Darren Butler of Orange Beach will take his shot at Broadway this fall. Borrowing lyrics from the famed musical, Hamilton, Butler said, “I am not throwing away my shot.” Runaway Home Development, LLC will hold a staged reading of the new musical, “Runaway Home,” on September 21st and 22nd at 2:00 p.m. at Theatre Row located on 42nd Street in New York City. The musical features book and lyrics by Darren J. Butler and lyrics and music by Judy Rodman. 

The concept for Runaway Home began in 1994 while Butler was flying home from a trip to New York. “The characters just started popping into my head one by one. By the time I landed, I had the foundation for the musical.” Several years went by while Butler carved out a world for his characters to exist in, which included several monologues about why they ran away from home in the first place. Two of those monologues were published in Young Women’s Monologues from Contemporary Plays #2 edited by Gerald Ratliff. “The script wasn’t even finished yet, and there wasn’t any music. When the monologues were included in this book, I knew the story had legs.” In 2006, Butler teamed up with co-writer, Judy Rodman, a world renowned singer, songwriter and vocal coach. The team workshopped the musical in 2006 in Butler’s hometown of Decatur. A year later, a high school in Bristol, CT performed the show under the direction of Mark Mazzarella. Butler flew up see the show and loved what they did with it. Butler, Rodman and Mazzarella joined forces to workshop another rewrite of the show in 2008. “Audiences loved it. From the beginning, we always had full houses with people on their feet and tears in their eyes at the end. But for me, it never felt right.”

Butler shelved the show for several years while he earned his Masters of Fine Arts from Point Park University in Writing for the Stage and Screen. “In graduate school, I started refining the show with fresh eyes.” Last January, Butler reached out to Rodman and told her, “This year is our year for Runaway Home. Let’s do it.” 

What is a staged reading? “A staged reading brings everyone to ‘the room where it happened’,” Butler quoting one of his favorite shows, Hamilton. The 199 seat theatre on Theatre Row in New York City will be filled with invited guests which include producers, directors, actors, and anyone in the industry who is looking for a show to move to Broadway. “We even have a pitch deck for a limited television series spanning five seasons and fifty episodes.”

An overhauled script. New songs. And now, a star-studded cast. “The cast is unbelievable. We have some of the top talent in the business who quickly attached themselves to this project and what’s coming next. There was a moment when I realized we had every major award in the entertainment industry represented in the cast - Oscar, Grammy, Tony, and Emmy.” Butler said.

Directed by Emma Denson, a powerful, the award-winning cast includes: Olivia Hardy, currently in the Tony Award-winning musical, Kimberly Akimbo leads the cast with Michael Park (Dear Evan Hansen, Stranger Things) as “Father Liam,” Melissa Gilbert (Little House on the Prairie, The Miracle Worker) as “Mrs. D’Angelo,” Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine, The Miracle Worker, Signs, Scream Queens) as “Kit,” Max Bartos (Sing Street) as “The Preacher,” Cadence Baker (American Idol 2022, Top 20, Peter and the Starcatcher) as “Pyper,” Ellis Gage (Next To Normal, Into the Woods) as “Steve,” King Orba as “Duke,” Mat Hayes as “Shorty,” and Ali Gallo (Unhuman, The Sex Lives of College Girls) as “Lil C.” The ensemble will include Cassandra Kubinski, Dani Apple, Albert Guezmon, and Freedom Bremner. Michael Boxleitner will narrate.

* Actors appear courtesy of the Actors Equity Association under the Off-Broadway agreement. 

Butler was recruited to the area in 2019 to lead the fine arts and theatre department for Orange Beach Middle/High School for Baldwin County Schools. After three years, Butler left the classroom to pursue his writing full-time. Most recently, Butler has served as a Story Associate Producer on Love in Fairhope for Hulu and Buying Beverly Hills - Season 2 for Netflix. Asked if he was planning to move to New York or LA anytime soon, “No, my family and I love the Gulf Coast. My wife, Freda is an interior designer, and her business, Southern Palms Furniture and Decor is booming, plus the kids are happy. The only one moving is our oldest, Evie Rosa, who will be starting her freshman year at California Institute of the Arts in a few weeks. She’s the only one going to Los Angeles for now. We’re really proud of her for getting into a school like Cal-Arts to pursue her career of acting for film. It’s like the #2 school in the country for acting. For now, the rest of us will stay in our own LA - Lower Alabama,” he joked. “New York and Los Angeles are just a plane ride away, and most of my work can be remote. But, never say never.”

www.runawayhomethemusical.com Follow the journey of Runaway Home on the musical’s website for the latest news, updates, and more.