Since moving to New York City in 2016, Sean McCabe, Artsci’15, Ed’16, has been steadily carving out a place for himself in the world of contemporary musical theatre. He graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Graduate Musical Theatre Writing from New York University (NYU) in 2018 and has been honing his craft in the city ever since.
For some of his most recent work, McCabe has drawn on stories from his Catholic upbringing but through an LGBTQ+ lens. “It’s actually a really rich source material,” McCabe says of familiar biblical stories. “I thought it might be a fun way to subvert this text that is so often abused and misused to ostracize queer people.”
This subversion is a choice that is both artistic and personal. “I’m told by my queer peers to run away from [the source material],” he says. “It feels taboo in ways that set me apart as a writer.”
Typically, McCabe writes the book and lyrics for a show and collaborates with a musical composer, but he is currently focused on The Covenant, a musical he is writing entirely on his own for the first time. That includes the book, lyrics, and music. He recently completed a residency at Catwalk Institute to develop the musical. Inspired by the biblical story of David and Jonathan, the piece reimagines their relationship as a romance. “It felt like the right opportunity to explore my own musical voice, especially with a character like David who is literally a songwriter,” he explains.
By centring new perspectives from familiar canon, McCabe is adding to the diversity of voices in musical theatre repertoire. “Representation in musical theatre seems to be getting better – slowly, too slowly,” he says.
But, he notes, it’s not necessarily happening on the big Broadway stages. “Representation and innovation in musical theatre are victims of the now inescapable trend of the Broadway movie musical,” he adds, tongue-somewhat-in-cheek, referring to the trend of producers backing musicals based on existing intellectual property (think of shows like Legally Blonde, Mean Girls, and Back to the Future) rather than seeking out fresh material.
“If you want to see innovative, queer, original, cutting-edge musical theatre, you’ll have to look a little further. It is happening – in readings and workshops and production off- and very-very-off Broadway,” he smiles.
Originally from Ottawa, McCabe thought he was on track for a teaching career. “What drew me to Queen’s was the concurrent education program, but I was also a theatre major and there were just a ton of opportunities to put on shows,” he explains. “It felt like we did 100 musicals per semester, and I think that was the best way to learn.”
Until his time as an undergrad, McCabe had primarily been involved in musical theatre as a performer, and it was during his time at Queen’s that he first took on directing and then writing his own pieces. “I never really knew where my place was, because it was a lot of fun to perform but I knew that I was surrounded by really talented performers,” he chuckles. “I had the drive, I had the passion, but I didn’t really think that was my place.”
He first traded acting for writing with a 20-minute semi-autobiographical musical cleverly titled Memoirs of a Gay Sean as part of a Queen’s studio series. “It was such a thrill,” he says. “That’s when I first felt like I belonged in the world of musical theatre, and it’s what inspired me to keep going down that route.”
He credits the myriad of opportunities at Queen’s — from directing and writing to performing with the school’s Barefoot Players troupe, along with the theoretical theatre training he received from dedicated professors — for setting him on the path to a career in musical theatre.
Now, by day he works for a non-profit offering tuition-free performing arts education to underserved youth in the city. He dedicates the rest of his time to writing; his work has been presented by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and, with collaborator Paulie Pecorella, he won the Drama League’s “Anthem for the Future of Theatre” songwriting contest. He also works with performance students at NYU and at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, where his songs are a part of the curriculum.
“As a writer, you have to make your own work,” McCabe says of creating opportunities. “There aren’t exactly job listings for Broadway composers.”
His mentor, the late Steven Lutvak, who wrote the Tony Award-winning musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and taught at NYU, instilled in McCabe that he was responsible for creating his own path. “No one is going to reach down and lift you up, you have to want it enough, so that’s what I’m doing,” he says.
