Now in it’s sixth incarnation, the New Voices series is a concert showcasing the best of today’s most promising young musical theatre composers. An exciting blend of Sondheim and pop/rock, this next generation of composers is turning Broadway on its ear with musicals about grunge bands, electroshock therapy, road trips, and Anna Nicole Smith. New Voices 6 is December 29th at the Seattle Rep Theatre.
The showcase features an exciting mix of up-and-coming local talent as well as more established Seattle artists. Leading the concert will be Billie Wildrick (5th Avenue’s upcoming Sunday in the Park with George), Kat Ramsburg (5th Avenue’s MAME), Taryn Darr (Village’s South Pacific, 5th Ave’s A Chorus Line), Nick DeSantis (I Am My Own Wife), Tanesha Ross (Saint Heaven), Ann Evans (A New Brain), Don Darryl Rivera (Guttenburg, High School Musical), and Jennifer Paz (Village’s EVITA and Beauty and the Beast), among others. The music director is R.J. Tancioco (EVITA and Once Upon a Time in New Jersey) and the host is Contemporary Classics artistic director Brandon Ivie (Zanna, Don’t!, A New Brain).
Some shows featured in past New Voices are already on their way to a prominent life in New York.
New Voices 6 showcases the next generation of theatre composers with showtunes about electroshock therapy, September 11th, road trips, and trailer trash for one night only, on December 29, 2008 at 8:30pm. For more information visit www.contemporaryclassics.org. Tickets can be purchased at BrownPaperTickets.com.
Here is a hilarious clip from New Voices 5 of Nick DeSantis (currently Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast at Village) doing a song called “Way Ahead of My Time”: