ART IMITATES LIFE
Filmmaker and Easton native Taylor Purdee talks about musical movie shot in Lehigh Valley featuring Bethlehem’s ‘Fest’
A new musical movie shot in the Lehigh Valley is set to hit US screens just as theaters open nationwide. The film is called “Killian & the Comeback Kids” and features a few familiar local scenes including Easton’s Centre Square, Bethlehem’s SteelStacks and Godfrey Daniels listening room. The movie premieres today at Regal Northampton Cinema in Easton and Movie Tavern in Trexlertown.
“Killian & the Comeback Kids” tells the story of a young, mixed-race musician who returns to his PA hometown after college. A chance meeting with a high school friend gives Killian’s summer a new/ creative purpose. The two put together a band of fellow neighborhood musicians and give them an opportunity to play a popular music festival in their steel city. You can probably guess which one.
Written, directed and starring Easton native Taylor A. Purdee as Killian Raison, the film also features actors from stage and screen including Academy Award winner Lee Grant (“Shampoo”) and a collection of TV soap actors from Days of Our Lives, The Young and The Restless and more.
Purdee, a 2010 graduate of Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Performing Arts, said that shooting the film back in the Valley made perfect sense.
“Some of the things are massively autobiographical,” the filmmaker said in a recent phone interview. “We filmed it primarily in the house I grew up in. My father plays my father in the mov
ie … and Killian’s attempt to get the band together is sort of a cypher for my attempts to do movie things. The artists’ thread is there. It’s the same struggle.”
Shooting in and around Purdee’s hometown also aided the film’s casting.
“This is a modern movie musical about all of the things we didn’t get to do this summer. It’s about hanging out with your friends, going to concerts, running through cornfields — without masks. It’s the summer of 2020 we thought we were gonna have but didn’t.” — Taylor Purdee
“The girl who plays my sister … My dad’s Black and my mom’s White, so it was kind of hard to find somebody to match me,” Purdee explained. “We auditioned kids in New York and all over and couldn’t find anybody. At the last minute, somebody said, ‘You know what? I saw this kid at Touchstone Theatre in Bethlehem. You should call them and see if they’ll give you her mom’s number.’ And that’s who played my sister. And she was fantastic. There was a lot of that Lehigh Valley talent that came in and really brought the local color — which was really what we needed.”
A look at the film’s trailer also reveals a fireside singalong cameo by Lehigh Vally folk music favorite Dave Fry. Purdee shared that while in high school he heard about Bethlehem’s Godfrey Daniels as he developed his love of folk music. On New Year’s Eve in 2017 — while in the middle of writing the script for “Killian” — he went to hear a friend play at the southside’s popular music listening room.
“I never realized how key
Godfrey’s would be,” Purdee admitted. “Dave Fry was there and we got to chatting. He was sort of stuck in my subconscious while I was writing. And there was a role [in the script] for a guy who was sort of the Godfather of the music scene in our alternate universe. Instantly and obviously I thought, ‘Well, this has to be Dave Fry.’ He just sort
of showed up and arranged this song with me. He was super … And with his addition … Wow! Taylor’s got music going now.”
Another preview clip shows a wry exchange between Killian and his father.
Killian explains, “We’re gonna try to play Fest … That would be cool.”
His dad jokingly replies, “God only knows, Fest is the only thing going on around here.” Ouch.
Though some cloudy moments hover over the picture, Purdee says the town in the film is a darker, dramatized version of the Lehigh Valley. He hopes the positive elements will override the more overcast themes of the film.
And speaking of gloomy conditions, the coronavirus pandemic has impacted the project and the movie premier plan.
“We’re expecting to open slowly as theaters reopen,” Purdee said. “That said, there is the health and safety question, which is why I’ve been trying to find as many open-air theaters and drive-ins as possible … so we have this balance of places where it’s safe.”
“When New York and LA open, we’re hoping to have a big blowout. I’m also hoping to have smaller, regional premieres when the film goes to Atlanta and Chicago. But as far as glitzy premieres go, we’ll have to wait for New York to get it back together,” he added.
Purdee says that he and some of the film’s cast and crew will be attending Friday’s showing in Easton on opening night and through the weekend.
“This is a modern movie musical about all of the things we didn’t get to do this summer. It’s about hanging out with your friends, going to concerts, running through cornfields — without masks. It’s the summer of 2020 we thought we were gonna have but didn’t,” Purdee concluded.
Aside from the familiar Lehigh Valley scenes, the film includes other perks including original music and compositions by Berks County native Taylor Swift and Josh Ritter — soundtrack to come.
“Killian & the Comeback Kids” is produced by awardwinning multi-media company Karmic Release Ltd. which specializes in independent films and studio features.