Blake Liahona Allen (born July 21, 1988, in Tucson, Arizona) is an American composer and viola player who is most known for writing The Ceiling, Insomnia—which debuted at Carnegie Hall— and The Shards of an Honor Code Junkie, music directing the 2019 revival of Over Here!, writing the theme song for the talk show Doris Dear's Gurl Talk, and appearing on Shade: Queens of NYC.
Early life and education Blake Liahona Allen was born in Tucson, Arizona on July 21, 1988, the fourth child of pianist Marsha Allen (née Wilcox) and San Allen, an engineer and chief operating officer for Winchester Electronics. His family moved to St. Petersburg, Florida shortly after his birth, then to Gainesville before eventually settling in El Paso, Texas, where he spent most of his youth. He grew up a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was in the viola sections of both the El Paso Symphony Orchestra and Las Cruces Symphony while attending Franklin High School.
Allen studied viola performance at Brigham Young University and worked at the Primrose International Viola Archive at Lee Library.
Career Allen was artist-in-residence at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in 2014 and was principal of the Little Orchestra. He has played with the New York Pops. He was Rob Fisher's music assistant from 2012 til 2022.
Allen joined the cast of Shade: Queens of NYC at its inception in October 2017, as Blake Allen, the then-spouse to Marti Gould Cummings. The series documents the daily reality of lives as Manhattan drag queens. In the series, Allen also music directed, arranged, and performed in several episodes culminating in the album A Very Marti Holiday, an album of Christmas music featuring Daphne Rubin-Vega, Cady Huffman, and Lesli Margherita to raise money for the Ali Forney Center.
In December 2017, Allen premiered a musical, The Shards of an Honor Code Junkie, starring Alison Fraser, Teal Wicks, Kristy Cates, Hannah Cruz, and Michael Lowney. The musical was inspired by a friend's suicide while he was a sophomore in college. After the sold-out world premiere of shards in 2017 as a benefit concert for The Trevor Project, Allen's classical-crossover score was picked up by No Reverse Records to be released in July 2021 as a storybook album.
Allen was one of nine composers and lyricists involved with the Off-Broadway musical Folk Wandering, which premiered in March 2018.
In 2019, Allen won the 2019 BroadwayWorld Cabaret Award for Best Recurring Series for his "An Evening With... Series" as well as the award for Best Special Event (Solo) for Marti Gould Cummings's Marti & The Cummers while being nominated for Best Musical Director and Best Independent Album, for his An Evening With..., Vol. 1 The same year, Allen won the 2019 GLAM Award for Best Cabaret for his work with Tina Burner on Witch Perfect at Club Cumming with fellow performers Bootsie Lefaris and Tammy Spenks. In 2020, Allen won Best Arrangement of the Decade for Mack the Knife and was nominated for My Funny Valentine, Best Musical Director, and Best Recurring Series for An Evening With... Series. Allen also performed at Birdland with Lortel and Drama Desk Award winner Kuhoo Verma in early 2020.
Allen produced, music directed, and orchestrated the 2019 Off-Broadway revival of Over Here! at the Triad Theatre with Will Nunziata directing. The show starred Debbie Gravitte, Jessica Hendy, Haley Swindal, and Nikka Graff Lanzarone.
Allen also wrote a one-act play, Kelly based upon the Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter, which premiered at the Hudson Guild Theatre in March 2019 and also starred Jessica Hendy.
In 2020, Allen was an artist in residence at the Kimmel Nelson Harding Center for the Arts in Nebraska City, Nebraska, after which he released his album Sonatas on Earth Day 2020. The album features music which premiered at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It debuted at #4 on the Billboard charts Classical, where it stayed in the top 10 for two weeks.
At the height of the 2020 Pandemic, Allen wrote Livin' the Dreamboat with lyricist Claire Tran for the Astoria Performing Arts Center in Astoria, Queens. Also in 2020, Allen wrote the theme song and incidental music to Doris Dear's Gurl Talk, a weekly lifestyle show on Broadway on Demand. Allen was music director for the Doris Dear Christmas Special, which featured Tony Nominee Karen Mason.
Allen's Insomnia was developed for Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall and premiered November 8, 2022. The piece was written and performed by Jeanna de Waal, Cree Carrico, Argus Quartet, and Christopher Koelzer. The album was released on No Reverse Records in 2024 featuring the Carnegie Hall cast.
