Hope everyone has been having a wonderful, hot summer. Paul, Fred and Sam have been working hard to draft a scaled-down, fast paced CONCERT version of the exciting and hilarious original musical BEDBUGS!!! Hear all the songs that wowed audiences of our sold-out NYMF production.

BEDBUGS!!! The Concert

2 Nights Only!

TUESDAY, Sept. 20th at 7pm and

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 21st at 9:30pm

LAURIE BEECHMAN THEATRE:  Located within The West Bank Café: 407 West 42nd St. near 9th Avenue, NYC.
Tickets are $12 plus a $15 food/ drink minimum. They have a full bar and great food.

Make your reservation today by calling (212) 695-6909.

The exciting concerts will be reuniting NYMF BEDBUGS!!! alums BRIAN CHARLES ROONEY(Threepenny Opera, POP!) as Dionne Salon, CHRIS HALL (Revision Theatre’s Rocky Horror Show), as bedbug rock god Cimex, and STEPHEN SHEFFER returning as Chad the hipster.  Brand new for this special concert presentation will be JENNA LEIGH GREEN (Wicked, Bare, and from the TV show Sabrina the Teenage Witch) as our Carly and STEVE WATTS (Hurricane) as our Tom Wansett et al.   Rounding out the cast are recent and beloved additions ERIC ANDERSON (South Pacific) as Dexter, SHANNON CONLEY (lead vocalist for Lez Zeppelin) as Mother et al, and MICHAEL ZAHLER (Boy in the Bathroom) as sidekick Burt. Music is by PAUL LESCHEN. Book and Lyrics are by FRED SAUTER.  Directed by SAMUEL BUGGELN.  Choreo-moves by ROBIN CARRIGAN.  Presented in part by Summit Entertainment Group.

Reserve your seats today!

Come to the Laurie Beechman and be thrilled, chilled and insect-ually fulfilled!!!

XOXO

-Fred and Paul

We have had a whirlwind couple of days.  On Wed. Oct. 27th Paul and I presented our first ever showcase concert “Astronauts, Bedbugs & Other Killers:  the Songs of Leschen and Sauter” to a packed house at the Laurie Beechman Theater in NYC.

The cast featured Eric Anderson (SOUTH PACIFIC), Ryan Bogner (BEDBUGS!!! at NYMF, HEY YOU KNOW WHAT MOVIE…), Celina Carvajal (TOXIC AVENGER, BEDBUGS!!! at NYMF), Shannon Conley (of the all-girl tribute band LEZ ZEPPELIN), Denise Estrada (TWIST), Molly Hager (“It’s Kind of a Funny Story”, upcoming musical FAT CAMP), Brian Charles Rooney (“Lucy Brown in Roundabout’s THE THREEPENNY OPERA, Candy Darling in Yale Rep’s POP!) and Will Taylor (A CHORUS LINE, GYPSY w/ Bernadette Peters.)  There was even a special number performed by Ben Cameron (WICKED, AIDA.)  The band included Matt Hinkley on guitar, Andrew Potenza on drums and Danny Stone on bass.  Keyboards and Music Direction was by Paul Leschen.  Direction was by Fred Sauter.  Preparations for the concert were funded by the writers.  Promotion was by Ron Lasko and Spin Cycle (www.spincycle.com).   Songs were sung from our three musicals:  BEDBUGS!!!, ASTRONAUT DIAPER AND OTHER TALES OF MODERN LOVE, and KARMA KILLS.  Thanks to everyone who participated and everyone who came.  It was an amazing night that we will never forget.

Videos from the concert will be posted soon, so stay tuned.

Now for the BIG NEWS:

Melanie West of the Wall Street Journal saw the press release for the “Astronauts, Bedbugs and Other Killers” concert and took notice about our musical BEDBUGS!!!. She interviewed us and observed our rehearsal.  Her excellent article was printed on the morning of the concert.  This led to an interview by Abbie  Swanson of WNYC as well as our Thursday morning interview by Chris Jansing on MSNBC!

Paul and I are currently self-producing an equity showcase production aimed at  late February 2011.  (Most likely candidate is a very cool, up-and-coming art/theatre space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.)   We are raising funds via www.kickstarter.com for this production.  We need to raise between $15,000 and $25,000 to mount the full production.    The more we raise, the better the production.  If we only raise the minimum of $4,000, then we will use it to fund a Backer’s Audition in order to raise the rest of the funds.  Either way, we are determined to put this show up on it’s feet again!

Go to www.kickstarter.com and search for BEDBUGS.  For those of you who didn’t get to see the show in the 2008 New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) you can get a good taste of what the musical is about by watching our video on kickstarter.  The production stills were taken by Michael Faulkner.  The NYMF cast and production team are detailed in the bios section of this website.

Thanks for reading, and check back frequently.  THINGS ARE HEATING UP!

Sleep tight!

