Mary Birdsong to Appear in LIVE! NUDE! GIRL! in NYMF Reading, 10/15

Mary Birdsong will appear in a stage reading of NYMF's Live! Nude! Girl! on Oct. 15 as part of the NYMF developmental reading series. The show, about a 1950s housewife who undergoes a dramatic make-over, is written by composer Wayne Barker and lyricist-librettist Donna Kaz.  Live! Nude! Girl had a Manhattan reading in January 2008 and will premiere a revised script and score in two NYMF presentations.

This newest incarnation will be directed by Michael O'Donnell, and will feature musical direction by Marco Paguia. Casting includes Laura Lee Anderson, Peter Benson, Rheaume Crenshaw, Bradley Dean, Kevin Free, Kyle Harris, Daniel Marcus, Erin Markey, Marissa O'Donnell, Ariel Reid, Joe Paperella, Mary Testa and Hannah Wolfe. Kathryn L. McKee will stage manage.

According to the creators, "What if a 1950s Midwestern housewife got so sick of making meatloaf every Tuesday night that she snapped - and ran away to Las Vegas? What if her mother could drink like Dean and her daughter entertain like Sammy? And what if this housewife went from the silent and submissive bottom to the tough, impulsive and calculated top of the heap? Live! Nude! Girl! is an original musical that tells the story of a once in a lifetime chance for one woman to break out of her rut into something original and cool."

Birdsong, of TV's "Reno 911," is currently starring in the revolving cast of Love, Loss and What I Wore Off-Broadway, and appeared in Broadway's Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me.

Composer Wayne Barker has previously worked with Dame Edna Everage as her onstage pianist and co-wrote songs with Barry Humphries for Dame Edna: Back With a Vengeance!

Kaz is an alumna of the BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. Her short musical No Trouble at All (with composer Gerald Stockstill) played in the first New York Musical Theatre Festival. She wrote and directed Joan, a hip update of the Joan of Arc story, at the Northeastern Theatre (TNT) in Scranton, PA, where the show won a Jason Miller Award, and later ran in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

The readings will take place at 45th Street Theater, at 1 PM and 4:30 PM.  Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis.  For more information, visit www.nymf.org.