Penguin Rep Theatre will present a 29-hour reading of the new musical Flying Toward the Sun later this month.
Held June 12 in New York City, the reading will present the new musical about asylum seekers—with a book by Bill Nabel, music by Neil Berg, and lyrics by Berg and Nabel—to an invitation-only audience.
Directed by Joe Brancato, the reading will star George Abud (Lempicka), Lee H. Alexander (Jagged Little Pill), Dan Hoy (Harmony), Jonny Lee Jr. (Pacific Overtures), Gabrielle Mariella, Sharon Wheatley (Come From Away), and Paulina Yeung (The King and I).
Wendy Bobbitt Cavett (Come From Away) will serve as musical supervisor and arranger, with Matthew Stephens as musical director and William Bastiason as musical transcriber. Michael Palmer will be the stage manager and Isaac Goldbaum will be the assistant stage manager.
Nabel is an American Academy of Arts and Letters Richard Rodgers Prize finalist for his musical Take Me America. As an actor, he appeared on Broadway for the entire run of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and performed in the original Broadway companies of A Chorus Line, Sweeney Todd, and 42nd Street.
Berg is the composer and co-lyricist, alongside Pulitzer winning playwright Robert Schenkkan, of The 12, which was directed by John Doyle at Goodspeed Opera House. He also composed the music and co-wrote the lyrics (with Cary Gitter) for The Sabbath Girl: The Musical, which was presented by Penguin at 59E59 Theaters in 2024; and How My Grandparents Fell in Love, which was presented by New Jersey Rep at 59E59 Theaters earlier this year.