Cast And Staff Announced For York Theater Company's BLIND LEMON BLUES, Babatunde To Star, Opens 9/8

Cast and staff have been announced for the upcoming York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director) production of Blind Lemon Blues, featuring more than 60 Blind Lemon Jefferson songs. Performances will begin September 8th. All performances will be at the company's home at The Theatre at Saint Peter's (54th Street just east of Lexington Avenue).

The show will star Akin Babatunde in the title role. In addition to his starring role, Mr. Babatunde is also the show's director, choreographer, and co-author.

Also featured in the cast are Cavin Yarborough, Alisa Peoples Yarborough, Inga Ballard, Carmen Ruby Floyd, Timothy Parham, and guitarist Skip Krevens.

Blind Lemon Blues will feature scenic design by Russel Parkham, costume design by Tommy Bourgeois, and lighting design by Steve Woods.

Tickets are now on sale for Blind Lemon Blues. To purchase tickets, visit www.yorktheatre.org or call 212/935-5820.

Blind Lemon Blues was created by Alan Govenar and Akin Babatunde, has musical arrangements by Akin Babatunde, Cavin Yarbrough and Alisa Peoples Yarbrough (‘80's R&B duo Peoples & Yarbrough), and is directed and choreographed by Mr. Babatunde. It will be presented by The York Theatre Company and Documentary Arts in association with Central Track Productions.

Blind Lemon Blues was presented as a York Mainstage production in 2007 for a limited 10-performance run featuring Benita Arterberry, Akin Babatunde, Timothy Parham, Lillias White, Cavin Yarbrough, Alisa Peoples Yarbrough and guitarist Sam Swank. The New York Times declared it "a lively and intelligent new musical--an inspiration!" and Variety concurred, saying "Blues lovers be grateful... very, very grateful. Blind Lemon Jefferson's voice emerges with full force!"

Jefferson was a blind street musician who played his guitar with a tin cup tied to it until a Paramount Records scout discovered him. Between 1926 and 1929, Jefferson made more than 80 records and became the biggest selling down-home blues singer in America. Blind Lemon Blues is set in New York City in 1948 at the last recording session of the legendary Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Leadbelly, and combines elements of traditional blues, gospel, rhythm and blues, soul, doo-wop, and rap to evoke the enduring legacy of Blind Lemon and his contemporaries Blind Willie Johnson, Lillian Glinn, Hattie Hudson, Bobbie Cadillac, Lillian Miller and Leadbelly himself.

The York Theatre Company was nominated for five 2009 Drama Desk Awards, four 2009 Lucille Lortel Awards, two Outer Critics Circle Awards, and two Drama League Awards for its productions of Enter Laughing, The Musical and My Vaudeville Man last season. The York is the only theater in New York City - and one of very few in the world - dedicated to developing and fully producing new musicals, as well as preserving gems from the past. Winner of a special Drama Desk Award for developing and producing new musical theatre, York's intimate, imaginative style of producing both original and classic musicals has resulted in critical acclaim and recognition from artists and audiences alike for almost four decades. Under the guidance of Artistic Director James Morgan since 1997, the York has focused exclusively on new musicals in its Mainstage Series -most of them world, American, or New York premieres - by some of the field's most esteemed creators, and has also helped launch the careers of many talented new writers. The York's Developmental Reading Series, which presents nearly 40 free readings of new musicals every year, was the incubator for the Tony Award-winning Broadway hit Avenue Q, among many other significant shows.

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