Songs For a New World

Songs For a New World

Songs for a New World, an intimate chamber musical by Jason Robert Brown, Broadway’s newest composer, opens Friday, June 24, at 7:30 p.m. at the Grace Theatre for Performing Arts in Princeton.  It is the first production of the 2011 Festival 56 summer season. 
 
In describing the play recently, Dexter Brigham, Festival 56 Executive Artistic Director, said: "Every year the festival gets the opportunity to present one or two plays that are perhaps less well known than classics like Rodgers & Hammerstein, but are wonderful pieces of theatre that deserve a stage and an audience. This is definitely one of those shows."
”Songs for a New World  carries with it a strong sense of universality since the show is concerned with themes of religion, motherhood, fear, dreams, family, money, loss, relationships, risk, war, death, and survival,” said Jimmy Calitri, director for the Festival 56 production. “The cast that Festival 56 has assembled for Songs are very talented performers -- they carve out the material so uniquely, specifically, and powerfully that they are sure to have a profound impact.” 
Actors John Cormier, Jillian Prefach, Sarah Smith, and Michael Lindsey are the show’s cast, accompanied by Festival 56 music director Julianne Merrill, returning to Princeton for her fourth season.
Writing about the play, Scott Miller, veteran musical theatre director, explained the heart of it : ‘Every song in the show is essentially about the same thing: those moments in life when everything seems perfect and then suddenly disaster strikes -- the loss of a job, an unexpected pregnancy, the death of a loved one, the end of a marriage . . . But it’s even more about surviving those moments. The message is that we ALL go through these bad times. In a very real sense, none of us is ever really alone.  Our salvation comes through the community. It is through . . . these stories that we find the strength to go on.”
Songs for a New World plays through July 2 at the Grace Theatre, 316 South Main Street, Princeton.  The venue is completely accessible and ample nearby parking is available.  For more information about Festival 56 and a complete 2011 performance schedule, visit www.festival56.com; for tickets, call the Box Office, 815-879-5656.