By Adam Hetrick
11 Nov 2008

The Public Theater and the Queens Theatre in the Park will present a staged reading of the Richard Rodgers Award-winning musical Kingdom.

Ron Daniels directs the staged presentation of Kingdom, which features book and lyrics by Aaron Jafferis and music by Ian A. Williams. The free staged readings are produced as part of The Public Theater's new Music Theater Initiative and Queens Theatre in the Park's Immigrant Voices Project.

Kingdom will first play the Queens Theatre in the Park Nov. 13-15, followed by presentations at the Public Nov. 20-22. All performances are free and open to the public.

The musical with a rap and hip-hop infused score is inspired by the true stories of the street gang the Latin Kings. Kingdom, according to press notes, "follows the journey of two kids from the barrio who quit their dead end jobs and join the Kings in search of family, power and respect. When tragedy strikes, a power struggle tears the two friends apart."

The cast of Kingdom includes Jon Rua, Gerardo Rodriguez, Joey Auzenne, Amirah Vann, Cedric Leiba Jr., Paloma Cordero and Miguel Jarquin-Moreland. Cian McCarthy serves as musical director.

For reservations to the Queens Theatre in the Park performances of Kingdom, phone (718) 760-0064 or e-mail KingdomQueens. For the Public Theater presentation of Kingdom, phone (212) 539-8548 or e-mail KingdomPublic.