Musicals From Marc Acito, Sara Cooper, Amy Engelhardt & Lynne Shankel to Headline New York Theatre Barn's New Work Series

New York Theatre Barn will host a free live stream of its award-winning New Works Series on Wednesday, June 9th, 2021 at 7PM EST, featuring excerpts from the new musicals Perpetual Sunshine & the Ghost Girls and Bastard Jones. The live 1-hour presentation will also feature a conversation with the writers.

With words by Sara Cooper (The Memory Show) and music by Lynne Shankel (Bare, Allegiance, Breathe), Perpetual Sunshine & the Ghost Girls is an all-woman+ through-composed musical theatre piece about the capitalist exploitation of workers' bodies and rights in the face of a national public health crisis. Featuring an original 1920s-2020s mashup score, the show is based on the true story of the women who worked in the factories and were knowingly poisoned by the United States Radium Corporation, and who fought back, changing United States labor laws forever. Featuring performances by Katelyn Baughman, Piper Bruce, Colette Caspari, Audrey Hare, Autumn Key, Jessi Kirtley, Eden Mau, Claire Marie Miller, Alexa Lopez, Andie Peterson, Lauren Senden, Bella Serano and Leila Shaye.

The new musical Bastard Jones has a book by Marc Acito (Chasing Rainbows, Allegiance), music by Amy Engelhardt (The Bobs) and lyrics by Acito and Engelhardt. Bastard Jones is a sexy, smart, rollicking new musical comedy that combines a bouncy pop score with period farce. When charming, low-born Tom makes the mistake of wooing Sophia Shepherd, daughter of the pompous Reverend Shepherd, a chain of secrets, schemings and multiple bed-hoppings are set in motion. Based on Henry Fielding's 1749 Brit lit satire Tom Jones, this musical reimagines the young, irrepressible foundling Tom Jones as an electric guitar in a harpsichord world. Featuring performances by Brian Davis, Engelhardt, Don Howes, Josh Raff, Evan Ruggiero and Elena Wang (Allegiance).

Perpetual Sunshine & the Ghost Girls has been developed with The Beck Center for the Arts, Baldwin Wallace University and is a recipient of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre's (NAMT) 2020 inaugural 15-minute musical competition. Bastard Jones has been developed by Milkin University and was produced Off-Broadway at The Cell.

The 1-hour presentation will be available on New York Theatre Barn's YouTube channel and Broadway on Demand, and is hosted and produced by Associate Artistic Director Jen Sandler and Artistic Director Joe Barros. Now in its 14th season, the New Works Series has received support in part by the Innovation & Exploration Fund, a program of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre. For more information, visit New York Theatre Barn's website: www.nytheatrebarn.org.