| PERFORMERS & PRESENTERS ANNOUNCED FOR PROSPECT MUSICALS 25TH GALA | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 06:59 pm EDT 09/24/24 | |
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| PERFORMERS & PRESENTERS ANNOUNCED FOR PROSPECT MUSICALS 25TH ANNIVERSARY GALA & MUSE AWARDS PERFORMERS: STEPHEN BOGARDUS ALI EWOLDT JELANI REMY HELEN J SHEN & MORE PRESENTERS: NIKKI M. JAMES MICHELLE McGORTY PRISCILLA LOPEZ HONORING: MICHAEL ARDEN KENDALL CROLIUS & BAAYORK LEE HOSTS: JAY ARMSTRONG JOHNSON & JAYGEE MACAPUGAY MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 AT THE EDISON BALLROOM New York, NY (September 24, 2024) – Prospect Musicals (Cara Reichel, Producing Artistic Director; Melissa Huber, Managing Director) announced today presenters and performers for their 25th Anniversary Gala, being held Monday, September 30th at The Edison Ballroom (240 West 47th Street): Tony Award winner Nikki M. James (Suffs, The Book of Mormon), Princeton Triangle Club alumna Michelle McGorty, and Tony Award winner Priscilla Lopez (A Chorus Line) will present, with special performances from a line up that includes Tony Award nominee Stephen Bogardus (Falsettos), Bandits on the Run (Adrian Blake Enscoe, Sydney Torin Shepherd, Regina Strayhorn), Ali Ewoldt (The Phantom of the Opera), Diane Phelan (Into the Woods), Jelani Remy (Back to the Future), Helen J Shen (Maybe Happy Ending),and more. As previously announced, Prospect Musicals' 25th Anniversary Gala will honor three extraordinary members of the theatre community with the third annual Muse Awards: Tony Award-winning director and actor Michael Arden (Parade, Maybe Happy Ending ), arts advocate and author Kendall Crolius, and Tony Award recipient Baayork Lee (A Chorus Line). Drama Desk Award winner Jay Armstrong Johnson (Parade, The Phantom of the Opera) and Jaygee Macapugay (Suffs, Here Lies Love) will co-host the event. Additional performers include LaDonna Burns, Kimberley Chatterjee, Steven Eng, Tymothee Harrell, Devin Ilaw, Charlotte Kunesh, Gaea Lawton, Asher Muldoon, and Jasmine Sharma. The Gala celebrates the company's 25 years of pioneering, developing, and producing new musical theater works, as well as the recent re-branding from Prospect Theater Company to Prospect Musicals. The evening will include cocktails, dinner, and entertainment from special guests in celebration of this year's Muse Award recipients. Prospect Musicals' Gala Committee Co-Chairs include Jane Abramson, Tira Harpaz, and Jason Ma. To reserve tickets for the full evening ($500-$650) or the concert and awards presentation only ($125), please visit ProspectMusicals.org. PRESENTER BIOS NIKKI M. JAMES was nominated for her performance as Ida B Wells in Suffs, currently running at the Music Box Theater. She originated the role of Nabalungi in The Book of Mormon, for which she won the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Favorite theater credits include Tony Kushner's A Bright Room Called Day (Public), Broadway productions of Les Miserables, All Shook Up and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (Encores!), Romeo & Juliet, Caesar & Cleopatra alongside Christopher Plummer (Stratford Theater), The Wiz (La Jolla Playhouse), Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night (Shakespeare in the Park), Bernarda Alba (Lincoln Center), and Preludes (LCT3). Recent notable work in television includes "Severance" (AppleTV+) and starring roles in "Proven Innocent" for FOX and CBS's quirky series "Braindead". She can be seen in the upcoming Disney+ show "Daredevil". As a director, Nikki has helmed episodes of "The Bite" and "The Good Fight". She served as an assistant director to Michael Arden for the Broadway revival of Once On This Island and A Christmas Carol live capture starring Jefferson Mays. She resides in New York City with her family and holds a BFA in Drama from NYU. She is a proud voter and a sustaining member of her local public radio station. MICHELLE McGORTY is a life-long lover of musical theatre. From performing in school and community theatre as a kid, to learning about producing in college, to serving on the boards of the Prospect Theater Company, the Princeton Triangle Club, and the Ridgewood High School New Players Company, she loves being part of the magic of bringing musicals to life. Her newest theatrical challenge is directing Ridgewood's Jamboree, an original musical revue performed