-Fred  (BEDBUGS!!! writer)

P.S.  Here is a link to the MSNBC interview:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/39892192#39892192

If you are in NYC Wed. Oct. 27th at 9:30pm the Laurie Beechman Theater is the place to be!  Paul and Fred are presenting a concert of songs from BEDBUGS!!! plus their brand new shows “Astronaut Diaper and Other Tales of Modern Love” and “Karma Kills.”  Here is the press release:

Be afraid, be very afraid! The Laurie Beechman Theater presents ASTRONAUTS, BEDBUGS and OTHER KILLERS:  The Songs of Leschen and Sauter for one night only Wednesday, October 27 at 9:30pm.

http://www.spincyclenyc.com/index.php/liveperformances/1-live-performances/142-astro

A German cannibal. A cloned pitbull. A crazed exterminator.  A dangerously disgruntled actor.  A Mormon-stalking beauty queen. A diaper-donning astronaut. This might sound like the lineup at a Halloween costume parade, but it is actually the characters you will witness breaking into song in ASTRONAUTS, BEDBUGS and OTHER KILLERS:  The Songs of Leschen and Sauter. Join Celina Carvajal (Toxic Avenger, MTV’s Legally Blond reality show), Brian Charles Rooney (Lucy in Three-Penny Opera, Candy Darling in Yale Rep’s POP!), Molly Hager (Cloaked, Fat Camp), Eric Anderson (South Pacific), and a plethora of amazing talent as they perform hard-rocking, boundary-breaking songs from BEDBUGS!!! (NYMF ’08) as well as Fred Sauter and Paul Leschen’s brand new in-progress musicals “Astronaut Diaper and Other Tales of Modern Love”, and “Karma Kills”.  Hear Carvajal belt out BEDBUGS!!!’s “Carly’s M.O. (Genocide)” and “Silent Spring”. Delight to Hager as the infamous female rapist in “Marry me a Mormon” and “One Wild Woman”. Soak up the love as Rooney interprets Celine Dion and a certain American Idol. Twitter your fingers to the bone as Courtney Love is affectionately spoofed by Shannon Conley (of all-girl rock tribute band Lez Zeppelin.)  Ryan Bogner (Hey You Know What Movie…) Denise Estrada (Twist) and Will Taylor (A Chorus Line) will jump into the action.  There will even be a special homage to “The Golden Age of Broadway” performed by Ben Cameron (Wicked). Miss it if you DARE!!!!!

Matt Hinkley will play guitar, Andrew Potenza will play drums, Danny Stone will play bass.  The concert will be Music Directed by Paul Leschen and Directed by Fred Sauter.

ASTRONAUTS, BEDBUGS and OTHER KILLERS:  The Songs of Leschen and Sauter will be presented Wednesday, October 27 at 9:30pm. The Laurie Beechman Theatre (inside West Bank Cafe at 407 West 42nd Street — at Ninth Avenue, accessible from the A,C,E,N,R,V,F,1,2,3 trains at 42nd Street).  Tickets are $20 with a $15 food/drink minimum per person, available at 212-352-3101 or  www.SpinCycleNYC.com. Ticket price includes complimentary Halloween candy, plus a free copy of the brand new 9-track demo of songs from “Astronaut Diaper” featuring Anderson, Carvajal, Hager, Estrada, Taylor, Mark Montague, and Mark Rinzel (of the band “The Jupiter Deluxe”)!

Excellence In Writing (Music):
Honorable Mention: Paul Leschen, Bedbugs!!!

Excellence In Writing (Book):
Honorable Mention: Fred Sauter, Bedbugs!!!

Outstanding Ensemble Performance:
Honorable Mention: Bedbugs!!!

Outstanding Individual Performances:
Celina Carvajal (Bedbugs!!!)
Brian Charles Rooney (Bedbugs!!!)

For the complete listing of winners, go to:

http://www.nymf.org/Story-314.html

P.S> Check out the production stills we’ve added to the “Images” page.

“The sci-fi pop rock musical is alive and kicking in Bedbugs!!!, a glitzy, pumped-up new production in the New York Musical Theatre Festival…” -nytheatre.com

“…Leschen and Sauter have created a set of songs with a great deal of cleverness and craft, truly worthy of Madonna in her Material Girl days.” -curtainup.com

“Top to bottom everyone in the ensemble is with the spirit of the material; I haven’t had as much what-a-goof, laugh-out-loud fun at a campy musical since the first time I saw Rocky Horror.
-Just Shows to Go You

“…Celina Carvajal, a redheaded bombshell who made a pit stop on the Legally Blonde reality series. She’s a superstar-in-training…” -theatremania.com

Broadway vet Brian Charles Rooney (The Threepenny Opera) steals the show as Dionne Salon.”
-Halley Bondy of Backstage

“Chris Hall — as a preening, strutting six-foot bedbug you’re likely to remember — is a delicious combination of David Lee Roth and Tim Curry.” -theatremania.com

“The supporting cast is top-notch, as well- each playing a bedbug minion as well as various other roles in some lickety-split costume changes (the costumes by Amanda Bujak and Chris Rumery are giddy and wonderful and generate laughs on their own)” -broadwayworld.com

With Sauter’s burrowing and boisterous book and lyrics, Leschen’s invidiously astute 80s take-off tunes, and such strong performers on hand, BEDBUGS!!! already has almost all the bite it needs.
-Talkin’ Broadway

To read the full reviews, go to the links page.

The casting decisions were tough but we chose a wonderful group of actors lead by Celina Carvajal and Brian Charles Rooney. We were all ecstatic to see Amanda and Chris’s awesome costume designs on thursday and can’t wait to see them come to life! Just wait until you see these bugs! A big thanks to Andy Cochran for creating our super-fun website.

Check back regularly for updates, or subscribe to our RSS Feed.

Thanks for checking out our show!