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Bio
Beth Thornley is a Birmingham, Alabama-born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter who writes contemplative Beatle-esque pop with an engaging warmth and winsome sense of melody that recalls such master craftspeople as Squeeze’s Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, Elvis Costello, and Carole King. With her airy, plaintive voice as the through-line, Thornley manages to shape-shift over the course of her independently released projects. Thornley has three full-length albums, two EPs and recent singles. Her EP, Septagon, includes “Last To Fall” which was co-written with Glen Phillips (Toad the Wet Sprocket) and also appears as a bonus track on Toad’s album, New Constellation, as well as their EP Architect of the Ruin. Her music has been heard in the films Magic Mike (directed by Steven Soderbergh), Girl In Progress (starring Eva Mendez), Laggies (staring Keira Knightley and Sam Rockwell) and in several TV shows including The Bachelor, Naomi, Vanderpump Rules, The Client List, Mistresses, Royal Pains, Suburgatory, and Friday Night Lights. She has been featured in national publications such as Keyboard Magazine, Paste, and American Songwriter. Beth currently has 2 singles in the works, with plans to release them summer/fall 2024.
Beth expanded her songwriting to include musicals. She and Rob Cairns co-wrote the music and lyrics for the original rock musical, Bad Apples (premiering in Los Angeles with Circle X Theatre), about the prisoner torture in Abu Ghraib, which earned the pair nominations for “Best Original Score” by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, LA Weekly, and L.A. Stage Alliance, winning awards from the latter two.
Beth and Rob are currently developing another musical, “The River”, about love and loss, set in a rural Indiana town at the turn of the 20th century. “The River” is an acoustic folk/americana musical. It is currently in workshop performances -- March 2024 with Circle X Theatre at the Atwater Village Theatre in Los Angeles, and a workshop performance at Red Mountain Theatre in Birmingham, AL, Sept. 2024.
Film & TV
Mistresses (ABC)
Laggies (movie)
Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce (Bravo)
Magic Mike (movie)
Bad Apples Musical
World Premier Los Angeles September 2012
(Opened in Seattle at ACT Theatre, September 2016)
Circle X Theatre Co. presents the World Premiere of
Bad Apples
By Jim Leonard
Music by Beth Thornley and Rob Cairns
Directed by John Langs
Welcome to Club Abu, the biggest party in Baghdad and the premier location for Iraqi nightlife. You only need to answer the following question to gain entry: “Do you love me enough to torture for me?” Dress code is whatever you got dragged in wearing (or nothing at all). Freedom lovers only, please.
Bad Apples is a new rock musical that follows three characters inspired by the three National Guard soldiers behind the atrocities at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003/2004. Jim Leonard has created a compelling, jarring, beautiful and heartbreaking story that asks how this tragedy came to be. Who were the victims? Who were the villains? Is sadism part of being human? Was Abu really an aberration brought on by a few “bad apples?”
Produced by Tim Wright and Jennifer A. Skinner
Choreography: Cassandra Daurden
Musical Direction: Beth Thornley and Rob Cairns
Scenic Design: Francois-Pierre Couture
Projection Design: Jason H. Thompson
Lighting Design: Jeremy Pivnick
Sound Design: Cricket S. Myers
Costume Design: Jessica Olson
Props Design: Heather Ho
Associate Producers: Katherine Haan and Jennifer Ludden
Casting Director: Raul Staggs
Stage Manager: Katherine E. Haan
Assistant Directors: Kate Jopson and Johanna McKay
ATWATER VILLAGE THEATRE
3269 Casitas Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90039
Beth Thornley and Rob Cairns win the LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award for Music and Lyrics for an Original Musical. November 2013.
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