Young Stars Come Together For La Red Launch Party 4/14 At Laurie Beechman

A dozen bright young stars along with renowned voices of musical theatre will come together for the La Red Launch Party, a celebration and kickoff event on Tuesday, April 14 at the Laurie Beechman Theater at 6:00 pm. The event will benefit La Red Music Theatre's first full summer season in residence in Highland Park, IL, a northern suburb of Chicago.

"We're thrilled to announce our inaugural season, and we're thrilled to have the opportunity to do so at the Beechman," says Jessica Redish, La Red's founding Artistic Director. "We're excited to bring vibrant, new musicals to a community as vibrant as Highland Park. "

The benefit performance will feature legendary performers including Penny Fuller (A New Brain, Applause, Cabaret), Celina Carvajal (Tarzan, 42nd Street), Carly Jibson (Hairspray), Adam Kantor (Rent), and The Dreams, along with members of La Red's Music Theatre Collective: Kevin Vortmann (City Center Encores' Face the Music), Molly Curry (Turn of the Century), Liz Clinard (Pioneer's The Producers), Devin DeSantis (Chicago's Altar Boyz), Liz Kimball (Walnut Street's Hairspray) and Chris Yonan (Idiot's Guide to Dating), performing selections from this summer's upcoming season. Greg Brown (Chicago's 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) will serve as Musical Director, Joshua Samuels will join on drums.

The program includes new songs from composers including Alan Schmuckler, Michael Mahler, Jeffrey Thomson and Jordan Mann, Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond, Eli Bolin and Sam Forman, and Lindsay Joelle and Daniel Israel.

La Red Music Theatre, a collective of outstanding young theatre artists from around the country, will produce a series of new musicals in both full productions and workshops this June, July and August.

La Red will present the Chicago Premiere of B.R.A.T.T. Camp by Bobby Cronin. The new pop-rock musical follows five troubled teens shipped off to a disciplinary camp, where hilarity and heartfelt revelations ensue.

The centerpiece of the season will be A Bipartisan Musical Fantasia, with music & lyrics by Michael Mahler, spoken word sequences by Oron Stenesh, and book adapted by Jessica Redish. The piece explores the consequences of failure of imagination and the dangers of governmental bureaucracy, and questions how we might change.

La Red's staged readings and workshops this summer include: (sight), with book and lyrics by Lindsay Joelle, music by Simon Gray, Daniel Israel and John Prestiani; Happiness is the Problem by Jason Cady and Nadia Berenstein; The Church of Babel: a Fundamentalist Cabaret by Avi Fox Rosen; and a new musical adaptation of Charles L. Mee's Summertime, with music and lyrics by Alan Schmuckler, adapted by Jessica Redish.

Tickets to the La Red Launch Party are $20 and may be reserved by calling 212.695.6909. There is an additional $15 food and drink minimum.

The Laurie Beechman Theater is located at the West Bank Cafe, 407 W. 42nd St at 9th Ave.

LA RED MUSIC THEATRE is a not-for-profit organization comprised of Chicago, Washington D.C., and New York-based creative professionals dedicated to the creation of new musicals, presented annually in a summer festival in Highland Park, IL. For more information on La Red Music Theatre, please visit http://www.laredmusictheatre.org.

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