In this musical comedy set on a plane in 1964, enthusiastic first-time stewardess Amelia Darehart must navigate a wacky group of passengers' demands to succeed on an overseas flight from NYC to Paris — highflying fun for all!
Full-length, musical comedy
Cast size: 12 (5M, 7W) + optional flexible-sized ensemble
Audiences: All ages, 12+
Sonya Hayden: @sonyahayden11
Matthew Lowy: @sweetnlowy
Michigan State University New Musical Lab Workshop
Director: Adam Yankowy
Music Director: Dave Wendelberger
Dramaturg: Molly Marinik
Florida Festival of New Musicals Reading
Winter Park Playhouse
Director: Kate Adams Kramer
Music Director: Christopher Leavy
Princeton-Triangle New Musical Workshop
Princeton University
Director: Maeli Goren-Wilson
Music Director: Matthew Lowy
About the Writers
Sonya Hayden is an NYC-based lyricist, composer, librettist, and playwright. Her work is rooted at the intersection of hilarity and heartbreak, the political and the personal. Recipient of the MAC John Wallowitch Songwriting Award, Kurt Weill Foundation Songbook Award, ScreenCraft Stage Play Competition Mentorship Prize, ASCAP Plus Awards. Residencies: Legacy Theatre, Marble House Project, Vermont Studio Center Fellowship. Finalist: Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre, Dramatists Guild Foundation (DGF) Fellows. Semi-Finalist: O’Neill National Music Theater Conference. Her musicals include TAKING OFF! (Michigan State University’s New Musical Lab; NAMT Writers Residency Grant), FOOLPROOF (Reading, Lincoln Center Library, featuring Tony Award winner Cady Huffman; Across a Crowded Room Fellowship; upcoming: Goodspeed’s Festival of New Musicals 2026), and WANDA DOES THE WATER CYCLE (licensed by MTI/Theater Now New York; Lincoln Center Festival). Member of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, Dramatists Guild, and ASCAP. Master’s in Playwriting, University of Edinburgh; B.A. Music, Princeton University. sonyahayden.com @sonyahayden11
Matthew Lowy is is a queer, Jewish composer, music director, arranger, orchestrator, and pianist based in NYC. He is a composer in the BMI Advanced Musical Theater Workshop (Jerry Harrington Musical Theatre Award). Original musicals: TAKING OFF! (MSU New Musical Workshop), THESE WALLS (Sound Bites, Winterfest; winner, Best Short), FALLEN SKIES (NY International Fringe Festival, Overall Excellence Award in Music Composition). Selected theater: Sarah Silverman's THE BEDWETTER (Assoc. MD, Arena Stage), THE SABBATH GIRL (MD, Penguin Rep. and 59E59 Off-Broadway), FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (Assoc. MD, Paper Mill Playhouse), THE MUSIC MAN (Piano/keyboard sub., Broadway), BEETLEJUICE (Keyboard 2 sub., Broadway), City Center rehearsal pianist (A CHORUS LINE, DEAR WORLD, OLIVER!), NEW VOICES at Paper Mill Playhouse (MD, arranger, pianist - variously since 2010). Nat’l Tours: AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (music supervision, orchestrations), A CHORUS LINE (U.S., Japan, Shanghai; MD/Orchestrations), 42ND STREET (MD). B.M. in Music Composition from The Boston Conservatory. matthewlowy.com @sweetnlowy
We love bringing people together through shared experiences of laughter and joy (doesn’t the world need more of that right now?), while using humor to touch on underlying themes related to gender equality. We love exploring the imaginative, surreal, and joyful nature of musical theater, and the way song, dance, and a dose of theater magic can make the world a brighter place.
In Taking Off!, we've been excited to dig into the way the role of 1960s stewardesses encapsulated the tension between freedom and societal limitations for women during second-wave feminism—tensions which persist to this day. In real life, on Pan Am airline, stewardesses had to be 5’3” to 5’9”, weigh a maximum of 140 pounds (checked at “weigh-ins”), be unmarried and childless, and wear limited hairstyles and colors of makeup (checked by “grooming monitors”). Yet these women were highly skilled, had college degrees, spoke at least one other language, and could name all the parts of a plane (vortex generators, anyone?).
This musical comedy highlights the absurdity of the restrictions these women faced, captures their adventurous spirit, and encourages the audience to consider ways women still face similar barriers. And all this plus fabulous costumes, an epic love story, and lots and lots of turbulence!