SHINE! The Horatio Alger Musical with a Book by Richard Seff; Music by Roger Dean Anderson and Lyrics by Lee Goldsmith is being presented by Other Side Productions (Peter Mercurio, Chuck Blasius - Co-Artistic Directors) as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival at The Theater at St. Clements, 423 West 46th Street. Michael Bottari & Ronald Case are the set and costume designers. The director is Peter Flynn and the choreographer is Devanand Janki. Greg Anthony is the music supervisor, arranger, Orchestrator; Annbritt duChateau is the music director and the associate musical directors are Danny Percefull and Sue Anschultz. With a highly melodic, hummable and bouncy score with bright lyrics, "SHINE the Horatio Alger Musical", has tons of period atmosphere, nostalgic charm, comedy and entertainment. It is a hope and dreams musical with a touch of "Annie", a smidgen of "Oliver", a dash of "Tintypes" as well as a smattering of musical joys that will delight! A multi-talented cast of 18 makes this one of the largest of the festival productions. Performances will be: Thurs. 10/7 at 8pm; Sat. 10/9 at 5pm; Mon. 10/11, at 9pm; Fri. 10/15, at 1pm; Sat. 10/16, at 9pm and Sun. 10/17 at 3pm. www.shinethemusical.com
"SHINE! The Horatio Alger Musical" follows the tale of Ragged Dick (Horatio Alger's first best-selling hero) in lower Manhattan (1876) as he rises from penniless bootblack to budding Wall Street entrepreneur. Dick's adventures with a little bit of luck, some charm and a whole lot of hard work bring him face to face with scheming ex-convicts, vicious comic villains, kind benefactors, and a world of colorful street characters in this charming rags-to-riches romp for everyone.
Michael Bottari & Ronald Case (Set and Costume Design) created designs for the South African "Hairspray". They were nominated for a Drama Desk, Outer Critics, & American Theatre Wing Awards, and won the Lucille Lortel for Costume Design for "Die Mommie Die". They were nominated for the Drama Desk and won best Set and Costume Design (Dean's List) for "Fanny Hill". They won the Lucille Lortel and were nominated for the Drama Desk for costumes for "Shanghai Moon". For the critically acclaimed feature film of "Die Mommie Die" they won a Sundance and several film awards. Their costumes for Busch are also featured in the documentary "Lady In Questions Is Charles Busch". They have been a design team for over 40 years, having designed both sets and costumes for Broadway: "State Fair" (David Merrick's last Broadway show), "Prince Of Central Park", and Marc Shaiman's "Prop 8, The Musical". Off-Broadway: "Little Me", "Carnival!", "Opal", "Man Who Shot Lincoln", etc. National tours: "I Do! I Do!" (Lucie Arnaz), "Camelot" (Richard Harris), "Man Of La Mancha" (John Raitt, Jack Jones) world tour of "My Fair Lady" (Noel Harrison), 25th Anniversary Tour of "The King And I" (Yul Brynner), "Al Jolson, Tonight"(Larry Kert), "A Funny Thing... Forum" (Mickey Rooney), "Showboat" (Shirley Jones) naming a few. Some regional credits include costumes for the now legendary Betty Buckley "Gypsy" (PaperMill), the hit revival of "Dames At Sea" winning numerous awards for their sets, costumes (San Francisco, Goodspeed Opera House), "Cabaret" (Walnut Street Theatre) Barrymore Award for Best Costume Design, and many years at Starlight Musicals (Indianapolis) and Burt Reynolds' Theatre (Carbonell Awards). They have designed clothes for such celebrities as Lorna Luft, Deborah Gibson, Andrea McArdle, Donna McKechnie, Susan Egan, Janis Paige, Nannette Fabray, Van Johnson, John Davidson, Laurence Luckinbill, B.D.Wong, among others. They have designed the last three national tours of "Fiddler On The Roof" with Theo Bikel, two premiere ballets for American Ballet Theatre.
