NYMTF Welcomes CENTRAL AVENUE BREAKDOWN 10/10-16

Central Avenue Breakdown will get its World Premiere at the 2011 New York Musical Theatre Festival. Central Avenue Breakdown features music & lyrics by Kevin Ray, book by Kevin Ray & Josh Sohn with additional Story by Suellen Vance. This new musical will begin performances on October 10 and initially run through October 16 at Signature Theatre's The Peter Norton Space (555 West 42nd Street). Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online at www.nymf.org or by calling (212)352-3101. For more information about the festival please visit www.NYMF.org

It's 1940s Los Angeles and the hottest place to be seen is Central Avenue, in the shadow of Hollywood where hot swing blows all night long at clubs like Jack's Chicken Basket and the Club Alabam. Brothers Bill and Jim Marcel are sax players struggling to carve out their own legacies, but first they must overcome a destructive rivalry, addiction, and tragedy before it's too late.

The cast includes: Albert Christmas (Bway: Ragtime, FX's "Lights Out," "Blue Bloods"), Rodrick Covington (Bway: The Lion King, Regional: The Brother/Sister Plays, Venice), Jennie L. Harney (Children of God, Beehive), Rebecca LaChance (Broadway Rising Stars Concert), Thaddeus McCants (Regional: Spelling Bee, West Side Story), Eileen Patterson, Nicole Powell (Bway: Ragtime, Hairspray), Ken Robinson (Bway: Baby It's You), Lou Steele (Aida, Miss Saigon), Josh Tower (Bway: The Lion King, Ragtime. Off: Langston in Harlem Audelco nomination), Anne Marie Vick (A Chorus Line, White Christmas, Anything Goes).
Central Avenue Breakdown
Music & Lyrics by Kevin Ray; Book by Kevin Ray & Josh Sohn
Additional Story by Suellen Vance
Directed by Christopher Windom

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online at www.nymf.org or by calling (212)352-3101.

The Signature Theatre - The Peter Norton Space is located at 555 West 42nd Street
Monday, Oct 10th, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Tuesday, Oct 11th, 2011 at 1:00 pm
Thursday, Oct 13th, 2011 at 9:00 pm
Friday, Oct 14th, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Saturday, Oct 15th, 2011 at 9:00 pm
Sunday, Oct 16th, 2011 at 1:00 pm
Running time 2:15 with intermission

For more information please visit www.NYMF.org

KEVIN RAY (Composer, Lyricist & Book) is a songwriter-singer living in New York City. He has recorded seven solo albums, the musical The Last Word, and, in 2006, composed the MAC nominated Seasoned Greetings CD. His songs have been performed on television, in theaters, and Federal courtrooms. He has spent the last year performing around the world and working on his new CD Radio Silence. His unique style of piano-based pop-rock mixes elements of theater, jazz, and soul music. His songs are personal and literate, and range from intensely emotional, to humorous, to political. For more on Kevin and his music, go to www.kevinray.net.

JOSH SOHN (Book) work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Brooklyn Writer's Space Reader, Saltmag.net, and Gelf Magazine. His plays have been performed by Flux Theatre Ensemble, Packawallop Productions, Tip My Cup, Young Playwrights' Group, and in the Short Play Lab Festival at the Where Eagles Dare Studios. In 2008, his play Jump! was a finalist in the New York Strawberry Festival, and in 2010 his play Laid Plans was a semi-finalist in the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival. Currently, he is working on two new musicals, a short story collection, and a screenplay. He lives in Brooklyn.

Suellen Vance (Writer & Creative Producer) is an actress-producer-writer as well as a managing partner of YankeeBelle Productions, LLC. Some of her recent projects include Neil LaBute's Fat Pig and The Pee Wee Herman Show on Broadway; Bathory: The Musical (NYMF Next Link Finalist); and The Last Word. As an actress, Suellen appeared in John Gould Rubin's 2010 production of Hedda Gabler and has done numerous commercials and voiceovers. In 1999, she won the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America's first-ever Woman of the Year Award for producing Rx: Comedy, a benefit fundraiser (NYC Chapter). She has also been a television news producer in Orlando, Florida. For more on Suellen, check out www.suellenvance.com.

Christopher Windom (Director/Choreographer) received the Dean Goodman Choice Award for best choreography for the production of Ragtime at TheatreWorks in California's Bay Area. He has directed Church Basement Ladies, Clue: the Musical, Big River, Chicago, Our Country's Good, Mo' Reece and the Girls by Jackie Sibblies, TOT! by Ian McDonald, Blood Knot, The Tempest, and Woyzeck. He choreographed Dessa Rose, Crowns, Oklahoma!, Chicago, My Fair Lady, Swing!, Gypsy, Bye, Bye, Birdie, Peter Pan, City of Freaks, Parade, Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery, and A Christmas Carol directed by Liesl Tommy. Christopher has performed on Broadway, National Tours and London's West End in the Tony Award winning shows Fosse and Damn Yankees, starring Jerry Lewis. Regionally he has performed at St. Louis Repertory Theater, The Cincinnati Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, St. Louis MUNY, Stages St. Louis and the Sacramento Music Circus to name a few. BFA, Musical Theater from Webster University. MFA, Directing, Brown/Trinity Rep.

New York Musical Theatre Festival:

Now in its eighth year, the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) is the largest annual musical theatre event in America and is widely regarded as the essential source for new material and talent discovery. NYMF provides a launching pad for the next generation of musicals and their creators to ensure the continued vitality of one of America's greatest art forms. Hailed as the "Sundance of Musical Theatre," NYMF discovers, nurtures, and promotes promising musical theatre artists and producers at all stages of development, and inspires a diverse audience through vibrant, accessible, powerful new work.

NYMF is the flagship program of National Music Theater Network, Inc., a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization. NYMF 2011 is presented in association with BroadwayWorld.com, Production Resource Group, and TheaterMania.com, and is supported by American Eagle Outfitters, Back Stage, BroadwayBox.com, BroadwayInsider.com, Clear Channel Spectacolor, Disney Store Times Square, FOX 5 New York, King Displays, NASDAQ OMX, New World Stages, Next Magazine, PMD Promotions, The Port Authority of NY & NJ, Queerty.com, Season of Savings, Terra Fossil Wines, Thomson Reuters, TheMenEvent.com, Times Square Squared, and Yelp. Major supporters include The ASCAP Foundation, BMI Foundation, Inc., The BWF Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation with the support and encouragement of Jamie Ariel Phinney, Cameron Mackintosh Foundation, The New Musical Development Foundation, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Rodgers & Hammerstein Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, and The Theater League. 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, in partnership with the City Council and from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

NYMF Memberships, which combine charitable contributions with valuable, flexible ticket packages and perks like early seating, and tickets to individual events are currently available for purchase at (212) 352-3101 or www.nymf.org. Single tickets for Festival events will go on sale September 1.

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