Musical Theater Heritage to Offer Concert Presentation of New Musical HURRICANE

Musical Theater Heritage will enters the foray of original new work by presenting a concert style reading of Michael Finke's new musical, HURRICANE. MTH is bringing the composer in from New York and will spend the week fine-tuning the new musical culminating with a free public reading on Sunday, June 26 at 8pm.

The concert-style reading will be presented at The MTH Theater in Crown Center.

HURRICANE tells the story of 5 New Yorkers forced inside their homes and off the city streets in the in the hours leading up to Hurricane Sandy. In Michael Finke's new musical, four friends are forced to deal with their own isolated struggles while stuck inside. As the rain keeps falling and a mysterious neighbor knocks on the door, these four women contemplate their personal struggles, inner demons, and the parallels of their lives in the wake of the hurricane. The MTH concert reading will feature Emily Shackelford, Stefanie Wienecke, Sara Kennedy, Shon Ruffin, and Jacob Aaron Cullum. The reading is co-directed by Chip Miller and Tim Scott, with Musical Direction by Jeremy Watson.

MICHAEL FINKE is a New York based composer, lyricist, and librettist. He has had songs, concerts, and full productions of his work performed at 54 Below, Joe's Pub, The Laurie Beechman Theater, NYU, Don't Tell Mama, Off Broadway at St. Luke's, NYMF, L.A.'s Rockwell:

Table & Stage, the Christmas Day telecast on ABC, and many more.
He is a member of ASCAP, the Dramatist Guild, and is the winner of the 2015 New Voices Project with Disney Imagineering and New Musicals Inc. He has been a proud resident musical director for the Lovewell Institute since 2007, having music directed Lovewell workshops in Ohio, New York, Florida, Kansas, Nevada, Sweden, and Italy.

CHIP MILLER is the Assistant Artistic Director at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre, where he recently appeared as The Mute in The Fantasticks. Directing: 4:48 Psychosis (The Buffalo Room); David George's Christmas Ain't A Drag (The Madrid) Assistant Directing: Roof of the World, Sunday in the Park with George, Stillwater, Hair, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Romeo & Juliet, The Tallest Tree in the Forest, American Buffalo, Waiting for You (on the Corner of 13th and Walnut), Death of a Salesman (KC Rep); Justice in the Embers (The Living Room); 600 Highwaymen's Empire City (University Settlement); Reporting Live (NYMF 2012); Venice (Public Theatre); Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Baltimore Centerstage). Upcoming: Directing A Raisin in the Sun with Marissa Wolf at the Kansas City Rep. Education: BFA: New York University.

TIM SCOTT serves as Associate Producer for Musical Theater Heritage and over the last 10 years has appeared in over a dozen MTH Main Stage productions. In his time at MTH he has produced and directed over 50 original programs. He is responsible for MTH's critically acclaimed Musical Monday & Tuesday series, as well as the A Night on the Town Live performance series. He directed last season's A Spectacular Christmas Show, and later this year will serve as Director for MTH's original revue Songs of the Great War, to be presented in collaboration with The National WWI Museum.

JEREMY WATSON is the resident music supervisor for Musical Theater Heritage. In his time at MTH, Jeremy has conducted, music directed, and played more than 2 dozen productions. He has served as music director or assistant music director for nearly every professional theater in Kansas City.

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