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What do a struggling 1950s funnyman, a mysterious stranger in 19th-century England and Hans Christian Anderson's Little Match Girl have in common? Nothing, really, except that each of these characters is the star of one of three distinctive brand-new musicals featured at TheatreWorks' second annual New Works Festival.
The festival offers a unique experience for theater-goers, who will get to see new works in progress, as writers and composers take their shows for a test-run with a live audience..
Caraboo, by Marsha Norman, Beth Blatt and Jenny Giering, is inspired by a true-life story of a beautiful woman found wandering in the English countryside in the early 1800s who spoke only in an unknown language.
The fairytale of the Little Match Girl gets an electrifying revamp in the hands of the band Groovelily, who retell the story in their new musical, Striking 12.
In Daniel Goldfarb and Andrew Lippa's Jerry Christmas, a Jewish comedian in the 1950s faces the decline of his career from the silver screen to the inglorious small screen as he prepares for an appearance on a live Christmas special.
Also featured in the festival will be a rehearsed reading of a new play, Baby Taj, by Bay Area playwright Tanya Shaffer. Baby Taj tells the story of a woman who gains insight into her life through her travels in India.
The New Works Festival runs April 30May 4 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. For more information, call 650.903 .6000 or see www.theatreworks.org.
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