Heidi Blickenstaff Reveals Plans For [title of show] Team’s And Now This Is Happening

The [title of show] team is hard at work on their next collaboration, the previously announced lab production of And Now This is Happening at off-Broadway’s Vineyard Theatre. While the show won’t begin until February, the team (which includes Heidi Blickenstaff, director Michael Berresse, Hunter Bell, Jeff Bowen, Larry Pressgrove and Broadway.com host Susan Blackwell) already began rehearsals.

“It was inspired by a piece we did at Gypsy of the Year called My First Time,” Blickenstaff told Broadway.com, “and that inspired us to get going on something new. We had been asked to create new one-off pieces for all these different events, and they’re all such precious little babies to us that we decided to shove them together to see what we had.”

The piece debuted onboard Rosie O’Donnell’s R Family cruise line, but the show will have changed from its original incarnation by the time audiences get a peek. “It’s refining itself into a very different story,” Blickenstaff said. “It’s grown and continues to grow.”

With cast members attached to different projects, the the group decided to come together for an early rehearsal period due to their varying schedules. That's no easy feat for Blickenstaff who recently tore a calf muscle caused by “dancing like a Broadway chorus girl” and now must sport a large medical boot.

“It’s the best,” Blickenstaff said of the team reuniting. “We all go off and do our separate things and that’s wonderful too, but there’s something about the alchemy when the six of us get together that is really special. We love each other and fill in each other’s gaps and together we are this crazy family that is [title of show].”

The Vineyard launched [title of show] in 2006 before the musical transferred to Broadway in 2008. The cast won a Broadway.com Audience Award for Favorite Ensemble, and Bell received a 2009 Tony nomination for Best Book.