Part of the York Theatre Company's Developmental Reading Series, the 5 PM reading will be held at the The Theatre at Saint Peter's. Steven Yuhasz will direct the evening with musical direction by Jason Loffredo.

Monsters features book and lyrics by playwright Gail Phaneuf and music and lyrics are by composer Ernie Lijoi.

The musical, according to press notes, is described as such: "On her 40th birthday, Samantha [Huffman] meets her demons. A successful, single, Wall Street stockbroker living in Manhattan, she has decided to quit her job and strike out on a soul-searching adventure. When she delivers this news to her visiting mother, including her plans to trek in Machu Picchu, mother moves into action. She tries desperately to convince Samantha to be sensible: to keep her job, to keep climbing the ladder, to trim up so she might find a husband.

"Firm in her resolve to strike out on a new path, Samantha tells her mother no and sends her on her way. But the echo of her mother's words stirs up a toxic blend of familiar fears and insecurities — embodied by living, breathing 'monsters.' Samantha spends a zany and frantic day defending her plan to overhaul her life, as the demons descend upon her one by one. In a hilarious musical romp, they try to derail her ambitions, sink her spirits, and drag her into their paranoid world. In the end, Samantha finds an unlikely ally in this battle of wills, in a twist that helps her put the demons in their place."

About their work, co-creators Phaneuf and Lijoi said in a previous statement, "Monsters allows us to laugh at our demons and put them in their place, while capturing the humor, agony and insight experienced at one of life's milestones." Monsters was a finalist in the Emerson College Rod Parker Playwriting Competition and was produced in 2006 at CentaStage in Boston. A reading was also held Feb. 18 in Manhattan. For more information visit www.monstersthemusical.com.

York Theatre Company productions play The Theatre at Saint Peter's, which is located in Manhattan on 54th Street, just east of Lexington Avenue. Admission to the reading is free, but reservations are required by e-mailing Jeff Landsman at [email protected] or by calling (212) 935-5824, ext. 24.