Frank and Bryant's Musical Virgins Plays NYMF, 9/14-9/26

Direct from the smash-hit Melbourne premiere, Virgins, a new musical by Australians Mathew Frank and Dean Bryant performed by its original Australian all-female cast, will perform as part of this year's New York Musical Theatre Festival.  The show will run at the Barrow Group Theatre (312 W. 36th Street) from September 14th through 26th.

"Focusing on the fairer sex, these five totally righteous babes sing and dance their way through three unique stories about friendship, success and making their dreams come true. Rated G--it hits the spot!," state press notes.  The cast includes: Esther Hannaford, Rosemarie Harris, Verity Hunt-Ballard, Amanda Levy, and Kellie Rode.  

Directed by Bryant, Virgins will feature choreography by Natalie Marsland, musical direction by John Shawcross, set design by Adam Gardnir, and lighting design by Herrick Goldman.

To help cover a portion of the $15,000 costs of flights and NYC accomodation, this past Monday the cast and crew of Virgins presented "Virgins Unplugged," a benefit concert in Melbourne that included many Australian stars of theatre, film and television, including Lisa McCune, David Campbell, Rhonda Burchmore, Mitchell Butel and Silvie Paladino.  "The benefit was a huge success, raising over $13,000.  With New York producer Matt Murphy (Altar Boyz) covering the rest of the expenses, the Virgins team is all set for their jet-lagging journey to NYMF."

The musical marks Frank and Bryant's second musical to premier in New York.  In 2002 their musical Prodigal premiered Off-Broadway at York Theatre Company, becoming the first Australian musical produced in New York City.  Prodigal had its world premiere at Chapel-Off-Chapel in Melbourne in January 2000 and won Best Original Music and Lyrics.  Other works by Frank and Bryant include The People in Your Pocket, which was commissioned by the multi award-winning educational theatre company, Perform for the Centenary of Federation.  In 2001, this production toured Australia, seen by over 15,000 students.  A retrospective of Frank and Bryant's writing was produced as part of the 2004 Melbourne International Arts Festival under the title All Roads Lead to Home. The concert was recently remounted as one of the major events of the Shepparton Arts Festival.  Their musicals were also featured as part of the 2004 Victorian Arts Centre exhibition, Making A Song and Dance, which highlighted important Australian musical theatre pieces.

For more information and tickets, visit www.nymf.org.

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