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Doors Open – 5:30pm.

David Cale & Matthew Dean Marsh

We’re Only Alive for A Short Amount of Time

Written and performed by David Cale

With Matthew Dean Marsh on piano

Lyrics by David Cale

Music by David Cale and Matthew Dean Marsh

Musical underscoring composed by Matthew Dean Marsh

Winner of a 2020 Obie Award

Winner of the 2020 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Solo Performance

Nominated for the 2020 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show

Nominated for a 2020 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance

NY Times Critic’s Pick

Winner of the 2019 Jeff Award for Best New Musical for David Cale & Matthew Dean Marsh

WE’RE ONLY ALIVE FOR A SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME

A musical memoir of hope, family and transcendence. Growing up, writer/performer David Cale escaped his parents’ fraught marriage by singing in his bedroom and tending to birds in his backyard animal hospital—until a tragedy changed everything. Lush songs, by Cale and Matthew Dean Marsh, and an intimate portrait of his mother unite in Cale’s vivid “survival story, deeply moving in its courage” (Chicago Tribune).

David Cale Recent works as a playwright include the London West End sold out run of his solo play, Harry Clarke, starring Billy Crudup (Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor) and Sandra starring Marjan Neshat, with music by Matthew Dean Marsh (Vineyard Theatre). Cale is the writer-performer of twelve solo works including The History of Kisses, Lillian (Obie Award, Playwrights Horizons), Deep in a Dream of You (The Public Theater, Bessie Award). Cale and Marsh are currently collaborating on the songs for Crescendo, a new show Cale is writing for Talking Band. As an actor and singer, he appears in the upcoming musical feature film Ann Lee directed by Mona Fastvold.

Matthew Dean Marsh is a New York City–based theater composer, director, photographer, writer, and performer whose work merges classical and contemporary influences into rhapsodic story-driven scores. Acclaimed for his lush harmonies, evocative orchestrations, and stirring emotional resonance, Marsh has collaborated with David Cale on We’re Only Alive for a Short Amount of Time (The Public Theater, Goodman Theatre) and Sandra (Vineyard Theatre), and co-created Centuries and You Don’t Know the Lonely One at the Ancram Center for the Arts. He recently began directing The Reality Show program at NYU and has scored a range of films and documentaries.

“David Cale has a depth and range of expression and a life force that pours out of him like the frothing mouth of a river…The songs in “We’re Only Alive” come when they have to, when someone is reaching, struggling to break out of themselves. They’re about longing, freedom and glimpses of the weird and beautiful. They are the flight of wingless creatures.”

 – Sara Holdren, New York Magazine

“A dream tour-de-force of survival. If you ever had any doubt about the healing and transformative powers of art, “We’re Only Alive for A Short Amount of Time” will set you straight.”

 – Hedy Weiss, WTTW, PBS Chicago

“The music Cale and Marsh weave into the story is profoundly moving and – at times – beautifully odd to an ear trained on the likes of traditional musical theater…An extraordinary story instilled with remarkable music.”

 – Catey Sullivan, Windy City Times

“An astonishing piece of theater.”

 – Caridad Svich, American Theatre Magazine

VENUE DETAILS
All Sales Are Final. No Refunds

Pangea is New York’s iconic restaurant / cabaret dinner theater. All shows have a $20 food and/or beverage minimum per person (unless otherwise indicated on your ticket.)
Tickets online are $25. Tickets at the door, if available, are $30 (Cash Only).
The house opens at 6:00pm for food and beverage service.

Please note the ticket price goes mostly to the performers and production staff. The club sells food and beverages to continue to bring live music to NYC. 
We do not take reservations and seating is first come, first seated.
AS A COURTESY TO THE PERFORMER, PLEASE ARRIVE EARLY TO PLACE ALL FOOD /BEVERAGE ORDERS.
Thank you for your understanding.