MAXA, The Maddest Woman in the World is an epic horror musical capturing the life story of Paula Maxa (L Morgan Lee), the famed French tragedienne who died thousands of deaths for the patrons who haunted the ghastly theater known as the Grand Guignol. In 1940's France, it becomes Paula's strange destiny to carry the very same horrors of the Grand Guignol into her private life. Only then does she confront the root of her trauma, recounting the very night that changed her existence forever. Paula's story tells of passion and blood-lust, of fame and retribution, of a survivor who uses her trauma as a means of healing, leaving an ever-lasting imprint on the horror genre as we know it today.

There will be a NY industry reading Thursday, March 12th in preparation for its world stage premiere at University of Minnesota Duluth in November, 2020, with book and lyrics by Mika Kauffman and music by Thomas Jacobsen. Featuring L Morgan Lee (A Strange Loop), Yansa Fatima (10 Days in a Madhouse), Maybe Burke (Emma and the Mad Monk, Nora from Queens), Dana Aber (10 Days, Baggage at the Door), Joe Chisholm (Afterglow, safeword.), Forest VanDyke (The Giant Hoax, PARANORMATIVE), Amy Weintraub(#adulting), Joshua Dominique, Siobhan Beckett, Jeffrey Eugene Johnson, Charlie Lavaroni, Jordan Ho and Macy Jae Davis. Directed by Daniella Caggiano (Fun Home in a Funeral Home), music directed by Andrew Drannon.