NEW MUSICAL “A COMMERCIAL JINGLE FOR REGINA COMET” TO PLAY OFF-BROADWAY

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Michael Jorgensen
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FOR RELEASE ON THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 2021


WORLD PREMIERE OF THE NEW OFF-BROADWAY MUSICAL

“A COMMERCIAL JINGLE FOR REGINA COMET”

TO PLAY THE DR2 THEATRE

BOOK, MUSIC, AND LYRICS BY
ALEX WYSE & BEN FANKHAUSER

DIRECTED BY
MARSHALL PAILET

PREVIEWS BEGIN SEPTEMBER 17

OPENING NIGHT SET FOR SEPTEMBER 27

TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE

ARTWORK AVAILABLE HERE


New York, NY – Announced today is the first new musical to premiere off-Broadway since the pandemic shutdown: A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet. Featuring book, music, and lyrics by Alex Wyse (“Indoor Boys”, Spring Awakening) and Ben Fankhauser (Newsies, Beautiful), with direction by Marshall Pailet (Baghdaddy, Triassic Parq), this world premiere musical begins previews on Friday, September 17th, at the DR2 Theatre (103 E. 15th Street), with an opening night set for Monday, September 27th. The strictly limited engagement is set to run through Sunday, November 14th, 2021.

Two nobodies dream of writing one hit song for everybody, but their day job composing jingles for commercials isn’t the big break they hoped. That is, until they’re plucked from obscurity by a world-famous pop star named Regina Comet (if destiny had a child, it would be her) and she wants them to create an anthem for her supernova pipes... and her new perfume. They’re so close to the big-time they can smell it, but following your passion doesn’t always lead where you expect. Making a hit song can be a shit-show.

“…Regina Comet is everything you want the first new musical premiering in NYC to be: whip-smart and stupid funny, packed with songs as catchy as a jingle, and only 80 minutes. You won’t want to miss this show that’s for anyone who has a dream and isn’t ashamed it’s unrealistic,” said producer Cody Lassen.

The creative team for A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet also includes Lucille Lortel Award nominee Wilson Chin (Scenic Design), Antonyo Award winner Sarita Fellows (Costume Design), Aja M. Jackson (Lighting Design), Twi McCallum (Sound Design), Emily Marshall (Music Director), and Katie Kennedy (Production Stage Manager).

A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet will play the following schedule: Tuesdays at 7pm, Wednesdays at 7pm, Thursdays at 8pm, Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 3pm and 8pm, and Sundays at 3pm and 7pm.

A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet is produced by Cody Lassen, joined by Kate Cannova, Sue Gilad & Larry Rogowsky, Chaz Naor, Brad Blume, Jo-Ann Dean, Jamie deRoy/Luigi Caiola, Wayne Holland Hampton, III, Jamie Joeyen-Waldorf, Robert Laurita, Benny Lumpkins Jr., Raindrop Valley, and Samantha Squeri.


Tickets, starting at $55, are now available and can be purchased by visiting www.Telecharge.com or by calling 800-447-7400.

Additional information, including casting, will be announced at a later date. For more information, visit www.ReginaComet.com.


B I O G R A P H I E S

CODY LASSEN (Producer) was most recently represented on Broadway by Paula Vogel’s Indecent and the Deaf West Theatre revival of Spring Awakening. Upcoming: How I Learned to Drive (opening April 19.) Recent co-producing credits include Thoughts of a Colored Man, What The Constitution Means To Me, Tootsie, Torch Song, The Band's Visit, and Significant Other. Upcoming: Some Lovers, a new musical by Burt Bacharach & Steven Sater; The Flamingo Kid by Robert Freidman & Scott Frankel; Alice By Heart, by Duncan Sheik, Steven Sater & Jessie Nelson; and The 12 by Robert Schenkkan & Neil Berg, directed by John Doyle.

ALEX WYSE (Book/Music/Lyrics) co-created “Indoor Boys,” which was nominated for an Emmy and acquired by Here TV, and he’s currently co-directing his debut feature film. Also, he co-produced What the Constitution Means to Me. He’s been seen on Broadway in Waitress, Spring Awakening, Lysistrata Jones, on Tour in Wicked, off-Broadway in Ride the Cyclone, Bare, and Triassic Parq, and on TV in “The Other Two,” “Iron Fist,” “Masters of Sex,” “NCIS: LA,” “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “Modern Family,” “Agent X,” “Bad Judge,” “A to Z,” “Switched at Birth,” and “Bored to Death.”

BEN FANKHAUSER (Book/Music/Lyrics). Regina Comet marks Ben’s writing debut! As a performer he is known for playing Davey in Newsies (Original Broadway Cast). Other New York theatre: Mack & Mabel (Encores!), Saturday Night and Bar-mitzvah Boy (York Theatre). First National Tours: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and Spring Awakening. Regionally Ben has been seen in The Flamingo Kid (Hartford Stage), An American In Paris (MTW), Big River (Sacramento Music Circus), I Hate Hamlet (Bucks County Playhouse), and Next To Normal (North Carolina Theatre). Television: “The Deuce,” “Indoor Boys,” “The Tony Awards.” Find more on Spotify/iTunes/YouTube. BFA: Ithaca College.

