Donna McKechnie, Victoria Clark, Mary Testa Among Stars Taking Part in NYMF 2016

Though cities all over the country host popular theatre festivals every summer, offering an inexpensive way to sample a variety of work by emerging talent, it's a little different in New York.

Live Theatre is the major cultural attraction here in Gotham, so it's not unusual to see Broadway favorites, Tony Award nominees and perhaps a living legend or two taking part in a small-budget summer gig. That's especially true of the New York Musical Festival, where short commitments and non-traditional curtain times can make it possible for current Broadway stars to take on new roles in between their regular eight shows a week.

Here are some of the stars whose work can be enjoyed in this year's NYMF offerings. Visit nymf.org for complete information on each production.

FULL PRODUCTIONS:

Sebastian Michael and Jonathan Kaldor's ICON, about a 1920's American debutante who marries into one of Europe's royal families, certainly has an icon in its cast; one of Broadway's greatest dancers and A CHORUS LINE's Tony-winning original Cassie, Donna McKechnie. She'll be joined by Australia's Tony Sheldon, Tony-nominee for PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT.

Tony-winner Victoria Clark directs NEWTON'S CRADLE, a musical about a young man with autism written by mother and son Kim and Heath Saunders. One of Clark's early Broadway roles was Smitty in the 1995 Broadway revival of HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING, starring Matthew Broderick. The cast of NEWTON'S CRADLE includes Rose Hemingway, who made her Broadway debut as Rosemary in the 2011 production of HOW TO SUCCEED... opposite Daniel Radcliffe.

ZORRO's Olivier Award-winner, Lesli Margherita, who won over Broadway in MATILDA and DAMES AT SEA, will be appearing in Alan Harris and Mark Alan Swanson's. A SCYTHE OF TIME, a mystery musical inspired by two stories from Edgar Allan Poe, about a series of articles where writers take their own lives and record their experience with death. AMERICAN IDIOT's P.J. Griffith co-stars.

Elizabeth A. Davis, Tony-nominee for ONCE, and Kathryn Gallagher, the voice of Martha in the Deaf West production of SPRING AWAKENING, are featured in Abigail Carney's DUST CAN'T KILL ME, about a drought-stricken ragtag group of wayward souls seeking a promised land.

M.J. Rodriguez, who won acclaim as Angel in the 2011 revival of RENT, and Felicia Finley, whose fierce rocker belt thrilled audiences in AIDA and THE WEDDING SINGER, are in the cast of Brett Sullivan's THE LAST WORD, about a slacker who tries to earn money hustling at Scrabble to save his beloved restaurant from the bulldozer.

Brian Charles Rooney, who amazed audiences with his soprano range as Lucy Brown in the 2006 revival of THE THREEPENNY OPERA, appears in BROKEN BRIDE, a time travel love story by the alternative rock band, LUDO.

READINGS:

Obie-winner and Special Drama Desk Award recipient Mary Testa, is joined by IN THE HEIGHTS' Mandy Gonzalez, GLORY DAYS' composer/lyricist Nick Blaemire and HAMILTON's Jon Rua in Jill Abramovitz and Brad Alexander's BREAD AND ROSES, about a woman from Mexico who makes a living cleaning offices in Los Angeles and fights against abusive working conditions. Alex Gemignani serves as music director.

FUN HOME's Emily Skeggs, a Tony nominee for her performance as Medium Alison, plays a lonely college junior who uses her storytelling and fantasy life to find hope when confronted with cancer in Rebekah M. Allen's REMISSION.

Constantine Maroulis is featured in Blair Ross and Randy Redd's TOUCHE, a wacky farce about a 1960s Madison Avenue adman sent to Moscow to launch a new men's aftershave, who unwittingly reveals NASA's top secret Apollo Project.

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 thirteenth 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 theatre, 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 2015 is sponsored by The City of New York Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, Fuzzrocket, PRG, TheaterMania, and Clear Channel Spectacolor, and is supported, in part, 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.

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. NYMF Passholder ticket booking begins June 6. Individual tickets go on sale June 20.

The 2016 New York Musical Festival will take place July 11 - August 7. For more information, please visit: www.nymf.org.