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Photo Coverage: NYMF Honors Goodman at 5th Anniv. Gala

The New York Musical Theater Festival honored producer Robyn Goodman at its Fifth Anniversary Season Awards Gala on Sunday, November 2nd at The Hudson Theatre. The winners of The NYMF 2008 Awards for Excellence were also be honored at the gala.

Robyn Goodman produced Avenue Q, In the Heights (Tony Awards for Best Musical), Metamophoses, A Class Act, Steel Magnolias, Barefoot in the Park, High Fidelity on Broadway. Off-Broadway credits include Bat Boy; tick, tick...BOOM!, Our Lady of 121st Street; Red Light Winter and Altar Boyz. Co-founder of Second Stage Theatre, Goodman was its artistic director for 13 years; she is currently artistic consultant to the Roundabout, where she curated Speech and Debate at the Underground Theatre.

Special appearances and performances included a reunion of the original NYMF cast of Altar Boyz (Ryan Duncan, Cheyenne Jackson, David Josefsberg, Andy Karl and Tyler Maynard), as well as Gary Adler (Altar Boyz, Avenue Q), Stephanie D'Abruzzo (Avenue Q), Robert Lopez (Avenue Q), Kristen Anderson-Lopez (Finding Nemo: The Musical), Kevin McCollum (producer, Avenue Q, In The Heights), Lin-Manuel Miranda (In The Heights), and the current casts of Altar Boyz, [title of show] and the award-winning NYMF 2008 shows.

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) celebrates its fifth year with 24 full productions, a dance series, a developmental series, concerts and special events. Since its inception in 2004, this three-week annual festival has premiered more than 160 new musicals - many of which have gone on to award-winning productions in New York, in regional theaters and on tour in 38 states, and nine countries worldwide. NYMF 2004 hit Altar Boyz has played well over 1,000 performances Off-Broadway and spawned two National Tours; fellow NYMF alum [title of show] recently opened to rave reviews at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway; Nerds is coming to Broadway this Spring; and Off-Broadway audiences will soon see My Vaudeville Man.

Hailed as "the Sundance of Musical Theatre," NYMF exists to revitalize one of America's greatest art forms by discovering, supporting and promoting new musical theater artists, producers, and projects, and by introducing a diverse audience to the vibrancy of contemporary musical theater. Widely regarded as the essential source for new material and talent discovery, NYMF is the flagship program of The National Music Theater Network, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. The 2008 Festival season was presented in association with BroadwayWorld.com, Production Resource Group and TheaterMania.com, and was supported by amNewYork, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, BroadwayBox.com, BroadwayInsider.com, Frank & Camille's Fine Pianos, HX Magazine, Jossip.com, King Displays, Queerty.com, Manhattan Movement & Arts Center, Metromix.com, The New York Blade, Next Magazine, Panasonic Astrovision, Tekserve, TheMENEvent, VOGA Italia, and The Zipper Factory. NYMF is supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency

For more information visit www.NYMF.org.

Isaac Robert Hurwitz (NYMF Executive Director & Producer) and Robyn Goodman (2008 NYMF Gala Honoree)