The Radium Girls:
A Jaw-Dropping New Musical

Women fighting to be treated humanely in the workplace. Corporations falsifying science to serve their own needs. Greedy executives slut shaming those who speak up. We’re talking, of course, about America in the 1920s. This is the setting for THE RADIUM GIRLS: A JAW-DROPPING NEW MUSICAL, a female-driven, horror-infused dark comedy inspired by the stories and spirits of the young women who worked the factory line at the U.S. Radium Corporation in the early 20th Century. This gravely funny and implausibly tragic tale follows three 15-year-old girls who are lured to the factory with the promise of a better life, discover the evil lurking under the glittering surface of the radium craze, and aim to give the patriarchy a taste of its own poison - like, literally.

Music by Amanda D’Archangelis

Lyrics by Sami Horneff and Lisa Mongillo

Book by Amanda D’Archangelis, Sami Horneff, and Lisa Mongillo

development history

  • October 2023 Industry Reading directed by Tony winner Marissa Jaret Winokur, starring Tony nominees Andy Karl and Orfeh, Ashley Argota, and more. Reading presented by David Treatman Creative and High Octave Productions. Full details here.

  • 2023 Latiné Musical Theatre Lab selection, showcased at Annual Benefit and 4xLatiné event.

  • April 2023 internal table read of new draft.

  • 2022 NAMT Annual Festival of New Musicals Finalist.

  • 2022 Syracuse University New Works New Voices Finalist.

  • 2020 developmental workshop leading to a virtual production at Western Connecticut State University, which won five national awards at the 2021 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.

  • January 2020 internal table read of full-length draft.

  • 2019 Eugene O’Neill National Musical Theater Conference Semi-Finalist.

  • 2017 Audience Choice at Players Theater Boo Festival (original short version).

media

I’m Your Man

Performed by Jordan Donica, Paige McNamara, Mackenzie Lesser-Roy, Alexis Reda, Amanda D’Archangelis, Mary Malaney, and Alexis Floyd

Music by Amanda D’Archangelis, Lyrics by Sami Horneff & Lisa Mongillo

Glow

Performed by Cara Rose DiPietro, Francesca Ferrari, and Katie Emerson

Music by Amanda D’Archangelis, Lyrics by Sami Horneff & Lisa Mongillo

My Dead Mom

Performed by Katie Emerson

Music by Amanda D’Archangelis, Lyrics by Sami Horneff & Lisa Mongillo

The Writers

Photos by Amanda Whiteley

Amanda D’Archangelis (Music/Book) - Amanda is a composer and actress in NYC. She holds a B.F.A. in Musical Theater from The Boston Conservatory, and is a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. She is the resident composer of Bluelaces Theater Company, providing theater and outreach for people with developmental differences; and a York Theatre Company 2019 NEO Writer. Credits include: SINGLE RIDER (Music & Book, Off-Broadway); THE BREAK (Music, Omaha Creative Institute); THE RADIUM GIRLS: A JAW DROPPING NEW MUSICAL (Music & Book, Winner at The Players Theatre BOO! Short Play Festival); BLATANTLY BLAINE- A “FAMILY” MUSICAL (Music & Lyrics); THE DISEMBODIED HAND... THE MUSICAL! (Music & Lyrics); COMING ATTRACTION (Music), a new musical about the life of Hollywood superstar Greta Garbo, premiered at Wilbury Theatre in Providence RI, January 2019; BLEEDING KANSAS (Music & Lyrics, won the Audience Choice Award and TheatreNow New York’s Soundbites Festival). She's composed and arranged for various projects, and her music has been performed at The Duplex, Green Room 42, The Bitter End, Rockwood Music Hall, Feinstein's 54 Below and more. www.amandadarchangelis.com

Sami Horneff (Lyrics/Book) - A born and raised New Yorker, Sami is a proud graduate of Brown University and an advanced lyricist/librettist in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. In 2019, she was named one of The York Theatre Company’s New/Emerging/Outstanding (NEO) writers with Amanda D’Archangelis. Recent credits include SINGLE RIDER (Lyrics & Book, Off-Broadway); THE RADIUM GIRLS: A JAW DROPPING NEW MUSICAL (Lyrics & Book, five-time winner at The National Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival); ArtsPower National Touring Theatre’s JUDY MOODY & STINK (Lyrics) based on the bestselling book series by Megan McDonald; COMING ATTRACTION (Lyrics), a new musical about the life of Hollywood icon Greta Garbo, which premiered as a staged reading at the Wilbury Theatre Group in Providence, RI and will be presented as a staged reading at the York Theatre; THE BREAK (Lyrics, Omaha Creative Institute); A NEVER-ENDING LINE (Lyrics, Off-Broadway); ROCK AND A HARD PLACE (Music & Lyrics); THE UNDER 5ERS WEB SERIES (Writer/Producer, 2016 Indie Series Award Nominee for Best Original Song); and two original songs for the feature film A RING FOR CHRISTMAS (UPtv). Her work has also been performed at The Green Room 42, The Metropolitan Room, The Duplex, Prohibition NYC, Northwestern University, The University of Alabama, Lied Center for Performing Arts, and Feinstein’s/54 Below. www.samihorneff.com

Lisa Mongillo (Lyrics/Book) - Lisa Mongillo is a writer and lyricist based in Brooklyn, by way of Chicago. She is an alumna of the College of William & Mary, a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, and a writer for Reductress. Credits include: PARTY PEOPLE (Playwright, Samuel French OOB Festival); THE RADIUM GIRLS (Lyrics & Book, NAMT Finalist, NMTC Semi-finalist, five awards at The Kennedy Center National College Theater Festival); WE ARE THE BENJAMIN HARRISON HIGH SCHOOL HORSE GIRLS! (Lyrics & Book, Out of the Box Theatrics’ New Works series); A NEVER-ENDING LINE (Lyrics, Off-Broadway, album released by Broadway Records); HOSPITAL KIDS (Lyrics & Book, Best Book at TNNY SoundBites Festival, City Theatre National Short Playwriting Award Finalist). Upcoming: THE COLOR OF THINGS (Lyrics & Book, based on the children’s book by Vivienne Shalom), WYLER (Lyrics & Book, based on her own award-winning short musical), and FOREVER NOON (Lyrics & Book). Her work has been showcased by the BMI Workshop and performed at Joe’s Pub, the Duplex, Feinstein’s/54 Below, the Metropolitan Room, The Green Room 42, and more. She has written and performed in comedy shows at the PIT, Stage 773, the Public House Theater, the de Maat Theater, and more. She was selected for the Mercer Writers Colony at Goodspeed and Mercer Songwriters Project at Northwestern. She studied at the Second City Conservatory and the Annoyance Theater; and is a member of Ring of Keys and the Dramatists Guild. www.lisamongillo.com