New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) 2009

Tickets and Information

[Ed. Note: This is the second in a series of TM review roundups of shows in the sixth annual New York Musical Theatre Festival.]

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The title song that opens the appealing new musical F#@cking Up Everything, now at the 45th Street Theatre, has a raucous chorus that makes you think this is going to be a real indie rock musical. But then the song turns into a litany of the many ways to use the f-word, suddenly sounding less like rock and more like a musical theater patter song -- albeit one firmly grounded in the gleefully foul-mouthed South Park era.

And if you think that Jake (Neil Haskell), the grungy, good-looking guy singing that song is going to be our main character, [...]

[Ed. Note: This is the first in a series of TM review roundups of shows in the sixth annual New York Musical Theatre Festival.]

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The Biblical story of Jesus gets a wittily irreverent retelling in the praiseworthy new musical Judas and Me, now at the ATA Chernuchin Theatre. Featuring book and lyrics by Chad Beguelin and music by Matthew Sklar -- the team best known for Broadway's The Wedding Singer -- the show is a fun and engaging cross between Jesus Christ Superstar and Gypsy, with a dash of Monty Python thrown in for good measure.

It opens with a host of angels appearing before a woman, proclaiming that she has been chosen to be mother to the son of God -- except they h[...]