Not everyone gets to say something they created was performed in New York City. However, Hailee Beltzhoover can say it all she wishes. Beltzhoover, a Winthrop theatre performance senior, had a musical she co-wrote performed at Feinstein’s/54 Below in August. The musical, titled “Dandelion,” played for one night and left a number of reviewers impressed.
The musical is centered around a high school senior named Jane. Jane lives with her mentally ill mother who has an opiod addiction. It follows her as she struggles to decide between staying at home to take care of her mother or continue her education and follow her dreams.
Beltzhoover started writing the play in August 2017 with her high school theatre teacher, Jessica Fichter and a high school theatre classmate, Sean Riehm. Fitcher’s sister, Colleen Francis wrote the music for the show. Fichter would go on to take the directorial role for the show and was responsible for the show making it to New York.
When asked what inspired her to write the show, Beltzhoover said it was “a lot of personal experience” and she felt “it was a story that needed to be told because it was not a glamorized version of mental illness or addiction.” The title itself came after the script had been written.
According to Beltzhoover, “Dandelions are flowers, but also weeds that can grow in the most difficult of circumstances. They also spread far and wide and blow where the wind takes them. This represents Jane and her desire to fly away after growing through such a difficult situation with her family.”
Beltzhoover did not plan to take the show to Feinstein’s/54 Below. Feinstein’s nourishes new musicals by giving them a platform to perform a concert version of their show. Describing the experience, Beltzhoover started off by talking about the phone call she received from Fichter, who had emailed Feinstein’s and received a positive response. “It’s kind of surreal to be 21 and performing in a cabaret house in New York on Broadway.” Beltzhoover also said that it “felt like half of me was living in a dream world and the other half of me was a sponge, soaking it all in.”
After spending time in a professional rehearsal room, Beltzhoover, an avid theatre performer at Winthrop, realized that it was just like at the university except for how much faster things moved. Sentimentally, the experience changed Beltzhoover through the reaction of the crowd that night. “It made me feel like this could actually go somewhere and we have a story that is worth something.”
Beltzhoover and her team are currently waiting to hear the reviews from the New York scene. Their main goal currently is to show off a fully realized version of the show in a smaller theatre, whether it be in New York or anywhere else. For more information, the show has a Facebook and Instagram in the form of “dandelionmusical” and a Twitter, @wearegoingnorth.
Photo: Mason Foster/ The Johnsonian
