New Musical THE BET to Play Midtown International Theatre Festival

Algonquin Theater Productions, in association with What If Productions is proud to present The Bet, a new musical by Tony Sportiello and David Wolfson, as part of this year's Midtown International Theatre Festival.

The two-person musical is directed by Tom Herman, and features the talents of Dana Aber and Spencer Plachy.

Performances are Wednesday, July 26th at 6pm, Friday, July 28th at 7:15pm and Saturday, July 29th at 4pm. The show is slated to run Off Broadway in the fall of 2017.

The Bet will be presented at The WorkShop Theater, 316 West 36th Streets, 4th floor. Tickets can be purchased at web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/27845.

The Bet tells the story of Jack and Diana, two ethereal beings whose job is to maintain the balance of creation between God and Satan. Bored with thehumdrum predictability of their usual routine, the two decide to make a wager. They will create a planet whose inhabitants have free will, something previously unheard of in the universe. The chance to choose. Will the planet flourish and create new forms of art, literature, music and beauty or will it descend into war, oppression and hatred? The stakes are high as soon the entire galaxy lines up to see what happens.

David Wolfson (music and lyrics) is enjoying an eclectic career, having composed opera, musical theatre, touring children's musicals, and incidental music for plays; choral music, band music, orchestral music, chamber music, art songs, and music for solo piano; comedy songs, cabaret songs and one memorable score for an amusement park big-headed-costumed-character show. Current projects include two musicals, including Play Like A Winner, at this year's New York Music Festival, plus a chamber opera. His CD Seventeen Windows, featuring the solo piano suite Seventeen Windows and the Sonata for Cello and Piano, is available from Albany Records, iTunes and Amazon.com.

Tony Sportiello (book) has had productions all over the country and all over the world. 2017 has showed productions of National Pastime (Guadalajara, Mexico), All Aboard (New York), One Night in the Valley (Vermont) and others.

Tom Herman's directing has been featured Off and Off-Off Broadway, as well as regionally. His most recent Off Broadway credit was helming Al Tapper's musical review An Evening at the Carlyle. Proclaimed "the surprise Off-Broadway hit of the summer theatre season" by United Press International, the show was also named an "Editor's Choice" by The New York Daily News and played for seven months at the Algonquin Theater.

Dana Aber (Diana) has been seen in Off-Broadway and at the NYFringe Festival, NYMF New York Musical Theatre Festival, Apollo Theatre with George Faison's If This Hat Could Talk nat'l tour, FDCAC/Classical Theatre of Harlem, University Club, the Studio @ Theatre Row, Workshop Theatre, & the Laurie Beechman in Times Square. Dana has worked regionally for Actors Theatre of Louisville & the Cleveland Play House, Virginia Stage, Walnut Street Theatre, Arden Theatre, Barrington Stage, Mercury Theatre Company, and Virginia Musical Theatre.

Spencer Plachy (Jack) Broadway: Romeo & Juliet (w/Orlando Bloom) The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Off-Broadway: The Common Pursuit (dir. Moises Kaufman). Tours: Oklahoma!, Fiddler on the Roof. Most Recent: Private Lives at Riverside Theatre, Julius Caesar (Antony) at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. Moon Over Buffalo at Gulfshore Playhouse. The Cottage at Theatre Aspen. Tim and Scrooge at Westchester Broadway Theatre. The Alley Theatre: Tom Stoppard's Rock N Roll, The Man Who Came to Dinner. TV: Shades of Blue on NBC.

Since its inception in 2004, Algonquin Theater Productions has produced numerous Off Broadway shows including the long running Sessions, the risque TheDevil and Billy Markham, the cabaret An Evening at the Carlyle and the popular musical National Pastime, which just finished a successful run in Guadalajara, Mexico.

For more information, visit www.thebetmusical.com.