Photo Coverage: 'The 24 Hour Musicals'

On January 21, 2008, The 24 Hour Company presented The 24 Hour Musicals, rehearsed and performed at Joe's Pub in a single day, featuring an all-star line up of Broadway performers, great composers, writers, directors, choreographers and musical directors.

Stars involved with the event included Brooks Ashmanskas (The Ritz), Adam Bock (The Receptionist), Jonathan Butterell, John Ellison Conlee, Raul Esparza (The Homecoming), Joe Iconis, Steve Pasquale, Jesse Tyler Ferguson ("The Class"), Victoria Clark (The Light in the Piazza), Denis O'Hare (Take Me Out, Sweet Charity), Tracie Thoms (Rent, "Cold Case"), Cheyenne Jackson (Xanadu), Mo Rocca (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, "The Daily Show"), Nellie McKay (Three Penny Opera), Kerry Butler (Xanadu), Jonathan Butterell (Nine), Warren Carlyle (The Producers, Oklahoma!), John Ellison Conlee (The Full Monty), Gavin Creel (Mary Poppins), Mois�s Kaufman (The Laramie Project, I Am My Own Wife), Celia Keenan-Bolger (Les Miserables), Claudia Shear (Dirty Blonde), and David Yazbek (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels).

The creative process for The 24 Hour Musicals began at 10PM on Sunday, January 20 when a group of four writer-composer-lyricist teams, four directors, 16 performers, and a production staff gather at Joe's Pub. After casts and crews were briefed, each writer was tasked with composing a 15-minute play by 7AM the following morning, when the directors returned to read and select their piece. The casts met for the first time at 8AM and, over the next 12 hours, the plays were rehearsed and produced for a live presentation. At 7PM, ink barely dry, the six new plays � interspersed with six musical acts � were performed for a live audience.

Proceeds from The 24 Hour Musicals benefited the Exchange, a NYC not-for-profit that develops new theatre work through productions and its development center for innovative theatre companies and artists in the Catskills, the Orchard Project. For more information visit ExchangeNYC.org/24/

Photos by Kerry Long

REHEARSALS

Jonathan Butterell, Cheyenne Jackson, Victoria Clark, John Ellison Conlee and Claudia Shear