Mandy Gonzalez, Katerina McCrimmon, David Merino, Martin Sola & More Set For Industry Reading Of New Musical AZUL

Supported by The Miranda Family, Latiné Musical Theatre Lab will be hosting an internal industry table reading of the musical AZUL, in August 1st, as part of the Lab's Table Reading Series.

The cast will include Mandy Gonzalez (Hamilton, Wicked, In The Heights), Katerina McCrimmon (The Rose Tattoo), Gían Peréz (Sing Street), David Merino (Moulin Rouge), Martin Sola (The King and I, On Your Feet!), Henry Gainza (On Your Feet!) and Adriana Medina. 

AZUL was previously programmed at the 2023 Goodspeed Writers' Grove, the 2022 NYC Women's Fund for Media, Music and Theatre, NAMT 2021 Annual Festival of New Musicals, the 2020 National Music Theatre Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, followed by a workshop in 2022, and more. 

Following two sold out concerts at 54 Below and Joe's Pub, and an EP recording with Arrangements and orchestrations are by Kurt Crowley (Hamilton, Freestyle Love Supreme, Bring It On), and Tony and Grammy Award winner Alex Lacamoire (Hamilton, In The Heights, Dear Evan Hansen), the AZUL team will continue developing this piece through this internal table reading. 

AZUL is a Latin American musical, a joyful celebration in the world of magic realism, by Tatiana Pandiani (director/book-writer/lyricist), Melis Aker (book-writer/lyricist), and Jacinta Clusellas (composer/lyricist). 

Set in a world of magic realism, Act One is a musical fable prequel. It follows an ambitious young woman, Blue Bird, who leaves her home behind and travels to the New World in hopes of making a living and a life as a poet. In present-day New York City, Act Two is a coming-of-age tale following Blue Bird's daughter, Rita. A first generation American, Rita is a composer struggling to write an album about a motherland she has never known. When attempting to make her music more authentic, she uncovers a family secret that debunks the stories she heard as a child. She must now reimagine her parents' past, as well as the future of her own artistry. AZUL weaves together these two distinct worlds to explore how memory and imagination shape immigrant stories. Driven by a constellation of songs rooted in Latin American folklore, AZUL is a spectacle in the legacy of book musicals, as well as a deep dive into intergenerational stories shaping immigrant identity. 

Learn more about the show at www.azulthemusical.com 

Tatiana Pandiani is a Latin American writer & director-choreographer who works in Spanish and English. Recent: Our Town / Nuestro Pueblo (Dallas Theatre Center), Blood Wedding (Yale), What the Constitution Means to Me (Associate, Broadway and National Tour). Upcoming: Torera (The Alley Theatre, Houston / Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven). Tatiana has directed and developed new work at the Park Theatre (London), Cleveland Playhouse, NYTW, IATI, Primary Stages, Signature. As a choreographer, Tatiana collaborates with Latine artists in concerts & music videos. Tatiana is the New Works Director at Miami New Drama, and a professor at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University. Member of SDC. MFA: Columbia. Reps: Brillstein Entertainment Partners. www.tatianapandiani.com

Jacinta Clusellas is a composer, guitarist and songwriter based in New York City. Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jacinta's music brings together South American folklore, jazz and chamber music. She is the composer-arranger of the bilingual musical AZUL (NAMT, Eugene O'Neill NMTC, Goodspeed) inspired by her concept album El Pájaro Azul (published in Japan under the record label Inpartmaint Inc). She has performed at SIX on Broadway, Lin Manuel Miranda's COCO screening concert, toured across the US (Lincoln Center, Joe's Pub, SXSW) and internationally in Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Canada, Greece and Italy. She has arranged for A.R. Rahman (Boston Symphony Hall) and Alejandro Sanz. Jacinta is currently Music Directing The Comedy of Errors at The Public Theater Mobile Unit. She is a Teaching Artist at the Very Young Composers Program for the New York Philharmonic and an assistant professor at Berklee College of Music. Upcoming: New album “A Dónde Llega el Silencio'' produced by West One Music (UK). www.jacintaclusellasmusic.com 

Named a “Woman to Watch” by the Broadway Women's Fund, Melis Aker is a writer, actor, musician based between London and New York. She currently has a series in development with Skybound Entertainment. The Off-Broadway premiere of her play Hound Dog, co-produced by Ars Nova and The Play Company was named one of the “30 Best Shows to See” by Time Out. She will next be receiving the London premiere of musical play Hundred Feet Tall with Benjamin Scheuer adapted from the eponymous children's book (TBA). Melis is the recipient of the Sundance Interdisciplinary Program grant, and is currently the Signature Theatre Company's LaunchPad resident playwright. She has had writing commissioned by and developed at Atlantic Theatre Company, Ars Nova (Play Group member), New York Theatre Workshop (2050 fellow), Dramatists Guild (DGF fellow) in the U.S., as well as the Finborough and Park theatres in the U.K. Melis has also worked on the development of a screenplay with Revelations Entertainment headed by Morgan Freeman. Her plays include: Field, Awakening (2019 Kilroy's List); Scraps and Things (Playing on Air, starring Carol Kane, directed by Neil Pepe, featured on the New York Times); Fractio Panis (Homebound Project/No Kid Hungry, starring Brian Cox, directed by Tatiana Pandiani); Manar (Theatre503 Playwriting Award semifinalist). MFA: Columbia. U.S. REP: CAA & Brillstein Entertainment Partners. www.melisaker.com 

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