Plays By Scott Miller

“About as good an evening of first-view musical comedy as I’ve seen for a while. . . Miller’s book, music, and lyrics range widely, intelligently, unsentimentally, and wittily over familiar and unfamiliar territory.” – Harry Weber, The Riverfront Times

“Miller has a nice sense of the ridiculous. He also shows a good feeling for whimsy and, most important, he has a deep and abiding love for classic American musicals.” – Joe Pollack, St. Louis Post Dispatch

Attempting the Absurd is a truly absurdist, postmodern musical comedy about a young man named Jason who has figured out that he's only a character in a musical and his declarations to that effect have unintentionally persuaded those around him that he's off his nut. After he loses his girlfriend over his unfortunate existential knowledge, he sets off on a quest to find The Answers To It All, along with his traditional Musical Comedy Best Buddy, Chaz. Along the way the two find love (both gay and straight), community theatre, a little jail time, and ultimately proof that Jason is right after all. Love and a copy of the script to Attempting the Absurd conquer all, and all ends as it should with a happy, full company reprise. With a score that ranges from old-fashioned musical comedy to contemporary Broadway pop, this is a wacky parody of, and loving tribute to American musical comedy. 5 women, 7 men, and chorus of any size. Piano score only. First produced in 1992.

“Some of Breaking Out’s songs are rousers.” – Harry Weber, The Riverfront Times

“There are a lot of truths – and a lot of questions – in Breaking Out in Harmony. . . Miller has dealt with a subject that continues to make news and cause controversy. . . Miller has written a musical that is ‘about something,’ and about something important too. It’s worth seeing, thinking about, and most important, acting on.” – Joe Pollack, St. Louis Post Dispatch

Based on one of the most important book banning cases in U.S. history, Breaking Out in Harmony explores the personal conflicts and powder keg emotions behind a simple act that snowballed into a U.S. Supreme Court case. A small group of parents in a quiet suburban town break into their kids' high school library one night to remove "objectionable" books they've found on a list from a national conservative parents group. When their kids find out, the town is soon split in two -- and so are some of the families -- and the kids end up taking their parents and their school district all the way to the Supreme Court. But nothing is as simple as it sounds and this story is not just about books -- it's also about parents wanting to protect their kids and kids wanting to grow up and make important decisions for themselves. Breaking Out in Harmony makes the political personal by creating a fictional composite family, based on some of the real players -- the son is the leader of the kid protestors, the father is the school board president and one of the night library raiders, and the mother is forced to choose sides. 5 women, 4 men, and "kid" and "parent" choruses of any size. Piano score only. First produced in 1994.

“Conflicts lead to high-voltage confrontations.” – Gerry Kowarsky, St. Louis Post Dispatch

"Ideas loom large in this work. The central one is ingenious. . . Two things work for me in In the Blood. One – and it surprised me – was the vampire business. . . The other thing is the love story between the vampire and the hematologist. . . Much of that emotional conviction grows from Miller’s music, which is, I think, the best score he’s done for a show.” – Bob Wilcox, The Riverfront Times

Part romance, part gothic horror, part wacky comedy, In the Blood tells the emotional story of an unlikely romance between the vampire Zachary Church and Adam Graham, a hematologist with HIV, in the early years of the AIDS pandemic. The show asks the question: If vampires are the only ones who can't be affected by the AIDS virus, do they have some responsibility to pass on their immunity? And for someone with AIDS, what price is too high for acquiring that immunity? When Adam asks Zach to turn him to vampirism so he won't die, Zach is torn. He has vowed never to make another vampire, never to subject anyone else to the horrific loneliness he has known for so long. Ultimately, Zach has to choose between condemning Adam to the tormented life of a vampire or watching him die, knowing he could've saved him, knowing that he will be utterly alone once more. 4-5 women, 5-6 men, and optional chorus. Piano score only. First produced in 1995. A novel based on the musical was published in 2001.

“Miller provides an intelligent and interesting context, genuinely witty and clever lines, and a wholesomeness and honesty both unexpected — under the circumstances — and exhilarating. . . This, besides the verbal brilliance, is where Miller takes Head Games well beyond the genre. His director's program note and the piece in last week's RFT tell the audience in advance what Miller is going to do, but it's like a magician's explaining a trick before he performs it and still amazing his spectators.” – Harry Weber, The Riverfront Times

“The funniest moment in Head Games occurs when a character questions the artistic integrity of a director who plans to stage a play with gratuitous nudity. The irony is that the actor expressing these sentiments is gratuitously nude. . . Miller is an astute critic, and these questions are obviously important to him. . . The arguments about theater and sexuality are thought provoking, balanced and often amusing.” – Gerry Kowarsky, St. Louis Post Dispatch

Head Games is a wickedly funny, gay-themed comedy that takes aim at the new genre of gay comedies with gratuitous nudity, at America’s obsession with (and aversion to) four-letter words and exposed penises, and at the increasingly prevalent use of nudity on American stages as a commercial draw. The first act of Head Games is built around an aggressively honest, comically intense debate about whether or not plays like Head Games should even exist and whether or not they can be called art with a straight face (no pun intended). No one escapes a drubbing, including the audience and the playwright, and as Act II opens, we find that the story is not being told chronologically and that the action of Act I is not exactly what it seemed. The rest of Act II is the sex farce that the first act describes, suggesting in its last scene that all the furor is really over nothing, amounting to little more than the puritanical hypocrisy that made America great. 1 woman, 5 men. Full frontal nudity for three characters. First produced in St. Louis in 1999, then in Los Angeles in 2001, in London in 2002, then at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland in 2002.

Astro Turf is a twenty-minute one-act musical written as a special project for Harvard University. Five major figures in the history of astronomy, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, and Johannes Kepler, come together and present in song their views on the nature of motion and the creation of the heavens. 5 men. Piano score only.

A candidate is murdered at his own fundraising dinner and it's up to his bizarre, monstrously self-involved family to keep the guests happy and clueless while they try to figure out what to do. When a detective shows up, way too many family secrets are revealed and the only possible resolution is a massive cover-up that involves blackmailing the entire guest list. Written to be performed with dinner, A Hot Cup of Murder is a hour-long two-act comedy with an intermission built in for serving dessert and a very short second act. 2 women, 3 men.

Written to be performed by kids for kids, this 40-minute, one-act comedy centers on Orson Welsh, a 12-year-old film directing prodigy about to start shooting his first film when all hell breaks loose -- Orson's unwelcome mother, stolen sets, an apparently murdered milk lady, a hopelessly deaf janitor, and temperamental stars. 5 girls, 6 boys, plus as many others as desired. The script comes with a glossary of the filmmaking terms used in the script so kids can learn about the movies while they do the play.

All shows are available for licensing. Contact Scott Miller at 314-773-6526 or e-mail him at NewChaz64@aol.com.