"Dead End the Musical” is a powerful and entertaining adaptation of “Dead End,” Sidney Kingsley’s landmark 1935 stage production. Like Kingsley’s play, “Dead End the Musical" shines a light on the social ills of a time and place that still resonate today: poverty, crime, class struggle, and economic and social inequality. It is also a story about justice and redemption, love and desire, hopes and dreams.

This concept album has a cast of 16 including the Dead End Kids, featuring twenty musical numbers, fully orchestrated, including overture, with sound effects and musical underscoring.

“Dead End the Musical" is a gritty, realistic story of a young woman seeking a better life for her and her teenage brother, an out of work architect envisioning a better world, a kept woman who clings to a rich man lest she slip back into poverty, and a wanted gangster returning to recapture the innocence of his childhood. All the while, a group of rich folks literally look down on this neighborhood from their adjacent luxury tower, as the neighborhood “Dead End Kids” provide the antics and fleeting escapist innocence.

“Dead End” the play, subsequently made into an Academy award nominated film starring Humphrey Bogart, Claire Trevor, Joel McCrea, and Sylvia Sidney, was also the genesis for the iconic Dead End Kids.

“Dead End the Musical” is the third concept audiobook musical album from the award winning songwriting team of Neil Fishman and Harvey Edelman whose previous two albums garnered numerous Audie and SOVAS awards. Teamed with Peter C. Palame, with whom they created the wildly entertaining Off-Broadway show, "On The Air," the trio have created a musical set in the 1930’s that is meant for our times.

*Note: Contains some scatological language that some people may find offensive, as well as some subtle but adult situations. Not recommended for young children.

©2022 Sammy Smile Music LLC. Dead End play ©1935 by Sidney Kingsley

Barrett Leddy

Voice