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Cast and Crew of Teen Musical ‘In Your Dreams’ Congratulates Rolling Stone Magazine on its 1,000th Issue

New York, NY (PRWEB) May 5, 2006

The cast and crew of the hot new teen musical “In Your Dreams” — http://myspace.com/inyourdreamsthemusical — issued a statement today congratulating Rolling Stone and its publisher, Jann Wenner, on its 1,000th issue this week.

Rolling Stone is celebrating its 1,000th issue anniversary with a Manhattan party with The Strokes as house band and a 3-D cover that mimics the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper sleeve and cost nearly $ 1 million (U.S.) to produce.

Zeke Farrow, the Miramax-linked creator of America’s hottest new teen musical, “In Your Dreams” — http://broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=9263 — which is taking on Disney Channel’s “High School Musical” in a hotly fought battle for the $ 170 billion teen entertainment market, urges Wenner to “stay chill and just have some fun.”

“Once you’re at the top, you like the view,” says Farrow, stealing a lyric from one of his own songs. “Jann earned that view — it wasn’t something that was just handed to him or that he inherited, he had to claw his way to the top for it — and so he must make sure to take time to enjoy it.”

According to Farrow, cast members of “In Your Dreams” have long been fans of Wenner. “We would be his Green Party if he was the last tree on earth,” notes Farrow, stealing a lyric from one of his own songs.

The Rolling Stone 1,000th issue party is an audacious sign of how Rolling Stone, which has numbered its issues since Jann Wenner put out No. 1 in 1967, remains dominant even with changing times and music, according to Farrow. “While none of the cast or crew has been invited to this week’s fabulous $ 400,000 party -– and surely this is an oversight — we continue to wish the magazine well.”

Although Rolling Stone’s circulation has been flat for some time at about 1.3 million, it still surpasses other music-oriented mags such as Vibe (836,000) and Blender (693,000). “As one of ‘In Your Dreams’’ many lyrical songs would put it: “That’s a Fact!” says Farrow. “Even if you don’t typically enjoy Broadway-style music, it is worth listening to this particular song if only to enjoy the amazing ability of ‘Rent’s’ Anika Larsen to turn the word ‘fact’ into a four-syllable word.” http://myspace.com/inyourdreamsthemusical

Unlike “Rolling Stone Magazine,” which is a music magazine, “In Your Dreams” is a large-scale, splashy, comedic teen musical –- with just a dash of political satire. It centers around Helen, a seventeen-year-old girl who appears in three different incarnations: Black, Pink, and Blue. It opens with the bizarre introduction of Black Helen, a girl tortured by fellow students Melanie and Jordanna and secretly in love with Jared. We quickly learn that Black Helen is but a dream and as she fades and Pink Helen wakes up, we realize that Pink Helen’s life is a perfect, bubble gum musical. She is popular, she’s dating Jared, she has high hopes for a perfect day. And today is the day to beat all days. It is prom, and Helen is a front runner to win prom queen…until she learns that the “Popular Girls Caucus” has turned against her, and is even stuffing the ballot box to engineer her defeat!

What is helping to fuel the “In Your Dreams Express,” according to Farrow, are its 13 ingeniously lyrical songs, performed by a number of top Broadway singers, including “Trailer Park’s” Drama Desk-nominated Leslie Kritzer, “Wicked’s” Laura Bell Bundy, “Les Miserable’s” Jodie Langel, “Little Shop of Horror’s” Kerry Butler, “Thoroughly Modern Millie’s” Gavin Creel, “Hairspray’s” Jackie Hoffman, “The Full Monty’s” Sloan Just, and Anika Larsen, Danny Rocket and Anthony Rapp from “Rent.” Rhythm and blues artist Shayna Steele is also a contributor.

The stage version of “In Your Dreams” will see a showcase production at Ars Nova, the famed Manhattan performance incubator, later this summer, says Farrow.

Among those in the motion picture industry with a growing awareness of the significant market value that a theater-distributed rival to Disney’s cable-based “High School Musical” has to offer are Chris Meledandri; Joss Wedon; Ryan Kavanaugh of Gun Hill Road; Thomas Tull and Scott Mednick of Legendary Pictures; Stephen Quinn; Steve Bratspies; Roy Spence; Polly Cohen; Mark Gill; Jeff Robinov; Sasha Alpert; Bunim Murray; Oliver Obst; Melrose Investors; Bob Osher; Steve Bing; Jeff Skoll; Tom Jacobson; Nathan Lane; Mark Platt; Gus Gustawes; Kenny Miller; David Brookwell; Sean McNamara; MarVista; Matt Dearborn; Michael D. Jacobs; Fernando Szew; TalkStory Productions; Brookwell McNamara Entertainment; Ben Silverman and Reveille Studios; USA Entertainment; Gayle Troberman and Rob Bennett at MSN; and Sarah Jessica Parker and Vanessa Taylor at Pretty Matches Productions, which is currently producing “The Washingtonienne,” a sit-com for HBO in which a morally amphibious intern is debauched in the afternoon by a Washington Insider.

But to date the film rights remain unsold. “Ryan Markowitz and Mark Kaufman at New Line Cinema continue to pass, as does Christina Aguilera,” says Farrow. “And the woman at MTV remains vitriolic in her rejection of it.”

The $ 170 billion teen and tween entertainment market continues to be a major focus this spring for a number of content providers. For example, over the course of its twelve airings (January 20-April 21, 2006), Disney Channel’s break-into-song “High School Musical” reached 36.5 million unique total viewers (persons 2+), 20.1 million households, 10.3 million kids 6-11 and 11.1 million tweens 9-14. The premiere of “High School Musical” delivered the highest ever household ratings for Disney Channel original programming. Traffic to DisneyChannel.com surged with the premiere of “High School Musical.” Within a 24-hour period after its January 20 premiere, 1.2 million unique visitors logged on to DisneyChannel.com — the most ever for the site.

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