Colleen DuVall’s King Size Parody

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Photo courtesy Colleen DuVall

Shining in Misery writers/composer

Mark-Eugene Garcia (Lyrics, Book), Colleen DuVall (Book), Andrew Abrams (Music) of ‘Shining in Misery’

Milwaukee writer Colleen DuVall had an idea five years ago: as a fan of Stephen King’s work, why not create a musical tying together his work with other cultural references? Collaborating with Mark-Eugene Garcia (book and lyrics) and Andrew Abrams (music) Shining in Misery: A King-Size Parody has been staged in Madison and New York City. 

DuVall took time to answer a few questions about the production and how it came to life.

What is the backstory of Shining in Misery: A King-Size Parody? Do you recall a light bulb moment when you decided to make it happen as a project?

This musical has actually been incubating since 2019. My old friend from Middleton High School, Andrew Abrams, approached me with the idea, because he knew of my great love for all things King. He had just finished directing a production of Evil Dead: The Musical and thought, why hasn’t anyone done this—but with Stephen King? We could do this! 

I like to joke that we’d always meant to collaborate together creatively—it just took us 33 years to get to it. Once we decided that the main characters would be from The Shining and Misery—with several other key King character cameos—the rest took shape quite naturally.

Are you a Stephen King fan? Have you had any feedback from him?

I’m in danger of rivaling Annie Wilkes as one of King’s many “number one fans.” I’ve read everything he’s ever written. My mom encouraged me to read The Shining at age 12, and I’ve been hooked ever since. He inspired me to become a writer. 

Andy became acquainted with King’s work through me—I made him watch a lot of the movies. Our lyricist, Mark-Eugene Garcia has always had an appreciation. His favorite was The Eyes of the Dragon. 

As for the man himself, we haven’t heard anything just yet. The plan is when we have our next production secured (hopefully on a larger scale), we will happily invite him to the show. 

What is your theater background? Have you worked on anything of this scale? 

All of us have a theatre background, although admittedly, this is my first musical. I had my own theater troupe and indie film company in Chicago, where I lived for 10 years before relocating here. The theater troupe was The Black Cat Productions. A stage adaptation we did of the old Bela Lugosi movie, White Zombie, was written up favorably in a book of the same title by Gary D. Rhodes. 

Some of my short films were featured in the Chicago Underground Film Festival and the New York International Independent Film Festival. I’ve written, performed in, directed, and produced shows in Chicago, Madison, Sacramento, Calif., and here in Milwaukee.

Mark wound up cowriting the book with me, and it really was an amazing collaborative process, with all of us brainstorming and bouncing ideas off of each other all of the time. It was also a challenge, because the bulk of shaping the script and music came during the pandemic. 

There were many texts, emails, conference calls, and Zoom meetings. Throughout all of the rewrites, and all of its incarnations so far, we’re the core creative team. We also definitely need to give a shout-out to our director for the Capital City Theatre production in Madison, and our 54 Below performance in New York, Donald Garverick. Don totally got our vision, and really helped hone the perfect parody as a dramaturg.

What are the future plans to continue with the production? 

Mark and I just signed on with Andy’s agent, BBA Creative. They’re based out of London, but also have offices in NYC. We are talking to some interested parties but sometimes it’s a long process, so we have to be patient and see how it goes. 

We’ve received great reviews across the board, especially the recent one in Broadway World by Nathan Johnson. The audiences have been incredibly enthusiastic and receptive, so we’d love to see this play in all the major cities, and eventually a touring production. 

The main thing we really want to get across, is that this show has wide appeal. Even if you just have a basic knowledge of the main King characters and have never read a book, or love musicals, you’re going to get a big kick out of this musical.

At the end of the day, what would it take for you to characterize Shining in Misery: A King-Size Parody a success?

In many ways, we’ve already achieved a great level of success with this piece. That’s something to remind ourselves of—even when continuing to dream big! 

The fact that we debuted it with Capital City Theatre in the World Premiere Wisconsin festival last year without even workshopping it first, was no small feat. Being able to entertain and chat with Tony-Award winners Dave Malloy and Lin-Manuel Miranda at our NYC show was amazing. 

My personal dream come true of course, is to have Stephen King himself sitting in the front row at a future performance. I shake his hand afterward, he tells me how funny he thought it was, and I can die a happy woman. And scene.