by parents of high school students to raise money for local scholarships. A former management consultant and communications professional, Michelle lives in Ridgewood, NJ with her husband Glen, kids Meghan, Connor, and Kendall, and their mini Bernedoodle, Nassau. PRISCILLA LOPEZ has finally been able to add Lincoln Center to her resume in Lileana Blain-Cruz's 2022 production of The Skin of our Teeth at the Beaumont Theatre in the role of The Fortune Teller, followed in 2023 by Michael John LaChiusa and Graciela Daniele's beautiful and moving production, The Gardens of Anuncia at The Mitzi Newhouse Theatre. In the Tony Award-winning Broadway Revival of Pippin, she soared as the trapeze flying Berthe, joining her fellow 1972 Pippin alum John Rubinstein, but this time both aging into the roles of King and Granny. In Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony Award-winning musical In The Heights, she originated the role of Camila Rosario. She previously appeared in Nilo Cruz's Pulitzer Prize winning play, Anna in the Tropics. She received the Tony Award as Best Featured Actress for her portrayal as Harpo Marx in the Broadway musical A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine. Her performance as the original Diana Morales in A Chorus Line led to an Obie Award and a Tony Nomination, where she introduced the songs "Nothing" and "What I Did For Love." Her film credits include Maid in Manhattan as Jennifer Lopez's mother, Center Stage, Revenge Of The Nerds II, Tony ‘n' Tina's Wedding, Musical Chairs, and Theater Camp. ABOUT PROSPECT MUSICALS Over two decades, Prospect Musicals has mounted full productions of nearly 40 new musicals, as well as presented hundreds of concerts, readings, and developmental labs, affirming the organization's place as one of NYC's foremost incubators of new musical theater talent. In addition to Prospect's musical premieres, they have produced new plays and numerous "revisals" and re-inventions of classic works. Reflecting its investment in the future of the field, Prospect leads a variety of developmental initiatives: including an annual Musical Theater Lab for emerging writers, and the IGNITE Series of new musical theater in concert. In 2020, Prospect launched the VISION Series of original music-theater works on film, created for online streaming. In recognition of its enterprising and risk-taking new musical theater, the company has received an OBIE Award grant, and its role as a community anchor for emerging artists that strengthens the quality, diversity, and dynamism of American theater was honored by the American Theatre Wing. In 2023 Prospect produced the NYC Off-Broadway premiere of Justin Huertas' acclaimed musical Lizard Boy at Theatre Row, which was nominated for three 2024 Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Music, and Outstanding Book of a Musical. In 2022, Prospect commissioned and produced (at 59E59 Theaters) the musical song-cycle Notes From Now – Songs of Resilience & Renewal, featuring a lineup of newly-commissioned original songs created by 21 of today's brightest musical theater writers. Previously, Prospect produced the Drama Desk Award-nominated Einstein's Dreams (2019) by Joanne Sydney Lessner & Joshua Rosenblum, adapted from the novel by Alan Lightman; and the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award-nominated The Hello Girls (2018), by company founding artists Peter Mills & Cara Reichel. Currently commissioned projects in development include The Oscar Micheaux Project (NAMT Festival 2023), a new musical from the Brooklyn-based group Bandits on the Run about the Yukon Gold Rush, and a new original musical by company founders Mills and Reichel, The Troupe. Other notable productions include: Kerrigan & Lowdermilk's The Mad Ones (2017); Ryan Scott Oliver and Hunter Foster's Jasper in Deadland (2014); the Drama Desk nominated Tamar of the River (2013) by Joshua H. Cohen and Marisa Michelson; Carner & Gregor's Unlock'd (2013); Gordon Greenberg's revisal of Working (Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Ensemble, 2012) including new songs by Lin Manuel Miranda; and Elizabeth Lucas' re-imagining of Guettel's Myths and Hymns (2012). # # # # ProspectMusicals.org Facebook: @ProspectMusicals Instagram: @ProspectMusicals X: @ProspectTheater YouTube: @ProspectMusicals TikTok: @Prospect.Musicals |
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