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Posted on Mon, Dec 17, 2012 : 4:39 a.m.

Performance Network and EMU Theatre to offer New Year's Eve reading of 'Striking 12'

By AnnArbor.com Staff

Performance Network Theatre and Eastern Michigan University Theatre will be popping the champagne this year’s New Year’s Eve, with a collaborative staged reading of "Striking 12," a jazzy holiday musical with an eclectic pop/rock/jazz score, on the Performance Network stage on Dec. 31 starting at 9 p.m., followed by a champagne reception at the stroke of midnight.

This concert-with-a-story, which the New York Times has called “more artfully crafted and engaging than virtually all the standard-mold musicals coming our way these days,” blends together a healthy dose of old-fashioned uplift with a pinch of 21st-century skepticism to tell the tale of a grumpy, overworked New Yorker whose resolve to spend New Year’s Eve alone crumbles when an unexpected visitor brings some much-needed cheer.

Inspired by Hans Christian Anderson’s "The Little Match Girl," with book, music, and lyrics by Brendan Milburn, Rachel Sheinkin and Valerie Vigoda; and direction by Ken Stevens and R. MacKenzie Lewis, "Striking 12" is a humorous and musically rich way to celebrate the joys and blunders of 2012 and wish for happiness in 2013.

Tickets are $50 for the show and champagne reception, $35 for students and seniors, and $25 for students under 21. To reserve tickets, call Performance Network Theatre at 734-663-0681 or go online to www.performancenetwork.org.