Rayson, Reinking, Rapier, Etc. are The Children at NYMF

Jonathan Rayson, Megan Reinking and more will star in The Children, a musical comedy based on the 1980 B-horror film of the same title that will be performed as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival.  Performances will run from September 12th through 24th at the TBG Theatre on 36th Street.

The show will feature Rayson (Hello, Dolly! at Paper Mill, Little Shop of Horrors, A Year with Frog and Toad) as John and Reinking (Lestat, Dracula, the Musical) as Suzie, with Mick Bonde as Frank, Heath Calvert (Good Vibrations) as Harry, Maria de Cesare as Cathy, Jeremy Ellison-Gladstone as Clarkie/Hank, Jeff Hiller (Silence: The Musical) as Molly, Rebecca Jones as Dee Dee, Trisha Rapier (The Boy from Oz) as Joyce, and Tally Sessions as Billy.

"A cloud of radioactive waste turns a school bus full of children into second-rate zombies, who proceed to track down and zap their negligent parents with an irradiated embrace. The social satire elements of the film (irresponsible parents, latch-key kids, fears of power plants in suburbia) are all parodied here," state press notes on the show.  The show will be presented by Maffei Productions and NYFM.

The Children features music by Hal Goldberg (Nerds://A Musical Software Satire at '05 NYFM) and book and lyrics by Stan Richardson (plays such as wHormone and Colombus).  Tony Speciale will direct.

The show was performed in spring of 1998 at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts Festival of the Arts, where it received top honors.  It was then revised, workshopped and had its Off-Off-Broadway debut in the Performance Club of the Obie-Award winning HERE Arts Center in the Fall of 1999, followed by a run at the Dorothy B. Williams Theater at HERE in the Spring of 2000. The Children: The Original Pre-Off-Broadway Cast Recording was released in December of 2000.

The musical is based upon the motion picture The Children, produced by Carlton J. Albright.  

"The New York Musical Theatre Festival, now in its third year, is a three-week event in NYC that has premiered over 70 musicals in its first two years, becoming the largest musical theatre event in American history. Hailed as 'the Sundance of Musical Theatre,' it is now widely regarded among the entertainment industry as the key source for new material and talent discovery."

For more information and tickets, visit www.thechildrenthewebsite.com or www.nymf.org.