Jon D’Agostino’s new musical Male Fleischman gets a developmental reading in Holmdel, New Jersey, this weekend, November 8–9, with Analise Scarpaci, Jared Zirilli and Mariand Torres in the company, Playbill reports.
The show comes out of D’Agostino’s own story. Its hero is raised in a warm Italian-American household and discovers as an adult that he was adopted, and that his birth parents were Jewish. His original birth certificate gives him no first name at all, only “Male Fleischman,” and says nothing about the family he was born into. That line on the document gives the musical its title.
D’Agostino wrote the book and lyrics, and shares the music credit with Michael August. Jeremy Dobrish directs, with Mark Baron as music director. The reading runs as a 29-hour workshop, the short rehearsal-and-presentation format that lets writers hear a new score with a full company of actors.
The rest of the cast is Joey Maher, Lauren Singerman, Toni DiBuono, Jim Marhold and Dave Droxler. Scarpaci was in Mrs. Doubtfire and Matilda on Broadway; Torres’s credits include Wicked and Hell’s Kitchen; and Zirilli has appeared in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical and Lysistrata Jones.
No public performances, venue or ticketing have been announced for the reading, and nothing has been said yet about a production beyond it.