Allen wrote Farmyard Follies with Tina Burner. The show debuted in 2023 in Provincetown at the Crown & Anchor and was filmed for a forthcoming documentary feature. The show had been in development for three years before its debut. Allen and Seeber collaborated for several years on cabaret shows, including releasing two full-length albums and the Christmas single "I'd Rather Be Naughty Than Nice". Allen and Seeber were nominated for a 2021 MAC Award for Best Recording (LaMott Friedman Award) for their album and tour Maybe This Time. They collaborated for seven years on the international hit Witch Perfect based upon Disney's Hocus Pocus (1993 film) including winning the 2020 GLAM Award for Best Cabaret.
Shortly after Allen received his PhD from NYU Steinhardt in spring of 2024, Allen began work with librettist Will Nunziata on an operatic adaption of Virginia Woolf's 1931 novel The Waves.
Allen is developing The Ceiling, a new musical based upon the O. Henry Prize winning short story The Ceiling (2001) by Kevin Brockmeier. The world premiere concert was presented at (le) Poisson Rouge on October 5, 2026.
Personal life Allen moved to New York City in 2011 and married New York City Council candidate and drag artist, Marti Gould Cummings in 2016. They divorced in 2022.
Television Year Title Role Notes2017Shade: Queens of NYCHimself; music arrangerSupporting Role 2018Mozart in the JungleAudition musician2020Doris Dear Gurl TalkComposer2020The Doris Dear Christmas SpecialMusic director; composer2021In the Know Dragged Himself; Emma Tallgal2024ConversionComposerAlbum producer
Theatre Year Production Role Venue 2017 The Shards of an Honor Code JunkieComposer; Lyricist; Book WriterMetro Baptist Church 2018 Folk Wandering Composer; Lyricist; Musician Pipeline Theatre Co. 2019 Kelly Playwright; ComposerHudson Guild Theatre 2019 Over Here! Revival Music Director; ArrangerTriad Theatre 2020 Livin' the Dreamboat Composer; OrchestratorAstoria Performing Arts Center 2022 Insomnia Composer; LyricistWeill Recital Hall 2023 Farmyard Follies Composer; Lyricist; Book Provincetown, MA 2026 The Ceiling Composer; Lyricist; Book LPR
Discography Title Details Peak chart positions Billboard Classical Billboard Cast Album iTunes Classical iTunes Top 100 iTunes Vocal Amazon Classical A Very Marti Holiday Release date: 2017 Label: Cowboy Bear Ninja & Blake Allen An Evening With..., Vol. 1 Release date: 2019 Label: Traguna Productions & Blake Allen Nominated for Best Album at 2019 BroadwayWorld Awards. Sonatas Release date: 22 April 2020 (Earth Day) Label: Traguna Productions & Blake Allen 4 1 40 One Thing Is For Certain (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) Release date: 4 February 2021 Label: Traguna Productions & Blake Allen Tina Burner Maybe This Time Release date: 20 March 2021 Label: Tina Burner 2 The Shards of an Honor Code Junkie Release date: September 17, 2021 Label: No Reverse Records 122781 Conversion (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Release date: June 2, 2024 Label: Chronicle Cinema & Blake Allen Insomnia Release date: August 9, 2024 Label: No Reverse Records3199 "—" denotes releases that did not chart
Awards and nominations Year Award Category Work Result Ref. 2006 National String Orchestra Award 2019 BroadwayWorld Cabaret Awards Best Recurring Series An Evening With... BroadwayWorld Cabaret Awards Best Special Event - Solo Marti at Lincoln Center BroadwayWorld Cabaret Awards Best Musical Director An Evening With... BroadwayWorld Cabaret Awards Best Independent Album An Evening With... Vol. 1 GLAM Awards Best Cabaret With Perfect GLAM Awards Best Cabaret Marti at Lincoln Center 2020 BroadwayWorld Cabaret Awards Best Arrangement Mack the Knife BroadwayWorld Cabaret Awards Best Arrangement My Funny Valentine BroadwayWorld Cabaret Awards Best Musical Director Over Here!; An Evening With...; Witch Perfect BroadwayWorld Cabaret Awards Best Recurring Series An Evening With... BroadwayWorld Cabaret Awards Best Special Event - Multiple Over Here! 2021 Telly Awards Online Scripted Web Series Doris Dear's Gurl Talk
References
External links
Official Website