A Connecticut family is shooting a musical feature film in their own house. Production is underway on “Get Happy”, the debut feature from writer/director Ellie Gravitte. The film stars her mother, Tony Award-winning actress Debbie Gravitte, her father Beau Gravitte, and other family members. Filming runs through November 9 in Redding, CT.

“I’d been waiting a long time for a ‘yes’ from big-name talent and financiers who were hesitant to take a chance on a first-time filmmaker,” Gravitte says. “This summer, I decided to stop waiting. So I wrote a film for my entire family to star in, and we’re shooting it in our house.”

The film follows the Williams family over a single day. When three adult children bring their significant others home for an annual gathering, musical performances, botched meals, and interpersonal dramas pile up.

The film features eight songs captured live on camera, including standards like “Get Happy” and “Fascinating Rhythm”, plus an original song, “No One Has It Worse”, written by Gravitte and Carlo Ladd.

The cast has more than a dozen Broadway credits between them. Debbie Gravitte won the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and a Grammy for “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway”. She’s currently on Broadway in “Just in Time”. Beau Gravitte spent a year in the national tour of “The Notebook” and has Broadway credits including “The Light in the Piazza”. Sam Gravitte made his Broadway debut in “Wicked” and later starred as Fiyero.

The production is raising funds through a Kickstarter campaign that ends November 20. Producers are Lavinia Jones Wright and Lindsey Formes of I Play Different Productions.