Theater News

Roundtable Forum on Musical Theater for Family Audiences Set for Monday, May 3

New York City
On Monday, May 3, from 4:30pm to 6:30pm, the League of Professional Theatre Women in association with the Dramatists Guild of America will present The Best of Broadway and Beyond: The Young and the Musical, a roundtable forum on the creation of musical theater for family audiences.

Panelists will include Sheldon Harnick (Phantom Toll Booth, Dragons), Stephen Schwartz (Captain Louie), Nancy Ford and Gretchen Cryer (The American Girls Show), Joseph Church (music supervisor, The Lion King, Nightingale), and Brad Simon (producer, Family Entertainment Tours ). Producer-director Meridee Stein (Captain Louie, Nightingale) will moderate and Jed Bernstein, president of the League of American Theatres and Producers, will be a participating speaker.

The discussion will be accompanied by a brief presentation of some of the musical works created by the artists listed above as performed by Julie Hanson, Steven X. Ward, Lynne Halliday, Stephen Zinnato, Kelsey Fatebene, Sarah Kapner, Carlene Baptiste, Jewel Crenshaw, and Jamie Schmidt; in addition, Charles Strouse will introduce his piece Nightingale. The program will end with a question and answer period.

The event will take place at The Women’s Project Theatre, 424 West 55th Street (between 9th and 10th avenues). Admission is free and open to the public but seating is limited and reservations are required; to reserve, phone Tom Epstein of the Dramatists Guild at 212-398-9366, ext. 11.