STRIKING 12 Returns To New York This Holiday Season

The indie pop-rock band GrooveLily returns to New York City this holiday season for the first time in three years to spread some holiday warmth on cold winter nights, performing their critically acclaimed musical, STRIKING 12. STRIKING 12 will play eight performances only at The Metropolitan Room (34 West 22nd Street, between 5th and 6th Aves) on the following dates & times: Monday, 12/26 @ 7:00 & 9:30 p.m., Tuesday, 12/27 @ 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, 12/28 @ 9:30 p.m., Thursday, 12/29 @ 7:00 & 9:30 p.m., Friday, 12/30 @ 7:00 p.m. and Saturday, 12/31 @ 4:00 p.m. Tickets for STRIKING 12 are $35.00 (2 beverage minimum). Arrange tickets/reservations by calling 212-206-0440 or online at www.metropolitanroom.com.

STRIKING 12 is written by Brendan Milburn (book, music and lyrics), Rachel Sheinkin (Tony Award winner for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, book and lyrics) and Valerie Vigoda (book, music and lyrics).

Combining pop-rock, musical comedy and old-fashioned uplift with a healthy dose of 21st-century skepticism, STRIKING 12 is the story of a Grumpy Guy who decides to avoid the hectic, loveless world on New Year's Eve, until he’s visited by an incandescent salesgirl with the promise to chase away his winter doldrums.

A live cast recording of STRIKING 12 was released in 2004 on the PS Classics label at www.psclassics.com. STRIKING 12’s score features songs such as “Last Day of the Year,” “Give the Drummer Some,” “Caution to the Wind” and “Screwed-Up People Make Great Art.”

Bicoastal trio GrooveLily inhabits that contemporary space where creative musicians ignore the boundaries laid down by words like rock, folk, jazz and pop. Intelligent original songs with no shortage of wit connect lush musical textures and soaring vocals with the blazing six-string electric violin of Valerie Vigoda, the lightning-fingered piano of Brendan Milburn, and the joyful drums of Gene Lewin. With backgrounds in classical music, musical theatre, jazz and rock, the three members of GrooveLily are making a new music that’s all their own. The success of their first concert-musical, the critically-acclaimed holiday show STRIKING 12, has led them farther into the world of theatre, where they have carved out a unique niche as a rock band writing and performing shows. After years on the indie touring circuit, they are delighted to be creating many projects with various collaborators: STRIKING 12, the first GrooveLily concert-musical (Off-Broadway 2006, Lucille Lortel Nomination for Outstanding Musical, Bay Area Theatre Critic’s Choice Award); Toy Story the Musical (Disney); Sleeping Beauty Wakes (Deaf West Theatre/Center Theatre Group/McCarter Theatre/La Jolla Playhouse, Ovation Award for Best World Premiere Musical); Wheelhouse, the second GrooveLily concert-musical (premiering at TheatreWorks of Silicon Valley June 2012); Long Story Short (City Theatre of Pittsburgh/TheatreWorks of Silicon Valley/San Diego Rep); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (McCarter Theatre/Paper Mill Playhouse); and Ernest Shackleton Loves Me, a new 1-woman fever-dream musical commissioned by TheatreWorks of Silicon Valley/La Jolla Playhouse. All three band members left Brooklyn in 2009—Brendan and Valerie for sunny Los Angeles, and Gene for cozy Montclair, NJ. They now meet frequently at airports.

Vigoda and Milburn are the winners of a 2006 Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Award for Excellence in Writing for the Theater. Earlier this year, Pittsburgh's City Theatre received an organization award from the Larson Foundation in support of the development of Vigoda and Milburn’s new musical Long Story Short (previously titled An Infinite Ache). STRIKING 12 was also nominated for a 2007 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical.

For more information, visit www.groovelily.com.

Tickets for STRIKING 12 at The Metropolitan Room are $35.00 (2-beverage minimum) and are available now by calling 212-206-0440 or online at www.metropolitanroom.com.