TDF Stages

Vocal designer AnnMarie Milazzo finds her own voice with this uplifting Off-Broadway show about a real-life inventor played by Betsy Wolfe

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Before she was a QVC queen or the subject of a biopic starring Jennifer Lawrence, Joy Mangano was a single mother on Long Island with a mop, a dream and an unshakeable belief in herself. Now her story is singing its way to the stage in JOY: A New True Musical, running through August 17 at the Laura Pels Theatre. The show charts Mangano's journey from barely getting by to building a business empire after inventing the Miracle Mop. Behind the scenes is a similar story of passion and persistence, with veteran vocal designer AnnMarie Milazzo making her Off-Broadway songwriting debut with JOY.

For two decades, Milazzo's arrangements have helped define the sound of contemporary musical theatre on Broadway and beyond, giving voice to the angst of Spring Awakening, the nerves of Next to Normal and the buoyant energy of Once on This Island, for which she earned a Tony nomination. But JOY marks a new chapter in her career as a composer-lyricist.

Despite her success as a vocal designer and arranger, Milazzo struggled to get her own work onstage. Then Ken Davenport, who produced Once on This Island, asked if she was interested in collaborating on JOY. "Right away I was like, that story sings!" says Milazzo. That was 2018, and they've been working together ever since. Davenport is producing and penning the book for the show, which has gone through several iterations, including an out-of-town tryout at New Jersey's George Street Playhouse in 2022. They released an acoustic concept album earlier this year, and now the musical is bowing Off Broadway with Betsy Wolfe as the plucky title inventor.

Milazzo says the concept album, The Shape of Things, inspired her to rethink some songs. While the numbers are quite theatrical in context, the album is more intimate: Milazzo sings backed by a small band she's toured with for years.

Tackling the lead role deepened her connection to the material and Mangano herself. According to Milazzo, "her whole story, being a single mom from Long Island, having no money and making something out of nothing," resonated because the songwriter knows what it's like to pursue a risky dream.

Just as Mangano's challenging circumstances fueled her inventions, Milazzo traces her own creative journey back to her scrappy childhood in a small, blue-collar New England town. "We didn't have a record player," she recalls. "My parents were teachers, so they brought home tape recorders, and I would make my own records by singing a part, then recording another part over it, then another and another—I was doing multitracks with a little school recorder!"

Like Mangano, Milazzo is self-taught. "Joy invented from instinct, as all kids do, and never stopped," she says. "I've always done music from instinct, as all kids do, and never stopped. I like to work on my feet. I don't read or write music, but I have sharpened my ear pencil, if that makes any sense, from working on all these wonderful shows with different composers: Tom Kitt, Duncan Sheik, Neil Diamond."

Even after seven years of development, JOY still has Milazzo working on her feet. She drew on her arranging experience to write a score with unique vocal layers and a rock edge, and she recently added a new 11 o'clock number, "A Better Way," to replace "Have You Ever Felt That?," which was featured in workshops and on the concept album. In a phone interview between work sessions on the song, star Betsy Wolfe said that "A Better Way" was energizing.

According to Wolfe, "it's not a question to others" like the number it's replacing. Instead, the new song reframes Mangano's journey. "It's a statement—'I am actually going to figure this out. I'm going to bet on myself again and again and again and again.' And that really is the culmination of what we've seen all night," explains Wolfe, whose last stage role was Anne Hathaway (not that one) in the jukebox musical & Juliet, a witty performance that earned her a Tony nomination. While she loved reinterpreting pop hits, she says it's always special to "imagine a song for the first time."

Wolfe has been attached to JOY since 2019, though she had to skip the world premiere in NJ because she was doing & Juliet. She adores working with Milazzo. "I'm blown away by her musicality," Wolfe says. "Her rhythmic sense is unbelievable. It's complicated, it's nuanced, it's layered."

And like Milazzo, Wolfe relates to the story. In fact, when she was first approached about the role, Wolfe was a budding entrepreneur in her thirties, just like Mangano once was, working to get her theatre training program BroadwayEvolved off the ground.

Six years later, Wolfe's business has expanded, and she now has a 5-year-old daughter, "so I do grasp and understand more of the weight of what a working mom goes through to, in essence, carry her family," she says. "I'm ready now to do this role. When I was first offered this role, I think the irony is that I had no clue."

In the show, Joy's family eventually rallies around her Miracle Mop dreams. Milazzo says making a new musical requires similar support. "You have to have so much belief in yourself and your team," she says, citing the contributions of Davenport, Wolfe, director Lorin Latarro (a Drama Desk-nominated choreographer helming her first big musical), choreographer Joshua Bergasse and music supervisor Andy Einhorn, whom Milazzo calls a "musical genius."

"When you're all in the trenches together, you feel the struggle together," Milazzo says. "I'm never alone." In the musical, Mangano goes through an analogous experience as her drifter ex, clueless dad and agoraphobic mother all set aside their differences to help her achieve her goals.

Yet at its heart, JOY is about a woman who takes a chance on herself. The same can be said for the women behind the musical: Milazzo, Wolfe and Latarro all know how it feels to bet on themselves in new ways and win.

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TDF MEMBERS: At press time, discount tickets were available for JOY: A New True Musical. Go here to browse our latest discounts for dance, theatre and concerts.

The show is frequently available at our TKTS Discount Booths.