Ep. 246: Billboard-Charting Musical Theater Writer Billy Recce on Big Man & Queer Storytelling

Everything & Anything…and a Bit GayEpisode: Billboard-Charting Musical Theater Composer Billy Recce Billy Recce is a queer composer, lyricist, and songwriter whose work spans Broadway development, off-Broadway productions, pop, and cabaret. He's a two-time MAC Award winner, Jonathan Larson Grant finalist, and William Finn Award winner — and his songs have been performed by Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin, Tituss Burgess, and Rachel Dratch, among others. In this episode, Zach and Billy cover: How Billy started writing musicals in spiral notebooks during third-grade math class and got his first major production as the youngest writer in the NY Musical Theater Festival with Balloon Boy His new single "Wanted to Believe" from Big Man — an original musical about Alzheimer's, dementia caregiving, and a character whose condition leads him to believe he's close friends with the Rat Pack. The single is performed by Tony nominee Ramin Karimloo and 100% of proceeds benefit the Alzheimer's Association (alz.org) Foul Play — a queer musical comedy about two theater writers hired to create an apology musical for Chick-fil-A, exploring rainbow capitalism and queer identity, directed by Ty Defoe (Titanic) Little Black Book — Billy's one-woman musical about Heidi Fleiss living in the Nevada desert with 40 parrots, starring Broadway's Orfe, developed through a 2021 concept album and now heading toward a new production What it actually takes to develop a musical — the seven-year journey, packaging, concept albums as momentum-builders, and keeping 18 projects in the fire at once His long-term vision: queering the musical theater canon and telling stories across theater, film, and TV Advice for young queer artists: get your work out, cold email everyone, find your performers, and use every platform available His annual collaboration with P-Town drag performer Paige Turner, writing original songs for her yearly show at the Post Office Café Listen to "Wanted to Believe" https://open.spotify.com/track/0BvwefSfeKbHvBVtV8YNbP on all streaming and digital platforms — and stream it knowing your listen supports the Alzheimer's Association.  Follow Billy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebillyrecce/ Website: https://www.billyrecce.com/ Everything & Anything…and a Bit Gay is hosted by Zach Randles-Friedman. If this episode resonated with you, share it — and share Billy's single. Subscribe, rate, and review wherever you listen.     Podcast song by SIXFOOT 5: https://www.sixfoot5prod.com Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.