With a powerful message and wonderful team, SONGS FOR SLUTTY GIRLS makes it to The Other Palace this June. Starting as a twenty-year-old’s response to a male composer performing funny songs about sex from his experience, Kailey Marshall created and wrote this musical as a means to show her own side.
In the run -up to the performance on 8th June, Kailey shares some of her inspirations and processes, as well as her hopes for the future in this interview.
What are some of your inspirations for the show?
I was 20 years old and went to a concert at Joe’s Pub for a male composer who wrote a lot of silly/funny songs about sex from the male perspective. I thought I’d could write something from the female perspective that might be funnier, and I started writing it a few weeks later. I really took from my own personal life in this show, and it’s been so fun to continuously rewrite it as I learn more about myself. I was also very inspired by women pop songwriters, and made it a challenge for myself to emulate a different style/genre in every song I wrote. It made writing the initial songs for the show incredibly fun and challenging.
You have mentioned you started writing the songs when you were 20 – did you always know the shape they would end up taking?
I initially thought Songs for Slutty Girls would just be a fun song cycle that I performed with people I loved. I really never anticipated that it would become a full length book musical, and that I would write the book for it. The show has come such a long way, and so have I as a writer. I think I’m getting closer and closer to the point where my skills are starting to match up with my own taste levels. And now I have even bigger dreams for this show than I did initially- I’m ready for Slutty Girls to take over the world!
Without seeing the show, the cast already strikes us as a visceral image. What was the decision behind diving the character into Gut, Hips, Head and Heart?
It took many years, many rewrites, and many incredibly smart people who gave me notes on how to create a better story. I initially had the idea of 4 aspects of one woman’s personality back in 2019, but had originally called each personality Slut, Skank, Whore and Tramp. These names didn’t seem to differentiate from each other too much, so a very smart director named Jen Wineman encouraged me to explore the characters even further. Once I discovered more of each of their motivations, it became clear that each was in charge of a certain part of their “host.” And that’s where the different body parts came in, very a la Inside Out. And now I can’t think of the show being any other way!
In ‘Songs for Slutty Girls’, you are trying to reclaim the word ‘slut’. In this patriarchal society we are living in, what does that mean to you?
To me, being a slut means being free to explore every aspect of your sexuality without shame. I’ve always been a woman who has enjoyed sex and exploration and was made to feel like that was a bad thing. The word slut is very powerful to me: it can be a badge of honour, a silly name, an act of defiance, or illicit feelings of lust.
The show has a very positive message. What public would you say it is mainly aimed for, and what do you hope the audience will leave with?
I’d say that the show is mainly aimed towards women, but honestly I believe EVERYONE can see themselves as a “slut” within this show. The most rewarding part has been people of all genders coming up to me and saying that my lyrics or music spoke to an experience they had. That’s what I believe music does best, is it conveys a feeling that is universally recognizable. If I’ve done that, I’ve done my job. I think there’s a lot of taboo around women writers really “leaning in” to their womanhood. I remember a male composer once describing Shaina Taub and admiring her because she didn’t “lean on the woman thing.” I for one, fucking love leaning on it. It’s honest to who I am, what I experience, and we simply don’t have enough representation for anybody to complain about women writing about women.
What does the future look like for ‘Songs for Slutty Girls’?
I would love to see Songs for Slutty Girls have a good long life regionally, off Broadway, or on the West End. My goal with all of my shows is to get it in front of as many people as possible who will see themselves somewhere within it. I’d also love to see this show performed at colleges, because that’s the setting I was in when I wrote a good portion of it.
Kailey Marshall has a hope for where SONGS FOR SLUTTY GIRLS will end up, and we can only agree with her. In this backwards society, Kailey’s musical is a breath of fresh air for everyone that comes to watch. You’ll laugh and you’ll have fun, but mostly you will feel seen. In her own words, ‘What (…) music does best is it conveys a feeling that is universally recognizable’. Kailey expresses that feeling perfectly throughout the show, in which women are finally free from all taboos and can embrace the positivity of sex – all without leaving their seats!
Interview by Eva Mateos Rodriguez
Eva is an eclectic artist specialising in acting, writing and song writing. She has been part of several performances, responses and exhibitions, and is now a student of the MA Creative Writing at Birkbeck University. Read Eva’s latest Review
Songs for Slutty Girls, The Other Palace, Saturday 8 June, Performances at 3pm & 8pm https://theotherpalace.co.uk/songs-for-slutty-girls/
About :
Songs for Slutty Girls, a new musical by New York-based composer and lyricist Kailey Marshall, explores the ecstasy, pain, and hilarity of sex through a year in the life of one woman. It receives its UK premiere in a staged reading at The Other Palace on 8 June, directed by Tania Azevedo (&Juliet, Heathers, But I’m a Cheerleader).
The protagonist is represented by four aspects of her personality: Heart, Gut, Head and Hips. At the start of a New Year, she hopes to make some big changes. Will she succeed or fall back into faking orgasms and flirting with f*** boys?
The show’s pop/rock score gives voice to the sexual moments in our lives that define us, for better or worse. Songs for Slutty Girls is about finding your place on the path toward sexual liberation.
Composer/ lyricist: Kailey Marshall, Director: Tania Azevedo, Music Director: Jenny Deacon, Producer: Dominique Roberts, Producer: Marlo Kane, Casting: Peter Noden
Kailey Marshall (composer/ lyricist) is a New York-based composer/lyricist who creates queer, femme forward, pop-infused musical theatre. Marshall’s work has been featured at 54 Below, Joe’s Pub, Don’t Tell Mama’s, the Highline Ballroom, and Lincoln Center. Her musicals Confirmed and Songs for Slutty Girls received readings in association with Pace University’s New Musicals Program and she won the Twenty-Somethings Two Fresh Pens Contest with her song “Give It Up” and Taylor Louderman’s Write Out Loud competition with her song “Brave”. Her country revenge thriller, Vengeance, was developed as a part of Molloy College’s Pop/Rock Lab. Her most recent work, A Long Line of McKinney Women, was commissioned by Nebraska Wesleyan University and received its world premiere in 2023.
