Directed by Dan Knechtges (Lysistrata Jones), Five Points features a book by Harrison David Rivers, music by Douglas Lyons and Ethan Pakchar and lyrics by Lyons.
The cast includes Amber Iman (Soul Doctor), Britton Smith (After Midnight), Kevin Worley (On the Town), Eugene Barry Hill (Kinky Boots), Sean Jenness (The Last Ship), Graham Montgomery (Kinky Boots), Aaron Walpole (Les Misérables), Katie Thompson (Giant), Yasmeen Sulieman (Beautiful), Ian Knauer (Mamma Mia!), Sara King (Hair), Tyson Jennette (The Book of Mormon), Kit Treece (New York Spring Spectacular), Aisha Jackson (Beautiful), Rashidra Scott (Sister Act) and Devon Norris.
Here's how the musical is billed: "In 1863 in the midst of the Civil War a new art form was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan: Tap dance. Five Points: An American Musical, charts the trajectories of two families — one white and one black — as they risk everything in pursuit of the American Dream."
Amber Dickerson serves as the stage manager, and Alvin Hough Jr. provides musical direction. Assistant musical director Benet Braun will be featured on cajon, and Cori Stolbun is a production assistant.
Five Points has a development residency at NYC's Musical Theatre Factory in August 2015. Lyons and Pakchar's debut album is entitled "#Love (Live)," and Rivers was awarded the 2015 McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting at the Playwrights' Center. The title is derived from the 19th century downtown Manhattan neighborhood that was a center of crime and disease, but also a social melting pot for newly arrived immigrants. The whole area was eventually demolished to build the NYPD headquarters and a Chinatown park.