TRU & Perry Street Theatricals to Present FIRE at 14th Annual Musicals Reading Series, 1/26

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) and Perry Street Theatricals will present a concert version of the new musical, BLOOD AND FIRE. The show will be presented on January 26 at 7:00, as part of TRU VOICES -- the 14th Annual Musicals Reading Series.

BLOOD AND FIRE draws on the historical antagonism toward the newly formed Salvation Army in 1890's London. The Army's larger-than-life founder, General William Booth himself, marches across the stage alongside an array of Dickensian characters. Fact and fiction mingle freely in a musical tale at once intimate and epic.

The music for BLOOD AND FIRE is by Lisa Heffter and the book and lyrics are by Jeffrey Couchman. Heffter's classical compositions have been performed at the Aspen and Taos Music Festivals, and internationally from Athens to Beijing. Her musical Atom & Eve has been presented at the Westbeth Theater. Couchman is the librettist for Battleship Potemkin, which was recently presented at the York Theater's Developmental Reading Series, and will premiere in Germany and the Czech Republic in 2016; he is also the author of the award-winning book The Night of the Hunter: A Biography of a Film.

David Elliott (Submission) directs the production, which is produced by Perry Street Theatricals (Broadway--Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike, Bedlam Theatre's St. Joan/Hamlet, Lend Me a Tenor the Musical, In the Continuum, An Oak Tree) with Music Direction by Vadim Feichtner (Broadway's Putnam County Spelling Bee, Signature Theatre's Elmer Gantry).

The cast includes Ari Butler, Elisabeth Cernadas, Bill Coyne, John Forbes, Harley Harrison, Joy Hermalyn, Emmett Hylande, Samantha Joy Pearlman, Christopher Pecoraro, Matthew Scott, Alexis Semevolos, Bart Shatto and John Tedeschi.