The Best Christmas Pageant Ever — The Musical Gets Its First Reading at Stagedoor Manor
(courtesy of the official Stagedoor Manor website)
The first-ever reading of the newly licensed The Best Christmas Pageant Ever — The Musical will be held today at Stagedoor Manor, the country's premiere summertime training ground for young performers.
Adapted from the 1971 bestselling book by Barbara Robinson, the musical features a book and lyrics by Jahnna Beecham, and music and lyrics by Malcolm Hillgartner. Today's reading is directed by John Bronston with musical direction by Liz Toleno, and is performed by a cast of Stagedoor Manor students. The story follows six delinquent children who are given roles in the Sunday school's Christmas play, in which they tell the Christmas story in a nonconventional fashion.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever was commissioned by the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, which workshopped the piece this past spring. The musical will make its world premiere at CTC in December 2016 and can be licensed through Playscripts, Inc to be staged worldwide.
"The Children’s Theatre of Charlotte is excited to work with Stagedoor Manor in helping to develop this piece, because the camp’s mission and our mission — to educate and cultivate the next generation of actors and theater lovers — closely mirrors one another," said CTC Artistic Director Adam Burke. "We’re also thrilled to help develop new work for children’s theatre, which is increasingly becoming one of CTC’s key focuses."
