Photo Coverage: Kerrigan & Lowdermilk's 'Party Worth Crashing' Concert at the Zipper Factory 2008/09/25

Photo Coverage: Kerrigan & Lowdermilk's 'Party Worth Crashing' Concert at the Zipper Factory

Thursday, September 25, 2008; Posted: 03:09 PM - by Pablo Pimienta

Top Broadway performers sang the music of Larson Award winners Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at the Zipper Factory, 336 W. 37th Street (between 8th & 9th Avenues) as part of the special NYMF concert 'Party Worth Crashing'. The evening reunited members of the once Broadway bound production of 'Godspell'.

Following their instantly-sold-out concerts at the Laurie Beechman Theatre earlier this year, the NYMF concert will featured songs from a variety of Kerrigan-Lowdermilk shows, including The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown, most recently developed by the La Jolla Playhouse, Tales From The Bad Years, which recently received a full workshop production at the Paramount Theatre in Vermont, and The Woman Upstairs, which was produced as part of the inaugural New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2004.

Directed by Daniel Goldstein and produced by Michael Cassara, performers included Uzo Aduba (Coram Boy), Sara Chase (Perez HiltonSaves The Universe...), Celisse Henderson (Wicked), Joshua Henry (In The Heights), Morgan James (Pirates!), Telly Leung (Rent), Dana Steingold (Spelling Bee), and Maria Thayer (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), all cast members of the once Broadway bound Godspell. Other special guests include Phoebe Strole (Spring Awakening, Hamlet 2) and Heléne Yorke (Grease, High School Musical).

Composer Lowdermilk was featured at the piano, with Greg Joseph on drums and Randy Landau on bass.

Kait Kerrigan & Brian Lowdermilk's adaptation of HENRY & MUDGE had an Off-Broadway run at the Lucille Lortel Theatre and is currently touring the country with TheatreworksUSA. Their musical THE UNAUTHORIZED AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SAMANTHA BROWN is under commercial option. It has been developed by the La Jolla Playhouse, MTC, Perry-Mansfield New Works Festival, the ASCAP/Disney Workshop, and was featured in the NAMT Songwriters Showcase. They have collaborated on two other musicals: THE WOMAN UPSTAIRS and WRONG NUMBER, both of which were featured in the New York Musical Theatre Festival. They are recipients of a 2006 Jonathan Larson Award and a 2004-2005 Dramatists Guild Fellowship, and they are members of the BMI Musical Theatre Advanced workshop, ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild. Kerrigan is a graduate of Barnard College. Her plays include TRANSIT and IMAGINARY LOVE, which was a 2006 Princess Grace Award Finalist. Lowdermilk studied at Harvard University and NYU where he received the Alan Menken Award. With collaborator Marcus Stevens, Lowdermilk was the recipient of a Richard RodgersAward for his musical RED. http://www.kerrigan-lowdermilk.com

Daniel Goldstein (Director) Upcoming projects include MARY'S WEDDING at Two River Theater and A NEW BRAIN at Toho Theater, Tokyo. In Japanese. Seriously. Recent credits include the world premiere of Beau Willimon's LOWER NINTH at The Flea Theater and SPF, the World Premiere of Sinan Unel's THE CRY OF THE REED at the Huntington Theater in Boston and the off-Broadway production of the hit Fringe Festival musical WALMARTOPIA. Other credits include the acclaimed production of GODSPELL at Paper Mill Playhouse, Kenny Finkle's INDOOR/OUTDOOR at the DR2, FALSETTOS and LES LIAISONS DANGEROUSES at the Huntington Theater Company, and BUT I'M A CHEERLEADER at the New York Musical Theater Festival. =CELEBRATION, the oneperson show he created with Ethan Sandler and Josie Dickson, was seen Off-Broadway as well as New Haven, San Francisco and the HBO Aspen Comedy Arts Festival. He has served as the Associate Director for ALL SHOOK UP! and FULLY COMMITTED, and the Resident Director for the First National Tour of MAMMA MIA! Daniel has developed the work of playwrights Peter Morris, Aaron Posner, Rob Handel, John Shea, Kait Kerrigan, Janet Neipris, Mark Schultz and Eliza Jane Scheider at the O'Neill Playwright's Conference, PlayPenn, and elsewhere. He was the recipient of an inaugural Calderwood Commission from the Huntington Theater Company, for which he is writing an original musical called UNKNOWN SOLDIER with Michael Friedman. He is a graduate of Northwestern University with a degree in Performance Studies. He is enormously proud to be a part of the tremendous "Almost Broadway" GODSPELL company. They are the most talented group of people he has ever met. You have not seen the last of them.

Hailed as "the Sundance of Musical Theatre," The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) exists to revitalize one of America's greatest art forms by discovering, supporting and promoting new musical theater artists, producers, and projects, and by introducing a diverse audience to the vibrancy of contemporary musical theater. Since its inception in 2004, the three-week annual festival has premiered more than 130 new musicals - many of which have gone on to award-winning productions in New York, in regional theaters and on tour in 38 states, and nine countries worldwide. NYMF 2004 hit Altar Boyz has played well over 1,000 performances off-Broadway and is now in its fourth year at New World Stages; fellow NYMF alum [title of show] recently began performances at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway.

Widely regarded as the essential source for new material and talent discovery, NYMF is the flagship program of The National Music Theater Network, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, and is presented in association with BroadwayWorld.com, Production Resource Group and TheaterMania.com, and is supported by amNewYork, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, BroadwayBox.com, BroadwayInsider.com, Frank & Camille's Fine Pianos, HX Magazine, Jossip.com, King Displays, Manhattan Movement & Arts Center, Metromix.com, The New York Blade, Next Magazine, Panasonic Astrovision, Queerty.com, Tekserve, TheMENEvent, VOGA Italia, and The Zipper Factory. NYMF is supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.