12th Annual Festival of New Musicals

Douglas J. Cohen (composer/lyricist) is the recipient of two Richard Rodgers Awards (No Way to Treat a Lady, The Gig), a Jonathan Larson Grant (Barnstormer), a Drama Desk nomination (Children’s Letters to God), a Drama League nomination (Don’t Stay Safe with collaborator Cheryl L. Davis), and the Fred Ebb Award. Off-Broadway productions as include Manhattan Theatre Club, The York Theatre Company, The Cell Theatre, and reginonal productions at Williamstown, Signature Theater, Barrington Stage, and Goodspeed. The Gig, Glimmerglass, and Barnstormer were presented in NAMT’s Festival of New Musicals. A Studio Album of The Big Time (Concord Records, co-written with librettist Douglas Carter Beane) stars Santino Fontana, Debbie Gravitte, Will Swenson, Jackie Hoffman and other members from the sold-out, January 2020 McCarter Theatre concert. Doug’s first non-fiction book, How to Survive a Killer Musical, was published by Applause Books, September 1st. He is a member of ASCAP and The Dramatists Guild.

Eric R Cohen is a graduate of New York’s School of Visual Arts. His screenplay, Liberty Smith written with Marc Madnick, has been optioned for every medium but has found its biggest success on the stage as a theatrical musical. It was selected for The National Alliance of Musical Theatre Festival (2000), The New York Musical Theatre Festival (2005) and received its world premiere production in 2011 at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. It was nominated for six Helen Hayes Awards and went on to become one of the most successful musicals ever produced at this historic landmark. In addition to Fortunate Sons his current writing projects include two screenplays, Video Nation, a comedic look at the early years of home video and Dear Prudence, about the estranged relationship between a rock star and his daughter, both for Plausible Films.

Steve Fisher’s first full-time career was in conducting. During the pandemic he retired, and went from writing very part time to writing full time. His musicals, which have been performed in New York and in cities around the world, include Isabelle and The Pretty-Ugly Spell (which received a rave in the New York Times), Mandela (Richard Rodgers Award finalist), Mother B, In The Theatre, The Little Dancer (featured on Good Morning America), Elysian Fields, and Ubuntu! His play The Last Boy was the first show in New York after the pandemic and enjoyed a sold out run and rave reviews. It won 4 Broadway World Awards for best play, production, direction and actor. Steve’s screenplays include 28, Also Michelangelo, The Johnnys, Sindi, and 80 and OUT. His TV pilots include Golems, Innocenzo, and Dreamland. He is an alumni of both the BMI and ASCAP Workshops. His mentor is Stephen Schwartz.

Sean Hartley’s works include Cupid And Psyche, written with composer Jihwan Kim, for which he received a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Lyrics; Little Women (with songs by Kim Oler and Alison Hubbard), which has had several regional productions; Love and Real Estate (three one acts written with composer Sam Davis) ; and Snow, for which he wrote book, music and lyrics and which won the ASCAP Harold Arlen Award for Best New Musical. His works for television include songs for the Disney Channel’s The Book of Pooh and Bear In the Big Blue House. His works for children include Number The Stars, Sunshine and Holy Moses! (book by Bob Kolsby.) He is the director of Theater@Kaufman, the musical theater division of the Kaufman Music Center in New York City, where he curates, produces and hosts the concert series Broadway Close Up and Broadway Playhouse.

Jihwan Kim is an NYC based composer. With lyricist Adam Gwon, he has written music for THE SECRET SILK, to be premiered on Princess Cruises in 2018. With lyricist/bookwriter Sean Hartley, he wrote CUPID and PSYCHE which was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Best Lyrics, and was produced Off Broadway at the John Houseman Theatre. With lyricist/bookwriter Eddie Sugarman, he wrote THE NUTCRACKER SINGS and CINDERELLA AFTER THE BALL, which premiered at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire. He was the orchestrator of THE MOON AND THE SON, which won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. Other works: One World Symphony, Ureuk Symphony Orchestra, LES DEUX TIMIDES film score live-to-picture at the Tribeca Film Festival. Education: B.A. at Harvard University, M.A. in Film Scoring at NYU, and a J.D. at Rutgers Law School.

