York Theatre Company's TUNE IN TIME Returning in March

The York Theatre Company welcomes the return engagement of the game show for musical theater lovers called Tune in Time,presented by Amy Engelhardt and Heather Shields, hosted by Emily McNamara, with Musical Director Nate Buccieri and annoyingly insistent timekeeper Sheila Head at The York Theatre Company at Saint Peter's (Citicorp Building, entrance on East 54thStreet, just east of Lexington Avenue).

The return engagement launches in March with an evening celebrating Broadway's Online/Internet Showstoppers. The panel of judges will include internet celebrities Laura Heywood (@BroadwayGirlNYC) and the hosts of the Ensemblist podcast, Nikka Graff Lanzarone and Mo Brady. The line-up of songwriters includes returning champions Lisa DeSpain (Storyville), Garth Kravits (a cappella band the House Jacks), and Sarah Ziegler (The Hair Song), as well as Kate Chadwick (Turn Out) and the team of Nikko Benson and Benjamin Halstead (Nikola Tesla Drops the Beat), who will be split up for the evening. Attendees-and participants-are encouraged to leave their devices on during the performance and update their Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and whatever other social media outlets are invented in the next month. The March installment, with guest Musical Director Brad Simmons and guest Timekeeper Peter Michael Marino, will be presented on Monday, March 14, 2016 beginning at 7:30 p.m.

In May, Tune in Time celebrates-we hope-the return of warmer weather and skimpier clothing when Nick Cearley and Lauren Molina, from the popular performance group The Skivvies, will be joined by their Tony Award-winning pal Daisy Eagan (The Secret Garden) to make up the panel of celebrity judges. Writers will include Adam Overett (My Life Is a Musical), Teresa Lotz (She Calls Me Firefly), and others to be announced shortly. The May installment will be presented on Monday, May 9, 2016 beginning at 7:30 p.m.

In this "Musical Theater Olympics," three teams of composers and lyricists who have never worked together are forced to collaborate - and to beat the clock. Their task? They must write a song for a new Broadway musical, the title of which is picked from a hatful of audience suggestions - and in a style determined by a spin of the dreaded Genre Wheel - all within 20 minutes! Tune in Time is an evening of edge-of-your-seat suspense, brain-frying bravery, and musical theatre magnificence. Each edition of Tune in Timefeatures a different roster of musical theater composers and lyricists as well as a panel of celebrity judges.

General Admission tickets for Tune in Time are priced at $20 and can be purchased online at www.yorktheatre.com, or by visiting the York Theatre Company Box Office (Citicorp Building, entrance on East 54th Street, just east of Lexington Avenue), or by calling the Box Office at (212) 935-5820 during regular business hours (Monday through Friday, 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.).

Previous winners have included Meghan Kelleher and Adam Spiegel for the jazz-inflected title song from Ethiopia Rocks!; Christiana Cole and Joe Kinosian for their experimental assault on the inside of the piano, the outside of the proscenium, and the concept of luncheon meat from The Sweating Smörgåsbord; Jordan Mann and Landon Braverman for their love anthem, "Retweeter" from the disco-era musical, The Capricious Hashtag (anachronism be damned); Bill Nelson and Brad Simmons for their original song "Kiss Her" from the fictional The Slighted Hickey, à la Jason Robert Brown; and Lisa DeSpain and Sarah Ziegler for their selection from the nonexistent new multi-culturally themed musical, The Chatty Apple. Earlier champions include David Gomez and Zach Redler, Kellen Blair and Dave Christensen, David Sisco and Kate Anderson, Dan McKenzie and Ben Wexler, Erik Jareth Ransom and Clay Zambo, and Avi Amon and Robbie Torres.

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