30 Days of NYMF Day 10: Ars Nova Concert Series

So I'm racking my brain, desperate to find a clever way to seduce everyone into coming to see our I-can't-believe-all-these-people-are-going-to-be-at-Ars-Nova concert series. Nothing comes to me. I'm completely void of inspiration, and the thing is due. Soon.

So here goes:

When you put the minds of The New York Musical Theater Festival and the producers of Ars Nova in a room and tell them "Here's some coffee, now make a concert series" you're gonna get a line-up of Grammy winners, Broadway stars, and so many next-big-things that your head's ready to explode.

Merle Dandridge rocks the stage of Tarzan for 8 shows a week and she's kicking off the series on September 11 with a night of her own and some special guests you'll flip about. Manoel Felciano. Destan Owens. Chester Gregory. Yeah. I'm serious.

GrooveLily: New York sensation, critically-acclaimed creators of Striking 12, source of the most amazing wailing on the electric violin that you have ever seen. Yep. We got them coming for a concert.

Follow that with Andrew Lippa, a Grammy Award winner who has been the Artist in Residence at Ars Nova since way before I came to the team. It's just Andrew and a piano, hence the terribly clever title "Andrew Lippa and a Piano." New songs, old faves, but it's Andrew. As in, The Wild Party. Come on.

Annie Golden. You totally know her, she was in the original Hair movie, the one by Milos Forman and she's about to star in the upcoming Mimi Le Duck at New World Stages. She can seduce crowds at CBGBs with her rock 'n roll voice, and now she's bringing her one woman show to Ars Nova.

Three words: Daniel Reichard's KEGGER. A Friday night midnight party show
with the star of Jersey Boys. Enough said? I think so.

The Petersons are sort of like a late-night version of "The Partridge Family," except they write their own songs, play their own music, and, okay, they curse a lot more. Time Out even called them "One of the funniest, most original shows in town."

TastiSkank. Oh, man, TastiSkank. So Kate Reinders is Glinda in Wicked. Sarah Litzsinger is Belle in Beauty and the Beast. They're these two really talented, totally hot ingenues, right? Right. Then they come together. start writing totally clever, totally dirty Tenacious D-esque songs, call the band TastiSkank, and take over Ars Nova. Yeah. There's no saying "no" to that.

Joe Iconis is a what I like to call "a new brand of awesome." He's young, he's talented, and he writes songs about porn stars, panic attacks, drug runs and true love.

Old Springs Pike is the kind of band you can't describe. I've rarely seen live music shows that amaze me the way they always manage to do. They've got an energy you fall in love with, original songs you can't stop singing, and every single one of them oozes musicianship and charm.

Then there's the last night of the series. Somehow the gods of musical theater smiled down on us and we managed to snag Donna Lynne Champlin and Manoel Felciano, two of the stars of Sweeney Todd.

Donna Lynne's doing her one woman show where she puts all these songs and stories in a hat (and these are some REALLY good stories) then the audience draws one and she HAS to do it!

Manoel Felciano, if you haven't seen him, I'm sorry. It's unreal. He's amazing. He concludes the series with an intimate concert. Seriously, what a way to finish, right?

I just flat out don't know any other way to put it than to say every one of these groups and artists is doing something amazing, and I don't care who you are, you'll find something in this line-up.

Ars Nova. Get a Night Life. (heh heh heh).