Jackson Crash

Coming Back in June 2024!

A Goth-Rock-Techno-Pop One-Person Musical 

Hold onto your heart...he's coming for you.

     Jackson Crash depicts a young man’s journey from bullying and parental neglect to starting a family, becoming a truck driver, surviving addiction, and searching for his own honest identity --  all while being chased by an insidious demon.  Jackson is determined to find a community who will embrace him and a place to call home...but will he before the Creeper-Man catches him?

Find the Original Cast Album of Jackson Crash here

available on Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, and all major streaming services

What fans are saying about the show: 

"The rhythms, dissonance, heart-tugging lyrics. This one man show is meant to be heard AND seen." 

"The music and lyrics are superb. You must see this show live!"

"The lyrics are thought provoking and at times pull at your soul...it is sheer pleasure."

"...an astonishingly wide, bracing and highly competent range of techno-influenced grooves, textures, time signatures, syncopations and voicing, all buttressed by urgent, edgy, manifesto-like messages about broken community and the yearning individual soul."

"This is a fun romp through the emotional journey to acceptance and self love. Surging music makes you want to dance and share your soul."

"I was in tears by the end. It cycled through all the emotions, and the balance between the spoken parts and the sung parts was fluid, effortless."

"So cool! I'm mindblown!"

Full synopsis

Jackson Crash is an intimate portrait of a queer young man struggling with the repercussions of a lifetime of condemnation for the sin of being different.  Emotionally abused by his parents and relegated to the margins, he searches for a safe, resonating environment where he can learn to accept himself.

His attempts to navigate the social norms of his school and hometown are met with bullying, vilification, and contempt.  

Pinpricks of light in the form of a special friendship, songwriting, and a passion for driving penetrate his darkness.  Penelope, a classmate with a similar quirky, artistic sensibility, becomes his cheerleader.  Driving for hours on end and blasting his favorite music provide a badly needed sense of freedom and solace.  His complex emotions find their only expression through his songwriting.

Fleeing his hometown hell for the lure of the big city, Jackson finds his tribe of “fellow freaks,” creative, idiosyncratic, flamboyant denizens of New York’s downtown nightlife.  He dreams of owning his own nightclub that will welcome the entire gamut of personalities, creative expression and sexual preferences. 

Meanwhile, he supports himself as a cab driver.  A chance encounter in his taxi with Gigi, a tempestuous siren, launches a seismic shift in Jackson’s life.  Spontaneous and adventurous, Gigi quickly becomes an irresistible lure.  Jackson revels in her wildness and loose boundaries --  and marries her on a whim.

When Gigi cajoles Jackson into starting a family, quitting his job and becoming a stay-at-home dad, the walls quickly start closing in.  He feels his emerging sense of self and nascent social acceptance start slipping away.  Overwhelmed and panicked, Jackson takes a job with a trucking company.

Hitting the road enables him to experience a sense of freedom, power and camaraderie with an unusual cadre of fellow truckers.  His self-confidence and sense of value grow along with his rise in popularity with the trucking crowd.

But Jackson’s exuberance shades into delusions of grandeur --  and risky sexual behavior.  His panic attacks intensify.  He feels possessed by dangerous forces that threaten to drag him into the depths of his own private hell.

At Penelope’s urging, Jackson seeks help from a variety of sources.  Feeling more grounded, he tries to repair his relationships with his family --  but soon finds himself back on the road.

Here, Jackson meets another sensitive, artistic soul, Adam, who becomes the third major relationship in Jackson’s life.  Their clandestine time together is a tender, life-affirming experience.  But tragedy strikes in the form of the bigoted desecration of Jackson’s truck and a horrific homophobic attack on the men. Time and space condense; all the fear, impotence, rage and shame ignited by these hate crimes resurrect the trauma of Jackson’s childhood abuse.

As his psychological symptoms worsen, Jackson reaches out to his dying mother.  Her cruelty is shocking and devastating.  As Jackson unravels further, he instinctively contacts Penelope for help, looking to her as the only person who has ever really understood, embraced and loved him. But as he approaches the diner where they agree to meet, Jackson becomes convinced that he is beyond damaged and will wind up destroying her.  

***SPOILER ALERT - IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE ENDING, READ NO FURTHER!***

Speeding away, he lets go of the wheel.

Miraculously surviving the truck accident, Jackson manages to get back to the diner, frantically searching for Penelope.  He is shocked to lock eyes with an apparition who he eventually realizes is his wife, Gigi.  In her arms he finds forgiveness, acceptance, resonance --  and an earth-bound, messy, real-life love.

While working in his new job in a local high school, Jackson realizes how many kids experience the all-too-familiar shame and loneliness of rejection.  With a new-found sense of purpose, he commits himself to connecting these marginalized kids with each other.

Jackson transforms his original dream of owning a nightclub into founding a community-based club that enables all kinds of kids to find friends with similar sensibilities and feel accepted for who they are. And by providing a safe, nurturing space where kids can be authentic, Jackson is finally able to embrace his own “inner freak.”