NAMT in the News

The 27th Annual Festival of New Musicals, which will take place Oct. 15 and 16 at New World Stages in New York, has announced the lineup for two additional special programs: a Songwriters Showcase and a Songwriter’s Cabaret.

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The National Alliance for Musical Theater has set the slate for its 2015 Festival of New Musicals, the annual showcase of new work that attracts commercial and regional stage producers from around the country.
Among the titles on tap is the latest by Duncan Sheik, the musician who’s been the subject of theater-world talk lately because of impending runs of two shows for which he composed the music: “Spring Awakening,” for which he won a 2007 Tony, and the new musical adaptation of “American Psycho.” At the NAMT festival he’ll show off “Noir,” about a man who obsessively eavesdrops on the couple in the apartment next door, written with book writer-lyricist Kyle Jarrow (“A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant”).
The 27-year-old NAMT Festival of New Musicals has served as a launching pad for shows including “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” “The Drowsy Chaperone” and “Striking 12,” among others.

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Peter Filichia had some lovely things to say about the Festival in his column on Kritzerland.com last week:

Although the 2014 festival concluded two weeks ago, preparation for the 2015 festival will start in – yes – two weeks.
“We had 234 submissions this year, which are judged blindly and whittled down to about twenty and then eight,” says King Militello. “It’s exciting to see that volume of activity and that the writers explore every kind of topic.”
Some writers obviously become discouraged when they’re not part of the elite eight. “Well,” she says, “if you submit and aren’t accepted, submit again. A different committee may feel differently. We’re here to support the writers.”
Is she ever. “We pay for everything,” King Militello says, stressing the last word to ensure there’s no misunderstanding. “We have a $150,000 budget which averages out to be about $20,000 for each show.” And while NAMT’s footing the bills hits the spot, writers may profit just from networking with 650 industry attendees who travel from England to Hawaii.
Yes, NAMT is very proud that it helped THE DROWSY CHAPERONE and THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE to achieve, but as Huldeen says, “Eighty-five percent of the shows we’ve done have led to other productions, or got the writers noticed enough to get a different show of theirs produced, OR got them a commission to write a new musical.”

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The National Alliance for Musical Theatre has announced initial casting for the 26th Annual Festival of New Musicals, which will take place Oct. 23-24 at New World Stages.

The annual musical theatre event provides a platform for emerging and established theatre writers to showcase a 45-minute presentation of their works with casts featuring Broadway and Off-Broadway actors. Many of the new works find life at regional companies, as well as Off-Broadway and on Broadway.

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The Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang, the composer Adam Gwon and the composing duo Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond are among the names represented in this year’s Festival of New Musicals, produced by the National Alliance for Musical Theater, a national nonprofit organization.
The 26th annual festival will be held Oct. 23-24 at New World Stages, and will feature readings of eight musicals, whittled down from over 230 submissions. The festival can offer significant exposure; among those who typically attend are producers and regional-theater programmers, and last year the performers included the Tony winner Sutton Foster and the “Rocky” star Andy Karl.

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But this is not the only characteristic of NAMT that sets it apart from other new-work festivals. First of all, NAMT does not sell tickets to the festival. Huldeen described NAMT as a platform, a network mutually beneficial for artists and industry people that does not reap profits from the connections it facilitates.
The backgrounds of the audience also contributes to NAMT’s uniqueness. “Around seventy-five percent of the audience is tri-state area theatre workers, twenty percent from all over the country as well as Canada, and five percent or so are international members,” Huldeen said.

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