48-Hour Musical Returns to Music Theatre Company

Following last year's success, (TMTC) of Highland Park kicks off its annual on Monday night. 

TMTC will put on three shows over two days in what writers, composers, choreographers and actors were able to throw together in 48 hours. Each performance will consist of four 15-minute musicals sure to tickle the emotions of any show-goer.

While last year’s theme used famous Shakespeare quotes, this year the 48-Hour Musical is based on bizarre book titles. 

, founder of TMTC, described how she came up with the 48-Hour Musical shows.

“While I was living in New York, I noticed they had a lot of 24-hour plays and musicals and the idea spawned from there,” Redish said. “I was so excited to bring that energy to Highland Park."

This kind of quickly assembled theater forces performers to rely on gut instincts. 

“It’s a sort of artistic thrill-seeking," said Patrick Martin, one of this year’s performers. This will be his first 48-hour musical. "I’ve been describing the concept to my friends as ‘guerilla musical theatre.’”

The bizarre book theme ranges from titles like How to Grow Your Own Hair and How to Feed Your Turtle. The artists will chose a title at random and base an entire 15-minute segment off that. They will then have 24 hours to write the piece and 24 hours to choreograph and rehearse. 

Performances begin on Monday, August 22 with two shows, one at 7pm and another at 9:30pm.  There will be an encore performance on Tuesday, August 23 at 8pm.

For details and ticket information click here.