Current projects include Buried Under Books, a musical monologue with playwright Michele Lowe opening Off-Broadway at the Zipper Theatre this spring; a musical adaptation of the Jean Shepherd film A Christmas Story, with a book by Joe Robinette, opening regionally this fall; and Dance of the Holy Ghosts, a play by Marcus Gardley, which premiered at the Yale Repertory Theatre and will be seen regionally this coming season. Other musical theatre works include music for Coyote Goes Salmon Fishing, directed by Molly Smith at Perseverance Theatre and produced by Stuart Ostrow in Houston; and Sanctuary D. C., a rap musical about the homeless in Washington (Helen Hayes Award nomination).

Works for children include a number of commissions from Theatreworks U. S. A.: Corduroy (music, lyrics, orchestration),  Sundiata! The Lion King of Mali (music, lyrics, orchestration), Island of the Blue Dolphins (orchestrations) and Junie B. Jones (orchestration).

His play-scores have been heard at resident theatres around the country including The Public, The Old Globe, The Alliance, and Madison Repertory Theatre. Highlights include the world premiere of Lee Blessing’s Cobb at The Yale Repertory and the U. S. premiere of Nikos Kazantzakis’s Christopher Columbus at the New Federal Theater.

As an actor, Mr. Richards originated the role of Sylvester in the original Broadway production of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and assisted his father, Lloyd Richards, in the origination of 3 other Wilson works.

Scott D. Richards is a recipient of the Jonathan Larson and the Frederick Loewe awards. He is currently an assistant professor of music/musical theatre at Montclair State University’s Cali School of Music and has been a member of the faculty at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program since 1997. From 1995-2005, he was a teaching artist with Lincoln Center Institute, where he authored publications for the Heckscher Foundation Research Center on such various subjects as The Blues, Margaret Leng Tan (The Art of the Toy Piano), and the tangos of Astor Piazzolla.
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This political reaction coincided with the sudden end of the Big Band Era, in which armies of young men (and some women) crisscrossed the country playing an African-American based music for audiences that often numbered in the thousands of powerful, dancing young people.  I can’t help but feel some kind of connection between these events.

Set in the Big Band and War era of the 30’s 40’s Charlie Crosses the Nation tells the story of Charlie Hyde, a fictional mixed-race jazz musician and his struggle for physical and artistic survival in a society which finds his mere existence a threat to the established order.

Each of the major characters in the piece has a fervent desire to change the world through a mastery of the power of music. This “mastery” may be the mastery of an instrument, or the economic control of musicians.  The desired “change” may be a desire to change political systems, change one’s place within a political system, or simply to get someone to love you.  It is the fate of these characters to discover that true mastery comes at great cost, power remains elusive, and change is merely transitory if it can be achieved at all.
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Though Healy has assembled some of the finest young musicians on the scene, he will still need a lot of original music if he is going to fulfill his ambitions for the band after the war. Fortunately, an anonymous band member has begun writing original compositions and slipping them secretly into the band’s library. 

As the band is about to rehearse, Healy discovers another new composition, but before they can begin, American shells streak overhead to demolish the town they would have been in if the truck had not broken down. As the musicians panic, the driver Charlie Hyde tries to calm them down by pointing out that not knowing which direction people are trying to attack you from is normal.

2. “Situation Normal”
Wes, a lifer sergeant major argues that Charlie’s cynical talk is self-defeating and treasonous. As most of the musicians begin taking Charlie’s side, Wes jumps up on an embankment to get their attention and is immediately shot by someone in the distance: a German? An American?

Later that same night

3. “Where ya from, soldier?”
Healy soon figures out that the phantom composer is the probably Charlie, who is clearly on the run.

4. “If I were on the run”
Healy tries to convince Charlie that he understands the kinds of circumstances that can lead to being on the run and offers to be the face for Charlie’s music. 

5. “You don’t know how evil men can be”
Charlie points out that Healy’s ignorant idealism is dangerous, but agrees to reveal why he is on the run. Charlie strips off his Army Fatigues to reveal the short pants of a pampered child circa 1929. Charlie narrates the story of his upbringing as the illegitimate child of a respected black doctor and Clarice, a young white prostitute. 

Part I 
Outside Kansas City, 1929

The narrative begins on the morning of his Charlie’s father’s funeral. Charlie, 5 years old, is being raised in a brothel and starts banging on the piano very loudly at 9:30 in the morning.

6. “Nobody loves me the way my Charlie can”
Clarice pulls Charlie away from the piano, telling him he’d better stay out of sight, or he’ll be taken away.

7. Uncle Marcus offers
Marcus Barnes, Charlie’s uncle and a prominent minister, comes by the brothel on the way to his brother’s funeral and offers to raise Charlie in his own house.

8. “You’re all hiding”
Clarice refuses to give Charlie up but allows Charlie to attend his father’s funeral.

9. “Doctor Barnes is dead” (The Procession)
Charlie and Uncle Marcus and a couple hundred other people process towards the church to mourn the death of Dr. Barnes, the father Charlie never met.

10. “The road is long”
Bewildered by everything else around him, Charlie hears Dorothy, a little girl his own age, sing his father into heaven. Charlie falls in love.
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