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Festival Show Update: Legendale

Andrea Daly and Jeff Bienstock have been hard at work since presenting Legendale in the 2015 Festival. We checked in with them to find out what’s been happening for the show since the Festival, and what’s coming up next.

What has the post Festival response to Legendale been like?
The most common reaction we got was “I never expected to enjoy a musical about video games this much!” Since we tried to write a show that would appeal to everyone, it was really encouraging to receive a positive response from people who knew nothing about Legendale‘s subject matter. Overall, the NAMT Festival didn’t just meet our expectations, it blew them away.

What did you discover about the show after presenting it last October, and what work have you done on the show since then?
James Monroe Iglehart played our show’s antagonist at the Festival, and he brought up questions about his motivations that we couldn’t easily answer. As it turned out, the character needed a complete overhaul, and that change led us to hone and clarify a number of other characters as well. Since October, we’ve also been lucky enough to participate in two ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshops (in Los Angeles and New York), so the feedback from all three presentations has shaped our work quite a bit.

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Who Will Buy? Browsing Through NAMT’s Annual Musical Sampler Sale

American Theatre takes a look into the 2015 Festival of New Musicals, talking with writers and NAMT staff to give a full picture of the Festival and the opportunities it presents. Suzy Evans writes:

At the 2015 event, the talent indeed ranged from veritable unknowns to known quantities like [Duncan] Sheik and the Q Brothers. [Executive Director Betsy King] Militello insists that she tries to keep a diversity in the final projects in all areas.
“We can’t have eight shows that are all big and all sunshine, and on the flip side we can’t have eight shows that are all four-person ensembles,” Militello said, adding that she also wants a mix of musical styles and next-step opportunities for the work.
This year’s shows included a touching story about a young boy and his imaginary friend, a hip-hop take on Othello, a film noir-style mystery, a comedy set in the video game world, a dark comedy at an apocalyptic theatre, a Great Depression-era gothic fantasy, a tragedy about two immigrants in New York, and a fantastical story of a young boy’s mysterious adventure.
“It’s sort of a marketplace for people looking for new work to develop,” said Will Van Dyke, who was at the festival for the first time with his musical Imagine Harry, which he wrote with Jeff Talbott. “Ultimately, a goal is always production, but for us specifically, the goal is to find a place that would foster it from where we are now to a production.”
…The networking atmosphere between presentations is just as—if not more—important than the shows themselves. After each presentation, the writers go to a table outside the theatre and exchange demos for business cards. There are also happy hours and a closing night party where folks can mingle. These, as much as the performances, are where valuable connections are made that can further a work’s future.

Read more at americantheatre.org.

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Additional Festival and 46th Minute Casting Announced

We’ve announced additional casting for The 46th Minute, a concert featuring “great songs that almost made the cut” from the eight shows presented in 45-minute readings at the 27th Annual Festival of New Musicals. As Playbill.com reports:

The 46th Minute features songs from the musicals in this year’s festival, including those by Spring Awakening composer Duncan Sheik with Kyle Jarrow; Andrea Daly and Jeff Bienstock; Daryl Lisa Fazio and Aaron McAllister; Shawn and Seth Magill; Rebekah Greer Melocik and Jacob Yandura; Timothy Huang; The Q Brothers; and Jeff Talbott and Will Van Dyke.
Hosted by Godspell‘s Julia Mattison, the concert will feature performances many of the composers as well as Lilli Cooper (Spring Awakening, Wicked), Raymond Lee (Encores! The Wild Party), Kelvin Moon Loh (The King and I), Emily Padgett (Side Show), Taylor Trensch (Matilda), Lauren Worsham (Gentleman’s Guide…) and more.
The evening will also feature other original songs by Sheik (“Avalanche” from his new album “Legerdemain”), Jarrow (“Beautiful Monster” with Sky Pony), Daly (“Know I’m Yours”) and “Home” by Hovercraft (“Glide”).

Read more at Playbill.com, and use code MNFIVE915 to get $5 off tickets at TelechargeOffers.com or the New World Stages box office now!
 
Playbill also announced additional casting for the Festival itself, including Sarah Stiles (Hand to God), Jake Epstein (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), James Monroe Iglehart (Aladdin), Emily Padgett (Side Show), Zell Steele Morrow (Fun Home) and Emmy Raver-Lampman (Hamilton).
Read more at Playbill.com, or learn more about the Festival and register here. Advance registration closes on October 9!
 

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INSIDE THE 2015 FESTIVAL: Being a NAMT Veteran

A guest post from Festival Alumnus Kyle Jarrow, book writer and co-lyricist for this year’s show Noir, written with Duncan Sheik. Kyle was previously part of the NAMT Festival in 2009 with his show Hostage Song written with Clay McLeod Chapman.  

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Additional Casting and Directors Announced for the 27th Annual Festival of New Musicals

We’re thrilled to announce additional directors and casting for the 27th Annual Festival of New Musicals, taking place on Thursday, October 15 and Friday, October 16 at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues).
Costs of Living
Book, music & lyrics by Timothy Huang
Director: Marlo Hunter (Callaway Award-winner for Unlock’d)
Cast: Jenni Barber (Broadway: The Nance), Kiet Cao, Daniel J. Edwards (Broadway: Anything Goes), Ali Ewoldt (Broadway: Les Misérables), Raymond Lee (Broadway: Anything Goes, Honeymoon in Vegas), and Kelvin Moon Loh (Broadway: The King and I)
Based on a true story, COSTS OF LIVING chronicles the lives of two immigrant cab drivers who come to New York for the American dream but instead find a nightmare scenario.  Set to a rock and pop theatre score, featuring a predominantly Asian-American ensemble.
 
 

 
Imagine Harry
Music & lyrics by Will Van Dyke, book & lyrics by Jeff Talbott
Director: Brandon Ivie (Off Broadway: Jasper in Deadland)
Music Director: Ian Weinberger (TV: “The Sound of Music Live”)
Cast: Brad Oscar (Broadway: Something Rotten, The Producers), William Parry (Broadway: Passion, Gypsy), Preston Sadleir (National Tour: Next to Normal), Myra Lucretia Taylor (Broadway: Nine), Taylor Trensch (Broadway: Wicked; Off Broadway: Little Miss Sunshine)
 
 

The Last Queen of Canaan
Book by Harrison David Rivers, lyrics by Rebekah Greer Melocik, music by Jacob Yandura.
Director: Peter Rothstein (Power Balladz, Artistic Director of Minneapolis’ Theater Latté Da)
Music Director: Matt Gallagher (Broadway: Doctor Zhivago, Hands on a Hard Body)
Cast: Chasten Harmon (Broadway: Hair), Kecia Lewis (Broadway: Leap of Faith, The Drowsy Chaperone), Kenita Miller (Broadway: The Color Purple), Jon-Michael Reese (National tour: The Book of Mormon), Margo Seibert (Broadway: Rocky), Q. Smith (Broadway: Mary Poppins)
 
 

Legendale
Music by Andrea Daly, book & lyrics by Jeff Bienstock, story by Bienstock & Daly.
Director: John Simpkins (Off Broadway: Bloodsong of Love at Ars Nova).
Music Director: Vadim Feichtner (Broadway: …Spelling Bee)
Cast: James Monroe Iglehart (Broadway: Tony Award-winner for Aladdin), Lauren Marcus (Hello, Dolly at Papermill Playhouse), George Salazar (Broadway: Godspell), Ryan Vona (Broadway: Once), Jason SweetTooth Williams
 
 
 

lift
Book & lyrics by Daryl Lisa Fazio, music by Aaron McAllister
Director: Schele Williams (PBS’s Broadway or Bust)
Music Director: Madeline Smith (Off Broadway: Futurity, An Octoroon)
Cast: Joél Perez (Broadway: Fun Home), Lauren Worsham (Broadway: A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Tony Nom)
 
 
 

Noir
Music & lyrics by Duncan Sheik, book & lyrics by Kyle Jarrow
Director: Chloe Treat (Off Broadway: TheaterworkUSA’s The Lightning Thief) with Rachel Chavkin (The Great Comet, Prelude)
Music Director: Jason Hart (Regional: Because of Winn Dixie; Whisper House)
Cast: Lilli Cooper (Broadway: Spring Awakening), Daniel Everidge (Broadway: Grease), Kevin Mambo (Broadway: Fela!), John Schiappa (Broadway: Rocky), Emily Skeggs (Broadway: Fun Home, Tony Nom.), Theo Stockman (Broadway: Hair, American Idiot), Adrienne Warren (Broadway: Bring It On), with Foley Artist Jeremy Bloom (Off Broadway: The Mysteries)
 


 
 
On The Eve
Music & lyrics by Shawn Magill & Seth Magill, book by Michael Federico, story by Michael Federico, Shawn Magill & Seth Magill
Director: Sam Buntrock (West End & Broadway: Sunday in the Park with George, Olivier Award and Tony Award noms)
Cast: Will Connolly (Broadway: Once)
 


 

Othello: The Remix
Book, music & lyrics by The Q Brothers (GQ and JQ), developed with Rick Boynton
Director: Brian Hill (Goodspeed Musicals’ The Theory of Relativity)
Cast: GQ (The Bomb-itty of Errors), JQ (The Bomb-itty of Errors), Postell Pringle (Broadway: A Free Man of Color), Jackson Doran (A Q Brothers’ Christmas Carol, Chicago Shakespeare’s Funk It Up About Nothin’)
 

Registration for the Festival is open to theatre industry professionals and major donors to NAMT through October 9. For more more information on registration (including walk-up), plus details on all eight Festival shows, the Songwriters Showcase and the Songwriters Cabarets, visit the Festival web page now, or email festival@namt.org.

