L Morgan was asked to be a part of BroadwayCon 2020 once again this year. She will be part of a Panel speaking on Trans Representation on Broadway.
CONCRETE JUNGLE - Industry Reading
Directed by Scott Ebersold (The View UpStairs) with musical direction by Emily Marshall (Be More Chill), the presentation will feature L Morgan Lee (A Strange Loop), Trent Saunders (Aladdin, Evita), Melanie Moore (Hello Dolly!, Finding Neverland), Hunter Ryan Herdlicka (A Little Night Music), EJ Zimmerman (Les Miserables), Devin Ilaw (Miss Saigon), Schyler Conaway (Saturday Night Fever), and Michael-Anthony Souza (And She Would Stand Like This) with Kara Arena, Christopher J. Nolan, Yassi Noubahar, and Noah Virgile.
Industry readings of Concrete Jungle, a contemporary take on Cyrano de Bergerac, will be held at Manhattan Theatre Club. The romantic comedy, with words and music by Bobby Cronin and additional material by Crystal Skillman, is set in The Concrete Jungle Bar, an oasis for a diverse group of friends trying to turn their dreams into realities while traversing the tangled web of New York City.
Abby (L Morgan Lee), an Ivy League graduate barely clinging to her twenties but certainly holding on to student debt, bartends while waiting for her writing career and love life to finally start. Add in a fashionista who demands respect (Melanie Moore), a less-than-suave investment banker (Schyler Conaway), a medical student who needs experience playing doctor (Devin Ilaw), a confident and sexy internet influencer (EJ Zimmerman), and even a drunken sailor (Hunter Ryan Herdlicka)... and sparks fly in all directions, especially when a phone call from a Canadian writer Guy (Trent Saunders) changes Abby's life forever. But will Guy say "I love you" to the wrong woman, or will Love Conquer All?
BROADWAY STANDS UP FOR FREEDOM @ Town Hall
Spend an unforgettable evening with fellow art and music lovers celebrating the power of resistance through expression. Featuring Broadway stars and up-and-coming artists performing songs that celebrate the ACLU and NYCLU, civil rights and civil liberties. This year's theme My Body, My Business highlights women's and trans rights. Level Forward will be honored for their contributions to making Broadway and media more inclusive; and Celia Keenan Bolger, recent Tony Award winner and long-time NYCLU champion, will receive the Michael Friedman Freedom Award.
Tony winner Kelli O'Hara (Kiss Me, Kate) and Tony nominees Montego Glover (Memphis), Judy Kuhn (Fun Home), Phillipa Soo (Hamilton), and Eva Noblezada (Hadestown) will be joined by Julia Murney (Wicked), Jeannette Bayardelle (Hair), Shoba Narayan (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812), and Shaina Taub (Public Works' Twelfth Night), Starr Busby (Octet), L Morgan Lee (A Strange Loop), Wé McDonald (NBC's The Voice), and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.
BROADWAY UNDER THE STARS 2019
L Morgan will be a featured performer in Jonathan Brielle’s Broadway Under the Stars benefit concert in Tewksbury, NJ on September 14, 2019 at 8pm. The concert features writer/composer/lyrisist Jonathan Brielle performing selections from his theatrical shows in development with Broadway luminaries and a world-class 8-piece band including rhythm and horn sections with players from Broadway, the Rolling Stones and Paul Simon bands. Proceeds from the event and live auction will benefit Broadway Babies.
FEMMEBODYS @ MTF
L Morgan will play Cassandra in a presentation of Éamon Boylan’s new musical Femmebodys on September 13, 2019 at Playwrights Downtown with Musical Theatre Factory. Femmebodys, or: the way we move is the way our bodies move, the way we walk each block. It is a mosaic of trans sisterhood, of solidarity, of a day in the life.
A STRANGE LOOP Original Cast Album to be Released!
Photo credit: Joan Marcus
Michael R. Jackson’s acclaimed musical A Strange Loop, which recently wrapped its extended Off-Broadway run at Playwrights Horizons, will release an original cast album September 27 on the Yellow Sound label.
Jackson wrote book, music, and lyrics for the musical that explores the thoughts of Usher, a black, queer writer working a job he hates while writing his original musical: a piece about a black, queer composer working a job he hates while writing his original musical.
Jackson and Michael Croiter co-produce the recording. For more info: Playbill Article: ASL Original Cast Album
SOFT BUTTER Musical Album Release
"Our ancestors. Gertrude Stein, James Baldwin, Nina Simone, but also the mothers in my family, trans activists in the 60s, anyone who hung out with Yoko Ono. Process, Undoing, Space, Transformation." This is Éamon Boylan's concoction of inspiration for Soft Butter: a trans fantasia on edible themes. The recording is set to be released on July 22nd on Spotify and iTunes. The voices of Soft Butter include Boylan, L Morgan Lee (A Strange Loop), Dana Aliya Levinson (Adam, The Dress You Have On), Esco Jouléy (Runaways, Galetea) and Milo Longenecker (suck + blow, AD of Sacred Circle Theatre Company). Original orchestrations and sound featuring Luna Skye, Danny Ursetti and Jacob Jarrett. Recorded, mixed and edited by Patrick Thompson. Illustrations by Jacob Michael.
You can follow Soft Butter's journey on Facebook, Instagram and on their website.
A STRANGE LOOP Extends @ Playwrights Horizons
Photo credit: Joan Marcus
Playwrights Horizons has extended its limited run of Michael R. Jackson’s new musical A Strange Loop, which opened to critical acclaim June 17. The musical follows a young artist at war with a host of demons—not least of which are the punishing thoughts in his own head—in an attempt to capture and understand his own strange loop. For more info: A STRANGE LOOP EXTENDS