Ralph Byers to Star as Benjamin Franklin in Musical Comedy MONEY TALKS Off-Broadway

Visceral Entertainment will present the World Premiere of the new musical Money Talks with book and lyrics by Peter Kellogg, music by David Friedman and direction/choreography by Michael Chase Gosselin with musical direction by David Hancock Turner.

It will begin performances on Monday, July 10, 2017, and open on July 23, 2017, at The Davenport Theatre (354 W 45 Street). Tickets are $25, $49.75, $79.75 and $100 Franklin VIP Tickets and can be purchased by visiting Telecharge.com.

They say money talks... and this money has a lot to say! as The Man on the hundred, Ben is not pleased by what he sees in America today and he's done keeping his mouth shut. Over the course of this 90-minute musical comedy, Ben is passed from a hedge fund manager to a stripper, to a judge, to his mistress who's a nun to ... well, you get the idea. Armed with a lifetime of famous sayings, Ben must convince everyone to change their priorities before it's too late. Inspired by the writings of Ben Franklin, the play La Ronde, and the huge mess America is in today, Money Talks is a fast-paced madcap romp filled with life, liberty and laughs for all.

Cast includes: Ralph Byers (Broadway: The Music Man, Big River) as Ben Franklin with Brennan Caldwell (Off: Broadway: Baghdaddy. Web series: "Off"); Sandra DeNise (Broadway: Bright Star, Kinky Boots) and George Merrick (Broadway: Honeymoon in Vegas, South Pacific). Creative team includes Ann Beyersdorfer (Scenic Design), Vanessa Leuck (Costume Design), Catherine Clark (Lighting Design), Patrick LaChance (Sound Designer), Jason Styres, CSA (Casting), Carol A. Sullivan (Production Stage Manager), Gabby Cogan (Associate Choreographer) and Evan Bernardin (General Manager).

For more about the show, visit www.MoneyTalksMusical.com.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Peter Kellogg (Book and Lyrics) has two Tony nominations for book and lyrics to a musical of Anna Karenina (composer Dan Levine). AK has had 3 acclaimed tours in Japan. With David Friedman, created Chasing Nicolette (based on the French romance, Aucassin and Nicolette), produced at Westport Playhouse, the Prince and Village Theatre in Seattle; Stunt Girl, about Nellie Bly, New York City's first female reporter, which premiered at Village; and Desperate Measures, a 6-person western, loosely based on Measure for Measure.

David Friedman (Composer) Songs: Listen To My Heart, Help is on the Way, We Can Be Kind, My Simple Christmas Wish, hundreds more. Conducted/Vocal Arranged: Disney's Beauty & The Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, plus 6 Broadway musicals. Wrote songs for Diana Ross, The Lizzie McGuire Movie, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Bambi II and Trick. New Musicals: Desperate Measures, Aucassin & Nicolette, Nellie Bly, and King Island Christmas. Off Broadway Revue: Listen To My Heart - The Songs of David Friedman. Produced all of Nancy Lamott's CD's. Has written over 100 songs for the Today Show's Everyone Has a Story segment.

Michael Chase Gosselin (Director/Choreographer) recently directed Kit Goldstein Grant's The Nose: A New Family Musical at the famous Master Theater in Brighton Breach, and the world premiere of Tim Sulka & Debra Barsha's The Most Miserable Christmas Tree. He produced Midnight At The Never Get and LUDO'S BROKEN BRIDE at NYMF in 2016, and Pope! An Epic Musical in 2015. In 2013, he directed a reading of MOBY DICK: A WHALE OF A TALE For Cameron Mackintosh. He was the Producing Artistic Director of Act Three Theatricals in Vermont 2006-2012. As a Director/Choreographer, additional recent credits include DISNEY'S TARZAN (VT Premiere), The Wedding Singer and South Pacific (NCT), Rock Nativity (Regional Premiere), a Vermont tour of The Complete History Of America (Abridged), You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown and A Christmas Carol for the Helen Hayes Youth Theatre, and LEGALLY BLONDE for Clark University. Current projects include Money Talks and Endangered! The Musical Off-Broadway. He is a proud member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. www.michaelchasegosselin.com

VISCERAL ENTERTAINMENT (Producer) This newly formed theatre, film and television Production Company brings together the talents of its two principals, Michael Chase Gosselin and Tim Sulka. In addition to Money Talks, Visceral Entertainment is producing the original musical, Midnight at The Never Get, with a limited engagement this summer in Provincetown, MA. Other projects in development include the holiday musical, The Most Miserable Christmas Tree, a new Broadway musical comedy, Pope! An Epic Musical, an audience immersive musical stage adaptation of the Jonathan Lethem novel, You Don't Love Me Yet and a stage adaptation of the novel The Black Ledger, by D.G. Allen. Film and television projects include Urbn FaeryTales, a musical television series of familiar fairy tales set and filmed in modern day Brooklyn, and Prime Cuts, a film of the darkly comic graphic novel, a teen version of the Sweeney Todd legend.

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