Best of BMI Workshop on September 14 Features Yeston, Lopez, Marx, Alessandrini and Ford

Songwriters who honed their craft at the famed BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop will join together in song for a one-night-only concert on September 14 at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street) at 8pm. The evening is a cooperative production of BMI, the Prospect Theatre Company and Musical Mondays Theatre Lab. General Admission tickets are $20.00 and can be purchased at Ticket Central: 212 479-4200 or www.ticketcentral.com.

Now entering its fifth decade, the BMI Workshop -- deemed "the Harvard of musical theatre" by The New York Times -- is the launching pad for musicals such as A Chorus Line, Little Shop of Horrors, Nine, Avenue Q and most recently Musical of Musicals! — The Musical.

The event is part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival (a three-week celebration from September 12 to October 2) and features the performing talents of Maury Yeston, two-time Best Score Tony Award winner for Nine and Titanic, and writers Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, 2004 Tony winners for Avenue Q. Composer Judd Woldin (Best Musical Tony for Raisin) performs with lyricist Richard Engquist (Drama Desk Award for Kuni-Leml) from their recent off-Broadway musical Little Ham.

Drama Desk Award winner Gerard Alessandrini, whose Forbidden Broadway is now in its 21st season, hosts the event. Nancy Ford, lyricist with composer Gretchen Cryer for the current American Girls Revue, will perform her standard, "Old Friend," introduced in her long-running I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road. David Spencer is performing "And I Knew" from Weird Romance, his collaboration with Oscar and Golden Globe winner Alan Menken.

Jeff Blumenkrantz, nominated for a Tony for his work on Urban Cowboy, will be performing his own work, as will Jonathan Larson Fellow Beth Falcone. Composer Barbara Anselmi and lyricist Will Randall reprise their hit from the last BMI Showcase, "It Shoulda Been You," from The Wedding Project.

Jerry Bock Award winner Frank Evans is represented with songs from War Brides, which will be featured as part of the NYMF Festival on September 27 at BMI. Patrick Cook, Workshop Artistic Coordinator and his composing partner Rick Freyer, who co-wrote the Drama Desk nominated Captains Courageous, will be singing songs from their new musical version of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

The BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, recently honored with the 2005 Drama League Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre, was founded in 1961 by the late Lehman Engel, dean of American musical theatre, to create a setting where new writers could learn their craft. Since its inception, the Workshop has been operated by BMI free of any cost to participants; admission is based on merit.

Now marking its 65th year in business, BMI is an American performing rights organization that represents more than 300,000 songwriters, composers and publishers in all genres of music. With a repertoire of more than 6.5 million musical works from around the world, the non-profit-making corporation collects license fees from businesses that use music, which it then distributes as royalties to the musical creators and copyright owners it represents.

Dedicated to discovering new work and new artists, the New York Musical Theatre Festival celebrates the diversity, creativity and future of musical theatre. NYMF is a flagship program of the National Music Theater Network, a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization, and is America's largest annual musical theatre event. NYMF is produced in association with Cadillac and Virgin Megastores and proudly supported by amNewYork, the Village Voice, WB11, Receptasign, King Displays, Rosco Lighting, Scharff Weisberg Inc, Dodger Stages, TheaterMania.com, BroadwayWorld.com, broadway.com, HX, Next and Manhattan Living. For more information, visit www.nymf.org.