Performance Network and EMU Theatre to offer New Year's Eve reading of 'Striking 12'

Posted on Mon, Dec 17, 2012 : 4:39 a.m.

Performance Network Theatre and Eastern Michigan University Theatre will be popping the champagne this year’s New Year’s Eve, with a collaborative staged reading of "Striking 12," a jazzy holiday musical with an eclectic pop/rock/jazz score, on the Performance Network stage on Dec. 31 starting at 9 p.m., followed by a champagne reception at the stroke of midnight.

This concert-with-a-story, which the New York Times has called “more artfully crafted and engaging than virtually all the standard-mold musicals coming our way these days,” blends together a healthy dose of old-fashioned uplift with a pinch of 21st-century skepticism to tell the tale of a grumpy, overworked New Yorker whose resolve to spend New Year’s Eve alone crumbles when an unexpected visitor brings some much-needed cheer.

Inspired by Hans Christian Anderson’s "The Little Match Girl," with book, music, and lyrics by Brendan Milburn, Rachel Sheinkin and Valerie Vigoda; and direction by Ken Stevens and R. MacKenzie Lewis, "Striking 12" is a humorous and musically rich way to celebrate the joys and blunders of 2012 and wish for happiness in 2013.

Tickets are $50 for the show and champagne reception, $35 for students and seniors, and $25 for students under 21. To reserve tickets, call Performance Network Theatre at 734-663-0681 or go online to www.performancenetwork.org.