NYMF Presents My History of Marriage 1

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) and Just My Luck Productions, Inc. present My History of Marriage a world premiere musical comedy by Academy Award® and two-time Grammy® winner David Shire, Lee Kalcheim and Samuel Kalcheim. Michael Bush will direct a cast of eight including Bonnie Franklin (B'way: Applause - Tony Nom.; TV: One Day At A Time); Brian Sutherland (The Sound of Music, 1776, Victor/Victoria), Steve Blanchard (Beauty & The Beast, Camelot, The Three Musketeers), Philip Hoffman (Into The Woods, Falsettos, A Catered Affair, Baby), Michael Lisco, Jr. (Nat. Tour: Avenue Q), Brittney Lee Hamilton (NYMF: Hurricane); Lois Robbins (Cactus Flower), and Blair Ross (42nd Street). Performances for My History of Marriage will be held at Signature Theatre - The Peter Norton Space, 555 West 42nd Street (bet. 10th & 11th Avenues) in NYC for six performances from today through Friday, October 14, 2011.

After surviving a disastrous divorce, New York Magazine writer Nan Freeman finds her illustrious career flushed down the pipes. Her last chance at a comeback arrives in the form of a lecherous publisher and a lunatic proposal: Nan must write a book about the history of marriage. Scenes from her book take us on a hilarious journey through the annals of matrimony where she learns a thing or two about her own relationships. Will she give love another shot?

My History of Marriage is presented by The New York Musical Theatre Festival and Just My Luck Productions, Inc. Director: Michael Bush; Additional Music and Lyrics: Samuel Kalcheim: Music Director: Steven Ray Watkins­­­­­­­­­­­­; Choreographer: Kelli Barclay; Set Designer: James Noone; Costumer Designer: Karen Ann Ledger; Lighting Designer: Philip Rosenberg; Sound Designer: David Margolin Lawson; Casting Director: Stephanie Clapper; Production Stage Manager: Kat West; Assistant Stage Manager: Donald Butchko; Assistant Director: Emily Morgan; General Manager: Lisa Dozier; Publicist: Paul Siebold/Off Off PR.

My History of Marriage plays for six performances on the following schedule: Tuesday, Oct 4th, 2011 at 8:00pm; Wednesday, Oct 5th, 2011 at 1:00pm; Sunday, Oct 9th, 2011 at 5:00pm; Sunday, Oct 9th, 2011 at 9:00pm; Wednesday, Oct 12th, 2011 at 9:00pm; Friday, Oct 14th, 2011 at 9:00pm.

Michael Bush (Director) is directing his sixth NYMF production. He most recently directed the Off-Broadway revival of Cactus Flower and Leslie Uggam's Uptown Downtown at the Pasadena Playhouse, which won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for best solo performance. He won the 2009 New York Musical Theatre Festival Award for Excellence in Direction for the world premiere musical Hurricane produced in the 2009 New York Musical Theatre Festival. He is the former director of artistic production for the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York City. He was associated with MTC for over 25 years and helped artistically guide more than 150 new plays and musicals, including the Tony® Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning Proof, and Doubt, and the Tony® Award winning Love! Valour! Compassion! And the musicals A Class Act (Tony Nomination for Best Musical) and Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party. At MTC he most recently directed Based on A Totally True Story. He was instrumental in the rebirth of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's Cabaret & Performance Conference, and has served as its artistic director since 2005. Under his guidance the conference has developed over 60 new shows, revues, and intimate musicals including [title of show] and The Story of My Life, both of which were produced on Broadway.

David Shire (Music and Lyrics) an Academy Award and two-time Grammy winner and multiple Tony and Emmy nominee, has composed prolifically for the theatre, films, television and recordings. On Broadway, he and lyricist Richard Maltby wrote the scores for the musicals Baby (Tony nominations for Best Score and Musical) and Big (Tony nomination for Best Score). His off-Broadway scores, also written with Maltby, include Starting Here, Starting Now (Grammy nomination), Closer Than Ever (Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical and Score), Urban Blightat the Manhattan Theater Club, and the off-Broadway musical The Sap of Life. He also wrote the incidental scores for As You Like It (NY Shakespeare Festival), Peter Ustinov's The Unknown Soldier and His Wife (Lincoln Center), Donald Margulis' The Loman Family Picnic (MTC), Schmulnick's Waltz and Visiting Mr. Green. Maltby and Shire's current project, the musical Take Flight, with book by John Weidman, has been workshopped at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, presented in concert versions in Russia and Australia, and produced in London, at the Menier Chocolate Factory, and in Japan in 2007. It will have its first American full production at Princeton's McCarter Theatre in the spring of 2010. With librettist Gene Scheer, Shire recently completed a one-act opera, A Stream of Voices, a one-act opera written with librettist Gene Scheer and commissioned by the Colorado Children's Chorale, premiered in Denver last spring. Shire is currently working on a new musical with New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik.

Lee Kalcheim (Book and Lyrics) has written for both the theatre and television. An Emmy winning comedy writer "All In The Family", Cable Ace Award winner "The Paper Chase", Writers Guild Award "The Bridge of Adam Rush" and creator of the comedy series "Something Wilder" for NBC, which won no awards, but enabled Mr. Kalcheim to return to his first love; playwriting. His plays include: Breakfast With Les and Bess at the Lambs Theatre, Friends at Manhattan Theatre Club, Defiled at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, with Peter Falk and Jason Alexander, and Slouching Toward Hollywood at the Penguin Rep in Stony Point, NY and Seminar most recently in Tokyo, Japan.

Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online at nymf.org. or by calling 212-352-3101. For more information, please visit nymf.org.

The runtime for My History of Marriage is 2:30, with one intermission.

Now in its eighth 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 is the flagship program of National Music Theater Network, Inc., a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization. NYMF 2011 is presented in association with BroadwayWorld.com, Production Resource Group, and TheaterMania.com, and is supported by American Eagle Outfitters, Back Stage, BroadwayBox.com, BroadwayInsider.com, Clear Channel Spectacolor, Disney Store Times Square, Fox 5/ WNYW-TV, King Displays, NASDAQ OMX, New World Stages, Next Magazine, PMD Promotions, The Port Authority of NY & NJ, Queerty.com, Season of Savings, Terra Fossil Wines, Thomson Reuters, TheMenEvent.com, Times Square Squared, and Yelp. Major supporters include The ASCAP Foundation, BMI Foundation, Inc., The BWF Foundation, Con Edison, The Nathan Cummings Foundation with the support and encouragement of Jamie Ariel Phinney, Cameron Mackintosh Foundation, The New Musical Development Foundation, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Rodgers & Hammerstein Foundation, The Shubert 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, in partnership with the City Council 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.