The three-week festival, running through Oct. 5, offers a varied selection of musicals penned by established and emerging artists. Aided by industry buzz and casts peppered with Broadway performers, NYMF productions sell at a brisk pace, with many productions nearly sold out before performances begin.
Julianne Wick Davis and Dan Collins' musical Wood, starring Tony winner Cady Huffman, has already sold-out its initial run. An additional performance of the musical has been added for Sept. 19.
Also selling quickly are Bonnie & Clyde: A Folktale; Drew Fornarola and Scott Elmegreen's COLLEGE: the Musical; James Millar and Peter Rutherford's The Hatpin; Matthew Loren Cohen's Jason and Ben; and Matt Prager's She Can't Believe She Said That!
Among the show folk who appear in the 2008 NYMF musicals are Tony Award winner Chuck Cooper (Caroline, or Change), Jim J. Bullock (Hairspray), Kevin Cahoon (The Wedding Singer), Donna Lynne Champlin (Sweeney Todd), Gavin Creel (Mary Poppins), Molly Ephraim (Into the Woods), Brandon Espinoza (Gypsy), Mary Faber (Avenue Q), Caroline O'Connor (Chicago), Ramona Keller (Brooklyn), Heather Laws (Company), Sally Mayes (Urban Cowboy), Billy Porter (Grease), Brooke Sunny Moriber (The Wild Party), Josh Strickland (Tarzan), Will Taylor (A Chorus Line), Aaron Tveit (Wicked) and Barbara Walsh (Company).
Fully staged and produced musicals for the 2008 NYMF Next Link line-up include About Face, Bedbugs!!! The Musical; Bonnie & Clyde; Bubble; Castronauts or: How I Killed Fidel; College: The Musical; CYCLONE (and the Pig-Faced Lady); The Fancy Boys Follies; Fucking Up Everything: The Musical; The Hatpin; Heaven in Your Pocket; I Come for Love; Idaho!; Jason and Ben; The Jerusalem Syndrome; Love Jerry; Max and the Truffle Pig; Play It Cool; The Road to Ruin; She Can't Believe She Said That!; That Other Woman's Child; To Paint the Earth; Twilight in Manchego; Villa Diodati and Wood. Four original dance musicals, The Hourglass and The Poisoned Pen, Sophia's Fall, Ward 9 and Wild About Harry, are also on the bill.
NYMF's staged readings, presented through the 2008 Developmental Series, will include Black Footnotes, Lines, Wrapped, Fairy Tale, Robin Hood, Ubu: A 'Patamusical and I Love You, Madame President.
Special events comprise Chocolate Soup, with music and lyrics by Matt Corriel and a book by Jill Jaysen (Sept. 21); A Puppet Music Thing, curated by Alissa Hunnicutt (Sept. 23); and Giant Killer Shark, with book, music and lyrics by Sam Sutherland (Oct. 2).
Concerts include the Prospect Theatre Company's 10th Anniversary Concert (Sept. 21), Benj Pasek and Justin Paul in Concert (Sept. 22) the Kerrigan-Lowdermilk Contingent (Sept. 23), the Gay Agenda (Sept. 27) and Jill Sobule sings Prozak & the Platypus (Oct. 2).
For tickets and production details visit NYMF.
