Ryan Scott Oliver could very well be musical theater’s answer to an auteur filmmaker or a gothic novelist, and for good reason: the 30-year-old composer-lyricist says he’s equally inspired by the likes of Quentin Tarantino and Stephen King as he is Stephen Sondheim.
“I like to think of my artistic perspective as being morbidly optimistic,” Scott told The Huffington Post in an interview. Like Tarantino and King, he sees darkness as the common denominator in all of his work, noting, “I believe in happy endings, but I also believe that there’s a lot of really, really awful sh*t that people have to go through in order to get there.”
New Yorkers who aren’t familiar with Scott’s shows, like 2014’s “Jasper In Deadland” and 2009’s “Mrs. Sharp,” will get an opportunity to be introduced to the scope of his musicality at Manhattan nightspot 54 Below on Feb. 2. The composer will join Broadway veterans Jay Armstrong Johnson, Lindsay Mendez, Andy Mientus and Derek Klena (among others) for two back-to-back concerts showcasing his eclectic — and occasional eccentric — melodies.
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“There’s a crowd who wants to go to a musical for a good time, and there’s a crowd who wants to see a musical to be changed,” he said. “For me, if I write a good story, I think people will want to see it. You have to write the show that speaks to your heart in a given year.”
“RSO at 54 Below” opens at New York’s 54 Below on Feb. 2. Head here for more details.
