Andrea McArdle, Andy Mientus, et al. Win 2011 NYMF Awards

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) has announced the winners of the NYMF 2011 Awards for Excellence. Awards will be presented at the Eight Season Awards Gala taking place on Sunday, November 6th at The Hudson Theatre (145 W. 44th Street) beginning at 6:00pm. As previously announced, producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan will also be honored for their work in bringing musical theatre to a worldwide, pop-culture audience.

The evening will include cocktails, a silent auction, seated dinner, and musical performances celebrating NYMF's Eighth Annual Season as well as Meron and Zadan's hotly-anticipated NBC series, "Smash."

Also, the window for 2012 Next Link Submissions has been extended one week, through November 7th. Twelve of the 2012 Festival's full production slots are reserved for participants in the Next Link Project, NYMF's primary writer service program. The Next Link Project empowers emerging musical theatre writing teams as both artists and entrepreneurs by providing the training and relationships needed to help them move their musicals from mere readings to fully-realized productions and to advance their careers by maximizing the exposure they receive in the Festival. For full details on submitting a musical to the program, visit http://www.nymf.org/nextlinksubmissions.

The NYMF 2011 Awards for Excellence are as follows:

Excellence in Writing - Music: Kevin Ray (Central Avenue Breakdown)
Honorable Mention: Lindsay Warren Baker & Amanda Jacobs (Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice)
Grant Sturiale (Kiki Baby)

Excellence in Writing - Lyrics: Carl Kissin (Date of a Lifetime)
Honorable Mention: Gerard Alessandrini & Robert Hetzel (Madame X)
Lindsay Warren Baker & Amanda Jacobs (Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice)
Lonny Price & Grant Sturiale (Kiki Baby)

Excellence in Writing - Book: Lindsay Warren Baker & Amanda Jacobs
(Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice)
Honorable Mention: Drew Gasparini & Louis Sacco (Crazy, Just Like Me)
Carl Kissin (Date of a Lifetime)

Excellence in Direction: Igor Goldin (Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice)
Honorable Mention: Jeremy Dobrish (Date of a Lifetime)
Lonny Price & Matt Cowart (Kiki Baby)
Christopher Windom (Central Avenue Breakdown)

Excellence in Choreography: Christopher Windom (Central Avenue Breakdown)
Honorable Mention: Jeffry Denman (Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice)
Tanisha Scott (This One Girl's Story)

Excellence in Production Design: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
(Josh Zangen. set and props; Colleen Kesterson, costumes; Zach Blane, lighting)
Honorable Mention: Ennio: The Living Paper Cartoon (designed by Ennio Marchetto and Sosthen Hennekam) and Kiki Baby (James Noone; scenic design; Wade Laboissoniere, costumes; Mark Janowitz, lighting; Nick Borisjuk, sound)

Outstanding Orchestration: Justin Hornback (Central Avenue Breakdown)
Honorable Mention: Michael Starobin (Kiki Baby)
J. Oconer Navarro (This One Girl's Story)
Amanda Jacobs (Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice)

Outstanding Ensemble Performance: The cast of This One Girl's Story
(Angela Grovey, Jade Hicks, Zonya Love Johnson, Desiree Rodriguez, Antonio Edwards Suarez, and Danielle K. Thomas)
Honorable Mention: the casts of Central Avenue Breakdown and
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

Outstanding Individual Performances:
Farah Alvin (Date of a Lifetime), Louis Butelli (Cyclops), Donna Lynne Champlin (Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice), Jenn Colella (Kiki Baby), Rodrick Covington, (Central Avenue Breakdown), Janet Dickinson (Madame X), Donna English (Madame X), Ennio Marchetto (Ennio: The Living Paper Cartoon), Andrea McArdle (Greenwood), and Andy Mientus (Crazy, Just Like Me)

Theater for the American Musical Prize:
Kiki Baby by Lonny Price, Kitt Lavoie, and Grant Sturiale

Stage Entertainment Development Award:
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice by Lindsay Warren Baker & Amanda Jacobs

"Best of Fest" Audience Prize: Crazy, Just Like Me by Drew Gasparini and Louis Sacco

Most Promising Musical Award:
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice by Lindsay Warren Baker & Amanda Jacobs

The Daegu International Musical Festival Production Award will be announced in the coming weeks.

This year's NYMF Jury included: Dan Bacalzo (Managing Editor, Theatermania.com), Pun Bandhu (producer, actor) Marc Bruni (director), Linda D'Onofrio (Festival Patron), Kurt Deutsch (founder/producer, Sh-K-Boom Records), Frank Evans (writer, producer, BMI), Peter Filichia (author, theatre critic: Newark Star-Ledger), Hunter Foster (actor, writer), Jenna Tesse Fox (writer, BroadwayWorld.com), Jenny Giering (composer), Jane Gross (Festival Patron), Craig Horsley (Festival Patron), Tim Jerome (actor, producer. founder National Music Theatre Network), Yoonji Kim (Daegu International Musicals Festival) Brad Lohrenz (literary, Samuel French), Elizabeth Lucas (director, founding producer NYMF), Matthew Murray (theatre critic, TalkinBroadway.com /All That Chat), Gwyn Osnos (producer), Anthony Rapp (actor, writer), Karen Rusch (marketing consultant).

The honorary Gala host committee includes: Rob Ashford, Kristin Chenoweth, Anderson Cooper, Sean Hayes, Angela Lansbury, Joe Machota, Casey Nicholaw, Bernadette Peters, Kelly Preston, Marc Shaiman, John Stamos, Marlo Thomas, John Travolta, Beth Williams, Scott Wittman, Reneé Zellweger, and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Ticket prices for the NYMF Awards Gala are as follows: Visionary Table of 10: $10,000, Champion Table of 10: $5,000, Champion Tickets: $500 (includes preferred seating and admission to the VIP After-Party with the artists), Supporter Table of 10: $3,750, and Supporter Tickets: $375.

To purchase tickets, call (212) 664-0979 x12, or email gala@nymf.org

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) NYMF is the flagship program of National Music Theater Network, Inc., a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization. NYMF 2011 is presented in association with BroadwayWorld.com, Production Resource Group, and TheaterMania.com, and is supported by American Eagle Outfitters, Back Stage, BroadwayBox.com, BroadwayInsider.com, Clear Channel Spectacolor, Disney Store Times Square, Fox 5/ WNYW-TV, King Displays, NASDAQ OMX, New World Stages, Next Magazine, PMD Promotions, The Port Authority of NY & NJ, Queerty.com, Season of Savings, Terra Fossil Wines, Thomson Reuters, TheMenEvent.com, Times Square Squared, and Yelp. Major supporters include The ASCAP Foundation, BMI Foundation, Inc., The BWF Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation with the support and encouragement of Jamie Ariel Phinney, Cameron Mackintosh Foundation, The New Musical Development Foundation, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Rodgers & Hammerstein Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, and The Theater League. 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, in partnership with the City Council and from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.