Blackwell, Testa & More Set for 'The Joe Iconis Christmas Spectacular,' 12/5 & 12/6

Full casting has been announced for the upcoming THE Joe Iconis CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR. The event will include Broadway vets Susan Blackwell, Annie Golden, and Mary Testa. The event will take place at Ars Nova on December 5th and 6th.

The full cast will include Liz Lark Brown, Bill Coyne, Katrina Rose Dideriksen, Badia Farha, Melanie Field, Molly Hager, Matt Hinkley, Ian Kagey, MK Lawson, Lorinda Lisitza, Jeremy Morse, Lance Rubin, A.J. Shively, Brent Stranathan, Jason Tam, Jared Weiss, Jason "SweetTooth" Williams, and Ross Wolkenbrod.

A new holiday tradition at Ars Nova, Joe Iconis and his merry band of musical theater punk in this second annual insane celebration of all things red and green, wherein Joe and his friends learn the true meaning of Christmas. Featuring brand new holiday songs, old favorites, tiny elves, naughty reindeer, an inebriated Mr. and Mrs. Claus, and an ungodly number of candy canes, this promises to be the happiest and snowiest holiday hoedown ever seen.

Joe Iconis was most recently represented onstage by the off-Broadway musical "ReWrite,". He is the recipient of an Ed Kleban Award and a Jonathan Larson Award and is the composer in residence at Ars Nova. His theatrical rock concert THINGS TO RUIN, recently completed a critically-acclaimed run at The Zipper Theater, his garage rock musical, The Black Suits, played SPF at the Public Theater, and his family rock musical for TheaterWorksUSA, The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks, completed a summer run at the Lortel Theater and is currently touring the country. In addition to his theater work, Joe has played numerous sold-out gigs with his ROCK AND ROLL JAMBOREE show, a sort of musical theater/rock'n'roll collective made up his friends. Joe frequently performs at Joe's Pub, The Laurie Beechman Theater, Ars Nova, and Sardi's.

Susan Blackwell recently played herself in the Broadway musical [title of show]. Susan has written and performed original material for many projects, including [title of show], the [title of show] show, The 2008 NYC Gay Men's Chorus Holiday Spectacular at Carnegie Hall (guest artist), The 53rd Annual Drama Desk Awards, 2008 Gypsy of the Year, The Actors Fund 125th Anniversary Gala, The Pink Campaign on Broadway, and the Avant Garde-A-Rama series at PS122. Off-Broadway credits include [title of show] at the Vineyard Theatre, Speech and Debate at The Roundabout Theatre, Anon at The Atlantic Theatre Company, Working Title and Vilna's Got a Golem at the American Jewish Theatre, as well as playing Peter Patrone in The Heidi Chronicles. Television appearances include 'The Sopranos', 'Third Watch', 'All My Children' and various 'Law & Orders'. Films include P.S.: I Love You, Margot at the Wedding, Bun Bun, Changing Lanes, and Night Int. Trailer for the feature film Ten Minutes Older. Susan is an avid teacher specializing in creative writing, performance and vampire slaying.

Mary Testa's Broadway credits include Guys and Dolls, Xanadu (Drama Desk nomination), Chicago, 42nd Street (Tony nomination), Marie Christine (Cast Album), On the Town (Tony Nomination) ...Forum (Cast Album), The Rink, Marilyn, Barnum. Also, Encores! The Zeigfeld Follies of 1936 (Cast Album). Off-Broadway Testa was seen in Regrets Only, See What I Wanna See (Drama Desk & Drama League Nomination -- Cast Album), First Lady Suite (Drama Desk nomination), String of Pearls (Drama Desk Nomination), The Vagina Monologues, The Wax, From Above (Obie Award), Lucky Stiff, The Knife, A New Brain (Cast Album), Tartuffe, On the Town (Obie Award), Scapin (CSC), In Trousers (Cast Album), Daughters. On film, Testa appeared in Four Single Fathers, Stay, Tony n' Tina's Wedding, The Business of Strangers, The Out-of-Towners, Sleepers, Queens of the Big Time, Two Bits, Mac, Stanley and Iris, Going in Style and in television she was seen in "Electric Company", "Life on Mars", "Cashmere Mafia", "Waterfront," "Whoopi," "Cosby," "Sex and the City," "Linc's," "Witness to the Mob," "Law & Order," "City Kids," and numerous others.

Tickets for the concert are $15 may be purchased online through the Ars Nova website or by calling the box office at 866-811-4111.

As New York's premier hub for emerging artists and new work, Ars Nova is committed to developing and producing eclectic theater, comedy and music to feed today's popular culture. To that end, Ars Nova strives to create daring collaborations, meld disciplines and give clear voIce To a new generation of artists. Founded on the principle that a professional and safe environment where risk-taking is encouraged will cultivate a community of innovators, our fundamental mission is to reinvigorate the world of live performance by supporting smart, surprising new work from the next wave of emerging artists. Ars Nova was founded in memory of Gabe Wiener.

Founders Jon Steingart & Jenny Wiener Steingart have also established Ars Nova Entertainment, a Production Company committed to creating high quality, critically and commercially successful programming for film, theater and television. The company recently produced the film BLACK DYNAMITE which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and was released by Sony in October 2009.

For more information, visit www.arsnovanyc.com.

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