Ana Villafañe, Joel Perez & More to Star In AZUL: A Bilingual Musical At Joe's Pub

JOE'S PUB at The Public Theater will present Katerina McCrimmon (The Rose Tattoo), Robi Hager (Spring Awakening), Ana Villafañe (On Your Feet!), Joel Perez (Fun Home), Martin Sola (The King and I, On Your Feet!), Henry Gainza (On Your Feet!), Florencia Cuenca, & More in AZUL: A Bilingual Musical!

Join them for AZUL: A Bilingual Musical, a concert of the musical previously programmed at the 2020 National Music Theatre Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, NAMT 2021 Annual Festival of New Musicals, Goodspeed Writers' Grove, and the 2022 NYC Women's Fund for Media, Music and Theatre, and more.

Following a sold out AZUL EP Release Concert at 54 Below, the AZUL team will present a constellation of songs blending traditional Latin American sounds with contemporary musical theatre to create a fresh new show unlike anything you've heard before.

This concert is produced by the three creators Tatiana Pandiani (director/book-writer/lyricist), Melis Aker (book-writer/lyricist), and Jacinta Clusellas (composer/lyricist), alongside creative producers Anabel Romero (FURIOSA Productions) and Ryan Duncan-Ayala. During this special one night only event, Clusellas will also be performing with the band that will feature Federico Diaz, Pablo Lanouguere and Franco Pinna. Arrangements and orchestrations are by Jacinta Clusellas, Kurt Crowley (Hamilton, Freestyle Love Supreme, Bring It On), and Tony and Grammy Award winner Alex Lacamoire (Hamilton, In The Heights, Dear Evan Hansen). Music Direction by Ben Moss (Oratorio for the Living Things).

AZUL is a Latin American bilingual musical about artistry and the immigrant experience. Set in a world of magic realism, Act One is a musical fable prequel. It follows an ambitious young woman, Blue Bird, who leaves her home behind and travels to the New World in hopes of making a living and a life as a poet. In present-day New York City, Act Two is a coming-of-age tale following Blue Bird's daughter, Rita. A first generation American, Rita is a composer struggling to write an album about a motherland she has never known. When attempting to make her music more authentic, she uncovers a family secret that debunks the stories she heard as a child. She must now reimagine her parents' past, as well as the future of her own artistry. AZUL weaves together these two distinct worlds to explore how memory and imagination shape immigrant stories. Driven by a constellation of songs rooted in Latin American folklore, AZUL is a spectacle in the legacy of book musicals, as well as a deep dive into intergenerational stories shaping immigrant identity.

Tickets available for $40 here: www.publictheater.org/productions/joes-pub/2023/a/azul/

AZUL: A Bilingual Musical plays Joe's Pub, The Public Theater (425 Lafayette Street (at Astor Place) New York, NY 10003), on May 24, 2023.
Doors Open at 9, Concert begins at 9:30 PM. There is a 2 drink or 1 food item minimum, per person, during every show at Joe's Pub.

Learn more about the show at www.azulthemusical.com

ABOUT THE CREATORS

TATIANA PANDIANI
Tatiana Pandiani is a Latin American writer & director-choreographer who works in Spanish and English. Recent: Our Town / Nuestro Pueblo (Dallas Theatre Center), Blood Wedding (Yale), What the Constitution Means to Me (Associate, Broadway and National Tour). Upcoming: Torera (The Alley Theatre, Houston / Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven). Tatiana has directed and developed new work at the Park Theatre (London), Cleveland Playhouse, NYTW, IATI, Primary Stages, Signature. As a choreographer, Tatiana collaborates with Latine artists in concerts & music videos. Tatiana is the New Works Director at Miami New Drama, and a professor at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University. Member of SDC. MFA: Columbia. Reps: Brillstein Entertainment Partners. www.tatianapandiani.com

Jacinta Clusellas
Jacinta Clusellas is a composer, guitarist and songwriter based in New York City. Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jacinta's music brings together South American folklore, jazz and chamber music. She is the composer-arranger of the bilingual musical AZUL (NAMT, Eugene O'Neill NMTC, Goodspeed) inspired by her concept album El Pájaro Azul (published in Japan under the record label Inpartmaint Inc). She has performed at SIX on Broadway, Lin Manuel Miranda's COCO screening concert, toured across the US (Lincoln Center, Joe's Pub, SXSW) and internationally in Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Canada, Greece and Italy. She has arranged for A.R. Rahman (Boston Symphony Hall) and Alejandro Sanz. Jacinta is currently Music Directing The Comedy of Errors at The Public Theater Mobile Unit. She is a Teaching Artist at the Very Young Composers Program for the New York Philharmonic and an assistant professor at Berklee College of Music. Upcoming: New album "A Dónde Llega el Silencio'' produced by West One Music (UK). www.jacintaclusellasmusic.com

Melis Aker
Named a "Woman to Watch" by the Broadway Women's Fund, Melis Aker is a writer, actor, musician based between London and New York. She currently has a series in development with Skybound Entertainment. The Off-Broadway premiere of her play Hound Dog, co-produced by Ars Nova and The Play Company was named one of the "30 Best Shows to See" by Time Out. She will next be receiving the London premiere of musical play Hundred Feet Tall with Benjamin Scheuer adapted from the eponymous children's book (TBA). Melis is the recipient of the Sundance Interdisciplinary Program grant, and is currently the Signature Theatre Company's LaunchPad resident playwright. She has had writing commissioned by and developed at Atlantic Theatre Company, Ars Nova (Play Group member), New York Theatre Workshop (2050 fellow), Dramatists Guild (DGF fellow) in the U.S., as well as the Finborough and Park theatres in the U.K. Melis has also worked on the development of a screenplay with Revelations Entertainment headed by Morgan Freeman. Her plays include: Field, Awakening (2019 Kilroy's List); Scraps and Things (Playing on Air, starring Carol Kane, directed by Neil Pepe, featured on the New York Times); Fractio Panis (Homebound Project/No Kid Hungry, starring Brian Cox, directed by Tatiana Pandiani); Manar (Theatre503 Playwriting Award semifinalist). MFA: Columbia. U.S. REP: CAA & Brillstein Entertainment Partners. www.melisaker.com

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