Mike Pettry News

Writing team Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond (Disney's a?oeVampirinaa??) announced the world premiere recording of their musical The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes will be released on Friday, September 13, 2019. After completing three seasons of music for the hit Disney Junior series a?oeVampirina,a?? which airs in 115 countries to more than 100 million viewers, the Fred Ebb Award and Jonathan Larson Grant winners return to their theatrical roots with this album. To preorder the album, visit KoomanDimond.com/store. 

One should plant their tongue firmly in cheek for this one. It is over-the-top, exaggerated, and farcical in the way of Urinetown, The Book of Mormon, and Something Rotten. The original music is quite good and rather entertaining. The content seems to be split between two camps some directed at the a?oeadult generationa?? of baby boomers, and some at their a?oemillenniala?? offspring. Not that the two can't or don't overlap. Several common stereotypes and clichés are targeted as the butt of many jokes so there is pretty much something that works for just about everyone. There are some fun moments that require thinking: a?oethat Greek figure of a daughter of yoursa??, a?oelet's light a match behind this cowa??; and some that are just plain in your face: a?oemaybe the earth doesn't like an enemaa??. Some, I really just did not understand: a?oejust because you have the same feet doesn't mean you have the same legsa??, nor why it is supposed to be funny. That's when I realized it was best to simply let go and enjoy the silliness that abounds.

Writing team Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond (Disney's a?oeVampirinaa??) announced the world premiere recording of their musical The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes will be released on Friday, September 13, 2019. 

IFC and Lakeshore Records announced today that three-time Emmy-nominated series Documentary Now! has taken its commitment to the comedic artform to new extremes. 'Original Cast Album: Co-op,' the meticulously crafted and 2019 Emmy-nominated episode about the cast album recording of the 1970 'Broadway musical' Co-op, will release its long-awaited Original Cast Album digitally on July 26, with proceeds donated to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The original cast album will include the soon-to-be Marie's Crisis classics 'Holiday Party (I Did a Little Cocaine Tonight),' which will be available as an instant grat track on all preorders beginning Friday, July 19, and solo anthem 'I Gotta Go,' both sure to bring piano bar patrons to their feet with every rising note. IFC will also be publishing sheet music so everyone can make their Co-op sing-along dreams a reality. The song 'Holiday Party (I Did a Little Cocaine Tonight),' with lyrics by John Mulaney & Seth Meyers and music by Eli Bolin was recently nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Original Music & Lyrics.

This weekend, Prospect Theater Company, under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Cara Reichel and Managing Director Melissa Huber, presents Message In A Bottle, a collection of original mini-musicals in concert, the culmination of Prospect's annual musical theater lab process. Message In A Bottle, the company's 13th lab production, will be presented on Saturday, June 1 at 7:30pm and Sunday, June 2 at 2:00pm at The A.R.T. / New York Theatres (502 West 53rd St, NYC). The lab will feature performances by an ensemble of Prospect alumni artists, and newcomers: Joanna Carpenter, Christopher Cherry, Diego Diaz, Ellis Gage, Alyssa Gomez, Sevan Greene, Jiho Kang, Patty Nieman, Allison Posner, Alicia Thomas, and Jeff Williams.

It was 2002 when Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Rene Scott premiered Jason Robert Brown's THE LAST FIVE YEARS Off-Broadway. They had worked together before that, however, in 1997 in the Broadway cast of RENT. If their joint concert at Feinstein's/54 Below on April 26-May 2 is to be believed, theirs has been a tumultuous relationship.

Prospect Theater Company, under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Cara Reichel and Managing Director Melissa Huber, will present Message In A Bottle, a collection of new mini-musicals in concert, the culmination of Prospect's 2019 Musical Theater Lab.  Message In A Bottle, the company's 13th lab production, will be presented on Saturday, June 1 at 7:30pm and Sunday, June 2 at 2:00pm at The A.R.T.  / New York Theatres (502 West 53rd St, NYC).

The University of the Arts' Ira Brind School of Theater Arts announces the lineup for its fifth annual Polyphone Festival, a 'festival of the emerging musical.' The five-day event will take place in the Arts Bank and Wilma Theaters on South Broad Street in Philadelphia February 26-March 2, 2019. The four musicals comprising the festival will take audiences on a journey through a haunted burial ground for forgotten souls, a radioactive amusement park full of Marie Curies, an afro-futuristic groove-centered alternate reality, and the final anxious moments of life on earth. All of the works in this year's Polyphone focus on the intersection of alternative futures and reimagined histories. The works all ask questions about co-existence, global anxiety and crafting hope in troubled times.

