World Premiere Musical - Emily's Song to open at Hudson Backstage

Jordan Productions presents a world premiere musical event, EMILY'S SONG, written and directed by Chet Holmes, with musical direction by Amanda Holmes and produced by Sara Risher and Leigh Fortier and starring Lindsey Haun as Emily (currently featured on HBO'S "True Blood" as Hadley Stackhouse). EMILY'S SONG will begin previews on Sunday January 9 and will open on Saturday, January 15 and perform for six weeks through Sunday, February 27 at the Hudson Backstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood.

An emotionally riveting musical, EMILY'S SONG focuses on Emily, whose mother dies in childbirth leaving her father, Charlie, to raise her on his own. By ten years old, she is a musical prodigy, outplaying her musician father on the piano and helping him earn a living by writing better material. The father's best writing however comes when he decides to write "Emily's Song," a song for his daughter, a song that teaches her to "dream her dreams" and go after what she should have in life. Tragedy strikes again when Charlie goes on a business trip and mysteriously disappears leaving Emily isolated and alone. As years pass, Emily's emotional grief fuels her talent as a fast rising singer/songwriter, setting the world on fire with her soul-filled style. But just as fame finds her, will true love elude her as her fear of loss keeps her from falling in love with a man who may truly be the one?

EMILY'S SONG is filled with life's epic struggles and triumphs. It's the quintessential rags to riches story, emotionally satisfying and uplifting. Come and live in the music, come and live in the journey, come and live in the love that EMILY'S SONG will overflow

EMILY'S SONG was originally a movie sold to Warner Brothers with LeAnn Rimes attached to play the title role. After years of development, Chet Holmes decided to re-create Emily's Song as a musical for the theatre.

Mr. Holmes always took great pride in his work and dreams; however he felt that his most important accomplishment was raising his children. On New Year's Eve years ago Chet was dancing with his ten year old daughter Amanda when he felt winded and easily tired. "I knew something was seriously wrong." A test revealed that Chet had colon cancer. After surgery removed a third of his large intestines, Chet started thinking about how much his children's lives would change if he were suddenly not around anymore.

This became the inspiration for Emily's Song, a story about a ten year-old girl who loses her father. Chet wrote the first draft of Emily's Song in a mere few weeks, his whole heart poured into each page. It is moments like these when life is threatened, that stories of true heart and soul are built.

Half of the songs in Emily's Song were written by his daughter Amanda Holmes and the other half were written by Chet Holmes and Tom Shepard, (who originally secured a songwriting contract with Warner Brothers to accompany the feature film). Amanda Holmes, inspired by a long history of music in her family, has become a formidable song writer, following in her father's footsteps. Chet had ten bands in his youth and composed more than 200 songs with his song-writing partner, Tom Shepard.