Cast Set for NYMF 'Journey;' Cast Album, Blog are Online

By: Aug. 23, 2006
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Casting has been announced Journey to the West, an epic story set to premiere at the New York Musical Theatre Festival this fall.  Presented as part of the Next Link series, it will play the 37 Arts Theatre (450 W. 37th St.) from September 25th through October 1st.

In addition, co-creator Richard Oberacker's online journal chronicling the experience of bringing Journey to the West to life onstage can be found on the show's website.  "Not only does he draw the reader into the demanding process of creating a show and its exhilarating creative developments, but also offers advice to actors, writers, and artists in the industry." 

The entire concept album for the show can also be downloaded at the Journey to the West website.

"Journey to the West is adapted from the novel, Xi Yu Chi (Journey to the West), the sixteenth-century, four-volume, one-hundred chapter, masterpiece, depicting the mythological legend of a monk from the Tang Dynasty traveling the Asian continent to transport original Buddhist scriptures to China," according to press notes.  New Voice Theatre, a non-profit theatre company in Cincinnati, OH, will present the show.

The show will star Steven Booth (Avenue Q in Vegas) as the monk Riversong, Angela Ai (Las Vegas Avenue Q) as the goddess Kuan-Yin, David Girolmo (Candide) as adversary Hou-Lia, Nicholas Kohn (Las Vegas Avenue Q) as spirit guide Tu-Bao, Philip Solomon (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) as water dragon Tsunami, W. Wong as Monkus, the Great Monkey King, Kevyn Morrow (Olivier-nominee for London Ragtime) as Buddha, Shannon Stoeke (European Hair tour) as the Boatman and Evil Abbott, Daniel Therrien as Tam, A.J. Ocamp as Brother Yi and Old Kao, Anne Burnett Mathews (Victor/Victoria, The Full Monty tours) as the Spider Queen, and Christine Hudman (Grease, The Full Monty tours) as Lei-Lei and Queen of the Bhiksu Kingdom.

"Co-writer Robert Taylor, after living in China for three years and reading it in its original text, collaborated with writer and Cirque du Soleil conductor, Richard Oberacker, to bring the story into an inclusive, universal context.  The salvation of mankind hinges on the monk's challenge and mission of battling and overcoming harrowing trials and tribulations. The drama is relayed within a lush and grand sensory experience.  Journey is the only musical theatre production to incorporate elements of Peking Opera, Kabuki Theater, puppetry, masks, and Martial Arts while mixing traditional ethnic and world musical traditions with modern rock, pop and techno sounds in its storytelling.  In addition to salvation, themes of purpose, love, and redemption are at the core of this epic reinterpretation."

Oberacker (Composer, Co-Lyricist and Co-Librettist, Director) is currently the conductor of Cirque Du Soleil's "KA" at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. He has previously worked for Cirque Du Soleil as the original conductor and orchestrator of Dralion, making him the first American conductor hired by the renowned company. He has also served as conductor for the first national tour of Disney's The Lion King, as well as associate conductor for tours of Show Boat, Cats and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Music of the Night. As a composer, his musical The Gospel According to Fishman was commissioned by Clear Channel Entertainment and received its premiere at the Signature Theater in the Washington, D.C.-area under the direction of Eric D. Schaeffer. His musical Dracula-The Game of Love, premiered at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and his musical A Little Theatre premiered at the Aurelia Theater in Cincinnati.In That Valley, a musical with a book co-written by Steven Minning, was presented at the NAMT Festival of New Works in 1999. With Robert Taylor he has created a new musical entitled ACE which was featured in the 2005 NAMT Festival and will receive its world premiere in a co-production between the Repertory Theater of St. Louis and the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park for the fall of 2006. Oberacker and Taylor are commissioned to create a new musical for the Signature Theater's new theater complex.

Taylor (Co-lyricist and Co-librettist) began writing poetry and lyrics around the same time he picked up the violin at the age of eight.  A graduate of Holland's Royal Conservatory, Union College, the University of Bonn, and Princeton, Taylor taught foreign languages and ornithology in New York, English and music in China, served as music critic for the Albany Times Union, founded and directed several not-for-profit organizations, worked as a freelance musician and writer in Manhattan, and a translator in Europe and Asia. He currently tours with Disney's Lion King, and is hard at work on three new shows with Oberacker.

"The New York Musical Theatre Festival, now in its third year, is a three-week event in NYC that has premiered over 70 musicals in its first two years, becoming the largest musical theatre event in American history. Hailed as 'the Sundance of Musical Theatre,' it is now widely regarded among the entertainment industry as the key source for new material and talent discovery."

The performance schedule is: September 25th, 8:00PM; September 27th, 5:00PM; September 29th, 1:00PM and 5:00PM; September 30th, 9:00PM; and October 1st, 1:00PM.

For tickets, visit www.nymf.org or call 212-352-3101.  For more information and entire cast recording available for download, please visit: www.journeytothewestthemusical.com.

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