NAMT Announces Lineup for 20th Annual Festival at New World Stages

The National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) and Executive Director Kathy Evans announced the directors and preliminary casts for the eight musicals being presented at its 20th Annual Festival of New Musicals at New World Stages (340 West 50th St) on Monday, October 20 and Tuesday, October 21, 2008.   www.namt.org

The directors and casts confirmed to date are:

BARNSTORMER                                                                                                   

Book & Lyrics by Cheryl Davis

Music by Douglas Cohen

Director: Jerry Dixon (original casts of Tick Tick BOOM!, Once on this Island)

Music Director: Jonathan Smith  (Swing!)

Cast:    Kenita Miller- Xanadu, The Color Purple, Dessa Rosen, Norm Lewis- The Little Mermaid, Les Miserables, Amour, Side Show, Tina Fabrique- Ragtime, How To Suceed... Noise/Funk, Gospel at Colonus, Stu James- The Color Purple, Rent, C.E. Smith- The Full Monty, Nothin' But The Blues, Glenn Turner- Five Guys Named Moe, Grand Hotel, High Society, Rema Webb- Lion King, Ragtime

SYNOPSIS- Before Amelia Earhart, there was Bessie Coleman -- the first Black aviatrix who rose from the cotton fields of Texas and the barbershops of Chicago to finally conquer the skies of France.  Her brief but dynamic life inspired the disenfranchised to pursue their dreams, including her own nephew who became a Tuskegee Airman.

BEATSVILLE                                                                                                           

Music & Lyrics by Wendy Wilf

Book by Glenn Slater

Director: Robert Longbottom- Side Show, Flower Drum Song –Tony Nom. for Choreography

Cast:    Todd Buonopane- The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,  Alli Mauzey- Cry Baby

SYNOPSIS - Greenwich Village, 1959—Playground of bohemians, beatniks and jazzbos. Tragically square Walter Paisley find that his clay figures, sculpted nudes, and papier-mâché busts bring him the acceptance he desperately yearns for.  But what if the world discovered that Walter's body of work consists of actual bodies?  A bebop-inflected black comedy/satire.

 
THE CUBAN AND THE REDHEAD                                                                    

By Robert Bartley and Danny Whitman

Director: Robert Bartley

Music Director: Mark Janas

Cast: Jenn Colella (Lucy)- High Fidelity, Tony Yazbeck (Desi)- Gypsy, Eileen Galindo, Adinah Alexander- Urban Cowboy, The Wedding Singer, Michelle Blakely- Annie Get Your Gun, Jessica Carter, Hattie Davis, Morgan James, Jay Russell- The Play What I Wrote, Tim Salamandyk, Kirsten Wyatt- Grease, High Fidelity

 SYNOPSIS--Escaping the bloodshed of his native Island, a young Cuban boy sets sail on a turbulent journey that leads him all the way to Hollywood and into the arms of a fiery, redheaded movie star named Lucille Ball. At the climax of And Lucy Loves Me!, Desi and Lucy put their money, their trust and their dreams on the line in a gamble to save one thing—their marriage.  They risk it all on an untested medium called television. Can these two star crossed lovers blaze a path that defies Hollywood and history to be together?  (This work was formerly known as Dance With Me).

 THE LEGEND OF STAGECOACH MARY                                                                      

By Thomas Mizer and Curtis Moore

Director: Christopher Gatelli-  Altar Boyz, South Pacific- Tony Nomination for Choreography

Music Director:  Brad Haak – Mary Poppins & Lestat

CAST:  Danielle Lee Greaves (Mary)- Rent, Hairspray, Sara Chase, Madeleine Doherty- The Producers, Les Miserables, J. Austin Eyer- The Secret Garden, Curtains, Josh Henry- In The Heights, Steve Kazee- 110 in the Shade, SPAMalot, Telly Leung- Rent, Pacific Overtures,  J. Elaine Marcos- A Chorus Line, Flower Drum Song, Jason Patrick Sands-A Chorus Line, Legally Blonde, Nick Wyman - A Tale of Two Cities

Synopsis--Ex-slave Mary Fields turns the idea of the real Wild West hero on its head when she travels to 1880's Montana to find freedom, adventure and her long-lost best friend.   Along the way, she discovers a gaggle of square-dancing nuns and a town full of cowboys in need of a little lesson in the American Dream.

