Industry folk are invited to the Feb. 24 showcase of new musical theatre work by members of The BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop.
Two performances of the In-House Cabaret, 6 PM and 8 PM, are at BMI's national headquarters on 57th Street in Manhattan. The exclusive event will feature songs from the same workshop whose members created the classic musicals A Chorus Line, Little Shop of Horrors, Nine, Titanic, Ragtime, Beauty and the Beast and New York's Wild Party musicals.
BMI is the music rights organization that collects money for songwriters whose work is heard in public venues. The BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop is one of the country's most prestigious nonprofit crucibles of craft for musical theatre songwriters. Composers and lyricists audition and, once in, work on exercises for a year (with moderator Skip Kennon) before working on full-length shows in year two (with moderator Richard Engquist). An advance workshop beyond year two is taught by Maury Yeston (Titanic).
The 70-minute In-House Cabaret evening features songs from new musicals, all developed within the BMI workshop. Because of space limitations, only members of the entertainment industry have been invited.
On the bill: • Sammy Buck and Bill Sheldon's Like You Like It takes As You Like It from the Forest of Arden to a modern shopping mall populated with teens.
• Jeff Lodin and David Arthur have moved the Elizabethan Much Ado About Nothing to a 1950's University setting.
• Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx are premiering their new work from the intriguingly titled Borreguita and the Coyote.
• Joanne Bogart and Eric Rockwell, whose Musical of Musicals was recently workshopped at Manhattan Theatre Club will be represented by a piece of special material for David Garrison, recently of Titanic.
• Ellen Schwartz and David Strickland will reprise work from the recent Miami Beach Monsters.
• Tony Buckley and Mark York's MacDonald Sisters tells of three portly sibs who save the farm by becoming a singing group.
• Singer-songwriter Elise Morris returns to BMI following a season on the road with the premiere performance of "Stay With Me" from The Twelve Iron Sandals.
• Bruce MacRae (son of Gordon and Sheila as well as Heather's brother) has written both music and lyrics for "Am I Asking for the Moon?" from a musical comedy adapted from the French classic repertoire.
• Annie Pasqua's "Elise's Confession" from an adaptation of the film, Somewhere in Time, will be heard.
• A mini-musical by Tom Mizer and Curtis Moore entitled The Bus to Buenos Aires will be sung.
• A production number, "Pharoah's Tomb," from • Larry Bortniker's musical biography of sex researcher Albert Kinsey, Doctor Sex will also be exposed.
For information concerning this specific event contact Sylvia Santana Vega at (212) 830-8360 or Brenda Swanston at (212) 830-8378.
For information about the BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop contact Jean Banks at (212) 830 2515.
-- By Kenneth Jones
