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NYMF-Bound White Noise Featured on ABC Primetime, 8/22
By: BWW News Desk Aug. 21, 2006
The provocative upcoming musical White Noise will be featured on ABC Primetime's hourlong special, "The Believers," airing tomorrow night, August 22nd, at 10 p.m. EST.
The broadcast will feature footage recorded during the rehearsals and performance of a staged reading of White Noise which took place in May of this year, as well as music from the show and interviews with several audience members who attended. The larger focus of the special will be the racist teen twins Lamb and Lynx Gaede, who make up the white supremacist group Prussian Blue, and whose story and music inspired the creation of White Noise.
Ryan J. Davis, who conceived the musical, said today, "ABC Primetime was the venue that first introduced me to the phenomenon of Prussian Blue. It's amazing to be a part of this follow-up to their original piece. They're doing such a terrific job of telling the world about these extremists that are working to spread their message."
The show's author and composer, Joe Drymala, said "What with the recent anti-Semitic statements made by Mel Gibson, and the racial slur used by Senator George Allen earlier this month, these issues couldn't be more relevant. It's an honor to be a part of ABC's continuing exploration of this subject."
Last week, Davis and Drymala publicly invited Senator George Allen to the opening of White Noise, following Sen. Allen's use of the word "macaca", a North African racial slur that Allen used in reference to an Indian-American staff member from a rival campaign. The public invitation was featured on several prominent liberal weblogs and media websites, including AmericaBlog and Media Bistro.
White Noise, presented by the New York Musical Theater Festival and Matt Nasser, was conceived by director Ryan J. Davis and features book, music and lyrics by Joe Drymala, with additional songs by Ben Cohn & Sean McDaniel, Rick Crom (Newsical), Glen Kelly (dance arranger, The Producers, Spamalot, The Drowsy Chaperone), Laurence O'Keefe (Bat Boy, Sarah, Plain and Tall, Legally Blonde), Benj Pasek & Justin Paul (Edges) and Eric Svejcar (Caligula). White Noise is billed as "A Cautionary Musical", and is inspired by the real-life teenage white supremacist pop/folk band Prussian Blue. White Noise is described by the authors as follows:
"An adorable pair of sisters, Blanche and Eva, lead the teen band White Noise, mixing irresistible harmonies with white power rhetoric and taking the nation by storm. Their message of racial purity resonates with young people across America and the rise of White Noise coincides with a rise in the white supremacist movement which threatens to engulf the country, as Blanche and Eva prove themselves to be masters of the most terrifying and unstoppable form of Fascism in today's culture: Top Forty pop."
White Noise will run as part of the New York Musical Theater Festival from September 18 to September 30 at the Barrow Group Theater, located at 312 West 36th Street. For more information on performances and ticket sales, please visit the NYMF website at www.nymf.org.
For more information on White Noise and to hear excerpts from the score, visit the official White Noise website: www.whitenoisethemusical.com.
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