Jon Rua, Alex Mitchell, and Mandarin Wu Lead NY Theatre Barn Choreography Lab

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Three original musicals will be presented through movement at Open Jar Studios, moderated by Helen Hayes Award winner Rachel Leigh Dolan.

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The 13th season of New York Theatre Barn's Choreography Lab will continue on Thursday, September 17, 2026, bringing three original musicals to life through the power of movement: Freedom Riders: The Civil Rights Musical, The Ladies Man, and The Monkey King: A Kung Fu Musical. Moderated by two-time Helen Hayes Award-winning choreographer Rachel Leigh Dolan , the lab will be presented at 7:00 PM ET at Open Jar Studios in NYC (1601 Broadway, 11th floor) and will be streamed live.

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The featured choreographers are Jon Rua (Hamilton, Floyd Collins), Alex Mitchell, and Mandarin Wu . The lab features performances by Ben Bartels, Jojo Carmichael (MJ), Sofia Celio, Dean Cestari , Ron Coglitore, Tony Collins , Leah Joy Faircloth, Kimbirdlee Fadner , Marisa Fernandez, Tommy Gendrich, Michael George, Alice Jackson, Amanda Knowles, Anthony Obnial , Norah Perez, Larkin Reilly (The Rocky Horror Show, Just in Time), Cole Sisser, and Haoyi Wen.

The evening will feature short excerpts from the three musicals. Freedom Riders: The Civil Rights Musical, by Richard Allen and Taran Gray , follows college-age activists who risked their lives riding interstate buses in 1961 to challenge segregation and Jim Crow in the American South. The Ladies Man, by Justin Mortelliti and Shannon Hunt, with direction by Matti DiCarlo (Jawbreaker, Moulin Rouge!), is a queer pop musical about coming out at the turn of the millennium while navigating the tension between self-discovery and the weight of strict Roman Catholicism. The Monkey King: A Kung Fu Musical, by Kimbirdlee Fadner and Jonathan Fadner, boldly reimagines the legendary Monkey King from Wu Cheng'en's beloved 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West as a woman.

Click here to purchase tickets. New York Theatre Barn will continue to provide Live CART captioning services, provided by Inclusive Communication Services. New York Theatre Barn's programs are supported by A.R.T./New York's NYC Small Theatres Fund, made possible with support from the Howard Gilman Foundation. For more information, visit New York Theatre Barn's website: www.nytheatrebarn.org .

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/off-broadway/article/Jon-Rua-Alex-Mitchell-and-Mandarin-Wu-Set-for-New-York-Theatre-Barns-Choreography-Lab-20260909)._