The festival will be held at the new Dodger Stages, at 340 W. 50th Street (between Eighth and Ninth Avenues) on Oct. 3 and Oct. 4.
NAMT will also present its "Songwriter Showcase Sunday" evening, featuring 10-15 emerging musical theatre writers and hosted by Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz.
The most notable entry in the 2004 fest may be Camille Claudel, the new Frank Wildhorn-Nan Knighton musical about the tortured artist and lover of Auguste Rodin, which had a developmental run at Goodspeed Musicals' Norma Terris Theatre last summer. Linda Eder — composer Wildhorn's wife — starred in the title role and will repeat her duties. The show has been mentioned for Broadway. Gariel Barre will direct the workshop
Another show with an existing reputation is The Flight of the Lawnchair Man, by composer-lyricist Robert Lindsay Nassif and librettist Peter Ullian. It was first seen under Harold Prince's direction in 2000 as one of a trio of musical one-acts packaged as 3hree, which premiered at Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia in 2000 and played the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in 2001. Recently, there was word that Prince is working on an expanded version of the one-act musical, The Flight of the Lawnchair Man, and that the show may be Broadway-bound following a regional presentation. No director is listed for the NAMT staging.
A third show, Winesburg, Ohio, by Eric Rosen and Andre J. Pluess and Ben Sussman, and based on Sherwood Anderson's 1919 novel about small town life, recently got its world premiere at About Face Theatre in Chicago. The other shows that have been selected for this year’s festival are: The Drowsy Chaperone, music by Greg Morrison, book by Don McKellar and Bob Martin, lyrics by Lisa Lambert (a cult hit in Toronto); The Girl in the Frame, music, book and lyrics by Jeremy Desmon (seen at Stoneham Theatre in Massachusetts); A Good Man, music by Ray Leslee, book and lyrics by Philip S. Goodman; Langston in Harlem, music by Walter Marks, book by Kent Gash, lyrics by Langston Hughes; Striking 12: The Groovelily Holiday Show, music, lyrics and book by Brendan Milburn, Rachel Sheinkin, and Valerie Vigoda.
Here's the breakdown of shows, with descriptions by NAMT.
Winesburg, Ohio. "Based on the classic American novel by Sherwood Anderson, this startling and unconventional musical journey explores what lies beneath the 'normal' exterior of a small American town. Developed by Chicago’s About Face Theatre and Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Winesburg, Ohio is both a portrait of an artist as a young man and a journey into the secret lives and twisted passions of his hometown’s everyday citizens. Backed by a score steeped in American folk music, the stories intertwine and unfold in a spellbinding and moving paean to following your dreams. " *
Since 1989, NAMT's Festival of New Musicals has introduced musical theatre producers to 131 musicals and 268 writers from around the world. Past Festival shows have included Tony Award-winning Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Children of Eden, Songs for a New World, The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, Summer of '42 and Honk!
The mission of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre's Festival of New Musicals is "to expand the musical theatre repertoire by encouraging the production of new musicals; present works that are diverse in ethnicity, subject matter, style, and concept; discover new work and new voices; and nurture creative writing teams."
The Festival is funded entirely by contributions to NAMT, a not-for-profit organization, and is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Admission is by invitation only to theatre producers.
For more information, visit www.namt.net.
