New York Musical Festival and Soulshaker Entertainment LLC. Nichole Swanson
In association with Jim Jurgens and Jane Ellis present

A SCYTHE OF TIME

Book by ALAN HARRIS
Music and Lyrics by MARK ALAN SWANSON
Additional Arrangements and Orchestrations: RYAN CANTWELL

Starring

LESLI MARGHERITA, P.J. GRIFFITH, DANNY RUTIGLIANO, MATT DENGLER
BLAIR ALEXIS BROWN, BRANDON BRUNE, EMILY CLAIRE HUGHES, LANCE OLDS, ALEX SYIEK

Directed by DAVID ALPERT
Music Director: RYAN CANTWELL
Scenic Design: STARLET JACOBS
Costume Design: LINDSAY McWILLIAMS
Lighting Design: NICK SOLYOM
Projection Design: DAN SCULLY
Sound Design: DAVID MARGOLIN LAWSON
Casting Director: MICHAEL CASSARA, CSA
Production Stage Manager: MARISA LEVY
General Manager: LDK PRODUCTIONS/LISA DOZIER KING
Marketing: RED RISING MARKETING/MICHAEL REDMAN
Press Representative: JT PUBLIC RELATIONS/JOE TRENTACOSTA

The June Havoc Theatre
312 West 36th Street (between 8th & 9th Avenues)
www.nymf.org
7/21 @ 8pm; 7/23 @ 1pm; 7/23 @ 5pm; 7/24 @ 1pm; 7/24 @ 5pm; 7/26 @ 9pm

Alan Harris’ and Mark Alan Swanson’s A SCYTHE OF TIME takes you to a time and place where sensationalism and an obsession for fame join hands to create what is considered “news.” Current day times? Although it could easily fit in to today’s standards, this musical takes place in 1881 London. Based on Edgar Allen Poe’s How To Write A Blackwood Article and A Predicament, magazine owner Blackwood (P.J. Griffith) has come up with a novel idea for increasing circulation. For fifty guinea, he will publish unknown writers’ accounts of their own demise. And this preposterous proposition is working. Writers are taking him up on his offer, and competitive magazines are losing popularity. There is one exception – the magazine owned by the campy and stylish Madam Zenobia (Lesli Margherita) refuses to fold. Together she and her faithful servant Pompey (superbly portrayed by Danny Rutigliano) have come up with a plot to use Blackwood’s plan against him.

Fantastic costumes by Lindsay McWilliams and impressive projections by Dan Scully bring authenticity to this dark musical. Book and songs laced with tongue-in-cheek humor bring absurdity to the story, and although A SCYTHE OF TIME holds up a mirror to our current fascination with sensationalism, a good time is had by all.

- Laurie Lawson -