The University of the Arts' Ira Brind School of Theater Arts announces the lineup for its fifth annual Polyphone Festival, a 'festival of the emerging musical.' The five-day event will take place in the Arts Bank and Wilma Theaters on South Broad Street in Philadelphia February 26-March 2, 2019. The four musicals comprising the festival will take audiences on a journey through a haunted burial ground for forgotten souls, a radioactive amusement park full of Marie Curies, an afro-futuristic groove-centered alternate reality, and the final anxious moments of life on earth. All of the works in this year's Polyphone focus on the intersection of alternative futures and reimagined histories. The works all ask questions about co-existence, global anxiety and crafting hope in troubled times.

Dr. Bradley Jones returns to the Laurie Beechman stage on Feb. 13th, 2019 at 7pm with a benefit performance of the hilarious and moving coming-of-age story, Dr. Bradley's Fabulous Functional Narcissism: The Psychoanalytic Odyssey of a Once Glorified Chorus Boy. 100% of net proceeds will benefit the Actors Fund.

The University of the Arts' Ira Brind School of Theater Arts announces the lineup for its fifth annual Polyphone Festival, a 'festival of the emerging musical.' The five-day event will take place in the Arts Bank and Wilma Theaters on South Broad Street in Philadelphia February 26-March 2, 2019. The four musicals comprising the festival will take audiences on a journey through a haunted burial ground for forgotten souls, a radioactive amusement park full of Marie Curies, an afro-futuristic groove-centered alternate reality, and the final anxious moments of life on earth. All of the works in this year's Polyphone focus on the intersection of alternative futures and reimagined histories. The works all ask questions about co-existence, global anxiety and crafting hope in troubled times.

Dr. Bradley Jones returns to the Laurie Beechman stage on Feb. 13th, 2019 at 7pm with a benefit performance of the hilarious and moving coming-of-age story, Dr. Bradley's Fabulous Functional Narcissism: The Psychoanalytic Odyssey of a Once Glorified Chorus Boy. 100% of net proceeds will benefit the Actors Fund.

TheaterWorksUSA will bring their musical adaptation of  Dragons Love Tacos & Other Stories to New York City to BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center (199 Chambers St, New York, NY 10007) on Saturday, December 15, 2018 at 11am. Tickets are $30 (General Admission) and can be purchased by visiting Tribecapac.org or by calling (212) 220-1460.

After a sold-out Wallis debut in July, A Little New Music will spotlight another lineup of emerging musical theatre talents for The Sorting Room's 2018 Winter Session at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, December 20 at 7:00 p.m. A Little New Music's audiences will enjoy original musical theatre songs firsthand before they hit Broadway or the regional circuit.

Don't Tell Mama and Dr. Bradley Jones will present a special performance of the hilarious and moving coming-of-age story, Dr. Bradley's Fabulous Functional Narcissism, to benefit the American Songbook Association (ASA) on October 31, 2018* at 7pm at the legendary theater district cabaret, where Dr. Bradley has been packing in SRO audiences for months. The ASA is committed to sustaining and forwarding this living legacy of American song and its many genres, which is loved and performed in every corner of the earth.

The new musical MECHANICAL by Jonathan Larson Grant recipients Mike Pettry (The Light Princess) and Sara Cooper (The Memory Show) will be presented as staged readings on September 25th and 28th, funded in part by a New Works Grant from Queens Council on the Arts.

Husband/wife team Eli Bolin (Found, Volleygirls, Skippyjon Jones: Snow What) and Allison Posner (Volleygirls, The Last Song of Eddie Scourge) will present Together Again For The First Time at Feinstein's/54 Below, featuring guests Ethan Slater (Spongebob Squarepants), Nick Blaemire (tick, tick...BOOM!, Godspell), and Alysha Deslorieux (Once on This Island, Hamilton), and more on September 25th, 2018 at 9:30 PM.

FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, together with husband/wife team Eli Bolin (Found, Volleygirls, Skippyjon Jones: Snow What) and Allison Posner (Volleygirls, The Last Song of Eddie Scourge) will present Together Again For The First Time, featuring guests Ethan Slater (Spongebob Squarepants), Nick Blaemire (tick, tick...BOOM!, Godspell), Alysha Deslorieux (Once on This Island, Hamilton), John Mulaney (Oh, Hello on Broadway, Kid Gorgeous) and more on September 25th, 2018 at 9:30 PM.

Husband/wife team Eli Bolin (Found, Volleygirls, Skippyjon Jones: Snow What) and Allison Posner (Volleygirls, The Last Song of Eddie Scourge) will present Together Again For The First Time at Feinstein's/54 Below, featuring guests Ethan Slater (Spongebob Squarepants), Nick Blaemire (tick, tick...BOOM!, Godspell), and Alysha Deslorieux (Once on This Island, Hamilton), and more on September 25th, 2018 at 9:30 PM.

The new musical MECHANICAL by Jonathan Larson Grant recipients Mike Pettry (The Light Princess) and Sara Cooper (The Memory Show) will be presented as staged readings on September 25th and 28th, funded in part by a New Works Grant from Queens Council on the Arts.