 
ORDINARY DAYS                                                                                                 

By Adam Gwon

Director: Matt Toronto

Music Director:  Rick Bertone

CAST:  Jared Gertner- The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,  Kate Shindle- Legally Blonde, Cabaret, Kate Wetherhead- Legally Blonde, Sarah Plain and Tall

SYNOPSIS--When Deb loses her most precious possession—the notes to her graduate thesis—she unwittingly starts a chain of events that turns the ordinary days of four New Yorkers into something extraordinary.  Told through a series of intricately connected songs and vignettes, Ordinary Days is an original musical about growing up and enjoying the view.

 
PAMELA'S FIRST MUSICAL                                                                               

Book by Wendy Wasserstein

Music by Cy Coleman

Lyrics by David Zippel

Director: David Zippel

Music Director:  Kevin Stites- A Tale of Two Cities, Nine

CAST: Daniel Reichard- Jersey Boys, Lila Coogan (Pamela) -Mary Poppins, Steven Bogardus- Irving Berlin's White Christmas, Falsettos

SYNOPSIS-- Pamela's First Musical is the story of a young suburban girl who feels out of place. Her mother has passed away and she lives with her father and two brothers who don't understand her. Pamela's active fantasy life and infatuation with Broadway Cast CDs keeps her from being too sad or lonely. On the occasion of her 11th birthday she learns that her father is about to re-marry. Pamela's would be step-mother is a physical trainer with a "popular" perky and perfect teenage daughter of her own. The rest of her family is thrilled which makes Pamela feel like even more of an outsider. Just when Pamela thinks her entire world is going to crash, her eccentric Aunt Louise arrives. Aunt Louise is a New York fashion designer who sweeps Pamela off to New York City and her first Broadway musical.  There, she meets producers, writers, actors, directors and choreographers and discovers the world of Broadway Theater and its off-stage and on-stage magic. As Aunt Louise says "A Broadway Musical can cure anything."  Pamela's trip to New York inspires her to write and direct her own musical and to "collaborate" with her blended family, which, ultimately, brings them all together.

Note: This was one of the final projects of Wendy Wasserstein and Cy Coleman.

 
SEE ROCK CITY & OTHER DESTINATIONS                                                                 

Book & Lyrics by Adam Mathias

Music by Brad Alexander

Director: Kevin Del Aguila (Book for Altar Boyz)

Music Director: Vadim Feichner (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee)

CAST: Jill Abromovitz- Junie B. Jones, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, John Jellison- All Shook Up, Anything Goes, Cassie Wooley

SYNOPSIS--Fueled by a brilliant pop-rock score, See Rock City & Other Destinations ventures to tourist destinations across America, mapping out stories of sightseers who need to get a little lost in order to find themselves. From Coney Island to Mt. McKinley, the Alamo to Niagara Falls—get ready to take the leap!

Note: SEE ROCK CITY & OTHER DESTINATIONS won the 2008 Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre.

 

THE YELLOW WOOD                                                                               

Book by Michelle Elliott

Music by Danny Larsen

Lyrics by Elliot and Larsen

Director: B.D. Wong (Best Actor Tony Award for M. Butterfly)

CAST: Jason Tam (Adam)-  A Chorus Line, Melinda Bass, Randy Blair- The Adding Machine, Bob De Dea,  MaryAnn Hu (Mom, Ancestor, Korean Girl)-  South Pacific, Diana Huey

SYNOPSIS—17-year-old Adam is frantically trying to memorize Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" before English, but because he didn't take his Ritalin, he can't get much farther than the "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood..." before a fantastic wood begins coming to life in his school.  Desperate to prove he can turn his life around, Adam struggles to get beyond his ADD, his cultural heritage and his unique but unruly imagination.  Adam is pulled deeper and deeper into the Yellow Wood, where he must face the reality of who he is and decide who he will ultimately become.

 Admission to the FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS by invitation for industry only.   Invited industry professionals may register on www.namt.org.  A stand by line is open to the general public.   Historically all stand by patrons have been able to see the Festival shows.

Since 1989, NAMT's FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS has introduced theatre producers to more than 200 musicals and 300 writers.  More than three-fourths of these shows have had further development, tours and licensing agreements, leading to thousands of subsequent productions.  Past festival highlights have included the multiple Tony Award winning The Drowsy Chaperone, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Children of Eden, Honk!, Songs for a New World, Summer of '42 and The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin.

The 2008 Festival of New Musicals is produced by NAMT New Works Director, Branden Huldeen.  The eight selected shows, culled from a pool of more than 125 applicants, were selected by the NAMT Festival Committee, comprised of artistic directors and producers from NAMT member organizations.