THE CHRYSANTHEMUM EFFECT
CHRYSANTHEMUM EFFECT is the story of an American family, set to the backdrop of the nation’s bicentennial. Tensions build as a father and husband lies near death, fueling the fireworks that forever scatter Rose, her daughter and two stepdaughters. Act One is a discordant, downward spiral, centering on the dying father and the breakup of the family. The father, never seen on stage, is the only tie holding them together: without him the family flies apart. The explosive dynamics between Rose and her daughter and stepdaughters dominate the action. Act Two takes the remnants of the shattered family and rebuilds them into a harmonic resolution of loss and love.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
HOT SUMMER NIGHT          KINGDOM OF ICE                 MOMMY & ME        
     Christina Morrell                   Erinjean Jewell &                  Mandy Lemmons
                                                             Derek Fox
THE THANKS THAT             BUTTERFLIES
        YOU GET                            Carolyn Cole
     Jan Prokop &
      Shaina Taub          
 The music to The Chrysanthemum Effect, a musical drama, was not written to be pretty, but to express the raw emotions and yearnings of a disturbing family drama, and to support the lyrics therein. Rather than rendering for full orchestra, a piano quintet offered an economy of notes which, in this case, I found to be a more poetic and intimate use of harmony.  - Derek Fox
 
 
All songs © 2007 Derek Fox
 
 
Book, Music
& Lyrics by
Derek Fox