Combining their love for theatre and music, Ty Taylor (Rockstar: INXS), Jason Wooten (The Rocky Horror Show Live!) and Douglas Crawford (Jersey Boys) wrote a rock musical of their own. The result of this collaboration is The Existents, the story of a fictitious rock band’s trials and tribulations, a la VH-1’s Behind the Music. On October 8th, the score to The Existents was on live display at the Whisky A Go Go in Hollywood.
This one night only performance found Eden Espinosa (Wicked), Carly Thomas-Smith (Rent), Kyle Lowder (The Bold & the Beautiful) and Deandra Williams (aka Countre Black) joining Taylor, Wooten and Crawford on stage.
While the seven members of the band performed, songs such as "What More", "Premonition", "Stone Cold Sober", and "There Where You Are", helped tell the story of The Existents’ meteoric rise to fame and the trappings of success and tragedy that followed. However, if you didn’t know the backstory this may have been lost on you. And while quotes and photos were flashed on a screen behind the band to help set the scene, they were hard to see from the main floor with the stage being so high up. But in the end none of that really mattered, as the music that included a little rock, a little soul, a little funk and a little love thoroughly energized and entertained.
As The Existents played to a packed house consisting of an extremely receptive audience, each band member was given the opportunity to showcase their individual vocal abilities. While they were all strong and capable, the most entertaining of the bunch had to be Ty Taylor, who rocked a Lenny Kravtiz type groove, Douglas Crawford, who clearly relished playing to an audience and Carly Thomas-Smith who just looked like she was having a great time.
The songs and music were completely engaging and it was easy to imagine them all incorporated into a theatrical production. Even though they are meant to be part of a musical, they weren’t typical show tunes. The songs were good enough to stand on their own and were free of the cheesy, overly theatrical quality many musicals produce.
If you get the chance to see The Existents perform at a club like the Whisky or as a full length musical, it’s highly recommend you do so. In the meantime, check them out on their MySpace page and give them a listen.
Photos by Lori Wilson