Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Bobby Houston, who earned a 2005 Oscar for his documentary "Mighty Times: The Children's March," penned book and lyrics for the world-premiere musical, which was co-created by book writer Patricio Bisso and composer Randy Courts. Castronauts runs through Sept. 28 at the Zipper Factory.

Directed and choreographed by Will Pomerantz, Castronauts is a backstage comedy about El Club Voodo, "an illegal cabaret on a side street in Havana where impressaria Lolita presides over an unruly troupe of drag queens and dancing girls – until the night Castro himself decides to take a look. Farce turns to fiasco—and a desperate flight to Florida in a '56 Chevy," according to Festival notes.

Populating Castronauts are Hechter Ubarry (Man of La Mancha) as Lolita, April Ortiz (Tio Pepe) as Mama, Nancy Ticotin (Bernarda Alba) as Sofia, Skie Ocasio (Bombay Dreams) as Bacardi, Guto Bittencourt (Brazilian productions of Les Misérables and Chicago) as Ricky, Ngozi Anyanwu as Kiki, Terry Lavell (Hairspray) as Amazona and Candace Reyes Newton (Growing Up 70's) as Mercedes.

Dimitri Nakhamkin serves as musical director and provides orchestrations for the production, with a design team including Cory Pattak (lighting), Chris Rummel (sound), Lisa Renee Jordan (costumes) and Brian Prather (set).

For tickets and more information visit NYMF. *

Running Sept. 15–Oct. 5, NYMF 2008 features musicals from around the world, culled from invitations and an open-submission process. Numerous Broadway veterans lend their talents to the new works, many of which have found commercial life Off-Broadway, and for the first time, on Broadway with [title of show].