MEMPHIS Producers Pledge Support to National Fund for New Musicals

The National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) announced today that Kenny and Marleen Alhadeff, NAMT members and partners in Junkyard Dog Productions, have made a four-year pledge to support NAMT's National Fund for New Musicals, a program that awards grants to not-for-profit member theatres to support the development of new works. This grant helps match a 5-year leadership pledge made by Stacey Mindich in 2011. Together, these contributions create a solid, vital foundation on which NAMT will build the future of this young program.

"We are very grateful for the stability this pledge affords the National Fund for New Musicals," said Executive Director, Betsy King Militello, "We want to continue to grow the Fund's granting capacity to support our members as they work to advance the musical canon."

The timing of the Alhadeffs' gift commemorates today's 1000th performance of Memphis on Broadway. Memphis is a wonderful example of a new work that has taken Broadway by storm, winning the Tony Award for Best Musical, along with three other Tony Awards in 2010. Still enjoying a successful Broadway run, the show is also on tour and has been digitally presented in HD around the country.

Kenny Alhadeff commented, "Marleen and I are thrilled to support NAMT, its National Fund and its commitment to new musical development. We believe that musical theatre and the creation of new work are essential to the human spirit."

The Alhadeffs' partners at Junkyard Dog Productions, Randy Adams and Sue Frost, have also been extensively involved in NAMT. Randy is currently serving as Vice President of the Board of Directors and Sue is a past President of NAMT. Since its inception in 2006, Junkyard Dog Productions has been a NAMT member.

Created in 2009, the National Fund for New Musicals has awarded 45 grants totaling $200,000 to NAMT member not-for-profit theatres to support new work at every stage of development, from writer residencies through workshops and on to full productions. The Fund provides a creative and effective process for supporting a musical's development. NAMT is offering a support system to help theatres of all sizes collaborate with one another and with other musical theatre artists to bring new, innovative and provocative musicals to audiences around the world. This year's grantees will be announced in April 2012.

The National Alliance for Musical Theatre, founded in 1985, is a national service organization dedicated exclusively to musical theatre. Their mission is to advance musical theatre by nurturing the creation, development, production and presentation of new musicals and by providing a forum for musical theatre professionals to share resources and exchange information 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. Among the grantees supported by NAMT's National Fund for New Musicals are CAP 21, Center Theatre Group, Ford's Theatre Society, The Old Globe Theatre, The Public Theater/NYSF, TheatreWorks and many others.