Theater Compostion - MAXWELL
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In December of 2000, Joe Popp was visiting Tampa for the first time since his move to NYC. Depressed,
out of work, and lonely, he ran into Jobsite Theater member Chris Holcom at Tampa's edgy artist
watering hole, The Hub. Popp professed to Chris how he missed his band and working with Jobsite Theater.
Chris remembered a rock musical project that Popp had talked about in the past - MAXWELL.
He encouraged Popp to finish the work he had started in 1996 and was almost positive that
Jobsite would produce the musical if he could complete it.
Upon returning to New York City, Popp dug in and got to work on the musical. He recorded many of the parts in his home studio and landed a studio manager job at City Sound Productions in August of 2001 located in the NoHo section of Manhattan. He took the position not only to provide himself with income, but also to have a place where he could do more recording and mixing on the musical. Work on the musical was moving along. On September 11, 2001, Ami Sallee Corley (a cast member) was visiting New York and was going to record some vocal tracks for the MAXWELL demos at City Sound which is located approximately 1 mile from ground zero. The recordings would not happen. That day, as we all know, terror struck the city as 2 planes crashed into the World Trade center. Popp muddled through another bout of depression and finally finished the book and the music for MAXWELL and was extremely pleased with the final product. The show ran for three weeks (January 4 - 20, 2002) at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and also for 2 days (February 1 - 2, 2002) at Galapagos Art Space, a performance space/bar in the ultra hip Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. In a bizarre turn of events, while Popp was attending the Tampa opening weekend of MAXWELL, a small private plane struck the 42-story Bank of America Plaza building located 2 blocks from Popp's hotel next to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Terror seemed to follow the production but somehow the show went on for all of it's scheduled performances. Reviews for the show were great and several producers attended the New York performances, but it has yet to be produced again.
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