A Bittersweet, Darkly Comic Musical About a Forgotten Past, Broken Bonds, and a Truth That Refuses to Be Silenced.

Book by Terry Ronald, Songs by Steve Anderson, Ian Masterson & Terry Ronald

On a September night in 2014, London-based fashion photographer Joe Cannon’s carefully curated life is upended by a call from Amy, an old friend urging him to revisit the raw, unfiltered images he captured in 1980s downtown Manhattan. These aren’t just photos and videos—they’re ghosts of the people he left behind and the hedonism he thought he’d locked away forever.

Once dubiously crowned The Most Beautiful Man in New York, Joe’s glory days as a model now feel like another life—one of shallow glamour he never wore well. As he absorbs these long-buried images, figures from his past—fierce artists, lovers, and misfits who were once his people—invade his present, pulling him into a surreal cabaret of lost days and downtown nights. The past doesn’t just return; it demands to be reckoned with. Memories slip between now and then, confronting Joe’s denial with raw truths of betrayal, regret, and a life he’s tried to outrun.

Thrown back into the chaos of his youth, perfectionist Joe relives falling for Jef, a bohemian perfumer who once taught him the beauty of imperfection; wild nights with Sunday-Kate, the beguiling performer who tempted him into the dark heart of New York’s underground; rebellious beauty Millicent; queen of after-hours excess, Benny; and Nora, the high-society patron who saw him as her latest masterpiece. As memories of love, infidelity, and addiction resurface, and the events of that same night 25 years ago unfold, Joe confronts a devastating truth he has never forgiven himself for

With his fractured chosen family propelling him forward, the wall Joe’s built around himself finally crumbles, forcing him to confront the painful reality that some stories—and some lives—are impossible to leave behind, no matter how far you run.