| YORK THEATRE COMPANY'S CELEBRATED CONCERT SERIES RETURNS! "NEO 2024: A CONCERT CELEBRATION" AT GREEN ROOM 42 - MONDAY, JULY 15 @ 7PM | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 07:03 pm EDT 06/26/24 | |
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| YORK'S CELEBRATED CONCERT SERIES RETURNS! THE YORK THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS NEO 2024: A CONCERT CELEBRATION OF EMERGING MUSICAL THEATRE WRITERS FEATURING SONGS BY RJ CHRISTIAN, ELI COHEN, AMY ENGELHARDT & MOLLY HORAN, DANIELLE KOENIG & JUSTIN D. COOK, RON SPIVAK & MICHIRU OSHIMA, JESSICA WU & TJ RUBIN HOSTED BY DEBRA WALTON DIRECTED BY ANNETTE JOLLES MUSIC DIRECTION BY BETH FALCONE A ONE-NIGHT-ONLY BENEFIT PERFORMANCE MONDAY, JULY 15, 2024 @ 7PM THE GREEN ROOM 42 IN THE YOTEL, 570 10TH AVENUE - NYC New York, NY (June 26, 2024) – The York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director; Maire Grace LaFerrara, Executive Director), "Where Musicals Come to Life," proudly welcomes the return of its celebrated concert series NEO, featuring new songs by emerging musical theatre writers RJ Christian, Eli Cohen, Amy Engelhardt & Molly Horan, Danielle Koenig & Justin D. Cook, Ron Spivak & Michiru Oshima, and Jessica Wu & TJ Rubin. The one-night only benefit performance, entitled NEO 2024, is hosted by York Board member Debra Walton (Don't Bother Me—I Can't Cope, Storyville). Directed by Annette Jolles (Mark Felt Superstar, Bar Mitzvah Boy) with music direction by Beth Falcone (Unexpected Joy), it is curated by York's Literary Manager Seth Christenfeld, and is set for Monday evening, July 15, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. at The Green Room 42 (In the Yotel, 570 10th Avenue). Jim Morgan, Producing Artistic Director, said: "Little by Little (thank you Brad Ross and Hal Hackady!), we're getting back to The York of Old. Despite not having a permanent home base, we're slowly reinstituting the things that make The York The York: Muftis, New2NYs, and now, NEO. We couldn't be more excited for NEO 2024 to happen on July 15 at Green Room 42, and we hope you'll join us for it. It should be a lot of fun, with LOTS of talent!" NEO (an acronym for "New, Emerging, Outstanding") celebrates songwriters primed to pen the next generation of musicals. Since the first NEO concert in 2003—recorded by London's JAY Records—musical theater fans and York supporters have eagerly anticipated each incarnation. Past featured writers have won Tonys, Oscars, and even two Pulitzers—who knows what this year's writers will achieve? Performers will be announced at a later date. Tickets for NEO 2024 are $36.87-$78.07 (including fees) and may be purchased by calling (212) 935-5820, or online here . For additional information, please visit www.yorktheatre.org . ABOUT THE ARTISTS Debra Walton Honing her skills on Broadway and beyond, Debra has portrayed diverse roles from The Leading Player in Pippin to Minnie Fae in Hello, Dolly! She captivated audiences in the one-woman show Mr. Joy, embodying nine characters to critical acclaim. In 2021, Debra made her Broadway Associate Directing debut with Thoughts of a Colored Man. Broadway and National Tours include performances in The Pajama Game, Chicago, Don't Bother Me—I Can't Cope (at The York), and Cookin' at the Cookery, garnering accolades such as a Drama Desk nomination and a Barrymore Award. On TV and streaming, she's appeared in "Harlem," "Doctor Death," "Blue Bloods," and "Law and Order SVU." Follow her adventures on YouTube, Twitter (@DebWaltonActs), and Instagram (@Debwaltonhill). Annette Jolles has created a diverse body of work as a director and producer for theater and television and is the recipient of twenty-two Emmy Awards. She directed numerous Live from Lincoln Center broadcasts including concerts for the New York Philharmonic and Mostly Mozart, three Richard Tucker Galas, and solo concerts featuring Cynthia Erivo, Sutton Foster, Leslie Odom, Jr., Norm Lewis and Patina Miller. For The York Theatre Company, she directed Little by Little, That Time of the Year, Grind, Bar Mitzvah Boy, and numerous NEO concerts. At Symphony Space, she has produced and directed over fifty programs and series, most notably Wall to Wall Bernstein, Wall to Wall Sondheim, Project Broadway, and gala concerts of Pippin, A Little Night Music, and Cabaret. Upcoming: world premiere of Bess Welden's Madeleines at Portland Stage Company. She teaches Musical Theater Performance at Yale. Beth Falcone is a New York City-based pianist, conductor, composer-lyricist, and vocologist. Among numerous awards, she is a Kleban Prize winner for Most Promising Lyricist in American Musical Theater, Harrington Award winner for Outstanding Creative Achievement, and most recently garnered the award for "best musician" at the United Solo Artists Festival. Perhaps most known for her musical Wanda's World, which premiered Off-Broadway at the 45th St. Theater and received two Lortel Award nominations, including Best Musical, and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Best Book. Beth is currently writing a musical for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in collaboration with Nicole Kohr. Proud member of the Dramatists Guild, BMI, and