The true crime genre, while wildly popular, is also fraught with questions of taste and ethics. Who gets to tell victims’ stories? Should people profit from them? What draws millions of readers, listeners, and viewers to spend their valuable free time taking in tales of crime and death? It’s these questions and others that drew writing team Jonathan Anders and Jørgen Pedersen to create The Big Bad Business of Murder, an original musical that will have its world premiere at Ignite Theatre Company from August 20-23.
“Jonathan had recently watched a bunch of true crime documentaries and was complaining about how they took an hour’s worth of material and stretched it into five hours and the amount of glee and the weird macabre tone of almost celebrating these killers as opposed to having reverence for these victims, these real people that have suffered these terrible situations,” Pedersen says. “As we were talking about it, kind of out of nowhere, I said, ‘Well, that would make a great musical.’ And five years later, here we are.”
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That five years has been spent crafting a comedy that “skewers the world of true crime along with all the grubby hands trying to make money off these tragedies.” The musical, which includes 22 original songs co-created by composer sad alex, follows a Texas Ranger who gets a criminal to confess to being history’s most prolific serial killer. The only problem? He’s lying. The cast of characters is filled out by a victim’s sister, a celebrity psychologist, a movie producer, and the mayor of the Texan small town where they all gather.
“There’s a certain glorification, obviously, that’s happened with serial killers, and it’s really sad,” Pedersen says. “I understand from a story standpoint that writing about victims and victims’ families is definitely more difficult, but perhaps that’s even more reason to do it. I’m not one to say that our show teaches some sort of lesson or anything, but if people come away finding it funny and feeling like it has started a little kernel in their head about thinking about things differently, I think that would be the best thing.”
It’s the first musical from Anders and Pedersen, who have previously worked together on television and film projects. Luckily, they had some experience in the theater space from which to draw. Pederson is the husband of Ignite founder and executive director Libby Pedersen. In the past, he has directed productions of Chicago, Grease, and Hairspray for the youth theater, which also produces all-ages shows. For The Big Bad Business of Murder, they elected to use what Jørgen Pedersen calls a “hybrid” format, with a primarily young cast of actors ages 13 and up joined by a handful of adults.
“It’s been fun working with teens and then mentors along with the teens,” Pedersen says. “I know how important mentorship and giving kids an outlet in theater is. When I was growing up and in high school, I didn’t get into theater. I got into film. But I was directing adults and kids my own age at that time. It’s really, I think, an important part of development. Theater is such an interesting medium that me and Jonathan felt that it would be awesome to do the show [with Ignite].”
The cast, crew, and creative team have been hard at work in rehearsals since May, which Pedersen says is a longer lead time than most productions. But with 100 percent new material for everyone to learn, the team wanted to give everyone plenty of time to get comfortable. The rehearsal process has also given them time to make final tweaks to the story and scenes.
“It’s been an interesting experience because sometimes rehearsals feel like almost like the show’s always existed, like stepping in to do The Sound of Music or something, and then at other points, it’s kind of fascinating because we say like, ‘Oh, this scene isn’t working,’ and we don’t have to just deal with it because of rights issues and contracts. We can rewrite it,” Pedersen says. “It’s been a really fantastic experience in that way, and it definitely makes me want to do more theater for sure.”
Audiences at Kirkwood’s Robert G. Reim Theater this week will be the first to experience The Big Bad Business of Murder, but the hope is that they won’t be the last. The show’s creators have their eyes on both licensing and professional potential for the show.
“I’m biased, but I do think that this is a fantastically funny show that is about something and has a sound that I have not heard in musical theater as of late,” Pedersen says. “It is something super special to us, but I think if more people can see it, I think it’s going to be super special to a lot of people.”
The Big Bad Business of Murder runs August 20–23 at the Robert G. Reim Theater, 111 S. Geyer. For tickets and more information, visit ignitewithus.org.
