December Events Announced at York Theatre Company

The award-winning York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director) announces the recipient of the second York Theatre Company Noël Coward Prize, celebrating individual musical theatre talent; as well as the next three offerings in its acclaimed Developmental Reading Series. For more information, visit: www.yorktheatre.org.

This year‘s recipient of the York Theatre Company Noël Coward Prize is Barry Wyner for his musical, Calvin Berger. An invited one-night-only concert of selections from Calvin Berger and the Noël Coward catalog will be presented on Friday, December 16th. In honor of the talents of Sir Noël Coward, who often served as the writer/composer/lyricist for his musicals, the York Theatre Company – with the endorsement of the Noël Coward Foundation –administers the Noël Coward Prize to a promising librettist/composer/lyricist whose work best exemplifies the triple threat standards set by Coward.

The next three offerings in the Developmental Reading Series this December include: Wicked Moon, Unexpected Joy and Who’s Your Mommy?

Wicked Moon

Music by Varick Bacon

Lyrics by Powers McElhone

Book by Richard Aellen

Thursday, December 1, 2011 • 1:30 PM

This reading is directed by Pamela Hunt (The Musical of Musicals!) with music direction by David John Madore. Casting will be announced soon.

Meet Arlene Lewis, owner of the Wicked Moon cabaret. Her niece is engaged to marry the wrong man, her best friend would rather talk like a man than trust one, and now the landlord wants to turn the Moon into a sex shop. Add to that a charming Musical Director and a strong-arm man with unusual affinities and the stage is set for a tumultuous weekend in which Arlene must confront her past to discover if she has the courage to take a second chance on love. A romantic comedy for anyone who has taken a chance on love and lived to tell about it.

Unexpected Joy

Presented in association with Jim Kierstead (Yank!)

Book and Lyrics by Bill Russell (Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens)

Music by Janet Hood (Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens)

Friday, December 2, 2011 • 2 PM

Featuring: Baby Jane Dexter (2009 Nightlife Award Winner for Outstanding Female Vocalist) Emma Hunton (Next to Normal), Capathia Jenkins (Caroline, or Change) and AnnMarie Milazzo (Bright Lights, Big City). The reading is directed by Sheryl Kaller (Next Fall) with music direction by Fred Lassen (South Pacific).

Unexpected Joy is a new musical about four women – all of them singers, but of various experience and success: Joy, a baby-boomer, her daughter Rachel, Rachel's daughter Tamara, and Lou, the woman Joy is intending to marry. But Joy hasn‘t told Rachel about her wedding plans and has good reason to be apprehensive. Rachel is married to a successful televangelist and performs regularly on his TV show. And Lou is a self-described ?lesbian terrorist.‘ When the family comes together for a concert honoring Rachel's father (her mother never married him), the sparks and music fly!

Who’s Your Mommy?

Music by Gerald Sternbach

Book and Lyrics by Elin Hampton

Tuesday, December 20, 2011 • 4 PM

The cast of Who’s Your Mommy? features Jared Bradshaw (Forbidden Broadway), Alison Cimmet (Bonnie and Clyde), Alli Mauzey (Cry-Baby), Mary Gordon Murray (Into the Woods) and Elyse Wolf (Crossing Delancey). The reading is directed by Lynn Taylor-Corbet (My Vaudeville Man!) with music direction by Gerald Sternbach.

Every woman knows how to be a great mother, until she has children. Books may tell you what to expect, but nothing prepares you for your nervous breakdown at the supermarket, the horror that your kid is the bully, or the overall paranoia that everyone is judging you as a ?bad mommy.? Four formerly capable meet in Mommy and Me and concurrently ride the eighteen-year emotional roller coaster of child-raising. It‘s funny and poignant, but mostly funny.

The York Theatre Company is the only theater in New York City—and one of very few in the world—dedicated to developing and fully producing new musicals and preserving neglected, notable shows from the past. Over the last two seasons, York productions and artists have been nominated for a combined 19 Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, Off-Broadway Alliance, AUDELCO and Callaway Awards (and its productions of Yank! A WWII Love Story and Enter Laughing, The Musical have both been announced for Broadway). For over four decades, York‘s intimate, imaginative style of producing both original and neglected classic musicals has resulted in critical acclaim and recognition from artists and audiences alike. Under the guidance of Producing Artistic Director James Morgan since 1997, the York has focused exclusively on new musicals in its Mainstage Series—most of them world, American, or New York premieres—by some of the field‘s most esteemed creators, and has also helped launch the careers of many talented new writers. Over 35 cast recordings from York Theatre Company productions are now available on CD, and commercial transfers of such York premieres as The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!), Souvenir, Jolson & Company, and its acclaimed revivals of Sweeney Todd and Pacific Overtures have all showcased the importance of the York and its programs.

Each year, York‘s Developmental Reading Series presents between 30 to 40 readings and workshops of new musicals by emerging and established authors. Associate Artistic Director Brian Blythe says, ?These readings give writers a unique opportunity to get audience feedback while a show is still in progress.? York‘s past Mainstage productions of Yank!, Souvenir and The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!) were first developed in the Developmental Reading Series, where the Tony Award-winning Broadway hit Avenue Q also made its first appearances. The Developmental Reading Series is made possible in part by The Dorothy Strelsin Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts and NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

YORK THEATRE COMPANY at Saint Peter’s

Enter on 54th Street Just East of Lexington

E or M train to Lexington Avenue or 6 train to 51st Street

www.yorktheatre.org

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