“Murder Ballad” was released on November 15, 2012 with music and lyrics by Juliana Nash. The story follows a woman named Sara. Sara dates a wild and dangerous bartender named Tom. Soon, she tires of his crazy life and leaves him for Micheal who is a NYU student who lives a more relaxed life. Sara and Micheal get married and have a daughter named Frankie. Her home life begins but it was not all that she thought it was going to be. Soon, she begins to long for her old life with Tom and all of the excitement. Tom and Sara begin to have a hot affair. Still unable to make up her mind, Sara begins to want to go back to her life with her husband and her daughter. Angry at Sara’s indecisiveness, Tom demands that she stays with him. Micheal then finds out about the affair and strikes back against Sara. Sara regrets her decision and offers to leave Micheal to make his life better. They instead decide to work through their problems and continue their lives together. Tom is infuriated and wants to kill Micheal and Frankie so that he can have Sara all to himself. Sara is upset that Tom embarrassed her and threatened her family, so she decides to protect her family by killing Tom. Sara is never caught and she returns back to her normal life.

This particular musical is called a ‘new musical’ based on what I assume is the format of the songs and the style of music. “Hamilton” was praised by critics for the unique music style but “Murder Ballad” was passed over. This musical has a unique style as well. The music sounds like a combination of rock and jazz. The story is told in part by the actors and in part by a narrator. The story follows the narrator as she helps explain the story of Sara, Micheal, and Tom. It is a very PG-13 level musical with the very obvious sexual elements that are a part of the story. However, the music manages to stay away from being overly raunchy and instead keeps the rhythm upbeat and fun.

The show is overall underrated. It follows a plot that is seen in many popular movies and TV shows but yet still manages to fly under the Broadway radar. Even though the show never made it to the NYC stage, it deserves to. Overall, this musical deserves to be recognized by the musical theater community even if the plot can be somewhat unoriginal at times. 3.5/5 stars.