Kerry Butler, Peter Friedman, Tonya Pinkins Join Casts of NAMT Musicals

Casting is complete for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT)’s 24th Annual Festival of New Musicals to be held on Thursday, October 11 and Friday, October 12 at New World Stages.

Tonya Pinkins, Peter Friedman, Vanessa Ray, Katrina Diderickson, Olli Haaskivi, Timothy Warmen, Annie Golden and Bryce Ryness will be featured in Brendan Milburn, Rachel Sheinkin and Valerie Vigoda’s Sleeping Beauty Wakes, directed by Rebecca Taichman with music direction by Brad Haak.

Kerry Butler, Drew Aber, Demond Green, Kenita Miller, Alysha Umphress and Emily Walton will star in Kirsten Childs’s Funked Up Fairy Tales. Jerry Dixon directs, with Steve Marzullo as music director.

Chester Gregory, Bryce Pinkham, Michael Winther, André De Shields, Jeremy Morse, Omar Lopez-Cepero, Eddie Wardel, Santino Fontana, Chris Hoch and Wade McCollum will be featured in Justin Levine’s Bonfire Night, to be directed by Sam Buntrock with Kimberly Grigsby as music director.

Sutton Foster, Rachael Ferrara, Steve Routman, Brian Sutherland, Steel Burkhardt, and Kate Rockwell star in The Circus in Winter, Ben Clark and Beth Turcotte’s musical, directed by Victoria Bussert with Matt Webb as music director. The ensemble includes Marie-France Arcilla, Emily Behny, Derrick Cobey, Jonathan Jensen, Corey Mach and Jen Noble.

Nicolette Hart, Nancy Opel, Damon Daunno, Robin DeJesus, Sarah Stiles and William Ryall are cast in Bleeding Love, an original musical by Jason Schafer, Arthur Lafrentz Bacon and Harris Doran. Stephen Brackett directs with Jason Wetzel as music director.

Wayne Wilcox, Adam Heller, Carrie Cimma, Bryce Ryness, Dana Steingold and Margot Siebert will be featured in Triangle by Curtis Moore, Thomas Mizer and Joshua Sher, directed by Meredith McDonough with James Sampliner as music director.

Carla Duren, Adam Kantor, Lauren Molina, Nicole Lewis, Heath Calvert, Kelsey Kurz, Phoebe Strole and Etai Ben Shlomo will appear in Itamar Moses and Gaby Alter’s musical Nobody Loves You, directed by Michelle Tattenbaum with Mike Pettry as music director.

Annette O’Toole, Jeff McCarthy, Natalie Joy Johnson, Robin Skye, Allison Briner, Lizzie Hagstedt, Joel Waggoner, Randy Redd, Andy Taylor, and Erik Lochtefeld will be featured in Dan Collins and Julianne Wick Davis’s musical Southern Comfort. Tom Caruso directs, with Emily Otto as music director.

The Festival presents 45-minute staged readings before an industry-only audience. However, a limited number of tickets will be made available to the public for free on a standby basis.

For more information, visit www.namt.org.