Directed by three-time Tony Award nominee and Playwrights Horizons alumnus Michael Greif (Grey Gardens, Next to Normal, Rent), the invitation-only readings will take place July 30-31 at Playwrights Horizons, 416 W. 42nd Street.

Kazee (Broadway's 110 in the Shade, Spamalot, To Be or Not To Be) has stepped in to replace the previously announced Borle (Legally Blonde), who has had to withdraw due to a movie shoot conflict.

Kazee joins Tony Award winner and 2009 Emmy Award nominee Jane Krakowski (Nine, "30 Rock," additional Tony nomination for Grand Hotel) in a 12-member cast that will also feature Curt Hansen, Kyle Harris, Jeff Hiller, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Marla Mindelle, Amina Robinson, Preston Sadleir, Ali Stroker, Sam Tedaldi and Alex Wyse. Dominick Amendum will serve as music director.

Playwrights Horizons is presenting the readings with support from The Richard Rodgers Foundation. The show is a Richard Rodgers Award winner. The readings are invitation-only and closed to the press and the public.

Based on the 1991 teacher-student sex scandal and murder trial surrounding Pamela Smart, Mrs. Sharp tells the story of a woman who "wants you to become more." Having written an unsuccessful self-help series entitled "Invent Yourself: Five Words to Live By," 31-year old Kimberly Sharp (Jane Krakowski) is encouraged by her husband (Steve Kazee) to take a job teaching at the local high school. Kimberly sets out to change the lives of her students, absorbing them into her web of fantastical delusions and private affairs. But when her husband discovers she's gone just a bit too far, Kimberly realizes there's only one thing that can be done about him. Someone goes to jail, someone becomes a beloved self-help guru and someone gets shot in the head — but everyone learns a lesson from Mrs. Sharp. The show was originally conceived at the Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program at New York University in 2007 as Alive at Ten, where it was presented as a staged reading and selected to participate in the ASCAP/Disney Musical Theatre Workshop in Manhattan. Later that year, Stephen Schwartz, who leads the panel of musical theater writers, chose the musical to receive a workshop at Carnegie Mellon University in association with ASCAP and Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera.

In February 2008 the show was awarded the Richard Rodgers Award for Staged Readings, administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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