'24 Hour Musicals' Debut at Joe's Pub Jan.21 with All-Star Cast

On January 21, 2008, The 24 Hour Company will team with the Exchange to produce The 24 Hour Musicals. Presented in association with New York magazine and Joe's Pub, four brand new musicals will be written, cast, rehearsed and performed at Joe's Pub in a single day, featuring with an all-new all-star line up of Broadway performers, great composers, writers, directors, choreographers and musical directors.  

Led by creative director Ted Sperling (musical director of The Light in the Piazza, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and South Pacific), the participants will be a who's who of American musical theatre, all working under one roof in the smallest amount of time. 

Already scheduled to appear are: Rita Wilson (Chicago), Victoria Clark (The Light in the Piazza), Denis O'Hare (Take Me Out, Sweet Charity), Tracie Thoms (Rent, "Cold Case"), Cheyenne Jackson (Xanadu), Mo Rocca (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, "The Daily Show"), Nellie McKay (Three Penny Opera), Kerry Butler (Xanadu), Jonathan Butterell (Nine), Warren Carlyle (The Producers, Oklahoma!), John Ellison Conlee (The Full Monty), Gavin Creel (Mary Poppins), Raul Esparza (The Homecoming, Company), Moisés Kaufman (The Laramie Project, I Am My Own Wife), Celia Keenan-Bolger (Les Miserables), Claudia Shear (Dirty Blonde), and David Yazbek (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels).

The creative process for The 24 Hour Musicals will begin at 10PM on Sunday, January 20 – the night before the show – when a group of four writer-composer-lyricist teams, four directors, 16 performers, and a production staff gather at Joe's Pub. After casts and crews have been briefed, each writer is tasked with composing a 15-minute play by 7AM the following morning, when the directors return to read and select their piece. The casts will meet for the first time at 8AM and, over the next 12 hours, the plays are rehearsed and produced for a live presentation. At 7PM, ink barely dry, the six new plays – interspersed with six musical acts – will be performed for a live audience.

Proceeds from The 24 Hour Musicals benefit the Exchange, a NYC not-for-profit that develops new theatre work through productions and its development center for innovative theatre companies and artists in the Catskills, the Orchard Project. 

The 24 Hour Musicals on Monday, January 21 at Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street), begin with cocktails and dinner at 6PM, performance at 7PM. (All participating artists are subject to change.) Tickets are available at visit www.24hourplays.com, or 646-502-7453.