Christy Altomare, Teddy Bergman and More Join NAMT Festival of New Musicals

The National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) announced today updated casting for the 24^th Annual Festival of New Musicals and for the Songwriters Showcase that Tony nominee Nancy Opel and Tony winner and NAMT alum Joe DiPietro (O. Henry's Lovers '98) will host as part of the Festival on Friday, October 12 from 1:20-2:30pm at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street). 

 

Christy Altomare (Carrie), Mary Jo Mecca (Little House on the Prairie) and Nicholas Kohn (Avenue Q) have the joined the cast of Sleeping Beauty Wakes replacing the previously announced Vanessa Ray, Annie Golden and Timothy Warman due to scheduling conflicts.  Pat McRoberts (Miss Saigon) joins the cast of The Circus in Winter replacing the previously announced Steve Routman.

 

This year's Showcase will highlight shows in development at NAMT's member organizations. 

 

Joining this year's Showcase is Painted Alice by William Donnelly and Michael Mahler (Mahler is a 2009 NAMT Festival alum for How Can You Run With A Shell On Your Back?) with Teddy Bergman (Peter and the Starcatcher) performing. 

 

The Songwriters Showcase will also feature songs from: Amazing Grace (Book by Christopher Smith & Arthur Giron; Music & Lyrics by Christopher Smith) with Harriet Foy (Mamma Mia!); Careless Love (by Ryan Dunkin); First Date (Book by Austin Winsberg; Music & Lyrics by Alan Zachary & Michael Weiner, both Festival Alumni for The Mystery of the Dancing Princesses in 2001, and Weiner for LiberTy Smith in 2000) with Kelly Karbacz from the world premiere cast; Fly By Night (Conceived by Kim Rosenstock; Written by Will Connolly, Michael Mitnick & Kim Rosenstock); Matt Castle (Company), Joel Esher, Bryan Scott Johnson (Mamma Mia!), Mike Maloney, Keith Potts, Paul Victor and Bruce Warren (The Road to Qatar) will perform from Harmony, Kansas (Book & Lyrics by Bill Nelson; Music by Anna K. Jacobs); Mitch Jarvis (Rock of Ages) will sing from The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes (Book & Lyrics by Christopher Dimond; Music by Michael Kooman, both Festival Alumni for Dani Girl, presented in 2011), and Brandon Espinoza (Triassic Parq) and A.J. Shively (February House) will perform from Who's Your Baghdaddy? (by Marshall Pailet & A.D. Penedo, both Festival Alumni for The Chocolate Tree in 2007).

 

Registration for the Festival, including the Songwriters Showcase, now open at www.namt.org/festival for Industry members only and will include a $10 late registration processing fee.  Online registration closes on October 8; after that walk-up registrations will be permitted and will include a $15 late registration processing fee. A limited number of tickets will be made available to the public for free on a standby basis.

NAMT's 24th Annual Festival of New Musicals presented October 11 and 12 features: Bleeding Love (Book by Jason Schafer, Music by Arthur Lafrentz Bacon, Lyrics by Harris Doran); Bonfire Night (Book, Music & Lyrics by Justin Levine); The Circus in Winter (Music & Lyrics by Ben Clark, Book by Beth Turcotte); Funked Up Fairy Tales (Book, Music & Lyrics by Kirsten Childs); Nobody Loves You (Book & Lyrics by Itamar Moses, Music & Lyrics by Gaby Alter); Sleeping Beauty Wakes (Book by Rachel Sheinkin, Music by Brendan Milburn, Lyrics by Valerie Vigoda); Southern Comfort (Book & Lyrics by Dan Collins, Music by Julianne Wick Davis); and Triangle (Book by Thomas Mizer, Curtis Moore and Joshua Scher, Lyrics by Thomas Mizer, Music by Curtis Moore).

 

The 24th Annual Festival of New Musicals is overseen by NAMT's New Work Director and Festival Producing Director Branden Huldeen and General Manager Lisa Dozier.  Alan Filderman is Casting Director for the Festival.  Betsy King Militello is the Executive Director of NAMT.

 

In 1989 the Festival of New Musicals was created to provide a forum to celebrate the new musicals that were being produced and presented around the country. Since then, the Festival has introduced musical theatre producers to 270 musicals and 490 writers from around the world. More than 75% of these shows have gone on to subsequent productions and tours, been printed in publishers' catalogues, and recorded on cast albums.

 

Past Festival productions include Adam Gwon's Ordinary Days, Don McKellar, Bob Martin, Greg Morrison and Lisa Lambert's The Drowsy Chaperone; Richard Morris, Dick Scanlan and Jeanine Tesori's Thoroughly Modern Millie; Stephen Schwartz and John Caird's Children of Eden; Kirsten Childs' The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin; George Stiles and Anthony Drewes' Honk!; Jason Robert Brown's Songs for a New World; and Hunter Foster and David Kirshenbaum's Summer of '42.

 

The National Alliance for Musical Theatre, founded in 1985, is a national service organization dedicated exclusively to musical theatre. Our mission is to advance musical theatre by nurturing the creation, development, production and presentation of new musicals. Our 150 members, located throughout 34 states and abroad, are some of the leading producers of musical theatre in the world, and include theatres, presenting organizations, higher education programs and individual producers.

 

The FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS is funded entirely by contributions to the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, a not-for-profit organization, and is supported in part by a generous award from the National Endowment for the Arts and by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. For more information about NAMT, please visit www.namt.org.