Neil Douglas Reilly News

Envelope Ensemble has announced a new musical adaptation of the Euripides classic The Bacchae to be presented in an art and music filled reading January 25-27 at Catland Books, located at 987 Flushing Ave in Bushwick with shows at 9 p.m. on Saturday and 7:30 p.m. on Sunday and Monday.

Last night, Thursday, September 26, 54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, launched its first of six performances celebrating the extraordinary 30-year collaboration of Tony Award-winning songwriting team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime, Once on This Island, My Favorite Year, Seussical, Lucky Stiff, the upcoming Rocky, and more). In 'Nice Fighting You: A 30th Anniversary Celebration,' September 26 - 28, Ahrens and Flaherty offer six very special concerts featuring their best known songs, rare gems and even some never-before-heard material, performed by a rotating cast of Broadway stars. Last night's opening night concert featured Tony nominee Stephanie J. Block (The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Anything Goes), Tony nominee Liz Callaway (Baby, Anastasia), Tony Award winner LaChanze (Dessa Rose, Once on This Island), Kecia Lewis (Dessa Rose, Once on This Island), Sean McCourt (Wicked, A Man of No Importance), Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell (Ragtime, Kiss Me Kate) Tony Award nominee Mary Testa (42nd Street, Lucky Stiff), and musical direction by Tony Award Winner Ted Sperling (South Pacific, The Light in the Piazza, and The Other Josh Cohen). The evening features musical arrangements by Neil Douglas Reilly.

The New Voices Collective will present NEW VOICES, NEW BLUE: A Celebration of Songs by Yale Musical Theatre Writers, Past and Present on Monday, April 15, at 8:00 p.m. The concert will explore work by some of Yale's most exciting and famous alumni, as well as current composers in the Shen Musical Theatre writing program at Yale University. An amazing cast of Broadway's finest voices will include Drew Gehling (Jersey Boys, On a Clear Day..., The Minister's Wife), Jenny Powers (Its A Bird...Its a Plane...Its Superman, Donnybrook, Grease, Little Women), Sally Wilfert (Assassins, Make Me A Song, See Rock City), and Michael Winther (Laramie Project Cycle, 33 Variations, Mamma Mia, Songs From An Unmade Bed) and J. Michael Zygo (Once, Rock of Ages), and will also feature emerging talent from Yale's musical theatre performance program.