She begins secretly seeing Tom, but as her affair gets more passionate with him, Sara longs to go back to the normal life she had with Michael and her daughter.
She then introduces Sara and Tom as a young couple living in New York, both working as bartenders to reach their dreams of becoming a musician and an actor, respectively.
While walking home from work as a poetry professor at New York University, Michael collides with a drunk and heartbroken Sara ("Narrator 2").
As the two fall more and more in love ("Turning Into Beautiful"),the focus shifts back to Tom, who has also given up on his acting dreams ("Crying Scene Theme").
He wants to prepare her for adult life by sending her to a private school, but she worries about the cost and begins to feel that Michael no longer hears her ("Prattle 1 / Narrator 5").
One morning, when going about her routine and dropping Frankie off for school, she sees someone on the street who reminds her of Tom and she begins to reminisce about her past relationship.
The Narrator discusses the web of lies built up by the affair, comparing it to an old French cinema ("The Crying Scene").
Tom and Michael both express their desire for Sara to be more open with them ("Coffee's On Reprise") and all the characters reflect on the difficulties of love and relationships ("Built for Longing").
Michael immediately realizes that his suspicions about Sara are true and becomes angry, telling her she's destroyed their family ("Little by Little Reprise") and leaving her alone in the park.
The musical concludes with the characters returning and warning the audience that everyone loves a bloody, dark story until it happens to them ("Finale").
The cast included John Ellison Conlee, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Will Swenson and Karen Olivo.
[5] The regional premiere took place at TUTS Underground in Houston, Texas in April 2014, with a cast featuring Lauren Molina, Steel Burkhardt, Kristin Warren and Pat McRoberts.
The musical had its UK premiere at the Arts Theatre in the West End, with an opening night on 5 October 2016, following previews from 30 September.
[7] The cast featured Kerry Ellis as Sara, Ramin Karimloo as Tom, Norman Bowman as Michael and Victoria Hamilton-Barritt as the narrator (who was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical).
[8][9] The production received three nominations at the 2017 Whatsonstage.com Awards, with acting nods for both Karimloo and Hamilton-Barritt, and best video design for Laura Perrett.
[10] In 2017, Murder Ballad was presented in Argentina, featuring Florencia Otero as Sara,[11] German Tripel as Michael,[12] Patricio Arellano as Tom, and Sofia Rangone as the Narrator.
The producer recently announced that it would bring the Dutch version to Belgium in 2022 In 2020, the Australasian Premiere took place in Greymouth, New Zealand in September.
The cast featured Rosie Barnes as Sara, Cary Lancaster as Michael, Stephen Brassett as Tom, and Helen Wallis as Narrator.