New York Musical Theatre Festival

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Each year, during a three-week fall Festival, the New York Musical Theatre Festival presents more than thirty new musicals at venues in New York City's midtown theater district. More than half of these productions are chosen by leading theater artists and producers through an open-submission, double-blind evaluation process; the remaining shows are invited to participate by the Festival's artistic staff. In the first three years of the festival, seven shows transferred to off-Broadway commercial runs, four more were picked up by regional theaters and numerous others secured options or financing.

NYMF audiences have enjoyed premieres of new musicals from Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States, featuring a broad spectrum of contemporary musical styles including R&B, jazz, hip-hop, Broadway, emo-pop, rock, punk, ska, country and opera.^[1] NYMF premieres have ranged from original pieces like Altar Boyz, Gutenberg! The Musical!, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, and title of show, to adaptations of classic stories like Caligula, The Portrait of Dorian Gray and Far From The Madding Crowd.

In addition to full productions, NYMF presents a wide range of special events, readings and concerts of new music, explorations of musicals in TV and film, and unusual collaborations with other New York-based arts organizations. NYMF 2004 included a four-day celebration of movie musicals at the AMC Empire Theaters in Times Square.^[2]

In 2005, the Festival featured a series of co-productions with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater exploring the nexus of improvisation and musical theater.^[3] In 2006, NYMF premiered its Dance Series, celebrating the fusion of musical theatre and dance.^[4] Each series included one new musical commissioned by the Festival: Wrong Number (a choose-your-own-adventure musical) and Common Grounds (a multi-narrative dance musical featuring the work of five choreographers).

Also in 2006, NYMF produced a number of concerts, from large star-studded evenings like "The Unauthorized Musicology of Ben Folds," to intimate events like a salon with Grammy Award nominee and Spring Awakening composer Duncan Sheik.

Some of the shows that have transferred to commercial runs include: Altar Boyz (still running Off-Broadway),^[5] The Big Voice: God or Merman, Captain Louie,^[6] The Great American Trailer Park Musical,^[7] Gutenberg! The Musical!,^[8] Meet John Doe,^[9] Nerds:// A Musical Software Satire,^[10] title of show,^[11] and Shout! The Mod Musical.^[12]

In 2005, the New York Musical Theatre Festival received the 21st Jujamcyn Theatres Award, a $100,000 prize given to a not-for-profit institution that has made an "outstanding contribution to the development of creative talent for the theatre."^[13]