STAGE TUBE: Andrea McArdle Sings from NYMF's GREENWOOD

New York Musical Theatre Festival: MyFoxNY.com

Original Annie star Andrea McArdle and Rent Broadway cast alum Cary Shields return to summer camp in NYMF's Greenwood, an original musical comedy about a group of friends who share a profound experience at a performing arts camp and come back together to try to recreate it 25 years later.

Click below to watch McArdle and her daughter Alexis Kalehoff sing "The Me I Used to Know" from the show!

The cast also features Felicia Finley, Mary Mossberg, star of the 1998 film version of Annie Alicia Morton, and McArdle's real life daughter Alexis Kalehoff-making this the first time mother and daughter will share the New York stage in a full musical theater production.

Greenwood's book, music and lyrics are by Grammy-nominated music producer Tor Hyams and writer/director/actor Adam LeBow, who have based the story of Greenwood on the experiences they shared at French Woods-the performing arts camp they both attended as teenagers.

Greenwood is an original musical comedy that follows its characters' journey through their late teens as well as a quarter-century later in the present day. The title comes from the name of the summer camp where the protagonists first met-a unique and nurturing environment where they found acceptance, creative freedom, and love. The extraordinary experiences the young people shared at Greenwood left an indelible impression: it showed them who they really were. The paths of their lives after camp led them not only far from each other but also far from their true selves. Now, the modern social networking phenomenon and the milestone anniversary of a special summer combine to bring them back together so that they may reclaim their pasts and become the people they were meant to be.

Andrea McArdle first captured the hearts of theatergoers everywhere in 1977 when she originated the title role in the mega-musical Annie, based on the popular Harold Gray comic strip "Little Orphan Annie". Since then, she has starred in several Broadway musicals and appeared in theaters in New York, nationally and internationally.

As "Annie", Andrea became the youngest performer ever to be nominated for a Tony Award as Best Lead Actress in a Musical. Andrea was tapped by Academy Award nominated director Rob Marshall to appear as "The Star to Be" in the Disney/ABC television production of Annie starring Kathy Bates and Victor Garber.

Also on Broadway, Andrea starred in the Jerry Herman musical Jerry's Girls alongside Carol Channing and Leslie Uggams; she portrayed the sassy Smoking Car, Ashley, in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express; and starred as Margy Frake in State Fair; as Fantine in Les Miserables and, most recently as Belle in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. She toured nationally starring as Sally Bowles in Cabaret, as Eponine in Les Miserables and as herself in The Vagina Monologues, which she appeared in Off-Broadway as well.

Cary Shields made his Broadway debut in Rent at the Nederlander Theatre, having toured previously with the U.S. National and Canadian companies. He also enjoyed working alongside Boy George in Rosie O'Donnell's production of Taboo at the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway. Cary is currently writing a musical Lucky with writing partner Mark Jackson. Additional credits include Whizzer in Falsettos, Fox's "Dark Angel" and WB's "Guide to Becoming a Rock Star."

 

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