What is THE COMICS CODE Musical?
MISSED THE PLAY READING?
Watch the opening song below...
The Comics Code started in early 2022, when Fletcher Crossman wrote a musical about the early life of Stan Lee and Marvel Comics. Richard Israel, an award-winning theater director, saw a copy of the script and began mentoring the project, and in 2023 a group of actors and friends performed a live reading of 'The Comics Code' at Plummer Park in West Hollywood.
​
The reading played to a packed house, with many Marvel fans having seen stories about The Comics Code in local media. Shortly after the reading, Naxos Records expressed interest in releasing music from the show, and by the Fall the team had created a 'proof of concept' video, featuring the song "The Fantastic Four".
​
The Comics Code has since become talked about on websites and comic blogs, and new music from the show will be released on the Naxos label over the coming months. The Comics Code team is currently discussing possible productions with theaters on both coasts.
​
​
THE COMICS CODE team
​
FLETCHER CROSSMAN, writer
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Fletcher Crossman has written for several newspapers and magazines, including the International Herald Tribune, New Humanist magazine, and Artists and Writers Yearbook. Fletcher wrote and directed the 2017 movie, Heavy Objects, which was nominated for Best Feature at the New York Winter Film Awards, and he is the recipient of awards from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, the Puffin Foundation, and the George Sugarman Foundation for his work in the arts.
Fletcher's music has been featured in several video and film productions, and he is the musical director of the Los Angeles Sunday Assembly.
​
​
RICHARD ISRAEL, mentor/director
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Richard Israel is a Los Angeles and New York-based director specializing in the development of new musicals. He is a two-time L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation award winner and the recipient of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Milton Katselas Award for Career Achievement in Direction. In addition to his work onstage, Richard served as the Theatrical Coordinator for the HBO series BIG LITTLE LIES, in which he directed several on-screen sequences from AVENUE Q.
