The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) and While We Wait Productions present Huckleberry Haywood. Performances will take place October 14, 2011 at The 47th Street Theater. Two presentations: 1:00 and 4:30.
Huckleberry Haywood is tired of waiting. Leaving his family legacy in the dust of Haywood County, Alabama, he sets his sights on bigger things: New York, new freedom, new friends and his voice as a young writer. Instead, he finds himself at a singing diner on Broadway, serving disco burgers in roller skates. Forced to confront his personal demons, Huck must discover who he is, where he's from, and who he's waiting to become.
The title character is played by Stephen Tyler Davis, book writer and lyricist of Huckleberry Haywood along with a cast of current and former singing waiters- Anthony Apicella, Abby Burke, Nick Dothée, Heather Shields (The Gayest Christmas Pageant Ever!) and Emily McNamara (My First Time, Awesome 80's Prom.) Also joining the cast as Huck's parents Dan Sharkey (Fantastiks) and Becky Barta (Always Patsy Cline). Directed by David Glenn Armstrong.
Stephen
Tyler Davis and Taylor Bridges began collaborating at the University of Alabama before teaming up with the rest of the team to create While We Wait Productions and Huckleberry Haywood. This ‘spunk rock' musical is under the direction of
David Glenn Armstrong (The Public, Goodspeed Opera, Walnut Street, Manhattan Theatre Club.)
Five singing waiters at Ellen's Stardust Diner were tired of waiting. A cold morning in January 2010, they piled into a rental sedan and drove to Alabama with the goal of coming back to New York with a hot new musical. They did just that. The five continued to juggle jobs as singing waiters while starting their own
Production Company. It would be called While We Wait Productions and the group would produce camps, concerts, and theatrical events that promote community outreach and positive social change. Their main project, of course, was Huck. Almost two years, six drafts, and fourteen songs later the team is proud to bring Huckleberry Haywood to NYMF.
Now in its seventh year, the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) is the largest annual musical theatre event in America and is widely regarded as the essential source for new material and talent discovery. NYMF provides a launching pad for the next generation of musicals and their creators to ensure the continued vitality of one of America's greatest art forms. Hailed as the "Sundance of Musical Theatre," NYMF discovers, nurtures, and promotes promising musical theatre artists and producers at all stages of development, and inspires a diverse audience through vibrant, accessible, powerful new work.
NYMF 2010 is presented in association with BroadwayWorld.com, Production Resource Group,TheaterMania.com, and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and is supported by AP-Red.com, Back Stage, Barnes and Noble, BroadwayBox.com, BroadwayInsider.com, Broadway.TV, Clear Channel Spectacolor, DFD-TV, King Displays, NASDAQ OMX, New World Stages, Next Magazine, PMD Promotions, The Port Authority of NY & NJ, Queerty.com, Season of Savings, Tekserve, Terra Fossil, Thomson Reuters, TheMenEvent.com, Times Square Squared, and Yelp. Major supporters include The
ASCAP Foundation, BMI Foundation, Inc., The Broadway League, The BWF Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation with the support and encouragement of Jamie Ariel Phinney, The Charlie & Jane Fink Charitable Fund,
Cameron Mackintosh Foundation, The
Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Rodgers & Hammerstein Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Spiritus Gladius Foundation, and The Theater League. NYMF is supported, 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 and from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
NYMF Memberships, which combine charitable contributions with valuable, flexible ticket packages and perks like early seating, and tickets to individual events are currently available for purchase at (212) 352-3101 or www.nymf.org. Single tickets for Festival events will go on sale September 1.
HUCKLEBERRY HAYWOOD plays at THE 47TH STREET THEATER as follows: OCTOBER 14TH AT 1:00PM AND 4:30PM. One Day Only. Tickets are FREE and can be reserved online at www.nymf.org or by calling (212) 352-3101. For more information, please visit
www.NYMF.org.
