Raising the curtain on the eclectic 2006 musical theatre festival that presents musicals, concerts and events on various stages in New York City to Oct. 1, NYMF will host Opening Night: The Back-to-NYMF Fall Pep Rally 8 PM Sept. 10.

Full productions of musicals begin in earnest Sept. 11 with the U.S. premiere of Have a Nice Life at New World Stages. A concert of Illyria and a Merle Dandridge cabaret will also be presented Sept. 11.

The kickoff party (tickets are $20) is at New World Stages, 340 W. 50th Street.

"Kick the Fest off right with NYMFettes on the megaphone and the casts and creative teams of all of our shows, concerts and special events in the house for good food, plenty of drink, a little dancing and some good old-fashioned spirit," NYMF invites.

Other "NYMF at Nite" events will include the Final Night Party on Sept. 30, the NYMF 06 Gala Celebration on Nov. 12, An Evening with Duncan Sheik on Sept. 27, and the "Broadway Idol" series (Sept. 15, 22, 29). *

Now in its third year, The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) is a three-week event that, in its first two years, presented over 70 musicals, becoming the largest musical theatre event in American history. The festival launched shows that have found life beyond its umbrella: Altar Boyz, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Captain Louie, and more recently, [title of show] and Shout!.

NYMF 2006 will feature 312 performances, including the premiering of 34 new musicals and 84 musical theatre events and a broad range of programming that will include full productions, developmental works, concerts, seminars and panels, partner events, commissions and, for the first time, the NYMF Dance Series.

Of the more than 30 full productions in the Festival this year, half have been selected through the Next Link Project, an open submission process in which musicals undergo blind evaluations by a reading committee before being selected by a jury of leading theatre professionals. From almost 400 submissions, 15 works were awarded the opportunity for full production in the 2006 Festival.

The Next Link productions include Desperate Measures, Emerald Man, Flight of the Lawnchair Man, Go-Go Beach, Have a Nice Life, Hot and Sweet, Journey to the West, Kingdom, Lunch, Oedipus for Kids, River's End, Smoking Bloomberg, The Screams of Kitty Genovese, Three Sides and Warrior.

The Invited Productions include Behind the Limelight, Gutenberg! The Musical, Having It Almost, J.O.B. the Hip-Hopera, Party Come Here, The Children, The Man in My Head, The Night of the Hunter, The Paisley Sisters’ Christmas Special, The Tragic and Horrible Life of the Singing Nun, This Could Be Love, This Could Be Love, Virgins and White Noise.

New this year, NYMF presents The Dance Series, a group of choreographically-driven productions exploring the relationship between dance and musical theater: All is Love, Common Grounds and School Daze.

The Developmental Series includes Alive in the World, Chang & Eng, Cumberland Blues, Drift, Magpie, Saint Heaven, The Tales of Custard the Dragon, The Chocolate Tree and Wallenberg.

The NYMF Concert and Special Event Series includes Baby Wants Candy, Blue Lou and the Bullyfish, Little by Little, The Macguffin?, The Tales of Custard the Dragon, The Unauthorized Musicology of Ben Folds, NYMF at Ars Nova, A New Generation of Song: The Future of Musical Theatre, Angels, Illyria, Maria, Maria, Moopim and What@Trip!.

(Playbill.com is a media partner of the New York Musical Theatre Festival 2006.)