Made-for-TV Musical, "The American Mall," Debuts on MTV Aug. 11

By Andrew Gans
11 Aug 2008

A new made-for-television musical, "The American Mall" — created by the executive producers of "High School Musical" — debuts on MTV Aug. 11 at 9 PM ET.

The cast features Nina Dobrev ("Degrassi: The Next Generation") as Ally; Rob Mayes as Joey; Autumn Reeser ("The O.C.," "Lost Boys: The Tribe") as Madison Huxley; Yassmin Alers ("Rent") as Erin, Ally's mom; and Al Sapienza ("The Sopranos") as shopping mall owner and Madison's dad, Max Huxley. Rounding out the cast are Wade Allain-Marcus as Ricky, Neil Haskell (Altar Boyz, "So You Think You Can Dance") as Drew, David Baum as Stavros, Brooke Lyons ("American Dreams") as Dori, Blythe Auffarth ("Veronica Mars") as Alexa, Bresha Webb ("Lincoln Heights") as Little Penny, Bianca Collins ("Unfabulous") as Mia and Rodney To as Ben.

The TV film — penned by Margaret Oberman from a story by Tomas Romero and P.J. Hogan — was directed by Shawn Ku and co-choreographed by Ku and Bonnie Story.

"The American Mall," according to press notes, "is the story of Ally, a hardworking young woman whose mother has owned a music shop that's been the soul of the mall ever since it opened when Ally was a kid. Ally's singer/songwriter dreams seem to come closer to fruition when she meets Joey, a musician who's moonlighting as a janitor at the mall in order to support his own rock star ambitions. While Joey understands her songs (and heart) like no one else, Ally's happiness and the fate of the music store are threatened when the mall owner's spoiled daughter Madison – who will stop at nothing to get what she wants – becomes involved."

Arata Matsushima, Barry Rosenbush, Jeff Yapp and Lisa Silfen are the executive producers; producers are Bill Borden and Terry Spazek. "The American Mall" is produced in association with MTV Studios and T&C Pictures.

A DVD and soundtrack release is scheduled for Aug. 12.

For more information visit TheAmericanMall.com.