(MILLBURN, NJ) -- Paper Mill Playhouse's Mark S. Hoebee (Producing Artistic Director) and Michael Stotts (Executive Director) are pleased to present a private industry presentation of the Richard Rodgers Award-winning musical Perpetual Sunshine & the Ghost Girls on Monday, May 19, 2025.
Featuring an original through-composed 1920s/2020s mashup score, Perpetual Sunshine & the Ghost Girls tells the haunting true story of the capitalist exploitation and knowing radium poisoning of workers by the U.S. Radium Corporation in Orange, NJ—and the women who fought back, changing United States labor laws forever. Perpetual Sunshine & the Ghost Girls is an exciting contemporary take on a historical moment.
Featuring book and lyrics by Sara Cooper and music by Lynne Shankel, with music direction by Julie McBride, the reading is directed by Ann Yee. The cast includes Sherz Aletaha, Cayleigh Capaldi, Kayla Davion, Lucy Godinez, Caitlin Kinnunen, Mia Pak, Sydney Parra, and Kuhoo Verma. Casting is by Rachel Hoffman, CSA and the Stage Manager is Julia Jones.
Perpetual Sunshine & the Ghost Girls was presented at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals in 2022.
Perpetual Sunshine & the Ghost Girls was developed in part at the Rhinebeck Writers Retreat. Winner of the Richard Rodgers Award for Staged Readings administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Developed in part at the University of Michigan Department of Musical Theatre. Financial support for this workshop is provided by the Richard Rodgers Award for Staged Readings administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the University of Michigan Office of the Vice President for Research and the Arts Initiative.
This presentation is made possible in part by the Bye Family New Works Fund.
Paper Mill Playhouse, recipient of the Regional Theatre Tony Award, is a nationally renowned not-for-profit theater under the direction of Mark S. Hoebee (Producing Artistic Director) and Michael Stotts (Executive Director). A beloved New Jersey arts institution since 1938, Paper Mill creates and produces groundbreaking new musicals and reimagined classics. Several productions have gone on to Broadway and launched national tours, including The Great Gatsby, Disney’s Newsies, Bandstand, Honeymoon in Vegas, A Bronx Tale, and Les Misérables (25th Anniversary production). The theater is also the home to an award-winning center for musical theater education and artist training, with outreach programs that impact thousands of students each year. As one of the nation’s premier musical theaters, Paper Mill fosters a creative environment to advance the art form, educate students, develop future theater lovers, nurture inclusion, and provide access for all.
Paper Mill’s current season of shows concludes with Disney’s The Little Mermaid (May 29-June 29), based on one of the world’s most beloved stories and the enchanting Disney animated film.
Paper Mill’s upcoming 2025-2026 season will feature Bull Durham, Disney’s Frozen, Come From Away, 1776, and West Side Story.
Paper Mill Playhouse programs are made possible, in part, by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Paper Mill Playhouse is a member of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, the Council of Stock Theatres, and the New Jersey Theatre Alliance.
