20th Annual Festival of New Musicals

Brad Alexander (composer)
Theater: DOGMAN (book and lyrics by Kevin Del Aguila), summer 2019 at the Lucille Lortel, SEE ROCK CITY & OTHER DESTINATIONS (book and lyrics by Adam Mathias), recipient of The Richard Rodgers Award, The BMI Foundation Jerry Bock Award, and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical; BREAD AND ROSES (book and lyrics by Jill Abramovitz), featured in NYMF as a Developmental Reading (2016) and in Amas Musical Theatre’s ÄúDare To Be DifferentÄù series (2017); TheatreworksUSA’s CLICK, CLACK, MOO (Drama Desk, Lortel nom), JUST SO STORIES, MARTHA SPEAKS and songs for DUCK FOR PRESIDENT, FLY GUY, WE THE PEOPLE (Lortel nom). TV: five episodes of PBS’s Emmy Award-winning PEG + CAT; VH1’s ÄúCelebrealityÄù campaign. Currently: LIKE A BILLION LIKES (book by Erik Jackson, lyrics by Jill Abramovitz), in development at Musical Theatre Factory. Member of NAMT, The Dramatists Guild and BMI Workshop. bradalexander.com

With Danny Whitman, Robert co-created Broadway Backwards, for which he serves as Writer/Director/Choreographer. He recently directed The Cuban and the Redhead in the Festival of New American Musicals in L.A. and a presentation at the York Theatre which also hosed Sailing Against the Current: the songs of Bartley and Whitman. Robert’s work has been featured in the York’s first NEO concert, The Music of Broadway: The Next Generation, SPF Composer Exposure, and Gypsy of the Year. As a Director, Robert was represented last season by The Family Fiorelli (NYMF), Hair in Peculiar Work’s Obie-winning sequel Off Stage: East Village Fragments and The Tales of Custard the Dragon (Algonquin Theatre), which he will remount this November off Broadway at DR2. Prior to writing, Robert was a performer for many years on and off Broadway, at Carnegie Hall, in national tours and with symphony orchestras worldwide.

Her work has been read and performed nationally, including at the Cleveland Play House, the Actors Theatre of Louisville, and the Kennedy Center. She is a co-recipient of the 2005 Kleban Award for her work as a librettist, and her play about the desegregation of the nations-school system, The Color of Justice, which was commissioned by Theatreworks/USA, received critical acclaim, including excellent reviews in the New York Times and Daily News. Her play Cover Girls, which is an adaptation of the Bishop T.D. Jakes novel, was produced and toured by ClearChannel Entertainment. She is a practicing attorney in Manhattan and is a partner with the firm of Menaker & Herrman LLP.

Michelle Elliott has written seven musicals with collaborator Danny Haengil Larsen, including Cloaked, for which she was the recipient of the Kleban Prize for Most Promising Librettist. Michelle and Danny also received a Jonathan Larson Award for Cloaked, as well as a Richard Rodgers Development Award for their first musical, The Yellow Wood, which was also featured in NAMT’s 2009 Festival of New Musicals. Michelle is a graduate of NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. www.elliottlarsenmusicals.com. Michelle and Danny are currently working on a new musical, Country Radio, with Emily Saliers, one of the Indigo Girls.

ADAM GWON Off-Broadway: Scotland, PA (Roundabout Theatre Äì Drama Desk nomination, NYT;Critic’s Pick), Ordinary Days (Roundabout Theatre, Keen Company revival – Drama League;nomination), Old Jews Telling Jokes (Westside Theatre, NYT Critic’s Pick); Regional: Witnesses;(California Center for the Arts Äì Craig Noel Award, Outstanding New Musical), String (Village;Theatre), Cake Off (Signature Theatre – Helen Hayes nomination, Bucks County Playhouse),;Cloudlands (South Coast Rep), The Boy Detective Fails (Signature Theatre), Bernice Bobs Her;Hair (Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma); West End: Ordinary Days (Trafalgar Studios). Awards: Kleban, Ebb, Loewe, and Rodgers Awards, Second Stage Theatre’s Donna Perret;Rosen Award, Weston Playhouse New Musical Award, ASCAP Harold Adamson Award, MAC;John Wallowitch Award. Recordings: Ordinary Days (Ghostlight Records), Audra;McDonald’s Go Back Home (Nonesuch), Artists in Residence (Broadway Records), The;Essential Liz Callaway (Working Girl Records), Over the Moon: The Broadway Lullaby Album.

