Brian Charles Rooney to Star in MISS BLANCHE TELLS IT ALL at NYMF

This summer, Brian Charles Rooney will star as Miss Blanche, in the Premiere of the solo musical, Miss Blanche Tells It All by Jason Jacobs & Matthew C. Pritchard.

Directed by Gisela Cardenas, with musical direction by Robert Frost and choreography by Nicole Curcio, it will begin performances as part of this year New York Musical Festival (NYMF) beginning July 12 at Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at Playwrights Horizons (416 W 42nd St). Tickets are $27.50 and can be purchased by visiting NYMF.org.

1969 New Orleans: it's standing room only. The band starts the opening number for Miss Blanche, the hottest act in the Quarter - but Miss Blanche is missing in action. Instead, a fiery young man takes the stage. Relaying tales from his brutal childhood, he reveals a mysterious trunk, filled with clues about his past and the key to his future. Inspired by the imagination of Tennessee Williams, this intimate and seductive show takes us on one man's journey of desire, self-expression, and liberation.

Brian Charles Rooney made his Broadway debut as Lucy Brown in The Threepenny Opera (Roundabout Theatre Co.); & won the CT Critics Circle Award for Best Actor in a Musical as Candy Darling in POP! (Yale Repertory). He was recently lauded by The New York Times for his performance as Dionne Salon in the hit Off-Broadway musical, Bedbugs!!! & has won two NYMF Outstanding Performance Awards: Bedbugs!!! (2008) & Bayonets of Angst (2014). He appeared with Kristin Chenoweth at Lincoln Center in Andrew Lippa's I Am Harvey Milk, & in the Carnegie Hall Concert Production of Guys & Dolls, starring Nathan Lane & Megan Mullally. In 2007, Brian won The Kurt Weill Foundation's Lys Symonette Award for Dramatic Excellence.

The creative team includes: (Scenic & Props Designer), Philip Heckman (Costume Designer), Christopher Weston (Lighting Designer), (Sound Designer), Heather Olmstead (Production Stage Manager), Dailey-Monda Management (General Manager).

For more information, visit www.missblanchemusical.com.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

JASON JACOBS (Book and Lyrics) has been named as a NYTheatre.com 'Person of the Year.' He was formerly the co-artistic director of Theatre Askew, where he co-created and directed Bald Diva! and devised numerous projects with LGBTQA youth. He directed Lavender Songs (TOSOS II, Backstage Bistro Award), After the Chairs (2014 Fresh Fruit Festival, Best Direction Award) and Richard Sheinmel's Modern Living series (LaMama Club). His play Another Horatio Alger Story was recently seen at Chicago's Pride Film and Players Gay Play Fest. Regional productions at Vermont Stage Company and Kitchen Theatre. Member of Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab.

MATTHEW C. PRITCHARD (Music and Lyrics) has provided original music and/or sound design for Bianca Leigh's BUSTED: The Musical, I, Claudius Live and the GLAAD Award-nominated productions of Bald Diva! & I Google Myself (all for Theatre Askew), The Abduction of Becky Morris & Coyote Katie(NY Fringe Festival), Home/Away & The F On My Chest (Theatre Askew Youth Performance Experience), Tim Cusack's WHAT DID HE SEE? (ForemanFest) and Jason Jacobs' Another Horatio Alger Story (The Cell).

Gisela Cardenas (Director) has directed, performed and written in the UK, Germany, Peru, Romania, Brasil, The Netherlands, Norway and USA. Awards: Princes Grace Theater Fellowship, Women's Project Director's Lab, TCG/ NEA Career Development Program. She has an MA in Performance Studies (NYU) and an MFA in Directing (Columbia University). Recent credits: Aeschylus' Agamemnon (Drama Desk Nomination); Antigone (Sibiu International Theater Festival-Romania), Euripides' Medea, Brecht's In The Jungle of Cities, Richard III in Norway, Weskler's The Kitchen, Peter Asmussen's Nobody Meets Anyone in Brazil.

Robert Frost (Music Director) Select MD credits include Lisa and Leonardo (NYMF); We Live In Cairo and Cardboard Piano (O'Neill Theater Center); baby no more times (The Lark), Miss Blanche Tells It All (Dixon Place) James Joyce is Dead... and Cradle Will Rock (Connecticut College); Jonah and the Whale and Little Shop of Horrors (7th House); and project élan (Arkansas Rep), which he also co-wrote. As a pianist and music director, Robert has also worked with Berkshire Theater Group, New York University, New Dramatists, and Lincoln Center (Future Songbook Series). Adjunct Faculty: NYU Tisch New Studio on Broadway and Connecticut College. Former Resident MD: O'Neill Theater Center's NMTI. Graduate of Southwestern University and the National Theater Institute.

The New York Musical Festival nurtures the creation, production, and public presentation of stylistically, thematically, and culturally diverse new musicals to ensure the future vitality of musical theater.

Now in its fourteenth year, the Festival is the premier musical theater event in the world. 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 90 Festival shows have gone on to productions on and Off-Broadway, in regional theaters in all 50 states, and in more than 24 countries worldwide. Festival alumni have received a wide array of awards including the Tony Award 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. 2017 NYMF is sponsored by The City of New York Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, PRG, TheaterMania, Clear Channel Outdoor and Village Voice, and is supported, in part, 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.

The NYMF PASS is a great way to experience The New York Musical Festival. With a NYMF PASS, you can get into the theater before individual ticket holders. Passes also offer the exclusive ability to book tickets before they go on sale to the public. Individual tickets are on sale June 15!

The 2017 New York Musical Festival will take place July 10 - August 6. For more information, visit www.nymf.org.

Photo of Brian Charles Rooney as Miss Blanche by Bjorn Bolinder.