Douglas Lyons' Many Musical Projects
Douglas Lyons and Ethan Pakchar
Though the pandemic may have thrown a wrench into the complex gears of the arts and entertainment industry, there’s one creative artist who is going full-out from his apartment in Queens, New York, where a chalkboard that dominates an entire wall is filled with all the projects he is maintaining, developing, or just beginning.
Douglas Lyons, 33, who was born and raised in the Fairhaven section of New Haven, is what they call in show biz terms “a multi-hyphenate” – in his case, that would be actor-composer-lyricist-writer-recording artist – whose positive and inexhaustible energy has propelled his life and career on Broadway, on tour, and at regional theaters across the country. Now his projects are on the verge of connecting to the film, television, and music industries, too.
Right out of the Hartt School at the University of Hartford 11 years ago, he landed in a touring revival of “Dreamgirls” and then in the Broadway production of the just-opened “The Book of Mormon.” Later he was in the original cast, and did a six-year stint, in “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.”
For many young artists starting out, that would be enough to feel your career is off and running, with prospects for even more performing gigs.
But Lyons soon envisioned himself doing more.
His composing interest began after “a bad romantic breakup in the start of 2012,” when his parents bought him a guitar. While touring with “The Book of Mormon,” he collaborated with pit musician Ethan Pakchar and together they