Adam Mathias is a Drama Desk award winning musical theatre writer. His musical See Rock City & Other Destinations, music by Brad Alexander, enjoyed an extended run Off Broadway in 2010 and earned him the 2011 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical (also nominated for Outstanding Lyrics, Outstanding Music, Outstanding Direction, Outstanding Lighting and Outstanding Musical.) The show received the 2008 Richard Rodgers Award and 2007 Jerry Bock Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre. It received workshop productions from Barrington Stage Company and New York City’s Transport Group. See Rock City… has been featured in the 2008 National Alliance for Musical Theatre Festival, Merkin Hall’s Bound for Broadway Series, and BMI’s Musical Mondays and is available for licensing from Samuel French, Inc. The Original Off Broadway Cast Recording is available for purchase on Amazon and iTunes.

His new musical A History of Summer, music by Jonathan Monro, received workshop productions from Summerworks Festival in Toronto, Canada and from Pride Films & Plays in Chicago. As a playwright, Adam has written several short plays and crafted Hamlet: What Dreams May Come—a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic for four actors in ninety minutes. Adam is a graduate of The Theatre School, DePaul University and Tisch School of the Arts, NYU, Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.  He is a Steering Committee member and frequent moderator of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop (Jerry Herrington Award winner) and a member of the Dramatist Guild.

Thomas Mizer has written lyrics and collaborated on the book for musicals including The Legend of Stagecoach Mary (NAMT Fest Äò08), The House of the Seven Gables (ASCAP Workshop) and The Bus to Buenos Aires (EST). An honors graduate of Northwestern University, he received a 2009 Jonathan Larson Grant and has twice been an artist in residence at the National Music Theater Conference. In addition to his theater work, he is a copywriter at Comedy Central, edits The Broadway Blog and writes features for national travel magazines. www.thomasmizer.com

Curtis Moore recently returned from conducting and performing in Sam Mendes’ production of Richard III starring Kevin Spacey.   With lyricist Thomas Mizer, he was awarded a Jonathan Larson Grant in 2009; together, they wrote The Legend of Stagecoach Mary (NAMT Fest Äò08) and The Bus to Buenos Aires (EST). His new musical Venice (with Matt Sax and Eric Rosen) will be produced next spring at The Public Theater in New York, where he recently composed the score for Timon of Athens.  He wrote and performed songs in the Todd Solondz ºs film Palindromes and composed the score for Clear Blue Tuesday.

Glenn Slater (librettist) was nominated for a 2008 Tony Award (Best Score) for The Little Mermaid. Recent work: Disney’s animated Western: Home on the Range; MTC’s Obie Award-winning revue newyorkers. Upcoming: Sister Act (Lyricist, West End, 2009), and Leap of Faith (Lyricist/Co-librettist, Broadway 2009), with Alan Menken; Phantom of the Opera II (Lyricist/Librettist, West End 2009), with Andrew Lloyd Weber; and The Hudsucker Proxy (Lyricist/Lirettist, Broadway 2010), with Stephen Weiner. Awards: Kleban Award for Lyrics, ASCAP/Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, Jonathan Larson Award. Glenn lives in NYC with his wife, composer/lyricist Wendy Leigh Wilf and sons Benjamin and Daniel.

Wendy Leigh Wilf (Music & Lyrics) is a composer, lyricist and jazz musician. Her theatre music has been performed in NYC (That Time of Year, York Theatre), The Berkshires (Many Moons), and at the Inge Festival in Independence, Kansas (Splendor In The Grass) where she served as Artist-In-Residence. Her songs have been recorded by numerous artists, most recently Susan Egan (on her her album Winter Tracks). As a performer, Wendy has played in jazz clubs worldwide. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, a BMI Workshop alumnus, and she holds an MM in Jazz Piano from the Manhattan School of Music.