project they worked on together.

Logsdon, who was in the original national Broadway company of “Les Misérables,” spent some of his childhood growing up in Somerset before returning to the Laurel Highlands in 2013.

And Gandy, multi-instrumentalist since middle school, has had a career as a music director.

The pair met doing professional theater in Charlotte, N.C., and have “stayed chums ever since,” Gandy said.

“When something writes itself that fast, you really know you’re onto something,” Gandy said of the new musical. “Even though these women are occasionally talking about some heavier topics, the music still sort of makes the whole show joyous.”

There will be two showings — 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday — at the Performing Arts Center of the Robert S. Carey Student Center at Saint Vincent College in Unity. It’s being produced by Stage Right in Greensburg and its GhostLight Initiative.

Running around 80 minutes, the reunion concert musical won’t have an intermission, costumes or an abundance of lights, Logsdon said. The three characters will use music stands on stage for the songs since it’s not a fully realized musical production, he said.

Gandy said they’re confident that the musical is “really strong” and serves as a “fantastic showcase for three really gifted performers.”

“Performers of a certain caliber — they don’t say yes to junk,” Gandy said. “In today’s media environment, there aren’t that many really wonderfully rich roles written for performers of a certain age.”

The Crinolynns doesn’t just have one, it has three, Gandy said, which allows the audience to connect with the various storylines in the show.

“Life happens to all of us — the good, the bad and the ugly — and you know, those of us who are lucky enough to live through those things and emerge on the other side have some real wisdom to share,” Gandy said.

Both Gandy and Logsdon agreed that empathy is the most vital and enduring part of theater and something that’s found within theater’s most timeless characters who show truths of the human experience.

“We got all these emails from women who were saying, ‘Oh my God, I never get to see myself on stage when I go see something,’” Logsdon said. “We’re like hitting these things that are very real and very universal with women as they get older.”

If the shows on Saturday do well, Logsdon said he thinks other companies in the area would be willing to try to develop new shows as well, which is “an amazing thing.” And they’d love to have the opportunity for The Crinolynns to have an off-Broadway run.

Logsdon and Gandy are already about 70% of the way through creating a musical sequel and possibly even a third installment to make it a trilogy.

There are a lot of casting opportunities for The Crinolynns, Gandy said.

“The world is really full of exceptionally gifted women who are the right age for these roles, and no, they don’t have material written for them,” Gandy said.

According to Gandy, the future success of The Crinoylnns is just about playing their cards right.

“This is a stars-aligning moment.”

Tickets for Saturday’s performances are $26 for adults, $24 for seniors and $16 for students. Those interested can call 724-832-7464 or purchase them online.