Matthew Saldivar, Richard H. Blake & More Set for SAY, DARLING Reading, 3/21

UnsungMusicalsCo. (UMC) will present a developmental reading of the 1958 backstage comedy SAY, DARLING by Tony Award winner Richard Bissell (The Pajama Game), Tony Award winner Abe Burrows (Guys and Dolls) and Marian Bissell. The play with music features songs by the Tony Award-winning team of Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Jule Styne (Bells Are Ringing, Do Re Mi).

The announcement was made today by UMC Artistic Director Ben West.

SAY, DARLING is a wild backstage comedy about the making of a Broadway musical in 1950s New York. Outrageous egos, hostile Hollywood stars and one naive playwright take the town in this off-the-wall behind-the-scenes look at an improbable new musical's journey to the Great White Way!

Ben West (The Fig Leaves Are Falling, At Home Abroad) will direct the reading, which features musical direction by Fran Minarik (At Home Abroad).

The cast of SAY, DARLING will feature Richard H. Blake (Legally Blonde, Wicked), Joe Cassidy (Working, Catch Me If You Can), Amy Hohn (November), Matthew Saldivar (All in the Timing, Peter and the Starcatcher), Brian Sears (The Book of Mormon) and Paul Slade Smith (Wicked). Additional casting to be announced soon.

The reading will be held on Thursday, March 21 at 3pm at the MTC Creative Center (311 West 43rd Street).

To attend the reading and receive invitations to future UMC readings, please visit www.UnsungMusicals.org.

UnsungMusicalsCo. Inc. (Ben West, Artistic Director) is a not-for-profit Production Company dedicated to the preservation of musical theater through the restoration and presentation of obscure but artistically sound works. Focusing primarily on overlooked projects from the Golden Age, UMC treats each property as a new musical thereby providing a unique collaboration between the artists of today and those of the past. Past UMC projects include acclaimed productions of The Fig Leaves Are Falling and Make Mine Manhattan, a starry concert presentation of At Home Abroad, world premiere concerts of Gatsby: The Songs in Concert and Nothing is Forever and New York International Fringe Festival productions of Platinum and How Now, Dow Jones.

UMC is also devoted to researching, assembling and restoring the material from unpublished and out-of-print musical shows. To further the mission of preserving these historic works for future generations, UMC's material is receiving its own collection in the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. For more information visit www.UnsungMusicals.org.