Nancy Opel Replaces Liz Larsen in PERFECT MOTHERS Readings at NYMF, 7/17 & 20

In a last minute change: Nancy Opel has stepped in to replace Liz Larsen, who had to cancel due to illness. The cast and crew are so pleased and touched that Nancy was available and willing to step in just one day before the reading! Perfect Mothers is a developmental reading and will have three performances at The Studio at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues): Wednesday, July 17, 3:00 p.m., Wednesday, July 17, 7:00 p.m., and Saturday, July 20, 8:00 p.m.

Nancy Opel most recently starred in "Hello Dolly" at Ford's Theatre and "On The Town" at Barrington Stage. Broadway: Memphis, Gypsy(w/ Patti LuPone), Fiddler on the Roof, Urinetown (Tony nom.), Triumph of Love, Anything Goes, Sunday in the Park with George, Evita. Off Broadway: The Toxic Avenger (Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics, Lortel noms.),My Deah (Obie Award), Polish Joke (Drama Desk, Lortel noms.), Mere Mortals, All in the Timing. National Tour: The Drowsy Chaperone.

"Perfect Mothers" also stars Adriane Lenox Dreamgirls, Doubt (Tony Award), Caroline or Change; Kenita Miller, Working (Drama Desk Award), Xanadu, The Color Purple; Amy Bodnar, Oklahoma, Ragtime, and Jenn Colella Urban Cowboy (Outer Critics Circle Award nomination), High Fidelity, and Chaplin.

Pam Lobley (Book) is a humor columnist for www.newjerseynewsroom.com; her columns have also appeared in many newspapers throughout the country. As a playwright and sketch comedian, Pam's work has appeared in clubs and theatres throughout New York City including Caroline's, West Bank Café, Stand Up New York, Gotham City Improv, Naked Angels and New Georges. She has co-authored a book: You Definitely Know You're A Mom When... She is a recipient of The Anna Sosenko Assist Trust Grant (www.annasosenkotrust.org), which helped in part to fund this reading.

Tina deVaron (Music and Lyrics) is a singer, songwriter, and jazz pianist whose songs have topped the charts, brought her to the White House, and been used on MTV. Tina's song Adore You, recorded by Grammy-nominated Anointed, reached #1 on the Gospel charts; dance track If I Close My Eyes #2 on dance radio. Anne Lamott called Tina's CD of originals about motherhood, If Mama Ain't Happy, "Brilliant, funny, wise." Lisa Belkin called her follow up, Water Over Stones, "The soundtrack of my life!" She has played all the classiest piano rooms in NYC, from the Cole Porter piano at the Waldorf's Peacock Alley, where she once sang a duet with Frank Sinatra, to Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle, where she recently played a duet with Billy Joel.

Shelley Butler (Director) spent two seasons as artistic associate in charge of new play development for Hartford Stage and three seasons as artistic associate for Great Lakes Theater Festival. She has directed and developed new work for Denver Center Theatre Company, Hartford Stage, South Coast Repertory, New York Stage and Film, New Dramatists, Primary Stages, the Lark, New Georges, and Women's Project, among others. Shelley is the recipient of a Drama League Directing Fellowship and a member of SDC, the Lincoln Center Directors' Lab and a New Georges' affiliated artist.

Joseph Church (Musical Director) is best known for his work as music director and supervisor of two groundbreaking Broadway musicals, The Who's Tommy and The Lion King. He has worked on dozens of other productions as music director, conductor, keyboardist, or arranger, on and Off Broadway, nationwide, and worldwide, among them, Little Shop Of Horrors, Randy Newman's Faust, Mask: The Musical, LES MISERABLES, In The Heights, Sister Act, and many others. Also an active composer, Joe has written incidental music for film, television, and over thirty plays, and his musical version of the Oscar-nominated The Thief received its premiere in 2009 in Los Angeles. Joe holds a doctorate in composition from NYU, where he teaches composition and conducting.

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) exists to revitalize musical theatre culture by discovering and promoting new musical theatre artists, producers and projects; nurturing a vibrant and innovative artistic community; and connecting one of America's greatest art forms with a diverse, contemporary audience.

Now in its tenth year, the Festival is the largest musical theatre event in America. The preeminent site for launching new musicals and discovering new talent, the Festival provides an affordable platform for artists to mount professional productions that reach their peers, industry leaders, and musical theater fans. More than 85 festival shows have gone on to productions on and off-Broadway, in 48 states, and more than 20 countries worldwide, and Festival alumni have received a wide array of awards including the Tony and the Pulitzer Prize. In 2013, NYMF received a special Drama Desk Award in recognition of its work "creating and nurturing new musical theater, ensuring the future of this essential art form."

NYMF is the flagship program of National Music Theater Network, Inc., a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization. NYMF 2013 is presented in association with Dunkin' Donuts, BroadwayWorld.com, Production Resource Group, TheaterMania.com, New World Stages, Fox 5 New York, Tilson Consulting, The Out NYC, King Displays, Times Square Squared, Thomson Reuters, Nasdaq OMX, Backstage, Next Magazine, Ironpaper, BroadwayInsider.com, TheMenEvent.com, and Yelp. NYMF is supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. Major supporters include The ASCAP Foundation, BMI Foundation, Inc., The BWF Foundation, Con Edison, The Nathan Cummings Foundation with the support and encouragement of Jamie Mayer Phinney, The New Musical Development Foundation, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Rodgers & Hammerstein Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, and The Theater League.

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Perfect Mothers plays at The Theatre at Studio Row, 410 West 42nd Street, (between 9th and 10th Avenues). Performances are as follows: Wednesday, July 17, 3:00 p.m., Wednesday, July 17, 3:00 p.m., Saturday, July 20, 8:00 p.m. Tickets are free and can be arranged online at www.nymf.org or by calling (212) 352-3101.

Photo Credit: Peter James Zielinski