Amas MT Presents NELLIE BEEZER'S MELTING POT FOLLIES Reading, 10/12

Amas Musical Theatre will present free staged readings of NELLIE BEEZER'S MELTING POT FOLLIES OF 1922, a new musical written by Phillip George and Kathy Griffith, with additional material by Gerard Alessandrini and David Caldwell. The readings, also directed by Phillip George, will take place on Monday, October 11th at 6:00pm, and Tuesday, October 12th at 3:00pm and 7:00pm, at Ripley-Grier Studios, 520 Eighth Avenue (10th Floor).

NELLIE BEEZER'S MELTING POT FOLLIES OF 1922 involves a disparate group of immigrants graduating from a government-sponsored course of "Americanization" taught by former Follies showgirl Nellie Beezer. As the class prepares to don the mantle of citizenship, they perform a series of songs and stories they have learned especially to celebrate the 4th of July. Although the show features some original songs, it relies largely on a trove of American popular songs from the era.

The show is a hilarious yet very sobering musical satire that mines a somewhat forgotten era of American culture", says Amas Producing Artistic Director Donna Trinkoff. "Jingoism and political correctness have obscured what so many of our grandparents and great-grandparents experienced as they came to these shores. This is a show that reminds us both of how far we've come and how far we've yet to go."

Phillip George, long-time co-director of numerous Forbidden Broadway revues, which won a Special Tony Award in 2006, is also the co-creator and director of SHOUT! THE MOD MUSICAL, currently being performed around the world. Gerard Alessandrini, best known for creating Forbidden Broadway, is the recipient of Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre, an Obie Award, four Drama Desk Awards (including the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics and the Drama Desk Special Award), an Outer Critics Circle Award, and two Lucille Lortel Awards, as well as the Drama League Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre.

The cast of the reading includes Beth Glover (TAKE ME ALONG), Lori Hammel (MAMMA MIA, Forbidden Broadway), Kevin McGlynn (KISS ME KATE, ALL SHOOK UP, Forbidden Broadway national tours), Joseph Melendez (JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR Broadway revival, MAGPIE at Amas), Lee Summers (DREAMGIRLS on Broadway, Langston Hughes'S LITTLE HAM at Amas), and Nir Chalamish, Jillian Cox, Mark Fisher, Kelvin Moon Loh, and Kristi Roosmaa.

The readings are part of the ongoing Amas Six O'Clock Musical Theatre Lab, a development series for writers, lyricists and composers to mount staged readings of their new musicals free to the public. The Amas Six O'Clock Musical Theatre Lab is supported, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years building strong, creative communities in New York's 62 counties, and by the ASCAP Foundation Irving Caesar Fund, the BMI Foundation, the Barbara Bell Cummings Foundation, the Dramatists Guild, the Edith Meiser Fund, the Shubert Foundation, and through the generous support of many individuals.

More Articles by This Author...