Photo Flash: Industry Reading Of 'Vote', the High School Election Musical

VOTE! A New Musical about high school election espionage & the pursuit of a real dream that "counts" received a private, industry-only reading in Manhattan with Andrew Keenan-Bolger (Seussical, Spelling Bee) and Haviland Stillwell (Les Miserables, Fiddler on the Roof) starring.

Rice University Alumni and co-collaborators Ryann Ferguson and Steven Jamail (of 2005 Fringe Festival's Byzantium and Harper's Guild Award Winners for Best Aria, "Lotus Song") come from intensive theatre backgrounds ranging from production, to marketing, to lighting design, and composition, collectively.  With successful experiences both together and apart, the two have joined forces again in creating and writing VOTE!

Director Ryan J. Davis recently directed The Broadway Boy Beauty Pageant (aka Mr. Broadway) at New World Stages. Previous NYC directing credits include White Noise (NYMF '06) My Life on Craigslist  (45th Street Theater) Grace Falls & Genius Famous (Fringe NYC) and others.  As a politico, Davis also writes for the Huffington Post & The Hill.

The full cast also includes Celisse Henderson (Wicked National Tour, upcoming Godspell revival) Alissa Wyatt, Krystal Brown (RENT Tour), Landon Beard (Altar Boyz), Tracy Weiler, Kevin Curtis, Autumn Hurlbert (Legally Blonde: The Search for Elle Woods, Little Women National Tour), Jacqui Polk (Hairspray), Matt Skrincosky, and Jake Wilson (The Battery's Down).

VOTE! takes place in the very familiar Green Valley High School, a place where dreams are explored and revealed and American rites of passage are realized.  The all-star cast members portray Muffin Pasquinelli (Stillwell), Mark Boyd (Keenan-Bolger), Trish F. Yoder (Wyatt), and Nikki Murphy (Brown). With Ms. Fowler (Henderson), their teacher, to guide them, and a hot snowboarder (Beard) to distract them, the race for Student Council President really starts to boil.

The race forces them to consider the meaning and power of an individual vote and why they are really running (a timely coincidence, given that it dovetails with one of our most diverse and arguably important political seasons to date).  VOTE! delivers an exciting outlet for all of us to consider what we're voting for and who's really behind the faces of a given candidacy.

For more information on VOTE! The Musical please visit: www.votethemusical.com.

The cake

Andrew Keenan-Bolger shows his patriotic side as Uncle Sam for VOTE!

Andrew Keenan-Bolger and Ryann Ferguson

The cast of VOTE!

Letting loose