THE NEW YORKER:
. . . Almond’s brilliant lyrics and music are reminiscent of Hoagy Carmichael’s songs, with their bemused and fragmented stylings.


THE BOSTON GLOBE:
“We Have Always Lived in the Castle,’’ a smart and arresting musical adaptation by Adam Bock and Todd Almond of a 1962 novel by Jackson, contains a similarly jolting moment when the small-town social masks come off, and the baser aspects of human nature, in all their ice-cold brutality, stand revealed.

TIME OUT NEW YORK:
Ol’ Man River rolls over everyone in On the Levee, a roiling and wide-ranging new work of music theater that examines a cataclysmic 1927 flood in Greenville, Mississippi . . . Like the striking silhouettes that Kara Walker has contributed to the set, it manages to be both delicate and blunt, drawing oblique energy from classic past shows—most notably Show Boat and Caroline, or Change—while forcing a space for itself . . . Todd Almond’s exemplary score is framed as existing blues songs and spirituals that the characters know; in the third, the characters seem to express themselves spontaneously in song.


SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE:
Love is in the air at Berkeley Rep's Thrust Stage. Throbbing teen hormones burst through the power-guitar chords and yearning anticipation trembles in the lyrics of Matthew Sweet's songs. The flayed-skin raw nerves of adolescent insecurity and the awkwardness of first romance inform every glance, gesture and warbled note in the performances of Ryder Bach and Jason Hite . . . Author, vocal arranger and co-orchestrator Todd Almond uses the melodic rock ballads and mood of Sweet's 1991 album, "Girlfriend," to craft a gentle, heartfelt, two-character chamber musical that celebrates the pain and joy of first love between gay teens in early '90s small-town Nebraska.

 

. . . Almond’s brilliant lyrics and music are reminiscent of Hoagy Carmichael’s songs, with their bemused and fragmented stylings.

- the new yorker

“We Have Always Lived in the Castle,’’ a smart and arresting musical adaptation by Adam Bock and Todd Almond of a 1962 novel by Jackson, contains a similarly jolting moment when the small-town social masks come off, and the baser aspects of human nature, in all their ice-cold brutality, stand revealed.

- the boston globe

Ol’ Man River rolls over everyone in On the Levee, a roiling and wide-ranging new work of music theater that examines a cataclysmic 1927 flood in Greenville, Mississippi . . . Like the striking silhouettes that Kara Walker has contributed to the set, it manages to be both delicate and blunt, drawing oblique energy from classic past shows—most notably Show Boat and Caroline, or Change—while forcing a space for itself . . . Todd Almond’s exemplary score is framed as existing blues songs and spirituals that the characters know; in the third, the characters seem to express themselves spontaneously in song.

- time out new york

Almond's music captures the plaintive, as well as the playful . . .

- variety

Love is in the air at Berkeley Rep's Thrust Stage. Throbbing teen hormones burst through the power-guitar chords and yearning anticipation trembles in the lyrics of Matthew Sweet's songs. The flayed-skin raw nerves of adolescent insecurity and the awkwardness of first romance inform every glance, gesture and warbled note in the performances of Ryder Bach and Jason Hite . . . Author, vocal arranger and co-orchestrator Todd Almond uses the melodic rock ballads and mood of Sweet's 1991 album, "Girlfriend," to craft a gentle, heartfelt, two-character chamber musical that celebrates the pain and joy of first love between gay teens in early '90s small-town Nebraska.

- SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

"Todd Almond's songs are elegant, singular and haunting. He's one of the finest new songwriters to hit the scene in a good long while."

-Michael John LaChiusa,
composer

"Soulful and original"

-Time Out New York

"Deft handling of language"

-Village Voice

"I wish I could give this CD to every poetry lover I know!"

-NPR,
All Things Considered