Part of the York Theatre Company's Developmental Reading Series, the reading will be presented March 7 at 7:30 PM. The cast will boast Charlotte Cohn, Nancy Anderson, Jeb Brown, Adam Monley, Andrew Varela, Ray De Mattis, Richard Bell, Paul Hope, Jim Bracchitta, Mary Ann Conk, Diane Findlay, Matt Stokes, James Donegan, Danielle Grabianowski, Cynthia Pierce, Amy Blue and Greg Roderick. Richard Sabellico will direct the one-night-only event with musical direction by Nick DeGregorio. The Black Dahlia features book and lyrics by Sabellico and Carol Crittenden. Ed Dixon composed the music. The musical, according to press notes, is described thusly: "In the heady, post-WW2 days of 'With a dream and the guts . . . anything’s possible. . .' A beautiful, yet lonely young woman from Massachusetts is brutally, unspeakably violated and murdered — severed in half — and left, in a bold and grotesque display for all to see on an unremarkable street in Los Angeles, giving her a fame in death that was elusive in her starry eyed, lost-soul life, earning her an immortal status as the ever and always unsolved case of the Black Dahlia."

The York Theatre is located in Manhattan at 619 Lexington Avenue at 54th Street. For reservations call (212) 935-5824, ext. 24 or e-mail [email protected]. Visit www.yorktheatre.org for more information.