If you have kids, you’ve probably heard of Milo and his people-watching journey via train in the book “Milo Imagines the World.” Now, Matt de la Peña’s children’s book is coming to the stage at the Alliance Theatre.
“Milo Imagines the World” is a new musical that adapts Milo’s story into a full-fledged adventure, with music by Christian Magby, lyrics by Christian Albright, and book by Terry Guest. From June 25 – July 27, you can join Milo and his sister, Adrian, as Milo imagines the inner lives of the people he sees on the train and slowly comes to his own self-discovery.
Rough Draft Atlanta recently sat down with Magby, one half of the show’s musical team, to talk about adapting the book for the stage. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You’ve acted and composed for years. How did you originally get into this industry?
Christian Magby: My biggest start with anything in the arts was through the Youth Ensemble of Atlanta, where I grew up since I was 11, 12, years old. Not only is it a training company, but they also do original musicals based on the issues. So I grew up in a company that created their own works. Then from that, I wrote my first play when I was 15. With their support, I was able to use several adult actors, and paid everyone. But it’s interesting, because I didn’t necessarily know that there was a longevity or career to what I was doing. I knew that there was, but as far as composing, I never saw it. It was something I always did. [I’m] thrilled that I guess it worked out [laughs].
Do you remember a moment when you were like, oh, this is something I can do for a career? When did it click?
Magby: I think when me and Christian Albright started writing our musical “Mother of God.” It was selected by the Atlanta Musical Theatre Festival. I think seeing that realized to some capacity … and at least being able to just get our names out there, as it pertains to being songwriters and writers in general – I think that was a really defining moment. But it wasn’t until “The Incredible Book Eating Boy” here at the Alliance where we were like, “Oh, we can do this for a living.” [laughs]
You were born in Atlanta. What has it been like for you seeing the transformation over the last couple of decades of Atlanta into an industry town?
Magby: Oh, I love it. I always saw it as that, just as a kid. When I was younger, my aspiration was just to be a working Atlanta actor, because I saw so many people do it and make livings off of it coming out of YEA. There was nothing cooler as a child than to turn on “House of Payne,” and be like, man – somebody made it! I’m delighted, but not surprised to see all that’s happening in our arts community.
Shifting gears to “Milo Imagines the World,” how did you become aware of this work? Had you read the book? How did you come on board?
Magby: I had definitely heard of the story, just because I have friends who have kids. So I might have seen it on a shelf or two. But it was brought to us by Children’s Theater Company, The Rose Theater, and Chicago Children’s Theatre, who originally co-commissioned us to write the piece. That was the first time I “read it,” read it. I was intrigued, because I was like, where is this story going? Why is this boy on the train, and why does he put his imagination to use in such an effective way? And then, of course, you get to the end, and it’s like, ah! Which made me go back and read it again. I was just so engaged by the story. I was like, I have to work on this.
How do you incorporate that feeling as a composer? How do you kind of capture the feeling of, I want to go back?
Magby: I think one of the things – especially when it comes to things that are already written, like books or movies – is finding the moments that speak to me musically and going through and being like, that seems like a musical moment, or something that we’d want to explore. Just the little checkpoints of the story that we know that we can expound upon in character and narrative.
How do you define “musical moment?” I’ve talked with other composers about this – when does someone choose to sing? What pushes that?
Magby: This book specifically, I think there were things that jumped off the page. I think Milo and Adrian’s relationship – firstly, I don’t think his sister had a name in the book, but she was there the entire time. So that was a relationship that we knew we wanted to explore. We’re also tasked with, how do we turn something that you could read in 5-6 minutes into this hour-long journey?
I honestly think it’s just a lot of reading, and rereading, and rereading. Once we have one moment that we know we want to zero on … there’s a moment in the show called “Reflection” that Milo sings, where after he has imagined a few different people’s lives, he takes his own into consideration. What do people see when they look at me? Just from that idea, as well as this argument that he and his sister have, I think those were our first two [moments where we said], we know we have something here. Then it’s about expanding this way, instead of writing in a linear way. I think sometimes we’ll know just synopsis-wise what beats we want to hit, but it always starts from the meatiest parts of the story and where our morals start to come into play. How can we expand this way versus that way?
What was it like for you writing music for children? Finding the strengths in those younger voices? I know it can be tough when you get to a certain age, because everything is changing.
Magby: I’ll admit it is tough. This is our second show with a young male lead, and our voices change. So being able to find someone that can do all of that, it always seems like we’re taking a risk. But we know that there’s somebody out there, particularly because I was one of those kids, and I came up around kids that could do the thing and tell the story.
As far as how to compose to that arena. I’ve never left being a child, and what I know they like to listen to are the same things that we like to listen to. It’s about trying to not necessarily bring them into our world, they are a part of our world. I would say it’s like – oh, I hate to use this reference – but like Kidz Bop, in a sense. It’s the same song, but it’s packaged in a way that’s deliverable to you. Or like a Disney movie, in that the parents would take their child to see the movie, but they’re also going to take something away from it.
Could you talk a little bit about your working relationship Christian Albright? I know you guys have done a couple of things together.
Magby: We met through Youth Ensemble of Atlanta. I was already writing my first play, which he came and saw. We’ve been the best of friends ever since then, which is great. I think we collaborated on our first piece [when] I was still in high school … and we’ve been working on musicals together ever since.
I think it’s because one, we kind of are able to interpret each other’s thoughts, and we always, usually agree on narrative. We see the same great things in the story. We see the same things that we don’t necessarily like in the story. Our working relationship – it’s interesting, because it’s changed over the years. Sometimes we live in the same city, sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we’ll work together in the room on a song, sometimes we work separately. Sometimes he’ll write lyrics first, sometimes I’ll write music first.
I was going to ask.
Magby: I would say most of the time, it’s lyrics first. It’s rare. I might have a musical soundscape, but my musical soundscape is always based off of what the lyrics are saying … Usually, if I’m reading his lyrics, if it’s an idea that we know works, I already know how it sounds. Just because it’s kind of embedded in the character’s DNA. We’re always writing from the point of view of the character – not what we want, necessarily, an audience to walk away with, but what speaks to the truth of the moment. Sound wise, how can we complement that?
Do you have a favorite moment in the show? Did that change, ever?
Magby: I think my favorites have always changed. “Another Sunday” used to be my favorite, which is kind of our opening – we have a fake opening too, which you’ll have to see [laughs]. But the moment that actually speaks to me the most, it was something that was written after our first production of the show – it’s called “Reflection (Reprise),” and it’s in this moment where the question that Milo asked earlier in the show is, do people only see what I draw inside my sketchbook? Is that what people know me for?
But in the “Reflection (Reprise),” when he sees that what he’s been imagining might not always have been the case, they ask him: do you only see what you draw inside your sketchbook? I think that moment has always landed for me in a different way, because I think that’s the question we also want to ask of our audiences. Do you only go by the narrative that you have in your head versus actually getting to know people for who they are? That’s definitely a special moment for me in the show. Which is funny, because it’s the least rhythmic, and not as fun as all of our other numbers. But it’s the moment in the show that says to me, this is what it’s all about.