Natalie Douglas & Gay Marshall Headline THE BOOTLEG REVUE 6/12

Ground UP Productions (Kate Middleton, Producing Artistic Director) announced today that the company will hold its benefit, The Bootleg Revue, June 12, 2010 at The 13th Street Theatre (136 East 13th Street).

The event will celebrate the company's fifth anniversary with Southern-style food and drinks, live auction and entertainment from its company members and cabaret and musical theater favorites.

The Bootleg Revue will feature performances by Natalie Douglas (Seven-time MAC Award winner), Gay Marshall (Jacques Brel is Alive and Well), Jillian Louis (The Piper), Karen Culp (Crazy for You), Matt Hardy/Randy Klein (The Thing About Joe), Marcie Henderson (The People vs. Mona), Rob Maitner, Michael Hicks, Franklin Golden and Stuart Marshall as well as music by Barry Wyner (Calvin Berger), Ewalt and Walker (The Making of Madeline Moore) and more.

The Bootleg Revue is Ground UP Productions' fifth annual benefit, following the company's successful Bluegrass Bash cruise around Manhattan in 2007, the Ground UP Rock-Down and The Rooftop Rendezvous atop the Scholastic Center last year.

Ground UP Productions produced the New York premiere of the smash hit musical The People vs. Mona by Jim Wann and Patricia Miller. The production was hailed as "good natured, down home fun" by the New York Times, "consistently inventive" by the New York Post and a "hootin' good time" by Variety. The company has also produced the world premiere of Jason Chimonides' The Optimist ("deliriously entertaining" - New Yorker) as well as the acclaimed revivals of Barefoot in the Park, Baby with the Bathwater, Proof and Burn This. For additional information, visit www.groundupproductions.org.

Proceeds from The Bootleg Revue benefit Ground UP Productions' upcoming production of Letter from Algeria, running October 28 through November 20, 2010 at the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex. Doors for The Bootleg Revue open at 8:00 pm, and the performance begins at 9:00 pm. Benefit tickets are $45 per person at www.groundupproductions.org.

BIOGRAPHIES
Natalie Douglas is a seven-time MAC Award Winner (having just won her first MAC Award in the Major Jazz Artist category), a Nightlife Award Winner and a Backstage Bistro Award Winner whose concert and theater appearances include regular sold-out performances at Birdland as part of Jim Caruso's Broadway at Birdland series, The Kennedy Center, The London Cabaret Convention, Black2: Broadway - Divas, Children of Eden at Riverside Church for the York Theatre, Brooklyn to Hollywood at Town Hall, several editions of The Atrainplays at Neighborhood Playhouse, Playwrights Horizons and the New World Stages, Scott Nevins' Curtain Call at Splash, The Thalia Follies at Symphony Space and most recently, in the Off Broadway hit, The People vs. Mona, by Jim and Patricia Wann of Pumpboys & Dinettes fame for Ground Up Productions. In addition, there is Natalie's annual New Year's Eve collaboration with Mark Hartman - a Greenwich Village tradition - which materializes each December 31st at the Duplex Cabaret Theatre.

Gay Marshall made her Broadway debut as DiAna Morales in A Chorus Line. Her one woman show Piaf : La Vie l'Amour played in the States and took her to Paris where she played Grizabella in the original French production of Cats, and appeared on stage and TV in French and English theatre productions. Living in Europe inspired her to write If I Were Me, a comedy that she performed in Paris and took to the Edinburgh Festival where it was voted #2 on the Fringe. Most recently here in the States, she did Jacques Brel at Capital Rep, Denise in both Goodspeed, and the York Theatre and Paper Mill's productions of The Baker's Wife. During her recent appearance in the Off Broadway production of Jacques Brel she received a nomination for the Drama League's "Distinguished Performance Award" and named as one of the "Top Ten Divas" by Playbill. Her CD of Piaf songs premiered at the Metropolitan Room here in New York to rave reviews and hit Billboard charts this Jan as a "hot-shot" debut in Top World Music. At the moment she's working on a CD of old fun and fabulous blues from the 20's and 30's with some members of her original blues band in Cleveland, which should be out before Christmas. She's a huge fan of GroundUp and honoured to be a part of this evening.

Kyle Ewalt and Michael I. Walker are a NYC-based musical theater writing team known as Ewalt and Walker. Their shows include The Making of Madeline Moore, Broke, and Bromance: The Dudesical. AN EVENING WITH EWALT AND WALKER: JUST A COUPLE OF DUDES WHO LIKE TO WRITE SONGS, a concert of their songs, was performed at Playwrights Horizons Mainstage Theater. Their work has also been seen at Joe's Pub, The Merc, and Theater Row in NYC, The Barn Theater in Michigan, and Randolph Academy in Toronto.