Nancy Anderson, Christian Hoff, Terrence Mann, Barbara Walsh, et al. Set for NAMT Festival of New Musicals

Preliminary casting has been announced for the 2010 National Alliance for Musical Theater’s Festival of New Musicals has been announced. The event will be offered October 21-22 at New World Stages, with limited seating open to the public.

Tony Award nominee Christopher Ashley will stage a musical adaptation of the movie Heartbreakers, written by Robert Cary, Benjamin Feldman and David Gursky, which will have music direction by Eric Stern. The cast will include Stephanie D’Abruzzo, Rachel deBenedet, Christian Hoff, Kevin Ligon, Patti Murin, Nancy Opel, T. Oliver Reid, Lisa Rothauser, and Jason Michael Snow.

Will Aronson and Daniel Mate’s The Trouble With Doug will feature Matthew Hydzik, Lindsay Mendez, Barbara Walsh, and Jason “SweetTooth” Williams. Tony Award-winning actress Victoria Clark will stage this musical about a man who wakes up one day to find himself transformed into a slug. Greg Brown will serve as musical director.

Eric Anderson, Rachel Coloff, Bradley Dean, Danielle Ferland, Michael Kostroff, and Parker Pogue will appear in John Jiler and Georgia Stitt’s Big Red Sun, which is a post-World War II tale about a teen boy who discovers a family secret. Peter Flynn will stage the piece, which will have music direction by Mary Mitchell Campbell.

The cast for The Bowery Boys will include John Cudia, Curtis Holbrook, Adam Kantor, Morgan Karr, Carrie Manolakos, Max Quinlan, Andrew Redlawsk, Cullen R. Titmus, and Kathy Voytko. Dominic Missimi will direct the musical by David H. Bell, Jeremy Cohen and Aaron Thielen, which will have music direction by Brad Haak and centers on a 19th-century gang of street kids who attempt to to reunite a young English girl with her grandfather.

Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer, Alan Stevens Hewitt and Tim Maner’s musical about murderess Lizzie Borden will feature Carrie Cimma in the title role, along with Jenny Fellner, Marie France Arcilla and Beth Malone. The piece will be staged by Victoria Bussert, with music direction by Matt Hinkley.

Nancy Anderson, Michael Buchanan, Sally Mayes, Michael McGuirk and Caesar Samayoa will appear in the jazz-fueled Play It Cool, to be helmed by Sharon Rosen, with music direction by Joe Baker.

For Scott Ethier and Jeff Huges’ look at the months leading up to Rosa Parks’ bus ride, Red Clay, the cast will include Chauncey Bellamy, J. Bernard Calloway, Michael Genet, William Jackson Harper, Marci Henderson, Tyrick Wiltez Jones, Herndon Lackey, Kenita R. Miller, Arbender Robinson, and C. Kelly Wright. The piece will be co-directed by Daniella Topol and Jerry Dixon and have music direction by Aron Accurso.

As previously reported, the festival will also include Nathan Christensen and Scott Murphy’s adaptation of Lois Lowry’s The Giver, directed by Pam Berlin, with music direction by Vadim Feichtner.

Additional casting will be announced at a later date.