Dan Furman's IMPOSSIBLE BUT TRUE...In A Tavern

Composer Dan Furman has reworked his first musical, Impossible But True, and is preparing to present it starting in April - first in Brooklyn then across the river in Manhattan.

Impossible But True (IBT) follows Washington Irving's immortal character (pardon the pun) of Rip Van Winkle. It follows Rip--an idle storyteller and dreamer--as he goes off to fight in the Revolutionary War and then cannot find his way home. Premiering at the 2011 Midtown International Theatre Festival, IBT - now written in an immersive style and presented environmentally in a tavern, will make its initial return at Franklin 820 (820 Franklin Ave in Brooklyn) on four Mondays: April 30, May 7, May 14, May 21 at 7:00 p.m. For further info: jmae.events@gmail.com.

Directed by Cailín Heffernan, the cast includes Rob Langeder,* Danielle Erin Rhodes,* Stephanie Lynn Mason,* James Scheider,* Jerome Hardemann-Harman,* Mark Montague,* Charles Ouda, Lieselotte Nickman, and nine-year-old Julie Kess. Ms. Kess is the daughter of late musician and composer Mitch Kess, whose groundbreaking musical, The Deciders, was a featured event at the New York International Fringe Festival. (*appearing courtesy of Actor's Equity Association)

Dan Furman began playing piano at a young age just outside of Nashville. He went on to study composition and jazz piano at Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio. Following school, he traveled to South America for a year, where he studied Latin music and played with "musica criolla" bands in Lima, Perú. Back in the U.S., he spent a number of years as a political activist and organizer, before moving to New York in 2003. He spent four years in the BMI Lehman Engels Musical Theater Workshop where he gestated his musical, Rip! (now called "Impossible But True"--In A Tavern) was featured in the 2011 Midtown International Theatre Festival. Dan also wrote the theme song for the Big Apple Circus 2010-11 show, "Dance On!" Dan is a pianist at the Eric Michael Gillett Collective and plays as accompanist and music director at Lee Strasberg Institute, AMDA, and teaches musical theater with Alison Fraser at Fordham University at Lincoln Center and served as pianist for M Center for the Arts' annual concerts. The Dan Furman Trio can often be seen at Cleopatra's Needle in Manhattan, and the first CD of his original jazz group, the Primordial Jazz Funktet, is available on iTunes and CDBaby. Dan frequently music directs cabaret shows and has finishing two new musicals, The Proust Virus and Ybor City (in collaboration with Anita Gonzalez). Dan is also featured with Rev. Mary and Granny's Blue-Mers, inaugurating their 2017 tour and returning with them this year.

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