The Chosen One

With a hummable pop-rock score that pays homage to classic musical theatre, The Chosen One follows a trio of queer high schoolers who have created a spellbinding fantasy world to conjure what they’re missing in their own lives. This hilarious, heart-warming, and heart-wrenching coming of age story reminds us that the people we love are the most magical things in the world.

Book, Music, and Lyrics: Eli Cohen
Story by: Eli Cohen & Mo Yeh
Arrangements: Mo Yeh & Eli Cohen
Orchestrations: Mo Yeh

Key Art for THE CHOSEN ONE

The Hero's Journey

After getting into fights with each of her best friends, Eleanor turns to past versions of them — as well as the fantasy world they created together — to understand the choices set in front of her.

Megan Colton as Eleanor
Ellis Gage as Joey
August Miller as Peter
Lizz Sooy as The Sorceress
Emma Griffone as The Knight
Alexandra Maria Vollero as The Healer

Play by the Rules

As the new President of Model United Nations, Peter makes it clear that he's in charge.

The Chosen One

Joey must decide if he can handle the turmoil of a relationship.

Scared

After an embarrassingly bad double-date, Joey and Oliver confess their feelings to one another.

Anything

Joey asks Eleanor, who is aromantic, to go on a double-date with him and Oliver.

Video produced as a part of UNCG's Hear Our Voices concert, featuring Maddie Conti as Eleanor

Damage Control

After a battle on the road, the Sorceress and Knight blame each other for the incident.

Super-Ego

Now aligned, the four friends face Peter head-on at Model U.N.

Racoon Boy

Oliver tries to comfort Joey by telling him a superhero story.

Welcome to the End

Joey tracks Oliver to a drag bar downtown and the two see the encounter as part of Joey's fantasy story.

Once Upon a Time

Joey finishes telling Eleanor the story. Joey and Eleanor leave for college.

Cabaret Songs

A Wild Proposition was originally written for friend and performer, Olivia Worley, and is about a young performer who's tired of the emphasis being put on the young.

Lyrics: Eli Cohen
Music: Talia Gold

Home was originally written for Jackey Good as part of the MuseMatch concert series, which pairs up writers and actors to come up with a brand new song for the concert.

Music & Lyrics: Eli Cohen

The Waa-Mu Show

The Waa-Mu show is Northwestern University's student-written musical, an annual tradition approaching its 90th year. While at Northwestern, Eli had the opportunity to write book, music, and lyrics for multiple Waa-Mu shows, as well as direct another. Two of these shows were Beyond Belief and For the Record.

Beyond Belief tells the story of the Brooks sisters, CJ and Skylar. Skylar, recovering from a mysterious disease, starts her first year at high school. She quickly realizes that CJ's stories are based on her friends, and her love for these characters brings their superpowers to life. But when Skylar's disease returns, can CJ find a way to squeeze four years of high school in just one day?

For the Record follows Andi Massad, a journalist who 51 weeks ago promised her mother she'd manage to get a headline within a year. After her piece on senatorial candidate and one of the paper's new owners, Harold Newport, is given to her co-worker Elizabeth, the only other female journalist at The Offering, Andi is left writing an article on Chicago's changing street names. This leads her to discover Ida B. Wells never received an obituary in the paper, along with countless other women who were forgotten by history. Can Andi find a way to turn this article into a headline before the week is over?

Impossible from The Waa-Mu Show: For the Record

"Impossible" from For the Record.

Brute Force

One of the show's historical characters, Gene Grabeel, is now leader of the codebreaking team at the Venona Project. Gene is tasked to decipher the Soviet code and uncover the mole in the Manhattan Project.

Lyrics: Eli Cohen
Music: Eli Cohen and Mo Yeh

Rules of Society

While Andi's busy researching, Elizabeth managed to corner senatorial candidate Harold Newport after a press event. Harold, whose family company now owns The Chicago Offering, brings up her behavior with the paper's editor, Ed Harrington.

Lyrics: Eli Cohen
Music: Talia Gold

Impossible

Andi receives a phone call informing her that her mother, Miriam, has passed away. Andi opens her phone to find the last voicemail her mother left. After listening, she is forced to cope with her grief, and to ask herself, and the women whose lives she's uncovered, what matters in the end.

Music & Lyrics: Eli Cohen

Extraordinary Lives

CJ tells her sister Skylar, who has been stuck in the hospital all summer before her freshman year of high school, the story of how their heroes defeated Second-Hand Man and saved the city.

Lyrics: Eli Cohen
Music: Eli Cohen and Maxwell Beer