 
NAMT thanks the following foundations, government agencies and organizations for their ongoing support of our programs:  ABE Charitable Foundation, The Alhadeff Family Charitable Foundation, The Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York Creative Space Grant, ASCAP Foundation Irving Caesar Fund, BMI Foundation, The Dramatists Guild Fund, Friars Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, The Noël Coward Foundation, The Purple Plume Foundation, The Rodgers and Hammerstein Foundation, Stacey Mindich Productions and The Shubert Foundation.

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2015 Festival Update

Do you want to know more about the shows in the 27th Annual Festival of New Musicals? See the Five Things each show’s writing team wants you to know before you come to the Festival!
 

Five Things You Should Know About Costs of Living

1. Costs of Living was inspired by, though not based upon, a 2009 New York Times article by Corey Kilgannon called Night and Day about two immigrant cab drivers whose partnership began with promise and ended in tragedy.  Mr. Kilgannon liked it so much he wrote a follow-up article about the musical itself.
2. Costs of Living is very much a musical that behaves like a play. In fact, Playwright David Henry Hwang recommended it to the American Playwriting Foundation’s Relentless Award (the Philip Seymour Hoffman one), despite a very clear guideline barring musicals of any kind.
3. You might not think it from the description, but parts of Costs of Living are kind of hilarious.
4. With the proliferation of Asian-American stories in the mainstream, Costs of Living represents the next step in that evolutionary chain: a “Third Generation” story that isn’t about acclimation or immigration, but the impact of those things on the American tapestry.
5. Costs of Living has been in development for a few years with many readings and workshops.  We are looking for a staged workshop and/or production of the show, and are also open to seeking involvement from commercial producers.  Our hope is to get the show out there to as wide an audience as possible wherever possible.


Five Things You Should Know About Imagine Harry
1. Imagine Harry is about Tucker and Harry.  It’s about that moment in your life when you reconcile your need to be an adult with your desire to remain a child, and the musical comes at that moment through two lenses:  a 25 year-old who can’t seem to leave home and a 35 year-old who isn’t sure he’s ready to be a father.
2. Imagine Harry can be done at any scale.  Because the musical deals with imagination, it was written to sustain both a small theatre-out-of-a-trunk approach as well as an all-the-bells-and-whistles-and-possibly-laser-beams approach.  We want it to be a director’s playground, and are eager to take the first steps with a director and producer/theatre to explore ALL the possibilities for this magical world.
3. Imagine Harry is a musical for grown-ups. Although it has childhood as a central theme, the ultimate destination is an exploration of how to become a grown-up and deal with your aging parents, your fears about becoming a parent yourself and your place in the often overwhelming adult world. Think of it as a grown-up movie with a PG-13 rating, and you’ve got the target audience.
4. Imagine Harry has the beat of a pop song.  This musical was written by two guys who love pop music.  And musical theatre.  So if Ben Folds, Taylor Swift and A Great Big World had a jam session with Kander & Ebb, Ahrens & Flaherty and Jason Robert Brown, this score might have come from that session.
5. Imagine Harry has a big heart.  We are two guys who wear our hearts pretty much not only on our sleeves but with a neon sign pointing directly to them.  And we wanted to write a show that reflected that sensibility.  We don’t mind tears.  And we don’t mind laughing at the same time.  So we wrote a show that let us do both. And hopefully, you, too.

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INSIDE THE 2015 FESTIVAL: Why We Applied to the Festival

A guest post from Kyle Jarrow, book writer and co-lyricist for this year’s show Noir, written with Duncan Sheik. Kyle was previously part of the NAMT Festival in 2009 with his show Hostage Song written with Clay McLeod Chapman.  

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New Duncan Sheik Musical on NAMT’s 2015 Festival Slate

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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Announcing the 27th Annual Festival of New Musicals Shows

We’re thrilled to announce the line up of new musicals for the 27th Annual Festival of New Musicals, which will take place on Thursday, October 15 and Friday, October 16 at in New York.
Now in its 27th year, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals attracts theatre producers from around the world for this industry-only event to discover eight new musicals presented in 45-minute reading presentations over two days. All production costs are underwritten by NAMT, at no cost to the writing teams.  As a non-profit organization, NAMT funds the Festival entirely through donations, sponsorships and contributions.
The festival has introduced musical theatre producers to 228 musicals and 432 writers from around the world. As a direct result of the Festival, more than 85% of the musicals presented have gone on to subsequent readings, workshops, productions and tours, been licensed, and/or recorded on cast albums. Some past festival shows include The Drowsy Chaperone, It Shoulda Been You, Striking 12, Ordinary Days, Thoroughly Modern Millie, among many others.

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