'THE SUICIDE' & 'THE THING ABOUT JOE' In Tuneful Tues. 11/25

THE SUICIDE and THE THING ABOUT JOE set for tuneful Tuesdays series

Two new Musicals from the BMI Workshop at the Snapple Theater Center

Musical Mondays Theatre Lab has pushed the calendar one day ahead with their Tuneful Tuesdays series at the Jerry Orbach Theater in the Snapple Theater Center. The Musical Mondays' 2008-9 season is devoted to new work from the Tony ® Honored BMI -Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop.

The first one hour sampling, The Suicide, adapted from the 1928 Soviet comedy of the same name by Nikolai Erdman, plays at 6:30PM on Tuesday, November 25. The new musical is written by lyricist Raymond Bokhour (currently Amos in Chicago), composer Simon Gray (2007 BMI Foundation Harrington Award Winner) and bookwriter David Bridel. Their hero, an unemployed grouch, believes a suicide may be his only chance for greatness. This dark musical comedy combines a hilarious book with rich music and genuinely witty lyrics.

When the original play was first written, attempts to stage it were thwarted by Soviet authorities. Stanislavski sent a letter to Stalin in which he compared Erdman to Gogol and cited Maxim Gorky's enthusiasm for the play. The permission to stage the play was granted, only to be revoked on the very eve of the premiere.

Directed by Patrick Smith, the cast includes Broadway players Raymond Bokhour (Chicago), Christine Bokhour (Chicago, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), David Costabile (Translations, Titanic), Bradley Dean (Spamalot), Kim Shriver (A Chorus Line, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), David Spangenthal (Thoroughly Modern Millie), Jimmy Smagula (To Be or Not to Be, Man of La Mancha) , Mark Sanders (Fiddler-national) and Eric Conklin.

The Thing About Joe a new musical comedy with book and lyrics by Matthew Hardy and Multiple Gold Record and Emmy Award winning pianist/composer Randy Klein will be presented on Tuesday, December 2 at 4PM. Previously presented by Musical Mondays as a solo show, The Thing About Joe tells the story of Joe Christiansen from Preston, Idaho, who rebels against his pill-pushing psychiatrist mother and journeys to New York to pursue his dream. His dream? To become a great Maitre d' like his father, who was killed in a freak flaming Bananas Foster accident.

The Cast includes Trey Mitchell (Wonderful Town Nat. Tour), Kevin B. McGlynn (All Shook Up, Kiss Me Kate Nat. Tours), Aurelia Williams (All Shook Up Nat. Tour, Menopause Off-B'way)) and , David Shih (Honor, Stockholm -Off Bway). The one hour preview is directed by Richard Sabellico, (Cocoanuts, NYCO Wonderful Town.)

Musical Mondays is produced by director-choreographer Bick Goss and lyricist Frank Evans. The Snapple Theater Center is home to New York's longest running play, Perfect Crime and the even longer-running musical, The Fantasticks.

Admission is $10. Reserve at 212 989-6706 or musicalmondays@aol.com. For more information, musicalmondays.org