Midwest New Musicals Presents MY DEAD IRISH MOTHER, 4/23

Midwest New Musicals continues Words and Music, its concert reading series of original musicals, with MY DEAD IRISH MOTHER by Pat Byrnes and Rich Prezioso on Monday, April 23, at 7:30 PM at the Light Opera Works Second Stage at 1420 Maple (at Lake) in Evanston. Tickets are $15, available at Light Opera Works box office: (847) 920-5360 or at the door.

MY DEAD IRISH MOTHER is redundantly about a young man and his dead Irish-American mother. The play opens with a line stolen from the caption of a New Yorker cartoon by its author Pat Byrnes. The mother, lying in her casket, looks over at her son kneeling by her side and says, "You couldn't put on a tie?" What follows is a bumpy ride to resting in peace. You'll laugh hard, cry harder, you'll go home and call your mother. The musical has had staged readings in Chicago and Dayton and is slated for one in New York.

MY DEAD IRISH MOTHER is directed by Tin Salamone and music directed by Jessica Hunt. The stage manager is Dylan S. Roberts. Midwest New Musicals is lead by workshop director John Sparks.

Pat Byrnes (book, lyrics, music) is a cartoonist (The New Yorker), author (What Would Satan Do and Because I'm the Child Here and I Said So), illustrator (Eats, Shoots and Leaves - Illustrated Edition and Dave Barry on Dads), app inventor (Smurks.net) and devoted dad (CaptainDad.org). As a practitioner of theater, Pat has written Despairadise with Rich Prezioso, and a piece for children, Fässi Goboggan and the Curly Headed Girl. Other musical works in progress are Moon & Sun, The Second-Fastest Gun in the West, Flop! with James Finn Garner and Rich Prezioso and Pitchmen with Paul Libman.

Rich Prezioso (music) is, with Jacquie Manning, one half of Small Potatoes, a Chicago-based duo that has been touring on the folk circuit since 1993. During that time, Small Potatoes has become a sought-after regular at many clubs and coffeehouses across the U.S. with repeat appearances at major folk festivals, including the Kerrville Folk Festival, the Walnut Valley Folk Festival, Philadelphia Folk Festival and one of the "most requested" at the 1999 Falcon Ridge New Artist Showcase. Four recordings, Alive!, Waltz of the Wallflowers, Time Flies, and Raw, cover a wide range of styles from "Celtic to Cowboy."

The Midwest New Musicals writers workshop and the new Words and Music series are funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, The ASCAP Foundation and The Dramatist Guild Fund. Most of the new musicals in the Words and Music series are written by members of the Midwest New Musicals writers workshop and have been developed in the workshop Core Curriculum and development process.

Midwest New Musicals is an ongoing forum where lyricists, composers and book writers create and discuss their work. Divided into three levels, workshop members meet 10 times per year for intensive weekend sessions. Since 2009, Midwest New Musicals has been a resident arm of Light Opera Works, Chicago's specialists in operetta and musical theater. With the Midwest New Musicals program, Light Opera Works is able to expand its programming and service to the field by providing an outlet for writers and for new works of musical theater.