Bruce Sabath, Leah Hocking, Emma Diner and More Will Lead Industry Reading of APPALACHIAN HANUKKAH

 APPALACHIAN HANUKKAH, a new musical with book & lyrics by Joanne Sydney Lessner and music & lyrics by Joshua Rosenblum, will present industry readings on December 4 at 3 PM and December 5 at 11 AM at Ripley Grier Studios, 520 8th Avenue. 

Staged by Cara Reichel, who directed Prospect Theater Company’s production of the pair’s Drama Desk Award-nominated musical Einstein’s Dreams at 59E59, APPALACHIAN HANUKKAH features Bruce Sabath* (Fiddler on the Roof), Leah Hocking* (The Last Ship), Jim Stanek* (Into the Woods), Emma Diner* (Love Life), Michael McCoy* (Phantom of the Opera), Gordon Stanley* (Cabaret), Joanne Lessner* (Cyrano - The Musical), Laura Jean Spineti* (Annie), Zachary Anderson*, Brendon Michael McCray, Miyuki Miyagi* (Allegiance), David Rowen* (Bob Marley's Three Little Birds) and Hana Slevin*.

With a score that combines traditional musical theater, ’70s pop, and down-home country fiddling, APPALACHIAN HANUKKAH takes place in December 1979 in the fictional town of Clarksville, West Virginia. The mayor wants to tear down the region’s only temple to build a RadioShack. Rachel Rosenstein, the 17-year-old daughter of one of the town’s eight Jewish families, sets out to save the temple, but learns she can’t do it alone. Instead, she discovers what it means to be a leader, inspiring her entire family, best friend, a crew of local juvenile delinquents, and ultimately the whole community to change the mayor’s mind and save the temple in time for Hanukkah.

“There are so few Hanukkah musicals, we felt the need for something funny, inclusive and uplifting that provides a gentle reminder of how differences make a community stronger, especially in these incredibly divisive times,” said Rosenblum. “The show was inspired by my experiences growing up in Appalachia in the ‘70s in a town in Southern Ohio with so few Jewish families, we had to go to West Virginia to go to temple.”

Rosenblum will be musical director for the presentation, which will run 90 minutes with no intermission. Ali Walensky* is stage manager and Jen Sandler is executive producer.

Interested industry professionals can email AppHanMusical@gmail.com or visit http://www.appalachianhanukkah.com for more information.

*Appearing courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association