Escape To Margaritaville

Being Jimmy Buffett fans for all our lives, we were thrilled to be asked to create a musical

using his catalog of music. Having never written a musical before, we started the process

of writing the story by re-listening to the songs we knew by heart, but from a totally new

perspective. We listened for the stories, the characters and the emotions that could be

extracted from each song. We wanted every song that was going to be sung to have a

specific meaning and emotional resonance for the character who would perform it. It was

our hope that the Parrotheads would enjoy these songs in a way they haven t enjoyed them

in the past, and have deeper, or in some cases, completely different meanings than they

had previously associated with them. And for those audience members who were not as

familiar with Jimmy s music, we hoped to craft a story where the songs fit seamlessly into

the narrative as if they were written after the fact. We were very happy with where we ended

up with the script, but when we heard what the Music Supervisor Chris Jahnke did with the

songs, we were blown away. He brought a whole new energy and dimension to the music

that not only stayed true to the original songs we ve enjoyed our whole lives, but he also

made us feel like we were hearing the songs for the first time. We can only compare it

to seeing an old friend in a new light and falling in love all over again. Because of that,

every time we listen to this album we will be reminded how lucky we were to work with

Chris Jahnke, one of the kindest, most generous and talented people we ve ever met.

- Greg Garcia and Mike O Malley