PRESS RELEASE — UPRIGHT CABARET 9TH ANNUAL ‘A BROADWAY CHRISTMAS’ ON DECEMBER 17 & 18 AT 8:30PM

CHRIS ISAACSON PRESENTS
IN ASSOCIATION WITH RYAN O’CONNOR
ANNOUNCES

UPRIGHT CABARET 9TH ANNUAL
A BROADWAY CHRISTMAS

HOSTED BY
BRUCE VILANCH
MUSICAL DIRECTION BY
GREGORY NABOURS

DECEMBER 17 & 18 AT 8:30PM
CATALINA BAR & GRILL IN HOLLYWOOD

Chris Isaacson Presents in association with Ryan O’Connor has announced Upright Cabaret’s 9th Annual A Broadway Christmas. Hosted by six-time Emmy Award-winner Bruce Vilanch with musical direction by Gregory Nabours, there will be two performances only on Wednesday, December 17 and Thursday, December 18 at 8:30pm at the Catalina Bar & Grill in Hollywood.

Stars scheduled to perform are (in alphabetical order) Jill Burke, Candice Clasby, Will Collyer, Laura Dickinson, Sheila Karls, Jacob Lusk, Matthew Ryan Pest, Jonah Platt, Amber Snead, and Brandon Wardell, with more to be announced.

Under boughs of holly and multi-media of silver and gold, stars and snowflakes will glitter as Upright Cabaret combines the Best of Broadway with the Carols of Christmas. Along with the extraordinary vocal talent of the performers, brassy horns and sentimental strings will create a wonderland of cheerful songs and melodies guaranteed to bring on the holiday spirit.

Host Bruce Vilanch is best known for his work as a writer on 23 Oscar telecasts. He spent six years on The Hollywood Squares and played Edna Turnblad in Hairspray on Broadway an on tour across the U.S. Musical director Gregory Nabours is a composer/lyricist and music director who recently had an evening of his original work performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He is a founding member of the Coeurage Theatre Company and is the winner of two Ovation Awards, and LA Drama Critics Circle Award, an LA Weekly Award, and the NAACP Theatre Award.

Upright Cabaret’s 9th Annual A Broadway Christmas will take place at the Catalina Bar & Grill, 6725 Sunset Boulevard, in Hollywood. Tickets are $25 and $30 with a $5 discount on purchases made by December 10. VIP packages are available, and tickets purchased online receive priority seating. Single entrée or drink minimums apply. Go to www.TicketWeb.com or www.ChrisIsaacsonPresents.com or call (866) 468-3399.

Chris Isaacson Presents is currently nominated for four BroadwayWorld.com Awards for its presentation of concerts this past year starring Laura Benanti, Danny Gurwin, Jeremy Jordan, and Jennifer Holliday. For more information about this and other CIP events including evenings with Mandy Gonzalez and Molly Ringwald coming up in 2015, visit www.ChrisIsaacsonPresents.com.

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12/06/14

PRESS RELEASE — “MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH” SET FOR INDUSTRY READING ON MONDAY 10/27 IN NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CA

WARP GRAPHICS PRESENTS

MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
A MUSICAL THRILLER

BOOK AND LYRICS BY WENDY PINI
MUSIC AND ADDITIONAL LYRICS BY GREGORY NABOURS
DIRECTED BY CALVIN REMSBERG

EXCLUSIVE WORLD PREMIERE INDUSTRY READING
SET FOR MONDAY, OCTOBER 27
IN NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA

Warp Graphics has announced a world premiere industry reading of Masque of the Red Death, a musical thriller with book and lyrics by Wendy Pini, music and additional lyrics by Gregory Nabours, and directed by Calvin Remsberg, on Monday, October 27 at 7:30pm at the NoHo Arts Center in North Hollywood, CA.

Epic in sweep and scope, Wendy Pini and Greg Nabours’ musical thriller Masque of the Red Death is based on Pini’s graphic novel of the same name (based on The Mask of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe) which employs a Japanese anime style of art, and this new musical expands on this adaptation. Set in a decadent, perfect future, Anton Prosper uses his vast fortune and scientific genius to seek the ultimate power of life over death. But when the stunning prodigy Steffan Kabala enters Prosper’s life, he unlocks a tempestuous passion that may send the entire planet hurtling into a bloody maelstrom of destruction.

Writer/Artist Wendy Pini has worked for nearly all of the major comics publishers such as Marvel, First Comics, Comico, DC Comics, and Dark Horse Comics. In 1977, she created the best-selling high fantasy comic series Elfquest, the first Japanese anime-influenced graphic novel series to be published in America. Pini’s adults-only graphic novel based on Edgar Allan Poe’s horror story The Mask of the Red Death (1842) serves as the foundation for this new musical thriller.

Gregory Nabours is a composer/lyricist and music director. Musical Direction credits include The Color Purple (2012 Ovation, LADCC, LA Weekly, and NAACP Awards), Thoroughly Modern Millie, Falsettos, Rent, The Wild Party, A New Brain, Spring Awakening, Into the Woods, Assassins, and The Full Monty. Nabours’ song cycle, The Trouble With Words, was awarded the 2011 Ovation Award for Best Music and Lyrics for an Original Musical, as well as Best Musical in the Hollywood Fringe Festival. This November, an evening of his work will be performed and broadcast at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Nabours is a founding member and resident composer of Coeurage Theatre Company.

Calvin Remsberg is known both as an accomplished actor and noted theatre director. His directing credits include the revival of Bare, the LA premiere of Glory Days, Into the Woods starring Anthony Geary, Hello, Dolly! for 3-D Theatricals, Sweeney Todd for Musical Theatre West, the 20th Anniversary production of Sweeney Todd for Reprise!, the West Coast Ensemble production of Sunday in the Park with George, and Interact Theatre Company’s Urinetown. For Musical Theatre Guild, Remsberg has directed Shenandoah, Parade, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Street Scene, Aspects of Love, Titanic, The Most Happy Fella, and Death Takes a Holiday.

The cast will feature (in alphabetical order) Heather Ayers, Benai Boyd, Rich Brunner, Emma Degerstedt, Tawny Dolley, Ben Gibson, Steven Good, Steve B. Green, Paulette Ivory, Ashley Jones, Jeffrey Landman, Tyler Ledon, Jamison Lingle, Jacob Lusk, Marco Ramos, Aaron Scheff, Rebecca Spencer, Zach Spound, and Zach Villa.

The reading will take place on Monday, October 27 at 7:30pm. For more information, contact kenwertherpr@gmail.com. The NoHo Arts Center is located at 11136 Magnolia Boulevard in North Hollywood, CA, 91601.

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10-03-14