Written by orange• September 14, 2026• 1:34 am• Musical, Review, Rose Center Theatre, Uncategorized, Westminster

Bright Blue Sky – The 9/11 musical @ Rose Center Theater – Review

Written by Patrick Chavis

World Premiere of Bright Blue Sky: the 911 Musical at the Rose Center Theater in Westminster, September 11 – 20, 2026.

Story:

This original musical, with book and lyrics by Vincent Aniceto and music by Tim Nelson, explores the everyday lives of people who worked in the towers and how their deaths affected those closest to them. This book has a surprisingly quirky, office sitcom/dramedy approach to exploring these characters’ lives, keeping much of the songs, and especially the first half, quite light with cute tunes like “Whaddawe Got,” a competition tune about which city is better: Boston or New York. We know the answer: it’s LA. Lol, the song is still cute.

There’s also “Gracie’s Advice, sung by Gracie (Avi Walton), a tune about how to get men and how to keep ‘ em. This song doesn’t pass the Bechtel test, but it has something very early-90s sitcom about it. I wonder if the playwright was watching Spin City while writing this book.

Acting/Video/Lighting:

This play really shines in its mix of comic and dramatic asides. These are facilitated through spotlighted scenes around close relationships — whether it’s the very relatable cool dad Robert (Vincent Aniceto) embarrassing his teenager Sofia (Ava Cerami) by cutting a rug at the school dance (supposed to be embarrassing, Aniceto can cut a rug) or the loving relationship between single, career woman Mary (Melissa Cook) and her young son Timmy (Donovan Monroe). Their relationship is like their duet “Remember”, well harmonized and gentle. It’s a 9/11 play – expect some dramatic moments.

Projection issues when singing and some mild flubbing of lines did occur, but there was nothing too egregious.

The show relies on video projections of varying quality. Some are very high quality, and others are so pixelated that you can tell no one checked the file size before adding it to the list.

I can’t say enough about Melissa Cook’s performance as Mary: lovely vocals and such a grasp of emotion and presence within the scenes.

The coy, slow-building relationship between Jeremy (Mikey Smith), the nerdy new IT guy at the company, and Olivia (Addison Shay) works well here. Still, there’s just not enough of it in this packed character-driven play.

Mikey Smith has that Jimmy Olsen energy.

The lighting, timing, and ultimately the actors’ dedicated movement on stage help the execution of some of the more shocking moments in the play.

Music Director Tim Nelson’s live band is balanced and beautifully performed throughout. I’m pretty sure there was a clarinet in that group. I was really digging the sound.

Bright Blue Sky uses a lot of clichés, but the message about what matters in life still comes through.