New Musical INTO THE WILD Will Receive A Private Industry Reading Today

La Vie Productions in association with Playwrights Horizons will present a private industry reading of Into the Wild, a new musical featuring a book and lyrics by Janet Allard and music and lyrics by Niko Tsakalakos, today, Friday, February 8, 2019 in NYC. Inspired by the book "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer and the photographic history of Chris McCandless' journey as shown in The McCandless Foundation's published work "Back to the Wild," the industry presentation will be directed by Lila Neugebauer with musical supervision/ arrangements by Brian Usifer.

In 1990, a young man named Christopher McCandless set out on a journey, just months after graduating from Emory University. He donated his trust fund to Oxfam, abandoned his car and belongings, and began a cross-country odyssey that would ultimately lead him to Alaska. When he ventures into the Alaskan bush, he entertains no illusions that he is trekking into the land of milk and honey; peril and adversity are exactly what he is seeking and what he finds. Integrating multimedia elements from his own photographs, journal entries and letters, Into the Wild is a new folk-rock musical that pays tribute to McCandless' complicated but ultimately transcendent story. His admirable quest for truth, understanding and purpose in life, speaks to the restless spirit in everyone.

The presentation cast of Into the Wild will include John Ellison Conlee (The Nap, The Full Monty), Tony Award-winner John Cullum (Waitress), Ryan Foust (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Amber Gray (Hadestown, Natasha, Pierre), Gizel Jimenez (Avenue Q), Nehal Joshi (All My Sons), Jennifer Laura Thompson (Dear Evan Hansen), Ryan McCartan (Wicked, Disney Channel's "Liv and Maddie") and Michael Park (Dear Evan Hansen).

Into the Wild was commissioned by Perseverance Theatre, Juneau Alaska; Art Roach, Executive Director and was developed with director Lila Neugebauer, in part at the Rhinebeck Writer's Retreat, the Johnny Mercer Writer's Colony at Goodspeed Musicals and at Encore Musical Theatre in 2017, and with support from The Ground Floor at Berkley Repertory Theatre, Berkley, CA. Additional support was provided by the North Carolina Arts Council.

The team for Into the Wild also includes Carrie Gardner (casting), Kent Nicholson (dramaturg), Megan Schwarz Dickert (stage manager) and Angelique Mouyis (vocal arrangements).