Mini-Musicals and Story Songs by BMI Workshop Writers Heard in NY Musical Fest's Shorts; Marx & Lopez Sing | Playbill

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News Mini-Musicals and Story Songs by BMI Workshop Writers Heard in NY Musical Fest's Shorts; Marx & Lopez Sing Musical Mondays Theatre Lab and the National Musical Theatre Festival raise the curtain on eight short musicals from writers of The BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop Sept. 27-28 in Manhattan.

The umbrella title for the experience is Shorts, under the direction of Musical Mondays artistic director Bick Goss. Mark Janas is musical director. Frank Evans, producing director of Musical Mondays and a steering committee member of The BMI Workshop, said the pieces are all, in effect, mini-musicals that tell a story with a beginning, a middle and an end.

The presentation includes a song by Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez that was written for (and cut from) Avenue Q.

Shorts is one of many presentations — full productions, readings, panels and more — of the first New York Musical Theatre Festival. Visit www.nymf.org.

The Shorts pieces include:

  • Borreguita and the Coyote, written and performed by 2004 Tony Award winners Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. A "high-spirited folktale based on the story by Verna Aardema."
  • Goodbye, Lily Daw, book, music and lyrics by Tom Kenaston. "Three good old girls save a charming but mentally challenged young woman from life in an insane asylum. Ian Knauer is the solo man surrounded by all the women in the cast." Adapted from "Lily Daw and the Three Ladies" by Eudora Welty.
  • Back, in which "Joel Briel finds that curing his back pain can cure a lot more in his life with a prescription written by [songwriters] Frank Evans and Richard B. Evans." Raissa Katona and Annie Ramsey "back him up."
  • No Trouble at All, music by Gerald Stockstill, lyrics by Donna Kaz. "Nancy Ringham is a picture of serenity before her guests arrive for a dinner party."
  • The Life and Times of JOE JEFFERSON BENJAMIN BLOW, book, music and lyrics by Andy Monroe. "The entire company presents a lifetime of a modern day Everyman in the theatrical span of 10 minutes."
  • Tear it Up and Throw it Away, Eric Millegan teaches Annie Ramsey an important life lesson in this song that was cut from Avenue Q.
  • My Most Important Moments Go By, lyrics by Gretchen Cryer, music by Nancy Ford. "Jeanne Lehman portrays a woman who discovers the most significant events in her life happen in her elevator."
  • HMO, "in which two patients and a doctor wander through health maintenance hell designed by" song writers Frank Evans and Richard B. Evans. In addition to Marx and Lopez, the show features an eight-member ensemble cast: Raissa Katona Bennett (Cats, Phantom), Joel Briel (Cats), Jeanne Lehman (Sound of Music, Beauty and the Beast), Ian Knauer (By Jeeves), Annie Ramsey (Bay Street's The Boy Friend), Eric Millegan (Jesus Christ Superstar, Harold & Maude), Nancy Ringham (My Fair Lady with Rex Harrison) and Steve Sterner.

    Shorts plays three performances only: Sept. 27 at 4 PM & 7 PM, Sept. 28 at 4 PM at the Greenwich Street Theatre, 547 Greenwich Street in Manhattan, below Houston between Charlton and Vandam.

    Tickets are $15. For information, call (212) 352-3101 or (212) 989-6706.

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