Nicole Van Giesen, a veteran of The Wild Party, Cabaret and The Last Five Years in New York, will appear in the revue, which borrows songs from various projects by Lowdermilk. His musical, The Woman Upstairs, was presented in the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) in 2004.

Musical staging for The Open Road is by Ben Sheaffer. Jerry Jean is musical director. Van Giesen will share the stage with newcomers Billy Bustamante, Jeremiah Downes, Larry Hamilton, Colleen Hazlett and Tara Korbalak.

Lowdermilk is a composer, lyricist, musical director, arranger, and pianist in New York City. He has written and composed several pieces for the theatre, including the two-act musicals Transient Days, The Wheel and RED. His first effort, Transient Days, premiered at the Walnut Street Theatre's Studio 5. The Wheel won the 2002 Birth of a Musical Festival, and has received staged readings at North Shore Music Theatre, Suffolk University and the York Theatre Company. RED, a retelling of the story of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, opened at the Pittsburgh Playhouse.

He is a member of the BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, and an alumnus of the New Dramatists Composer-Librettist Studio.

For more information, visit www.brianlowdermilk.com. Performances are 8 PM at the Lark Theater space at Shelter Studios, 939 Eighth Avenue. Admission is free, but seating is extremely limited and reservations are highly recommended. For more information or for reservations, call (240) 354-3343.