The 24 Hour Musicals 2014, Featuring Work by Broadway & Film Stars, Set for 4/6-7

A team of nearly 100 stars from Broadway, film, television, and music will cast, write, compose, direct, rehearse, tech, and perform four original musicals - all in the obscenely short time between an evening meet-and-greet on Sunday, April 6 and show time on Monday, April 7 at 8pm. The 24 Hour Company ® is teaming with the Exchange, an off-Broadway theater company, to create the sixth-ever 24 Hour Musicals. The event benefits the Exchange's summer retreat, The Orchard Project, which kick-starts innovative new theatrical work from around the world.

The musicals will be written, cast, rehearsed, and performed at The Gramercy Theatre over the course of a single day, featuring an all-star line up of Broadway performers, stars from TV and film, great composers and writers, directors and - to top it all off - choreographers and musical directors. Past participants have included Ben Folds (Ben Folds Five), America Ferrera (Ugly Betty), Mo Rocca (CBS), Debby Boone, Cheyenne Jackson (30 Rock), Rachel Dratch (Saturday Night Live), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family), Anthony Rapp (RENT, If/Then), Kathleen Turner, Roger Bart (Desperate Housewives, The Producers), Richard Kind (Mad About You), Steven Pasquale (Bridges Over Madison County, Do No Harm), Taran Killam (Saturday Night Live), Tracie Thoms (RENT,Cold Case) and Tonya Pinkins (Caroline, or Change).

"Every year, a wonderfully talented group of the best from stage and screen come together to attempt the impossible," said Ari Edelson, the artistic director of the Exchange and the Orchard Project. "This combustive and joyous process is not only hugely entertaining, but it also raises the funds to support the beginning of dozens of shows that then go up around the country. It would not be a stretch to say that ALL THE WAY, which just opened on Broadway, would not be the great piece that it is without the the support of this event, as the play was written over two summers at the Orchard Project."

The creative team will arrive at The Gramercy Theatre at 9 PM on Sunday, April 6 for a meet-and-greet. Each person brings a prop and a costume to inspire the writers. At 11 PM - after some singing, dancing, introductions, and "don't do this at home" warnings - the actors and directors go get some rest and the composers and book writers get to work. Completed musicals - with at least two songs each - are due by 7 AM. In the morning, directors, choreographers, and actors arrive for rehearsals. After a supersonic tech (with lights, costumes and sound) in the late afternoon, the audience arrives. The unconventional time constraints create a tremendous amount of energy. Although actors have only one day create characters, learn blocking, music and choreography, the musicals are performed without scripts in hand. The show starts at 8 PM, with an open bar courtesy of Monsieur Touton Selection and Diageo and finishes with a VIP afterparty with cast and crew.

Tickets for the gala are between $75 and $500 and all include admission to the show and open bar at the Gramercy Theater. To buy tickets, visit http://www.exchangenyc.org/201424HM.