Grace McLean, Rodney Hicks, Natascia Diaz & More to Perform in New York Theatre Barn's May 2021 Virtual Programming

New York Theatre Barn will continue to host free live streams of its award-winning New Works Series on select Wednesday evenings at 7PM ET. Available on New York Theatre Barn's YouTube channel and Broadway on Demand, each installment of the live 1-hour series includes excerpts from two new musicals and a conversation with the writers and creative team.

May 12, 2021 @ 7PM ET

Hart Island

Book by Michelle Elliott

Lyrics by Michelle Elliott and Danny Haengil Larsen (The Yellow Wood, Cloaked)

Music by Danny Haengil Larsen

Featuring performances by Natascia Diaz (Passion, By The Way, Meet Vera Stark), Rodney Hicks (Come From Away, Rent) and Gizel Jiménez (Wicked, Avenue Q)

Just off the shore of New York City lies a sorrowful island that serves as a public burial ground for the lonely, forgotten, or impoverished of the city. Hart Island is an inspiring and emotional tale of an immigrant woman fighting for her child, and the unexpected compassion of a disillusioned inmate who is the only person who can help her. This hauntingly beautiful new musical observes two people on the fringe of society as they change each other's lives forever.

Cowboy Bob

Music and Lyrics by Jeanna Phillips

Book and Additional Lyrics by Molly Beach Murphy

Additional Music by Alex Thrailkill

Directed by Annie Tippe

Featuring performances by Ashley Pérez Flanagan (Freestyle Love Supreme) and Grace McLean (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812)

You wouldn't look twice at Peggy Jo. She was a good daughter, always tipped well at restaurants, but disguised as "Cowboy Bob" in a fake beard and a ten-gallon hat, she was the slickest bank robber Texas has ever known. Making her get-away in a sky blue 1975 Pontiac Grand Prix, she was a modern-day bandit stealing thousands and evading detection for more than a decade. With a score that's equal parts Riot Grrrl rage and Texas two-step twang, this tale of a small-town legend spurs a discontented chain-restaurant waitress to buck routine, take life by the reins, and let it ride.

May 26, 2021 @ 7PM ET

The Loophole

Music and Lyrics by Jay Adana

Book and Bars by Zeniba Now

Featuring performances by Jay Adana, John-Michael Lyles (A Strange Loop, Sweeney Todd) and Zeniba Now

It's 1864. Polly Danfield, a brilliant Black mapmaker, has never left her white father's house. She's free inside her library but when the outside world and mysterious Alligator Queen beckon, Polly must choose: the life she's known, or love and revolution. With a blend of folk, rap, poetry and body percussion, this swampy epic recasts the American hero. The Loophole is the winner of the 2020 Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theater.

The Bridge

Book and Lyrics by Kathleen Wrinn

Music by Peter Hodgson

Featuring performances by Peter Hodgson and Kathleen Wrinn

The Bridge is an epic new musical based on the love story that built the Brooklyn Bridge. When Emily Roebling's husband falls mysteriously ill and is unable to continue as Chief Engineer, Emily must do the impossible: secretly take her husband's place as Chief, in an era half a century before women were allowed to vote. With a genre-defying score as vibrant as New York City itself, The Bridge explores the forces that unite and divide us. It is a story of mistakes and forgiveness. Of great sacrifice and even greater hope. Of finding a way forward, across the uncrossable. Together.

Now in its 14th season, New York Theatre Barn's New Works Series is produced and hosted by Associate Artistic Director Jen Sandler and Artistic Director Joe Barros. The New Works Series supports NYTB's mission of incubating original culture shifting musicals in real time and in front of live audiences, and has received support in part by the Innovation & Exploration Fund - a program of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre. For the past year, the company has presented 42 virtual installments of its New Works Series (among other programming), showcased 88 new musicals, and lifted up the work of 158 writers and over 500 artists. For more information, visit New York Theatre Barn's website: www.nytheatrebarn.org.

 

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