Second Stage Theater to Present Reading of New Musical EIGHTY-SIXED

Second Stage Theater will present a one-night-only reading of the new musical EIGHTY-SIXED, which will kick off the NEXT STAGE FESTIVAL on January 16, 2024 at Second Stage’s Tony Kiser Theater (305 West 43rd Street).

 

EIGHTY-SIXED, the Nancy Denovan Musical Reading of the festival, features a book by Jeremy J. King, with music and lyrics by Sam Salmond, and direction by Kevin Newbury. It is based on the novel by David B. Feinberg. Cynthia Meng is the Music Director and Steven Cuevas is the Music Supervisor. The Nancy Denovan Musical Reading is funded by a grant from Christopher and David R. Murray.

 

EIGHTY-SIXED is replacing the previously announced reading of INSIDE VOICES.

 

THE NEXT STAGE FESTIVAL formalizes Second Stage Theater’s artistic pipeline, providing support at crucial early moments in a playwright’s development - from writers with partial drafts to early career playwrights ready for their New York debuts.

 

THE NEXT STAGE FESTIVAL is made possible in part by the New American Voices Fund, which was established in 2016 by a lead gift from David Stone.

The Festival’s centerpiece production will bring the model of Second Stage’s Uptown Series to its midtown home with the world premiere production of Kate Douglas’ play, THE APIARY, directed by Kate Whoriskey, running at the Tony Kiser Theater. THE APIARY will have a limited performance schedule, running from January 31st to February 25th, officially opening February 13th.

 

The Next Stage Festival will also include The Judith Champion Reading Series, featuring three new plays developed over a week of rehearsal with experienced directors, top-notch casts and targeted design support. Each play will receive a one-night-only presentation at the Tony Kiser Theater. The plays are D.A. Mindell’s ON THE EVOLUTIONARY FUNCTION OF SHAME, Sarah Mantell’s THE GOOD GUYS, and Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin’s TIGER BEAT.  The Judith Champion Reading Series is funded by a grant from the Judith Champion Charitable Fund and Mel Litoff.

 

Additionally, the invaluable work of the Lark Playwrights Workshop will continue under the auspices of Second Stage Theater – five playwrights will be mentored by established theater artists, including David Henry Hwang, Rajiv Joseph, and May Adrales.  The six private sessions that comprise this program occur every 2-3 weeks beginning Wednesday, January 17th and concluding on Tuesday, March 26th.

 

Casting for all events, as well as directors for the plays in the Judith Champion Reading Series, will be announced at a later date.

 

Second Stage members and subscribers receive priority access to the Next Stage Festival. The Nancy Denovan Musical Reading and The Judith Champion Reading Series are complimentary, though seats must be reserved in advance. The Lark Playwrights Workshop is a private mentoring workshop. Tickets to THE APIARY are on sale now.

 

EIGHTY-SIXED – Tuesday, January 16

Book by Jeremy J. King

Music and lyrics by Sam Salmond

Based on the Novel by David B. Feinberg

Music Direction by Cynthia Meng

Music Supervision by Steven Cuevas

Directed by Kevin Newbury

 

New York City used to be a party town, but 1986 finds everyone paralyzed with fear of AIDS. Everyone, that is, except BJ Rosenthal, who’s determined to keep the party going. When an ex-lover becomes ill, BJ is forced to face the nightmare enveloping him and redefine his life. Based on the celebrated novel of its time and set to a soaring pop score pulsating with joy and heart wrenching melodies, Eighty-Sixed unearths an epidemic that shook the world to reveal a community’s ferocious fight to reclaim its future.

 

EIGHTY-SIXED was initially developed with support from The Prince Fellowship. The musical was subsequently developed and produced by Diversionary Theatre of San Diego in May 2022.

 

JEREMY J. KING

(Book) is a writer (and sometimes performer) passionate about examining the queer experience through adaptation and speculative fiction. As a novelist, Jeremy authored Immortal Testimonies, a young adult horror fantasy for Bold Strokes Books. At the time of its release in 2012, the series was among the first YA series to feature queer protagonists and was listed in Advocate’s “Top 10 Books for Young LGBT Folks and Anyone Who Wants to Understand Them,” recommended by the American Library Association’s GLBT Round Table and nominated for the Rainbow Award in fantasy. His dramatic work includes the adaptations of several notable pieces ranging from a musical of David B. Feinberg’s Eighty-Sixed to a queer investigation of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby to a contemporary exploration of Stoker’s Dracula to a reimagining of America’s first documented sodomy crimes. Jeremy toes the line between literal and emotional adaptations of his favorite works and explores their queer characters or themes through magic realism, fantasy, and horror. Jeremy is a 2018 Dramatist Guild Foundation Fellow, an Affiliated Artist with Musical Theatre Factory, and a 2018 Resident at SPACE on Ryder Farm. More info at www.jeremyjordanking.com

 

