STEEL PETUNIAS: AN UNAUTHORIZED MUSICAL PARODY Opens 3/1 at The PIT

After a triumphant premiere as part of the UNAUTHORIZED! series of original parody musicals presented by Ronny Pascale and The PIT, STEEL PETUNIAS: AN UNAUTHORIZED MUSICAL PARODY! returns. Performances will be every Sunday at The PIT (123 East 24th Street).

Written by the wunderkind writing team of Ryan Mercy (Music) and Christopher W. Barnes (Book and Lyrics), this hilariously original parody musical of that famous '89 movie that featured a certain "Pretty Woman" in her screen debut sold out in it's original run at The PIT in the Fall. Now it's back to conquer audience's hearts again with all the characters you love, lots of witty southern quips, original songs, dances, and a whole lot of orange juice... Oh and an epic battle between good and evil with the world itself at stake... You know, just like the movie.

Featuring songs like "Drink Your Juice," "Blush and Bashful," "(If You've Got Nothing Nice to Say) Come and Sit By Me," and "Someone Tell My Heart," not to mention a fifteen foot puppet creature from the underworld, STEEL PETUNIAS: AN UNAUTHORIZED! MUSICAL PARODY delivers everything you remember from that beloved classic movie, plus tons of added hijinks and surprises along the way. Barnes and Mercy's take on this classic movie is completely original, wholly surprising, and the best musical about six southern women sittin' around talkin' about feelings you will see this year!

STEEL PETUNIAS: AN UNAUTHORIZED MUSICAL PARODY was selected from out of the UNAUTHORIZED! series for further development and put into a full run because of it's ability to parody, pay homage to, and elevate the source material, while still surprising the audience, making them cry with laughter, and (even in a parody) letting them cry with the women when one of them is taken too soon... oh and then there's also that already mentioned fifteen foot puppet.

STEEL PETUNIAS was the second production written for the UNAUTHORIZED! series of brand-new fully realized musical parodies at The PIT. Each new movie to be parodied in UNAUTHORIZED! is voted on by the audience, written, cast, staged, choreographed and rehearsed in about a month. The UNAUTHORIZED! team produces out-of-this-world-unbelievable and fully-realized two act musical parodies of beloved movies in about a month. If the show is very well received, like STEEL PETUNIAS and THAT 80'S TIME TRAVEL MOVIE, it is further developed and put up for more performances on the main stage at The PIT.

In addition to STEEL PETUNIAS, so far UNAUTHORIZED! has presented THAT 80'S TIME TRAVEL MOVIE (currently running Fridays at 8:00 at The PIT) and GHOSTBLASTERS, which is also scheduled to return in 2015 for a run on the main stage at The PIT.

STEEL PETUNIAS: AN UNAUTHORIZED! MUSICAL PARODY runs Sundays at 7:00 at the PIT starting March 1st. For more information and for tickets go to www.thepit-nyc.com.

The cast for STEEL PETUNIAS: AN UNAUTHORIZED! MUSICAL PARODY is Emily Essig as M'Lynn, Julie Feltman as Truvy, Emily Mathwich as Shelby, Taylor Ortega as Annelle, Dana Shulman as Ouiser, and Adrian Sexton as Clairee. Additional cast includes Maya Deshmukh, Morgan Ferretti, Brian Hansbury, Kristen Lee, Rory Scholl, and Kevin Sean.