TV NYMF Preview: TESS, A NEW ROCK OPERA

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) presented a special preview of the 2010 offerings, featuring musical selections from: The Tenth Floor, I Got Fired, My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding, Tess, Above Hell's Kitchen, The History of War, Without You, and The Great Unknown. BroadwayWorld was on hand and brings you video coverage of the preview event below.

The NYMF runs from September 27th - October 17th in theatres around Manhattan.

In this clip, Tess's spirited and innocent life unravels when her impoverished family's desperate need to connect to a once mighty bloodline results in an act of violence and shame. Desired by two men, forsaken by Victorian society, and burdened by secrets and duty, Thomas Hardy's dark heroine struggles to remain pure in a stained world as she is pulled towards her ultimate fate.

Anthony Rapp (Rent), Tamara Tunie (Law and Order: SVU), Liz Larsen (The Most Happy Fella), Ann Harada (Avenue Q), Tom Hewitt (The Rocky Horror Show), Max Von Essen (Les Miserables), Curtis Holbrook (West Side Story), Chip Zien (Into the Woods), Farah Alvin (Nine), Andrea Frierson (One On This Island) and more performed selections from their respective productions.

Now in its seventh year, the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) is the largest annual musical theatre event in America and is widely regarded as the essential source for new material and talent discovery. NYMF provides a launching pad for the next generation of musicals and their creators to ensure the continued vitality of one of America's greatest art forms. Hailed as the "Sundance of Musical Theatre," NYMF discovers, nurtures, and promotes promising musical theatre artists and producers at all stages of development, and inspires a diverse audience through vibrant, accessible, powerful new work.