WHERE ALL THE RIVERS GO TO SLEEP Plays NYMF This Weekend

Where All The Rivers Go To Sleep, with music by Jesse Gelber and lyrics & book by Kate Manning, will be presented as part of NYMF. Directed by Randal Myler, with music director Dan Lipton and general manager Dan Whitten, the show runs tonight, July 18th at 8pm and July 19th at 12pm at the PTC Performance Space, 555 West 42nd Street. For more information, visit www.nymf.org/rivers.

Where All The Rivers Go To Sleep follows Cora Covington, a young prostitute in Storyville, the fabled New Orleans red­light district, who falls in love with Apolline Albert, a beautiful Creole woman. Cora draws Apolline into a life of prostitution at one of the district's most extravagant brothels, servicing the city's wealthiest and most powerful men, and run by the notoriously cold Madame and voodoo priestess Marie Snow. When Apolline's husband Joe returns from up North and wants her back, a desperate Cora will do anything to keep her from leaving. She commits a terrible crime, for which she then seeks redemption. In a world where love is a transaction, can it ever be given freely?

This concertized production will feature a 12 piece orchestra and a 12 person cast playing a score reflective of American music as operetta, ragtime, tango, and blues meet in a brothel at the dawn of jazz.

The New York Musical Theatre Festival nurtures the creation, production, and public presentation of stylistically, thematically, and culturally diverse new musicals to ensure the future vitality of musical theatre. Now in its twelfth year, the Festival is the premier musical theatre event in the world. The preeminent site for launching new musicals and discovering new talent, the Festival provides an affordable platform for artists to mount professional productions that reach their peers, industry leaders, and musical theatre fans.

More than 90 Festival shows have gone on to productions on and Off­-Broadway, in regional theaters in all 50 states, and in more than 20 countries worldwide. Festival alumni have received a wide array of awards including the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In 2013, NYMF received a special Drama Desk Award in recognition of its work "creating and nurturing new musical theatre, ensuring the future of this essential art form."

NYMF is the flagship program of National Music Theater Network, Inc., a 501(c) (3) not­for­profit organization. NYMF 2015 is sponsored by Fuzzrocket, PRG, TheaterMania, Clear Channel Spectacolor, and The Village Voice, and is supported, in part, 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.

The NYMF PASS is a great way to experience The New York Musical Theatre Festival. With a NYMF PASS, you can get into the theater before individual ticket holders. Passes also offer the exclusive ability to book tickets before they go on sale to the public. NYMF Passholder ticket booking begins June 1. Individual tickets go on sale June 15.
The 2015 New York Musical Theatre Festival will take place July 7­27. For more information, visit www.nymf.org.