Gems of the BMI Musical Workshop Will Glisten in Showcase at Manhattan Theatre Club June 5 | Playbill

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News Gems of the BMI Musical Workshop Will Glisten in Showcase at Manhattan Theatre Club June 5 New songs by writers of The BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop will echo in a special showcase June 5 at Manhattan Theatre Club's space at City Center Stage I.

The workshop was an important breeding ground for songwriters including Maury Yeston, Ed Kleban, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty and Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, among hundreds of others. The tuition-free workshop continues today.

The showcase will start at 6 PM and run almost two hours. Tickets are limited, free of cost, to the general public on a first come, first serve basis.

Manhattan Theatre Club's Michael Bush (Based on a Totally True Story) will direct. The producers are Workshop Artistic Coordinator Patrick Cook and Workshop Special Events Coordinator Frank Evans.

BMI will host a reception immediately following the performance.

To request tickets please email [email protected]. Members of the entertainment industry can reserve seats by calling (212) 830-8360. The showcase is made possible by a grant from the Cameron Mackintosh Foundation, the second awarded to the BMI Workshop.

Deemed "the Harvard of musical theatre" by The New York Times, the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop was founded in 1961 by performing rights organization BMI and the late Lehman Engel, dean of American musical theatre, to create a setting where new writers could learn their craft.

It is considered the birthplace of such classic musicals as A Chorus Line, Nine, Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, and current Broadway hit Avenue Q.

The Workshop was recently honored with a special 2006 Drama Desk Award for "nurturing, developing and promoting new talent for the musical theatre," and also received the 2005 Drama League Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre.

The showcase will offer excerpts from:

  • Calvin Berger, a hip update of Cyrano by Barry Wyner, winner of the BMI Foundation's 2005 Jerry Bock Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre. "Twelfth-grader Calvin Berger grapples with his insecurity about the size of his nose. Lacking the courage to ask out the girl of his dreams, he instead communicates his feelings to her through the handsome new kid in school, which only makes him want her more." The new musical will have a full production at Gloucester (Maine) Stage this summer.
  • The Third Miracle by Jeff Hughes, Scott Ethier & Richard Vetere, based on the film of the same name and the novel by Vetere. "[It] examines the spiritual awakening of a priest who is beginning to doubt his faith when he is sent to investigate a 'miracle' in the borough of Queens."
  • The Tragic and Horrible Life of the Singing Nun by Andy Monroe and Blair Fell. "A paean to Jeanine Deckers, the Belgian nun known as Soeur Sourire, who became a chart-topping one-hit wonder with the song 'Dominique' in 1963, and how her singing career — and her life — devolved into a nightmare of addiction, depression, betrayal by the church, and a tragic end in 1985."
  • Rhonda, Queen of the Amazon by Peter Morris and Mat Eisenstein. "A musical comedy about a New York City 'princess' who finds herself selling cosmetics door-to-door in the jungles of South America."
  • Wanda's World by Beth Falcone, the BMI Foundation's 2006 Harrington Award winner, and Eric Weinberger (Class Mothers). "A 'tween' musical set in a contemporary high school setting."
  • The Dogs of Pripyat by 2005 Harrington Award winners Jill Abramovitz and Aron Accurso. Based on the play by Leah Napolin. "the musical is set in a town less than two miles from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster."
  • Iznogoud – The Musical, based on the French comic books by Goscinny and Tabary, written by Marc Schubring and Phoebe Kreutz.
  • Carried Away, based on the play The Curious Savage, is a new musical comedy with book, music and lyrics by 2006 Harrington Award winner Jim Colleran.
  • The Fisher King, by Steve Routman and Joy Son, based on the film of the same name.
  • Dysfunctional Fables has lyrics by Sean Hartley (2004 Drama Desk nominee for Cupid and Psyche) and music by Sam Davis.
  • Queen Esther by 2006 Drama Desk nominees Joshua Salzman and Ryan Cunningham, the writing team of I Love You Because...
  • How to Murder Your Wife is an adaptation of the film by Alisa Klein and Stephen Sislen, composer of Slut! The Musical.
  • Children's Hospital by Larson Award-winning lyricist Alison Loeb and composer Bob McDowell. In addition, Tony-nominated actor/composer/lyricist Jeff Blumenkrantz (Urban Cowboy) will perform "Toll" from his recently published "Jeff Blumenkrantz Song Book."

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    Now celebrating more than 65 years in business, BMI is an American performing right organization that represents more than 300,000 songwriters, composers and publishers in all genres of music. With a repertoire of more than 6.5 million musical works from around the world, the non-profit-making corporation collects license fees from businesses that use music, which it then distributes as royalties to the musical creators and copyright owners it represents.

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