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One of the final projects by Wendy Wasserstein and Cy Coleman and a new musical from Glenn Slater are among the tuners to be showcased this fall in the National Alliance for Musical Theater’s 20th annual Festival of New Musicals.
Industry-only showcase, which each year presents 45-minute samples of eight developing musicals to NAMT’s membership of producers and presenters, has yielded past successes including “The Drowsy Chaperone” and “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” Another alum, “Vanities,” opens on Broadway in the fall.

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NAMT executive director Kathy Evans was also enthusiastic about The Break Up Notebook, as well as the entire program. The other musicals included Casey at the Bat by Tom Child and Gordon Goodwin, The Chocolate Tree by Marshall Pailet and A. D. Penedo, The Gypsy King by Randy Rogel and Kirby Ward, Kingdom by Aaron Jafferis and Ian Williams, Tinyard Hill by Mark Allen and Thomas M. Newman, and Writing Arthur by David Austin.
Evans reported that “every show had a champion,” which bodes well for the repercussions from the kind of busy weekend that three years ago yielded The Drowsy Chaperone and, prior to that, introduced Striking 12, which was produced Off-Broadway last year and was well received.
Evans agreed that this year’s frame was especially interesting for having no well-known participating creators; all of them were chosen by a committee unaware of who had written what. Overall, the festival was “very successful,” she said. “There was a tremendous turnout and feedback.” As evidence, Evans said 40 to 50 of the musical theatre producing community gathered to talk about the festival the day after it closed. Just as some of the work brought the attendees to their feet, some of the pieces made them want to stick around.

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If you haven’t seen — or even heard of — the musicals “The Break Up Notebook: The Lesbian Musical” or “The Story of My Life,” don’t worry. You probably will soon.
“Break Up” and “Story” were two of the most buzzed-about offerings at the industry-only annual fest of new tuners held by the Natl. Alliance for Musical Theater Oct. 7-8.
The national draw of the 19-year-old fest — which this year brought in more than 700 commercialproducers, regional theater reps and other legiters from around the country — has made the event a valuable marketplace for new musicals.
Fest alums include “The Drowsy Chaperone” and “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” Seven of last year’s eight productions went on to further development, with a musical incarnation of the play “Vanities” aiming for Broadway next season.
“There is no other service organization that gets this many producers in one room at one time to see a piece,” says Kent Nicholson of TheaterWorks in Silicon Valley.

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While the NAMT festival can be considered a wonderful thing — if not a sure thing — for musical composers, lyricists and librettists, it’s also a commendable opportunity for the actors appearing before representatives of most of the country’s important presenting houses.
Helen Sneed, a former NAMT executive director, calls the event “one of the most comprehensive audiences of musical theater professionals.” She also says that the actors are not only “being seen by a group that works very closely together” but they get “a great opportunity to do a new work.”
Chris Grady, licensing head at Cameron Mackintosh International and in from London, says actors “absolutely” benefit from NAMT exposure. “If I were a casting director, I’d go to this instead of all the auditions,” he says. Tina McPhearson, vice president for programming at Dayton’s Victoria Theatre, describes the NAMT audience as “the cream of the crop.”
Perhaps the best arguments for actors on the musical comedy track to look into future festivals are the roster of actors who participated this year. Paid a flat $100 salary for what Equity limits to 20 hours of rehearsal, the performers include Marc Kudisch, Brian D’Arcy James, Douglas Sills, Lillias White, Darius de Haas, Michael Winther, Dee Hoty, Gregg Edelman, Stephen DeRosa, Jenn Harris, Megan Lawrence, Kerry Butler, Adam Heller, James Judy, Sebastian Arcelus, Megan Hilty, Sarah Stiles, and Leslie Kritzer, who was so enthusiastic she did two shows.

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Because its festivals aren’t open to the general public, recognition for NAMT has remained limited to those in the know. For them, the value of NAMT festivals is clear: The organization supplies the venue, all technical support, a consulting producer from its membership, a casting director and discounted rehearsal-space rental, not to mention access to the press and the audience. Equity determines a 29-hour rehearsal and performance period for the staged reading. Actors receive $100, directors and stage managers get a small stipend, and the show’s writers can distribute CDs and copies of their scripts to the very people who can actually give a new musical some legs.
“NAMT is a kind of champion for the writer,” Evans says. “We try to make the marketplace personal by providing the interaction between writers and producers.” NAMT offers its festival alumni writers a network system: They have access to their own section of the website and can communicate with NAMT’s member producers. NAMT also functions as a liaison throughout the year. A member theatre (such as 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, TheatreWorks in California, North Shore Music Theatre in Massachusetts or the Human Race Theatre Company in Ohio) might contact NAMT and say, “I’m looking for a new musical with a cast of four.” With its huge directory of past festival offerings, NAMT can immediately offer suggested titles and contact information.

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Eclecticism has been the signature of the musicals showcased at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals for the past 17 years, and this year is no exception. But this time there is one unexpected unifying element, notes Kathy Evans, the organization’s executive director.
“We certainly didn’t plan it this way and only noticed it after the fact, but almost all of the eight musicals selected to participate are set in the past,” she says. “It’s nostalgia, I suppose. And there is something very American about looking to history as a source of inspiration.”
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To date, the festival has presented more than 170 musicals and 300 writers from across the globe. Among its success stories are “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” which was seen at the festival before making its way to Broadway, and the Broadway-bound “Princesses.”
But Broadway is not the only goal. Many shows launched at the festival have moved on to lives they might not have otherwise had on the regional theatre circuit. Last year, for example, five of the eight shows earned productions at such major venues as the Ahmanson Theatre and Goodspeed Musicals.

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