Sam Salmond

(Music and Lyrics) is a Jonathan Larson Award- winning composer, lyricist, and book writer.   He’s written music and lyrics for an adaptation of Eighty-Sixed, which had a 2022 production at Diversionary Theatre. He’s also currently writing music and lyrics for The Homefront, which has been developed with Village Theatre. His musical Mother, Me and the Monsters (a Boston Globe Critic’s Pick) was produced at Barrington Stage. His children’s musical, Dot Dot Dot is on a multi-year Theatreworks USA national tour. He wrote the book and lyrics for Cage Match (Prospect Theater Company). He’s the creator of Uncool: The Party (CAP21 and MTF). Sam’s work has been featured at Lincoln Center, Ars Nova, Joe's Pub, 54 Below, The Town Hall and all around the country. He’s an alumnus of NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, a 2018 SPACE on Ryder Farm resident and a 2017-18 Dramatists Guild Fellow. www.samsalmond.com

 

Kevin Newbury

(Direction) is an opera, theatre, and film director with over 100 projects to his credit.  Career highlights: three PBS Great Performances Broadcasts: Bernstein’s MASS (Ravinia Festival), Doubt (Minnesota Opera) & Bel Canto (Lyric Opera of Chicago); dozens of world premieres, includingKansas City Choir Boy (starring Courtney Love, Prototype Festival & National Tour), GRAMMY-winner The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera and San Francisco Opera), and five operas with composer Gregory Spears, including Fellow Travelers (New York Times “Best of 2016”), Castor & Patience (New York Times “Best of 2022”) and The Righteous (upcoming: Santa Fe Opera).  Theatre includes GLAAD Candy & Dorothy (GLAAD Media Award), Candide (with Bradley Cooper & Carey Mulligan, Philadelphia Orchestra) and Eighty-Sixed (Diversionary Theatre).  TV/Film: AppleTV’s Dickinson, dozens of music videos, short films, and film festivals, including the Times Square Midnight Moment.  In 2023, Kevin directed Liz Phair’sExile in Guyville 30th Anniversary Tour.  Co-Founder: Up Until Now Collective

 

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ABOUT Second Stage Theater

Under the artistic direction of Carole Rothman, Second Stage Theater operates two New York City venues, exclusively dedicated to producing living American Playwrights.

Among Second Stage’s 180 productions are the 2015 Pulitzer Prize winner Between Riverside and Crazy by Stephen Adly Guirgis; the 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner Next to Normal by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey; the 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegria Hudes; Mary Page Marlowe by Tracy Letts; The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown; Dogfight by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Peter Duchan; Dear Evan Hansen by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, and Steven Levenson; Clyde’s and By the Way, Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage; Trust and Lonely, I’m Not by Paul Weitz; Grand Horizons by Bess Wohl; The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity by Kristoffer Diaz; Everyday Rapture and Whorl Inside a Loop by Dick Scanlan and Sherie Rene Scott; Let Me Down Easy and Notes From the Field by Anna Deavere Smith; Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo; Torch Song by Harvey Fierstein; Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl;The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane; Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin; Jitney by August Wilson; Crowns by Regina Taylor; Saturday Night by Stephen Sondheim; Afterbirth: Kathy & Mo’s Greatest Hits by Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy; This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan; Coastal Disturbances by Tina Howe; A Soldier’s Play by Charles Fuller; The Good Times Are Killing Me by Lynda Barry; and Tiny Alice and Peter and Jerry by Edward Albee.

The company’s more than 170 citations include the 2022 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play for Take Me Out, as well as Best Featured Actor in a Play for Jesse Tyler Ferguson; six 2017 Tony Awards for Dear Evan Hansen (Best Musical; Best Lead Actor in a Musical, Ben Platt; Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Rachel Bay Jones; Best Book of a Musical; Best Original Score; Best Orchestrations); the 2009 Tony Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Musical (Alice Ripley, Next to Normal), Best Score (Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, Next to Normal), and Best Orchestrations (Tom Kitt and Michael Starobin, Next to Normal); the 2007 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (Julie White, The Little Dog Laughed); the 2005 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (Rachel Sheinkin, …Spelling Bee) and Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Dan Fogler, …Spelling Bee); the 2002 Tony Award for Best Director of a Play (Mary Zimmerman for Metamorphoses); the 2002 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work, 29 Obie Awards, 11 Outer Critics Circle Awards, four Clarence Derwent Awards, 20 Drama Desk Awards, 11 Theatre World Awards, one Dorothy Louden Award, 20 Lucille Lortel Awards, the Drama Critics Circle Award and 23 AUDELCO Awards.

In 1999, Second Stage Theater opened The Tony Kiser Theater, its state-of-the-art, 296-seat theater, designed by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. In 2002, Second Stage launched “Second Stage Theater Uptown” to showcase the work of up-and-coming artists at the 99-seat McGinn/Cazale Theater.

In 2018, Second Stage began producing at its 581 seat Broadway home, The Hayes Theater. Originally named “The Little Theater” and built in 1912, the city landmark has been remodeled by David Rockwell of Rockwell Group. The Theater supports artists through several programs that include residencies, fellowships and commissions, and engages students and community members through education and outreach programs.

For more information, please visit www.2ST.com or follow Second Stage on Twitter: @2STNYC, Instagram: @2stnyc and Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/2STNYC/