Dan Lipton and David Rossmer are longtime collaborators who have created several original musicals, jointly writing all music, book and lyrics. Their musical comedy The Blonde Streak was commissioned by Broadway Across America and developed at the Orchard Project. Their form-bending musical satire JOE! (NAMT Festival 2000) was seen at the Kennedy Center’s Theater Lab and Chicago’s Equity Library Theatre.  JOE! is currently in development as a 3-D movie musical.  Rossmer & Lipton are currently working for Araca Group on adapting a bestselling memoir, with playwright Jessica Provenz.  Their sketch comedy musical Rated PĶ for Parenthood, written with Sandy Rustin, premiered at SOPAC in NJ and is optioned for production off-Broadway.  Other projects include:  a Depression-era book musical with television writer Janis Hirsch, a futuristic concept musical with Kirsten Guenther, and a biographical show about B-movie king Roger Corman with Wayne Rawley.  Lipton & Rossmer have written special material for singers including Kelli O’Hara (ÄúAlwaysÄù album, Lincoln Center, Town Hall) and Sutton Foster (Joe’s Pub).  And the duo co-created, with Steve Rosen and Sarah Saltzberg, the comedy improv variety show Don’t Quit Your Night Job, which began at Joe’s Pub and ran off-Broadway.

In 1991, Madnick co-conceived the idea for Final Draft software, which quickly became an essential tool for the entertainment industry. Today, Final Draft is the most widely used writing software in film, television, and theater, and touts worldwide initiatives for education and outreach to aspiring writers as well as scholarships and grant monies. In 2011, Madnick’s musical LIBERTY SMITH made its worldwide premiere at the historic Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. In 2013, Madnick proudly received the prestigious Primetime Emmy Engineering Award for Contributions to the Television Development Process. Madnick has followed his lifelong passions of writing, collaborating, producing, and launching new, original works and is now focused on his live entertainment business, where he has cultivated a slate of new work that includes Fortunate Sons and the world premiere of a TRADING PLACES musical that premiered at the Alliance Theatre in 2022.

MICHAEL MCLEAN is a songwriter, composer, author, performer, playwright, film producer and director.

As a SONGWRITER Michael has written music and lyrics for more than 30 albums and has sold over two million copies since his first release in 1983

As an AUTHOR he’s written six books, each with accompanying CDs. Distant Serenade, Hold On, The Light Will Come , From God’s Arms To My Arms To Yours¨¨, Mission To Be Happy , The Forgotten Carols and Fairy Tale Christmas

As a PERFORMER Michael has starred in a theatrical version of The Forgotten Carols to sold-out audiences on his yearly holiday tour. (over 800,000 tkts sold)

As a FILMMAKER Michael was the original story writer, producer and director of the film ÄúNora’s Christmas GiftÄù starring Academy Award winner Celeste Holm . Producer and original story co-writer of the holiday television classic ÄúMr. Krueger’s ChristmasÄù starring film legend James Stewart.

NAMT Alumni Writer (The Ark)

Dan Lipton and David Rossmer are longtime collaborators who have created several original musicals, jointly writing all music, book and lyrics. Their musical comedy The Blonde Streak was commissioned by Broadway Across America and developed at the Orchard Project. Their form-bending musical satire JOE! (NAMT Festival 2000) was seen at the Kennedy Center’s Theater Lab and Chicago’s Equity Library Theatre.  JOE! is currently in development as a 3-D movie musical.  Rossmer & Lipton are currently working for Araca Group on adapting a bestselling memoir, with playwright Jessica Provenz.  Their sketch comedy musical Rated PĶ for Parenthood, written with Sandy Rustin, premiered at SOPAC in NJ and is optioned for production off-Broadway.  Other projects include:  a Depression-era book musical with television writer Janis Hirsch, a futuristic concept musical with Kirsten Guenther, and a biographical show about B-movie king Roger Corman with Wayne Rawley.  Lipton & Rossmer have written special material for singers including Kelli O’Hara (ÄúAlwaysÄù album, Lincoln Center, Town Hall) and Sutton Foster (Joe’s Pub).  And the duo co-created, with Steve Rosen and Sarah Saltzberg, the comedy improv variety show Don’t Quit Your Night Job, which began at Joe’s Pub and ran off-Broadway.

Michael Weiner & Alan Zachary wrote songs for Broadway’s First Date, which ran at the Longacre Theatre after a sold-out run at Seattle’s 5th Avenue/ACT Theatres. The show can now be seen in productions across the U.S. and around the world. Recently, Zachary and Weiner penned songs for the acclaimed musical episode of Once Upon a Time on ABC. The team wrote the score for a musical adaptation of the film Secondhand Lions (book by Rupert Holmes) which premiered at the 5th Avenue Theatre. Upcoming musical projects include: 17 Again directed by Adam Shankman and 13 Going on 30 directed by Andy Fickman. For Universal Studios, the duo wrote songs with J.K. Rowling for Celestina Warbeck & the Banshees playing at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Currently, Zachary and Weiner are developing a TV series with Universal Television starring Kristin Chenoweth and have created shows for ABC, FOX, Disney Channel, Disney Animation and Disney Parks around the globe. Zachary and Weiner are recipients of the ASCAP Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award. www.zacharyandweiner.com