Directed by Judith Dolan, the reading of Stoker will be presented in Manhattan April 17 at 3 PM. The cast boasts Aysan Celik, Jim Dale, Peter Gerety, Matthew Gumley, Tom Hewitt, Herndon Lackey, Alice Ripley, Tom Alan Robbins, Paul Schoeffler, Theo Stockman and Peter Van Wagner. Lawrence Yurman is musical director. Stoker features a book by Irish playwright Raymond Hardie and music and lyrics by Grammy-winning composer Joe Jackson. The musical, which is set within a theatrical framework, is "centered over two days of rehearsal of The Bells, a Victorian melodrama at the Lyceum Theatre in 1893. Between curtain calls and costume fittings, a battle of ego, politics, and artistic demons wages, and a legendary literary figure struggles to find his voice. It is the story of Bram Stoker, the mind that created the great gothic tale Dracula."

Michael Parva is the artistic director of The Directors Company, which has been developing Stoker over the past two years. The Directors Company has also been responsible for helping bring to life Bat Boy: The Musical, 3hree, Camila, Splendora, Eliot Ness...In Cleveland, The Ballad of Little Jo and The Passion of Frida Kahlo.

For more information about The Directors Company, call (212) 246-5877.