Directed by Lynn Taylor-Corbett, the cast will feature Tony nominee Sally Mayes, Lacretta Nicole, Michele Duffy and Charity Farrell. The production will also have musical direction and additional vocal arrangements by Gillian Berkowitz.

Unexpected Joy has a book and lyrics by Tony nominee Bill Russell and music by Janet Hood. It marks the first collaboration between the two since their song cycle Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens, which was inspired by the AIDS memorial quilt. Russell is a Tony Award nominee for book and lyrics to Side Show, on which he collaborated with Dreamgirls composer Henry Krieger. Russell also penned book and lyrics to The Last Smoker in America and Kept.

According to the authors, “Unexpected Joy is a new musical about four women—all of them singers, but of various experience and success: Joy, a baby-boomer, her daughter Rachel, Rachel's daughter Tamara, and Lou, the woman Joy is intending to marry. But Joy hasn't told Rachel about her wedding plans and has good reason to be apprehensive. Rachel is married to a successful televangelist and performs regularly on his TV show. And Lou is a self-described lesbian terrorist. When the family comes together for a concert honoring Rachel’s father (her mother never married him), the sparks and music fly!”

Casting is by Stephen DeAngelis.

For ticket information visit What.org.