MARSHALL PAILET (Director) is a director and writer, and the proud owner of a wildly untrained, but ultimately well-meaning terrier-mix. He directed, composed, and co-wrote the off-Broadway musicals Who’s Your Baghdaddy, which was a two-time NY Times Critic’s Pick, and Triassic Parq, which went on to win the Ovation Award for Best Musical for its LA premiere. He’s written and directed for Dreamworks’ Shrek and Veggie Tales franchises, The Magic School Bus, Atlantic Theater Company, PBS, NYMF, NAMT, among others. Upcoming projects include Private Gomer Jones, A Girl and a Boy Dance, Loch Ness, Nikola Tesla Drops the Beat, and the film The Intervenors. Graduate Yale University.

WILSON CHIN (Scenic Design). Designs include Pass Over (Broadway, Lortel Award nominee), the Pulitzer Prize-winning Cost of Living (Manhattan Theatre Club), Next Fall (Broadway), The Thanksgiving Play (Playwrights Horizons), Wild Goose Dreams (Public Theater/La Jolla Playhouse), Teenage Dick (Ma-Yi Theater/Public Theater). Opera: Lucia di Lammermoor (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Eine Florentinische Tragodie/Gianni Schicchi (Canadian Opera, Dora Award). Film/TV: Pass Over (directed by Spike Lee), “Blindspot” (NBC). IG: @wilsonchindesign

SARITA FELLOWS (Costume Design). Her selected credits include: Social! (The Armory), A Bright Room Called Day (The Public Theater); Native Son (The Acting Co); Original Sound (Cherry Lane Theater); Hatef**k (The Women’s Project); Macbeth, The Winter’s Tale, and Measure for Measure (The Classical Theatre); A Chronicle of the Death of Two Worlds (New York Theater Workshop); Fur, MUD, Prospect, and Fabuloso! (The Boundless Theater Co); Her regional credits include Seize the King (Alliance Theater Co.); Top Girls and Her Portmaneau (A.C.T); The Royale (Arizona Theater Co); Ain’t Misbehavin’ (The Signature Theatre); Pipeline (Studio Theatre); The African School Girl Play (Pittsburgh Public Theater); Haunted Life (M.R.T); Two Trains Running (Weston Playhouse); Berta Berta, A Late Morning with Reagan (C.A.T.F); Having Our Say (Philadelphia Theater Co). Lecturer Princeton University. Associate Professor NYU@ Playwrights. MFA NYU/Tisch.

AJA M. JACKSON (Lighting Design) is a lighting designer working in theater, dance, and immersive performances. She has designed for companies such as the American Repertory Theatre, The Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival, North Carolina Black Rep, Boston Center for the Arts, and the Boston Conservatory. Aja is the Resident Lighting Designer and core collaborator for site-specific movement company, HOLDTIGHT, and serves as Board Chair on the Board of Directors for Brighter Boston. An alumnus from the Johnny Carson School of Theater and Film she graduated with a BFA in Theatrical Design, later receiving her MFA in Lighting Design from Boston University.

TWI MCCALLUM (Sound Design) is a sound designer in NYC, from Baltimore, MD. She is thrilled to make her musical debut, and hopes to primarily design musicals in the future. Her favorite theatrical credits include Kansas City Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, Atlantic Theater Company, and her Broadway debut in fall 2021. She has worked in television/digital production for STARZ, NBC, and Marvel. Most importantly, she is a former student of Howard University’s theatre department and a graduate of Yale School of Drama’s one-year sound program. When not working, she loves archery, zombie video games, and taking care of her pet snails.

EMILY MARSHALL (Music Director). Credits include: Broadway - Be More Chill, Elf; Ain't Too Proud, Beautiful, School Of Rock, Mean Girls, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (keyboard sub); Waitress (rehearsal pianist); Annie (keyboard programmer). Tours/Benefits: Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical; 1st National Tour of We Will Rock You, A Chorus Line, Beauty and the Beast, Flashdance, Elf. Off-Broadway/Labs: Rock of Ages (New World Stages), The Remarkable Journey to Tianguo (Developmental Lab), PRELUDES (LCT3), Head Over Heels (Developmental Lab), Clueless (Dev. Lab), Chix 6 (La Mama). Marshall also works as a supervisor, producer, contractor, accompanist, vocal coach, keyboard programmer, arranger & orchestrator.

KATIE KENNEDY (Production Stage Manager) is a proud West Virginian currently living in Brooklyn, NY. She is also a founding member of West Virginia Artists Aligned, an alumni group from West Virginia University that works to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within the WVU School of Theatre and Dance. Her resume includes: for colored girls…, SKiNFoLK: An American Show, Throw Me on the Burnpile and Light Me Up, Wickedest Woman, Pedro Pan, Latin History for Morons, RETREAT (a radio play), the 2019 Play On! Shakespeare Festival, the LCT 2019 Directors Lab, The Tempest, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

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www.ReginaComet.com

Facebook:@ReginaCometMusical
Instagram: @ReginaCometMusical
Twitter: @ReginaComet
TikTok: @ReginaCometMusical

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