David Glenn Armstrong to Direct AFFAIR OF HONOUR and HUNGARIAN NIGHTS NYMF Readings, 7/15-17 & 24-26

Acclaimed director David Glenn Armstrong will be helming two back-to-back readings featuring award-winning Broadway actors in the New York Musical Theatre Festival Developmental Reading Series presented upstairs at the 45thStreet Theatre this month, July 2012.

"I am thrilled to return to NYMF with two incredibly diverse, wonderful new musicals—Affair of Honour, about dueling American patriots; and Hungarian Nights, the story of reincarnated love-struck vampires!" said Armstrong. "I was privileged to direct three new pieces for NYMF last year, and frankly, I just can’t get enough of the adrenalin rush of collaborating with new and exciting writers to create musical magic in the dark. It is a testament to these two dynamic, fresh musicals and to NYMF’s commitment to the cultivation of new work that we were able to attract award-winning casts, amazing Broadway music directors and terrific musicians."

Armstrong’s first NYMF reading is William F. Reed’s American revolutionary war epic, Affair of Honour, which will have presentations July 15th at 2:00pm and 6:00pm, and July 17th at 8:30pm.

Leading the cast as Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton are Emmy Award-nominee Paul Anthony Stewart (Cyrano: The Musical, Fiddler on the Roof) and Sean McDermott (Miss Saigon, Falsettos). Portraying over thirty other historical figures are Drama Desk Award-nominee Linda Balgord (The Pirate Queen, Passion), Catherine Blades (Bye Bye Birdie), Summer Broyhill (Hairspray), Josh Adam Davis (off-Broadway’s Odyssey), James Judy (The Scarlet Pimpernel, Into the Woods), Rob Lorey (Aspects of Love, Beauty and the Beast), Zal Owen (Fiddler on the Roof tour), Drama Desk Award-winner Robert Sella (Side Man, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), and Elena Shaddow (La Cage aux Folles, The Woman in White). Milton Granger (Mary Poppins, Lovemusik) is the Music Director.

The following week, Armstrong will direct Cheryl Kemeny and Mariner Pezza’s Hungarian Nights, a lush, 19th century romantic fable of gypsies, reincarnation, and the mysteries of the undead, which will be presented July 24th at 12:00pm and 4:00pm and July 26th at 12:00pm.

Tony Award-nominee and Theatre World Award-winner Josefina Scaglione (West Side Story) and Sean McDermott star as the ill-fated lovers whose search for love spans five centuries. Ben Davis (A Little Night Music, Thoroughly Modern Millie), Jennifer Sanchez (Ghost, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown), Dan Sharkey (The Music Man, The Fantasticks), and David Anthony Vogel (Chicago) star alongside Cidalia Alves, Adam Bashian, Joe Longthorne, Elizabeth Markow, Robert Lance Mooney, Christiana Rodi, Benjamin Edward Simpson, and Julie Thomas. Aaron Gandy (Just Jim Dale, The Shaggs) is the Music Director. Leah Bonvissuto is the Associate Director for both readings.

Armstrong has directed more than 160 productions and workshops seen in 49 states, including the first musical stagings of Sheldon Harnick’s A Doctor in Spite of Himself (William Inge Festival), Jonathan Larson’s ½ MT House (Manhattan Theatre Club), Douglas M. Parker and Denver Casado’s Life on the Mississippi (Goodspeed Opera House), Steven Fisher and Joan Ross Sorkin’s In the Theatre (York Theatre), Carey Ramos and Lamont Dozier’s Many Happy Returns (NYMF), Si Kahn’s The Immigrant – The Joe Hill Story (Amas); and the first-ever reconstructed revivals of Arlen/Gershwin/Harburg’s Life Begins at 8:40 (Library of Congress), Bock/Harnick/Stein’s The Body Beautiful (York Theatre), and Lerner/Loewe’s The Day Before Spring (York Theatre).

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