Where are all the new young women songwriters for the theatre? They’re going to be at the Times Center in Manhattan March 10, being sung by two-time Tony Award nominee Mary Testa (On the Town, 42nd Street), Krysta Rodriguez (The Addams Family, Smash), Arielle Jacobs (Wicked, In the Heights), and Jason Gotay (Bring It On, Spider-Man—Turn Off the Dark), who will perform at the Good to Go Songwriters’ Showcase hosted by Ann Harada (Avenue Q) and Sara Wordsworth (In Transit).
Presented by Prospect Theater Company and The Good to Go Festival as part of the IGNITE series, the event will also feature Briana Carlson-Goodman (Doctor Zhivago, Hair), Brynn Williams (13, Lazarus), Sam Heldt, and Hana Slevin,.
Conceived by The Good to Go Festival’s Producing Artistic Director Judy Zocchi, the showcase will feature performances of works by (and interviews with) Jill Abramowitz, Amy Burgess, Sara Cooper, Rachel Griffin, Anna K. Jacobs, Hyeyoung Kim, Ellen McLaughlin, Julia Meinwald, and Katya Stanislavskaya.
The 8 PM concert will be directed by Christine O’Grady with musical direction by Britt Bonney at the Times Center at 242 West 41st Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in Manhattan.
Songs from the following in-development musicals will be showcased. These plot summaries were supplied by the authors:
BREAD AND ROSES
Book and lyrics by Jill Abramovitz
Music by Brad Alexander
Inspired by true events, Bread and Roses is a musical adaptation of the film (by director Ken Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty) about a group of Los Angeles janitors who rise up against their corrupt bosses and attempt to unionize.
ELEVATOR HEART
Words by Sara Cooper
Music by Amy Burgess and Julia Meinwald
An all-female ensemble musical theater piece about being a woman right here, right now—that will punch you in the face while kissing you on the lips.
WE HAVE APPLES
Book and lyrics by Rachel Griffin
Music by Rachel Griffin and Aron Accurso
Paralyzed by her mental illness, Jane, a quirky young writer, is admitted into a psychiatric facility. When a preventable tragedy occurs in the facility, Jane must help her fellow patients expose the inadequate care in the ward before more patients meet a similar fate.
THE NAMES WE GAVE HIM
Text by Ellen McLaughlin
Music by Peter Foley
Inspired by a true story, The Names We Gave Him concerns an amnesiac veteran of World War I, the doctor who treated him, and the many women who, in denial of their grief, claimed him as their lost beloved.
LUNA PARK
Lyrics by Michael Cooper
Book by Daniel F. Levin
Music by Hyeyoung Kim
Luna Park chronicles the partnership of Skip Dundy and Fred Thompson, the true fathers of the modern themed amusement park. A full generation before Walt Disney, they created at Coney Island an attraction called Luna Park, a place designed to allow everyone to forget the pressures of modern industrial society and remember how to play.
TEETH
Book by Michael R. Jackson and Anna K. Jacobs
Music by Anna K. Jacobs
Words by Michael R. Jackson
Adapted from the 2007 Sundance Award-winning indie horror film by Mitchell Lichtenstein, Teeth tells the story of Dawn O'Keefe, an evangelical Christian teen with a dirty little secret: She has teeth in her vagina. When the men in Dawn's life try to exploit her, she is forced to confront the teeth and decide whether to sacrifice or harness them.
RESIDENT ALIEN
Book, music and lyrics by Katya Stanislavskaya
Resident Alien is an original story of a family of three who are part of the third wave of Soviet and post-Soviet immigration to the U.S. in the 1990s. The family—a professor stuck in the past, a musician willing to adapt, and a teenager whose culture shock coincides with her coming-of-age—represents the full spectrum of the successes and failures of the immigrant experience.
Single tickets for the performances cost $20, $30 and $40, and can be bought online at ProspectTheater.org / GoodToGoFestival.org, or by calling (212) 352-3101. Tickets may also be purchased at the door.
