UPPING MY NUMBERS

A new musical by Hally McGehean and Joe McGinty

Hally tries to justify a life spent in pursuit of love by recounting her sexual adventures.

Hally wakes up naked under the sheets of a lover’s bed, her smokey eyes now smudged, her voice raspy from gin and cigarettes. Getting dressed piece by piece of clothing, she enumerates her life’s sexual encounters to her new friend, looking for a greater story to justify a life spent in the pursuit of love, and preparing for another walk of shame.

With twelve original songs by McGinty and McGehean, Hally sings about each of her partners in intimate and often funny detail; her reverse burlesque reminds us all of the sweet awkwardness that often accompanies new relations. Her arc is both empowering and heartbreaking.

“I wanted to play a forty year old woman in command of her sexuality and her age.” McGehean, who is forty-six, said, “There aren’t many roles in musical theater for us. Now there is one more.”

Dixon Place Presents "Upping My Numbers" as part of their Works in Progress series on September 8, 2016. Clement J. Waldmann, III, Hally McGehean, Jeremy Chatzky, Joe McGinty. Filmed by Stefan T. Jeremiah. 

"Shiny, Decadent, and Seedy" and "Leave Us Alone" demos performed by Jeremy Chatzky, Bass; Hally McGehean, Vocals; Joe McGinty, Keys; Julian Maile, Guitar; Clement J. Waldmann, III, Drums. Mixed by Steve Silverstein at Carousel Studios. 

Joe is most widely known for his five years as the keyboardist for The Psychedelic Furs.

He is the founder and music director of the popular Loser's Lounge tribute series, where local talent pays homage to the pop icons of the past. Loser's Lounge made its debut in 1993 with a Burt Bacharach tribute at Fez, and has played to consistently sold-out rooms ever since. Now based at Joe's Pub, the Loser's Lounge has also performed at the Allen Room at Lincoln Center, Celebrate Brooklyn, Westbeth Theater Center, The Knitting Factory, Makor, and the Jewish Museum.

Recently, McGinty opened a piano bar, Sid Gold's Request Room, with Beauty Bar owner Paul Devitt. A classic, retro-styled piano bar in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. Live "piano karaoke" can be heard every night. McGinty plays there 4 nights a week. Celebrities such as Bill Murray, Parker Posey, Moby, Billy Cruddup, Elle King, Alan Cumming, and Stockard Channing have been seen at Sid Gold's Request Room.

McGinty has teamed up with Superhuman Happiness singer Andrea Diaz to form the cabaret-noir duo "The Duchess And The Fox". They released their debut ep "Every Night" in February 2016.

McGinty has also worked with Ryan Adams, The Ramones, Nada Surf, Kevin Ayers, Martha Wainwright, Die Monster Die, Devendra Banhart, Ronnie Spector, Jesse Malin, Amy Rigby, Space Hog and others.

He has worked alternately as musical director for a variety of New York theaters, including the Vineyard Theatre and the New York Theater Workshop.

McGinty composed original songs for the film "One More Time" starring Christopher Walken. Walken sings the song "When I Live My Life Over Again" composed by McGinty and director Robert Edwards. He scored the short film "Super Sleuths" directed by Benjamin Dickinson and has composed and/or produced music for "Bored To Death,” "The Daily Show,” "G String Divas," "The Virginity Hit," "Last Chance Harvey,” and “What Happened, Miss Simone,” a documentary that is currently nominated for an Oscar.

Hally makes fine, pop, and wearable art. Her clients include the Whitney Museum of American Art, Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Nicola Formichetti. Her work has been photographed by Terry Richardson and Nick Knight and appeared in Playgirl, Marie Claire, Elle Decor, Teen Vogue, New York, Paper, Complex, and Bitch Magazines.

Hally was the winner of the 2010 Chelsea International Fine Art Competition and her 2011 runway show on the High Line was named one of the nine highlights of New York Fall Fashion Week by Entertainment Weekly. Hally's retail collection for The Whitney sold out on its first day in the museum shop and her “Obama Bag” was endorsed by President Obama and she has been told it was entered into the National Archive by the First Lady.

Before segueing into visual art, Hally spent thirty years in show business, the highlights of which were principal roles in the Broadway musicals "Annie" and "Peter Pan,” recording a hit Christmas single and going on a mall tour, shooting a television commercial starring Michael Jackson, winning the Best Actress award four years in a row at the Bucks County Playhouse, playing Alice to Michael C. Hall’s White Knight in Elizabeth Swados’ “Alice in Concert” at Earlham College, and being called “a completely non-neurotic actress working in the 99th percentile of her field” by the Royal Shakespeare Company director, Barry Kyle.

Hally served on the board of directors of the Isles of Shoals Association, Porstmouth, NH for 10 years and has raised over $10,000 for cancer charities running the NYC, Paris, Berlin, and Boston marathons. In November 2012, Hally co-founded Flood the Art Market, raising $13,000 for NYFA’s Emergency Relief Fund, helping artists affected by Hurricane Sandy with shows at Miami Basel and the Cristin Tierney Gallery in Chelsea. Before Hally became a mother she volunteered weekly as a dog walker at an animal shelter in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Hally studied philosophy at Columbia University and Shakespeare at the British American Drama Academy, Balliol College, Oxford.