TRAILS, starring Nick Dalton (Legally Blonde National Tour, Hairspray Las Vegas), Matt Lutz (Bringing Down the House starring Steve Martin and Queen Latifah, A Walk to Remember starring MAndy Moore), and Broadway's Vanessa Ray (the recent Tony-Award winning revival of HAIR) begins its 2010 New York Musical Theatre Festival run at the Barrow Group Theatre today and will run thru October 16th. With music and lyrics from the Jonathan Larson Foundation Grant winners Jeff Thomson and Jordan Mann and a book by Christy Hall, TRAILS will be directed at NYMF by Jen Bender (resident director of Broadway's The Lion King, assistant director: The Wedding Singer, Avenue Q, and Steel Magnolias on Broadway) and is produced by Samantha Saltzman, Fakston Productions (Ken Fakler and Dan Stone), Alina Gutiérrez, Robert Intile, Jr., and Ashley Mas. Colgate Palmolive is an official sponsor of TRAILS, and earlier this week due to ticket demand the production added a performance on Friday, 10/15 at 1pm to its NYMF run.
In TRAILS, two friends, adrift in their lives, reconnect after ten years and set out to fulfill a childhood promise: to hike the Appalachian Trail together from beginning to end. Over the six months, 2000 mile journey, past and present intertwine as the two face both the elements and the ghosts that haunt their memories. As they sift through the ashes of their tumultuous history, a bond of brotherhood struggles to be reborn. TRAILS, which will feature an all-acoustic band, has a contemporary musical theater score with influences from Appalachian folk music, and some song titles include "Blaze a Trail," "Miles of Time," "Stories in the Sky" and "Journey's End."
Joining Dalton, Lutz, and Ray in the cast are
David Atkinson, Kate Kearney Patch, and
Hollis Scarborough, and the creative team for TRAILS includes
Zach Blane (Lighting Designer), Aaron Jodoin (Music Director), Michael P. Kramer (Set Designer),
David Kaley (Costume Designer), Samantha Saltzman (Assistant Director), and
Benton Whitley (Casting Director).
TRAILS will run at the
Barrow Group Theatre at 312 West 36th Street, 3rd Floor (between 8th and 9th Ave), with performances on Friday, October 8th at 8pm, Saturday, October 9th at 1pm, Sunday, October 10th at 9pm, Tuesday, October 12th at 5pm, Thursday, October 14th at 4:30pm, Friday, October 15th at 1pm, and Saturday, October 16th at 5pm. Tickets, priced at $20, are available for purchase by phone at (212) 352-3101 or online at www.nymf.org.
Now in its seventh 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 2010 is presented in association with BroadwayWorld.com, Production Resource Group, TheaterMania.com, and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and is supported by AP-Red.com, Back Stage, Barnes and Noble, BroadwayBox.com, BroadwayInsider.com, Broadway.TV, Clear Channel Spectacolor, DFD-TV, King Displays, NASDAQ OMX, New World Stages, Next Magazine, PMD Promotions, The Port Authority of NY & NJ, Queerty.com, Season of Savings, Tekserve, Terra Fossil, Thomson Reuters, TheMenEvent.com, Times Square Squared, and Yelp. Major supporters include The
ASCAP Foundation, BMI Foundation, Inc., The Broadway League, The BWF Foundation, The
Nathan Cummings Foundation with the support and encouragement of Jamie Ariel Phinney, The Charlie & Jane Fink Charitable Fund,
Cameron Mackintosh Foundation, The
Jerome Robbins Foundation, The
Rodgers & Hammerstein Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Spiritus Gladius Foundation, and The Theater League. NYMF is supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
