Presented Oct. 23 and 24, the annual musical theatre event provides a platform for emerging and established theatre writers to showcase a 45-minute presentation of their works with casts featuring Broadway and Off-Broadway actors. Many of the new works find life at regional companies, as well as Off-Broadway and on Broadway.
The selected musicals follow:
Beautiful Poison
Music by Brendan Milburn
Lyrics by Valerie Vigoda
Book by Duane Poole
"In this steamy, New Orleans thriller, a singer/songwriter at a personal and professional crossroads meets a beautiful, mysterious woman held captive in a garden of unusual plants where dark secrets are buried and gothic obsession grows. Jazz funerals, Dixieland and voodoo rhythms mix in this contemporary adaptation of Hawthorne's 'Rappaccini’s Daughter.'"
Cubamor
Book and lyrics by James D. Sasser
Music and lyrics by Charles Vincent Burwell
"Cubamor is the contemporary story of two couples that fall in love across the American-Cuban political, historical and social divide. They are guided and challenged by the spiritual forces of the island, its incredibly diverse music and cultural heritage, and ultimately the power of love."
Great Wall
Music and lyrics by Kevin So
Book by Kevin Merritt
Creative consultant: David Henry Hwang
"Forced to reconcile family vs fantasy, American dreams collide when an aspiring musician
reawakens his passions in the wake of his father's sudden death." How to Break
Book and lyrics by Aaron Jafferis and Rebecca Hart
Music by Rebecca Hart and Yako 440
"Ignited by an electric collision of beats, breaking and lyrical flow, How to Break follows two teenage dancers battling their hospital caregivers – a pediatric hematologist, a folk singer and a nurse with a beatboxing problem – in search of a gut understanding of what it means to be 'ill.'"
Mary Marie
Book and lyrics by Chana Wise
Music by Carl Johnson
"It's 1921, and despite the shocked whispers, Mary Marie is surprisingly philosophical about her parents' divorce. In fact, she can’t wait to observe, first hand, their inevitable new romances. But after months of being shuttled between them, what she observes is that Mother is different. Could Father, who has always been as distant as the stars he studies, be changing too?"
The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes
Music by Michael Kooman
Book and lyrics by Christopher Dimond
"Howard Barnes is a perfectly average man, until he discovers that his life has become a musical. Equal parts satire and love letter to the American musical, The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes is a musical for people who love musical theater, and their spouses who hate it."
String
Book by Sarah Hammond
Music and lyrics by Adam Gwon
"A workaholic Greek goddess gets tangled up with a security guard in the basement of the tallest building in the world. One mistake leads to another (a lost pair of scissors, a kiss, a stolen string) and soon Atropos is breaking her own rules to offer forever to an ordinary man. Can the fabric of the universe stand a flaw? An original musical about the three Fates in the modern city."
Stu for Silverton
Book by Peter Duchan
Music and lyrics by Breedlove
Based on the life of Stu Rasmussen and the town of Silverton, Oregon
"Based on the true story of America's first transgender mayor and the town that elected him, Stu for Silverton celebrates a new American folk hero from Silverton, Oregon. This heartwarming, all-American new musical blends Our Town and The Rocky Horror Show, testing the boundaries of tolerance as a small community adjusts to big changes."
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