Maestra. For more info, visit BethFalcone.com. Seth Christenfeld is The York's Literary Manager, which is to say that he can frequently be found shouting at scripts and the people who write them. As audience member, intern, pest, and staff member, he has been associated with The York for more years than he is willing to admit. He is also an experienced lyricist and librettist with an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU; his songs, musicals, and operas have been seen around NYC and the US. In his spare time, he is an avid if unspectacular video gamer and crossworder, a voracious reader, and a dedicated turophile. For any other questions, ask his mother. RJ Christian is an NYU Steinhardt grad and member of the BMI/Lehman Engel Music Theatre Workshop. RJ contributed music and lyrics to the Ratatouille TikTok musical and can be heard as MacGyver on the MacGyver: The Musical cast album. RJ is the cofounder and resident composer for The Hearty Meal Theatre company. He's currently a swing in Dungeons and Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern and repped by Hell's Kitchen Agency. @RJtheComposer @Theheartymeal Eli Cohen (they/he) is a writer, director, dramaturg, and producer whose work focuses on developing diverse stories that appeal to both underrepresented and traditional audiences. They also work as Associate Producer for five-time Tony Award-winning Producer Hal Luftig (Legally Blonde, Kinky Boots) on projects including Here Lies Love, and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Original works include The Chosen One, -G-T, Far From Christopher Street, and (de)Generate. Eli's songs have been featured at venues including 54 Below, Green Room 42, and The Cutting Room, as well as in concert with UNC Greensboro's Hear Our Voices and Tin Pan Alley 2. Eli studied musical theatre writing and directing at Northwestern University, and subsequently continued their education with writers including Marcy Heisler and Bill Finn. Justin D. Cook is a Minneapolis-based composer, writer, and music director with a degree in Musical Theater Writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. His work has been seen at Lincoln Center, UCLA, Syracuse University, 54 Below, Rattlestick Playwright's Theater, Children's Theatre Company, Nautilus Music-Theater, and others. He was a participant in the long-running Composer/Librettist Studio (Nautilus Music-Theater) as well as the Julia de Burgos Cohort (Latiné Musical Theater Lab). Upcoming projects: The Postman's Daughter (new original musical in-process), The Garden (orchestrations/arrangements, Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis); She Kills Monsters (sound design, First Stage in Milwaukee). Amy Engelhardt scored Off-Broadway Alliance Best New Musical nominee (and Rodgers/O'Neill finalist) Bastard Jones at the cell theatre, Triptych (NY Transit Museum Commission), Impact (Jury Prize: Best Score, National Women's Theatre Festival, 2023 Edinburgh Fringe, Emerging Artists NYC New Works, Chicago Circus/Arts Festival), and O'Neill semi-finalist A Collectible Sensation (w/Arianna Rose). Amy received MAC's Burman Songwriting Award and co-created Tune in Time, New York's Musical Theater Game Show. From 1998-2012, Amy recorded and toured as the sole female vocalist/writer in Grammy-nominated, genre-busting band The Bobs. She swears that her 3rd solo CD, Finish What You, will still be released in 2020. www.amyengelhardt.com. Molly Horan is a lyricist, librettist, playwright, and novelist. Her play The Patron Saint of Other Women won Georgia College Arts and Letters' 2021 Drama Prize. She was selected as a 2021 Bethany Arts Center artist in residence and a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Governors Island resident and was awarded a The Betsy Writer's Residency for 2022. Her debut novel, Epically Earnest, was published in 2022, and her first picture book, I Have Seven Dogs, was published this summer by Penguin/Random House. She currently works as an adjunct professor teaching creative writing at NYU and The School of Visual Arts. Danielle Koenig is an award-winning queer theater artist with degrees from NYU Tisch's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program and UCLA's School of Theater, Film, and Television. Their full-length work has been developed by Second Stage, Theatre NOW, and Syracuse University, and has been seen regionally in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Syracuse. They have been commissioned by FUSE Theatre and thrice by the Brooklyn Children's Theater and are a proud member of UNTITLED Musical Writers Group. Additionally, they have written comedy videos that have been viewed over 2 million times on YouTube and participated in a Writer's Room Internship at "Saturday Night Live." Michiru Oshima is one of the most prolific living composers for film, anime, and video games. She has released over 300 CDs including film soundtracks and artist CDs. Her works include the scores for three Godzilla films, and numerous anime series including "Fullmetal Alchemist" (and the motion picture Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa), "Nabari no Ou," "Queen Emeraldas," "Xam'd: Lost Memories," "Arc the Lad," and "Weathering Continent." She has also composed music for video games such as Genghis Khan II: Clan of the Gray Wolf, Ico, Legend of Legaia, and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. She was also the composer for the Toho Japanese stage musical adaptation of the classic Hollywood film Roman Holiday. TJ Rubin is a composer who tells stories onstage that reflect the wide variety of queer experiences and narratives the world holds. TJ's music lives at the intersection of opera and musical theater, with melodies that are "torquing and probing, quizzical and wonderstruck" (San Francisco Classical Voice). Recent works include Ten Minutes in the Life or Death of… (libretto by Marella Martin Koch), How to Create a Young Girl (libretto by Laura Barati), Back to the Shore: A Jersey Short Opera (libretto by Mika Kauffman), and Nightlife (libretto by Deepali Gupta). His compositions have been performed at Opera America, West Edge Opera, St. Luke's Theatre, Stonewall Inn, and more. He is on faculty at Montclair State University and William Paterson University. MFA: NYU GMTWP. BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. Ron Spivak has mostly been a performer; regionally he has played leading roles in the musicals Man of La Mancha, Guys & Dolls, Company, Damn Yankees, and others. He wrote and has performed the symphonic concerts Bravo to Broadway, Richard Rodgers Re-vued, and It's Better with a Baritone. Ron was musicals editor/archivist for Samuel French, has composed liner notes for Broadway cast albums, and has written for theatre magazines. As a lyricist/librettist, Ron wrote the symphonic children's work The Noisy Intermission with Broadway composer Michael Valenti and Rashomon: The Musical with Japanese composer Michiru Oshima. Ms. Oshima has asked Ron to write the English translation of her hit Japanese musical Roman Holiday; they are currently working on it. Jessica Wu is an award-winning playwright, director, songwriter, dramaturg, and, in a past life, Broadway dancer (A Chorus Line, Miss Saigon). Writing credits include Hello Kitty Must Die (Alchemation, Edinburgh Fringe 2023), You, Me, I, We (Relentless Musical Award, semi-finalist; O'Neill Conference, semi-finalist; L&IC's Bingham Retreat, finalist; NAAP's Discover New Musicals), Good Mourning (Moxie Arts Commission, American Theatre Blue Ink Award, finalist), and the upcoming Japanese musical Poupelle of Chimney Town (Kinema Theatre, Tokyo 2025). Jessica is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and the BMI Musical Theatre Writing Workshop, and currently serves as Artistic Producer at Brooklyn Children's Theatre. www.jessica-wu.com The York Theatre Company "Where Musicals Come to Life," is the only theatre in New York City—and one of very few in the world—dedicated to developing and fully producing new musicals and preserving notable shows from the past. For over five decades, York's intimate, imaginative style of producing both original and classic musicals has resulted in critical acclaim and recognition from artists and audiences alike. Under the guidance of Producing Artistic Director James Morgan since 1997, The York has focused on new musicals in its Mainstage Series—most of them world, American, or New York premieres—by some of the field's most esteemed creators and has also helped launch the careers of many talented new writers. Over 45 cast recordings from York Theatre Company productions are now available, including its acclaimed revival of Closer Than Ever (2013 Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Revival). Commercial transfers of such York premieres as The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!), Souvenir (Tony Award Nomination for actress Judy Kaye), and Jolson & Company, and revivals of Pacific Overtures and Sweeney Todd (four Tony Nominations including Best Revival) have all showcased the importance of The York and its programs. Recent York productions have included A Sign of the Times (New World Stages), The Jerusalem Syndrome, Vanities—The Musical, Hoagy Carmichael's Stardust Road, Penelope: or How the Odyssey Was Really Written, Cheek to Cheek: Irving Berlin in Hollywood, A Taste of Things to Come, Marry Harry, and Rothschild & Sons. The critically acclaimed musical Yank! received its Off-Broadway debut at The York, and subsequently to rave reviews in London—as did York's Rothschild & Sons. The hit musical Cagney received its York premiere in 2015, transferring to the Westside Theatre for over 15 months. In 2017, Desperate Measures_ received a total of 15 award nominations (and three wins) that included Best Musical from the Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, and Off-Broadway Alliance and subsequently transferred across town to New World Stages. The York is the recipient of a special Drama Desk Award for "Developing and Producing New Musicals," a special Outer Critics Circle Award for "50 Years of Producing New and Classic Musicals." Due to a flood in their home of 30 years at Saint Peter's Church in January 2021, The York is currently producing at The Theatre at St. Jean's at 76th Street and Lexington Avenue. www.yorktheatre.org www.richardhillmanpr.com |
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