Photo Flash: First Look at RE-ANIMATOR at NYMF!

The 2012 New York Musical Theatre Festival, Red Hen Productions, The Schramm Group LLC and Gramily Entertainment present the New York premiere of RE-ANIMATOR™ THE MUSICAL featuring George Wendt ("Cheers", Broadway's Elf). This new musical comedy with a storyline that involves considerable bloodshed will feature a "splash zone" in the first few rows of the theater. RE-ANIMATOR™ THE MUSICAL plays July 17 at 8:00pm, July 18 at 4:30 and 8:00pm, July 19 at 8:00pm, July 21 at 5:30 pm and 9:00 pm and July 22 at 9:00pm at the PTC Performance Space (555 West 42nd Street). Tickets for RE-ANIMATOR™ THE MUSICAL are $25, a can be purchased by calling (212) 352-3101 or by visiting www.nymf.org. For more information:www.nymf.org.

Check out photos from the production below!

In 1985, Stuart Gordon directed his first feature film and created a sensation. It was H.P. Lovecraft's Re-Animator™, a popular success produced by Brian Yuzna that delivered as many laughs as it did screams, making it a cult classic among horror fans and winning a Critic's Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Last year Gordon and his co-writers Dennis Paoli and William J. Norris and composer/lyricist Mark Nutter turned Re-Animator into a musical for the stage, playing to rave reviews and standing ovations for a sold-out six month run in Los Angeles winning six LA Weekly Awards including Musical of the Year. RE-ANIMATOR™ THE MUSICAL heads to Edinburgh Fringe Festival directly following the New York premiere.

RE-ANIMATOR™ THE MUSICAL tells the story of Herbert West, a brilliant young medical student who has created a glowing green serum that can bring the dead back to life. What should be a medical breakthrough results in hideous monstrosities and ghastly consequences. "I guess he just wasn't fresh enough," is West's constant refrain as his quest for fresh subjects results in the murders of half the faculty of the medical school.

The original Los Angeles cast reteams for the NYMF production. George Wendt, who previously appeared on Broadway as Santa in Elf but is best known as the affable Norm from Cheers, plays the Dean of the Medical School who West transforms into a mindless zombie. Chris L. McKenna, the star of Gordon's neo-noir thriller King of the Ants, is Dan Cain, Herbert's hapless roommate who finds himself drawn into the mayhem. And operatic Jesse Merlin, who played the President of the United States in the long running The Beastly Bombing, is Dr. Carl Hill who loses his head for Meg, the dean's beautiful daughter (Rachel Avery) only to actually lose it at the hands of HerBert West. But thanks to the glowing re-agent, Dr. Hill is still able to take his curtain call with his head tucked underneath his arm. Completing the cast are Mark Beltzman, Cynthia Carle, Brian Gillespie, Marlon Grace, Liesel Hanson, Tyler Milliron and Graham Skipper as HerBert West.

Winning the LA Drama Critics Circle Award for their work on the show, the special effects team is the same as the 1985 movie: Tony Doublin, John Naulin and John Buechler, joined by Greg McDougal and Tom Devlin. And the blood will flow so freely that the first few rows will be designated as a "splash zone." Laura Fine Hawkes, who last designed The Lieutenant of Inishmore at the Taper Theater in Los Angeles, will provide the creepy sets, Joe Kucharski the moldering costumes and Jeff Ravitz the cadaverous lighting. Stage managing the madness is Mike Lemek.

Now in its ninth 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 2012 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, 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 Mayer Phinney, 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 funds from the New York City Theater Subdistrict Council, LDC, 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.