Leah Hocking, Robert Creighton, Natalie Douglas Set for THE ALGONQUIN KID in Concert at Urban Stages

Librettist/Lyricist Michael Colby will bring a concert adaptation of his well-received memoir, THE ALGONQUIN KID: ADVENTURES GROWING UP IN NEW YORK'S LEGENDARY HOTEL to Winter Rhythms at Urban Stages, 259 West 30th Street, NY 10001 on Dec. 13th at 2:00pm. Reserve tickets in advance by calling 866.811.4111 or visiting web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe.c/10050000.

Published earlier this year by BearManor Media, the book recounts Mr. Colby's childhood at the iconic hotel, owned by his grandparents, Mary and Ben Bodne, from 1946 to 1987.

The performance will feature stories told by Mr. Colby, with a singing cast that includes Robert Creighton (Cagney, Anything Goes, The Mystery of Edwin Drood ), Leah Hocking (Billy Elliot, The Last Ship, Hairspray), Martin Vidnovic (Baby, Footloose, Guys and Dolls) and seven time MAC award-winning concert artist, Natalie Douglas. The nostalgic repertoire will include music from The Algonquin's famous denizens and close family friends including Alec Wilder, Lorenz Hart, Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe and Ella Fitzgerald. Bill Zeffiro is Musical Director.

As a kid, Colby and siblings visited their grandparents every weekend. Colby took up permanent residence in the hotel at the age of eighteen and made his way into the theater world as a librettist, composer and lyricist. His musical, Charlotte Sweet, an all-sung, all-rhymed original musical with libretto by Colby and music by Gerald Jay Markoe, received three Drama Desk Award nominations and was critically lauded as "adorable, strange and delectable" by the New York Times, "witty & endlessly inventive," by the New York Post and "delightful, original, totally charming" by Variety. The music from this show is set to be re-released in the next few months on Jay Records, and a first release is also planned for the score of Tales of Tinseltown with book and lyrics by Michael Colby and music by Paul Katz, also on Jay Records. Colby was chief writer for the Drama Desk Award-winning New Amsterdam Theatre Company, and has been a writer for The New York Festival of Song as well as the Theater By the Blind. Among the personalities for whom Mr. Colby has written special material are: Linda Lavin, Tony Randall, Tovah Feldshuh, Heather MacRae, Robert Cuccioli, Savion Glover, Dina Merrill, Susan Stroman, Michael Feinstein, Jack Gilford, Andrea Marcovicci, Kristin Chenoweth, Bruce Adler, Cliff Robertson, Lainie Kazan, Jane Powell, Eric Stoltz, Julie Wilson, Alison Fraser, Mary Cleere Haran, Donna McKechnie, & Cicely Tyson.

Winter Rhythms is the winner of the 2015 Ruth Kurtzman Benefit Series MAC Award. Collaborating with Artistic Director Frances Hill, Peter Napolitano has been producing Winter Rhythms since 2011, presenting an eclectic mix of shows with all the proceeds from ticket sales dedicated to the Urban Stages On Tour Outreach Program that brings more than 200 free multicultural theater and music programs to elementary and middle school age children and their families in libraries and schools throughout NYC five boroughs.

Michael Colby's treasured stories of his childhood as a real-life counterpart to Eloise of the Plaza were originally published in a popular thirty-part series called THE ALGONQUIN KID on TheaterPizzazz.com. Visit Michael Colby online at www.michaelcolby.com.

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