'Main-Travelled Roads' Free Musical Reading March 21-29

The New York Musical Theatre Festival today announced the casting of Main-Travelled Roads, which will be presented as a free staged reading at TBG Theatre (312 West 36th Street - 3rd Floor) from March 21 to 29, 2008. Main-Travelled Roads, with book and lyrics by Dave Hudson and music by Paul Libman, is the recipient of the 2007 Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre. This is the second time that the writing team of Hudson and Libman has won this prize.

Featured in Main-Travelled Roads will be Stacie Bono (NYMF's Going Down Swingin'), Alison Cimmet (NYMF's Unlock'd), Joseph Mahowald (Broadway's Les Miserables and Jekyll and Hyde) and Tally Sessions (National Tour of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels).

Main-Travelled Roads will be directed by Igor Goldin (NYMF's Yank!, Common Grounds and Unlock'd), with musical direction and arrangements by T.O. Sterrett (assistant conductor for Wicked, music director for Gutenberg! The Musical) and casting by Michael Cassara.

"Main-Travelled Roads is based on the short stories of Hamlin Garland, whose authentic and heart-breaking tales of American rural life inspired such great naturalistic novelists as John Steinbeck and Theodore Dreiser. Set in turn-of-the-century Wisconsin, Hudson and Libman's book and score stay true to Garland's portraits of Midwestern farm life, intimately focusing on moving and timeless struggles of Americans working in the bittersweet heartland of our country," describe press notes.

The reading presentations will be held on Friday, March 21 at 6pm; Saturday, March 22 at 5pm; Wednesday, March 26 at 6pm; Thursday, March 27 at 6pm; Friday, March 28 at 1pm and 6pm; and Saturday, March 29 at 5pm. Complimentary tickets will be available to industry members and NYMF friends and members beginning March 7. For more information and ticket reservations, please visit www.nymf.org.

The Richard Rodgers Awards, created and endowed by the legendary composer for the development of musical theater, subsidize full productions, studio productions, and staged readings in New York City by nonprofit theaters of musical plays by composers and writers who are not already established in this field. Previous winners include Grey Gardens, Rent, Nine, Lucky Stiff, Bat Boy, and Hudson and Libman's own Dust and Dreams, as well as NYMF alumni shows Yellow Wood, Unlock'd, Kingdom and The Tutor.

The New York Musical Theatre Festival exists to revitalize one of America's greatest art forms by discovering, supporting and promoting new musical theater artists, producers, and projects, and by introducing a diverse audience to the vibrancy of contemporary musical theater.