A rock opera for our region

Happy Friday, DMV! It’s February 27.

Today, I'm gonna tell you about a friend's crazy project that is based on the story that later went on to inspire the movie “The Exorcist.”

In 1949, the Washington Post ran a front-page story headlined, “Priest Frees Mt. Rainier Boy Reported Held in Devil's Grip.” The story was fictionalized — into a book and screenplay — by William Peter Blatty, who had heard about it while attending Georgetown University.

And now, it has become a rock opera called “The Haunted Boy.” I saw it a few years ago at Joe’s Movement Emporium — one of my favorite spots for edgy, innovative theater. And the theater is in Mount Rainier, Maryland — just a few blocks from where the boy was from.

My friend, Tom Liddle, a musician who led the writing and creation of “The Haunted Boy,” told me by email about this project.

“Rather than writing a musical version of ‘The Exorcist,’ our story goes back to the original family and asks a fundamental question: What would cause a seemingly normal family to decide to put a 14-year-old boy through the Catholic rite of exorcism?” he said.

During the pandemic, when Tom was an artist in residence at the Brentwood Arts Exchange in Maryland, he asked nine other songwriters and musicians to join him in writing a rock opera about the boy.

The key characters they focused on were the boy, demon, mother, aunt, priest, psychologist, neighborhood friend and reporter. They told the story in 23 songs — that range from rock to folk to ballads.

They held performances in 2021 and 2022. Then they spent two years recording the album, which is set to be released online today. Their album release party is next weekend at Joe’s.

“My favorite part of the project was the collaboration,” Tom said. “I've joked with friends that this was my way of worming myself into all of my DMV music crushes … But truly, the collaboration with other artists and the deep feeling of pride not in myself but for us as a group to create something that is so much larger than any one of us could have produced on our own is deeply gratifying.”

I generally try not to write about my friends and their projects, but “The Haunted Boy” is so far out (I mean that in the best way) and seems like such a DMV* project, through and through, I thought I had to share it.

(And yes, you read that photo credit above right: The tintype is by my husband.)

* For those of you wondering: DMV stands for D.C., Maryland and Virginia, and it’s how people who live and work in the nation’s capital refer to this region.

Each time I’ve mentioned daytime dance parties, people want to know more. There’s one on Sunday: Daybreaker.

And one for tonight, if you’re looking for a different vibe — a “celebrity organ recital” at St. George's Episcopal Church in Arlington. James O’Donnell, professor of organ at Yale University and former organist and master of the choristers at Westminster Abbey, will perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s Clavierübung III.

Bridget Watts, who says she is in her 50s and lives near the Woodley Park neighborhood of D.C., sent in this photo above of the fountain in the central courtyard of her building.

“It was down to barely a trickle during recent snowcrete times, and the built up ice glowed a touch blue at night from the lights in the fountain. It makes a dramatic ice sculpture depending on how the winds have pushed the water around as it falls,” she wrote.

“The blue tint reminds me of Hidden Lake in Glacier National park, near where I grew up.”

She gave me more photos to show me how it looked last year.

“The water stays on all year, there’s a little plaque next to it in honor of one of our building’s maintenance team (Michael), who has worked at the building for decades and is really instrumental in keeping the fountain in good shape.”

🧊