THE CONCRETE JUNGLE Set for TRU Voices Musical Series, 7/20

The Concrete Jungle by Bobby Cronin & Crystal Skillman will have an industry presentation July 20 as part of the TRU Voices Musical Series.

The Concrete Jungle is a contemporary riff on the Cyrano de Bergerac story, with a female twist. Set within the hustle and bustle of New York City, this romantic musical comedy follows Abby, a nearing-thirty poet and full-time bartender at The Concrete Jungle Bar & Grill on the Upper West Side, where her friends hang out, searching for love. When Abby receives a random phone call from a guy (named Guy), her life is forever changed as hilarity and mistaken identity infiltrate The Concrete Jungle. Can Abby find the courage to tell Guy the truth or will she continue sleeping sideways in her lonely bed, allowing her soul mate say, "I love you" to the wrong woman?

With a book by Bobby Cronin & Crystal Skillman, music & lyrics by Cronin, and additional material by Brett Teresa, the closed presentation will feature: Matt Lutz (Bonnie & Clyde, A Walk to Remember opposite MAndy Moore), Natalie Wachen (Boardwalk Empire, Murder Ballad), Matt DeAngelis (Hair, American Idiot), Anne Brummel (Elphaba Wicked Nat'l), Raymond J. Lee (Anything Goes, Mamma Mia), Gregg Goodbrod(Thoroughly Modern Millie), Geoffrey Kidwell (Rated RSO), Jodi Bluestein (Daybreak), and starring Marissa Rosen (Bedbugs, My Big Gay Italian Wedding) as Abby. The ensemble includes: Michael Armstrong Barr, Alison Lea Bender, Brett Teresa, Erik Sisco, and Candice Oden. Musical direction by William Demaniow.

The Concrete Jungle was commissioned by Arts Ed London in 2011 (President: Andrew Lloyd Webber) and after a 10-week workshop in 2012, opened for a sold-out limited run. Due to popular demand, The Concrete Jungle International Studio Cast Recording featuring Kate Shindle, Nick Adams, Alex Gaumond & Rebecca Trehearn, produced by Burlington Productions in association with Nick Lloyd Webber & James D. Reid, was released by Great White Wax in March 2013 with sold-out concerts at NYC's The Cutting Room and London's St. James Theatre.

Bobby Cronin was awarded the 2012 Alec Baldwin Fellowship for his musical 'TIL DEATH DO US PART with Harrington Award Winning bookwriter Allen Mogol. His pop/rock musical WELCOME TO MY LIFE (W2ML) is under a Broadway option. He is the first American commissioned to pen an original musical (THE CONCRETE JUNGLE) for London's esteemed ArtsEd School (President: Andrew Lloyd Webber) with a sold-out hit workshop production in June 2012, leading to THE CONCRETE JUNGLE INTERNATIONAL STUDIO CAST RECORDING which is now available on iTunes et al, produced by Burlington Productions and released on the Great White Wax label. DAYBREAK, add'l material by Brett Teresa, won the 2011 New Jersey Playwrights Contest winner and premiered in NJ & London in June 2012. He is currently working on two new projects: the original musical SUNSET CITY which will head to Running Deer Theatre Lab this summer, and an adaptation of the claymation film MARY & MAX. Other: Lincoln Center Songbook Series, 54 Below, Birdland, Symphony Space, London's The Players Theatre & St. James Theatre, more. "Reach The Sky: Live at The Beechman" on iTunes. Yale graduate, Member of: ASCAP, Dramatists Guild, & MMD. www.bobbycronin.com

Crystal Skillman (co-book) is the author of CUT (The Management, Apollinaire), THE VIGIL (ITG/Brick; 2010 NY Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Full-Length Script) and BIRTHDAY (Rising Phoenix Rep) and FOLLOW. Her new play GEEK earned raves in NYC this past spring produced by Vampire Cowboys ; WILD, debuted in Chicago with Kid Brooklyn Productions this past summer, will make it's UK debut with Kibo Productions in summer 2013. She is currently the screenwriter of RUN in development with director Michael Melamedoff and is a co-book writer on Bobby Cronin's musical THE CONCRETE JUNGLE. She is at work on her new drama ANOTHER KIND OF LOVE (Developed at IRT/Overturn Theater). Crystal is represented by Abrams Artists Agency and is a part of the MCC Playwrights' Coalition, as well as a Women's Project Lab and Soho Rep Lab alumni. Plays available from Samuel French and indietheaternow.com.

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