HELL'S KITCHEN, POPArt et al. Among NYMF 2010 Next Link Musical Selections, 9/27 - 10/17

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) today announced the selections for the 2010 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 readings to fully-realized productions and to advance their careers by maximizing the exposure they receive in the Festival. Twelve of the Festival's full production slots are reserved for participants in The Next Link Project.

Participants attend a special weekend-long symposium featuring seminars on fundraising, logistics, marketing and self-producing, led by industry professionals. They are introduced to potential collaborators, supporters and producers, and receive dramaturgical support from professional literary managers and dramaturgs. Finally, each Next Link show receives financial support in the form of a $4,500 subsidy toward its production in the Festival.

Any work that has not been produced professionally in New York City may be submitted by authors (with or without industry representation), but scripts should be ready for developmental production and the widespread exposure NYMF provides. All entries undergo double-blind evaluations by several members of NYMF's reading team, with finalists referred to a grand jury of celebrated industry professionals. This year's judges included Donna Lynne Champlin (actor), Ken Davenport (producer), Kimberly Grigsby (musical director), Beverley MacKeen (Executive Director of New World Stages), Tom Meehan (writer), Jack Viertel (producer), and Scott Wittman (writer/lyricist).

Since its inception in 2004, The New York Musical Theatre Festival has premiered more than 200 new musicals - more than 60 of which have gone on to award-winning productions in New York, in regional theaters and in almost every state and in 12 countries worldwide. NYMF 2004 hit Altar Boyz has played well over 1,500 performances Off-Broadway and spawned two National Tours; fellow NYMF alum [title of show] played on Broadway (Tony Award nomination, Best Book of a Musical); Next to Normal opened on Broadway last year, won The Pulitzer Prize as well as being nominated for 11 Tony Awards; and such shows as Rooms, The Big Voice: God Or Merman, My Vaudeville Man, and Meet John Doe have all gone on to have productions in New York and regionally. Yank! Recently played off-Broadway and will be opening on Broadway next season.

"We are very excited about The Next Link selections in this year's Festival," said NYMF Executive Director Isaac Hurwitz. "The Next Link Project really goes along with NYMF's mission of nurturing and giving a platform to writers, directors, producers and actors. We are thrilled that yet again, The Next Link Project will help new musicals to partner with producers and give these artists a safe environment in which to develop their shows."

This year's Festival will run September 27th through October 17th. Memberships on sale now and members can start booking tickets on August 1st. Single tickets will go on sale beginning September 1st. To purchase a membership, please phone the NYMF office at 212-664-0979, Monday-Friday, 10:30am-6pm.

A complete list of the 2010 Next Link Project Musicals is:

Above Hell's Kitchen

Book, Music and Lyrics by Jonathan Spottiswoode

As his appetite for women threatens to consume him, a tortured rock musician wrestles with his inability to stay faithful during a series of gothic therapy sessions. Jonathan Spottiswoode and his cult band, Spottiswoode & His Enemies, bring a sexy expressionist twist to Don Giovanni that is at once comic, tragic and lyrical, and tinged with jazz, blues, rock, gospel, classical and punk. They say love is a game - so who can you blame for playing?

Cheer Wars

Book and Lyrics by Gordon Leary; Music by Karlan Judd

As the former captain and current coach of the New London Lady Leopard Varsity Cheer Squad, Doretha Bolingbroke will do anything to keep the cheer bloodline intact. Her daughter Halle is poised to become captain, but when Doretha's old rival Nuella Percy returns from exile with her own cheerleading-machine daughter Charmain, the women must wage an epic battle for control of the squad and cheerdom itself.

Inspired by Henry IV, Part 1 and the true story of Wanda Holloway.

Frog Kiss

Book and Lyrics by Charles Leipart; Music by Eric Schorr

Based on the Stephen Mitchell novella The Frog Prince

A very scientific princess meets a frog she is determined to turn into a prince - with the assistance of a troupe of Celestial Tap-Dancing Taoist Masters. In this saucy ‘n' swingin' new musical, will Clementine get the Prince of her dreams, or will she find herself in bed with just another horny toad? It's a bedtime story with a bawdy twist!

The Great Unknown

Book by William Hauptman; Music and Lyrics by Jim Wann

Spring, 1869: one-armed Civil War hero John Wesley Powell seeks to unite a torn nation with an unprecedented expedition through the Grand Canyon. Powell and his brother Walter, an Andersonville POW survivor, sail down the perilous Colorado River with a crew of war veterans, while his wife Emma Dean becomes ensnared in expansionist politics. What lies in the undiscovered land ahead? With a score incorporating bluegrass, country, folk, and environmental elements, The Great Unknown is an American musical adventure.

I Got Fired: A Semi-Autobiographical Sort-of-True Revenge Musical

Book, Music and Lyrics by Keith Varney

Aspiring writer Keith has been a temp in a wacky office's soul-crushing cubicle for six years. When an evil nemesis emerges to squash his coffee-stained hopes and dreams, Keith makes a decision that causes him to get summarily fired... with security escorts and everything! Naturally, he retaliates by writing a musical. Based on a true-ish story. Some names have been changed to protect the guilty.

Jay Alan Zimmerman's Incredibly Deaf Musical

Book, Music, and Lyrics by Jay Alan Zimmerman

When the noisy buzz of progressive deafness steals away his songs, Jay becomes one pissed-off composer. As Jay struggles to hold onto the disappearing notes, can his wife and son get him to strive for something other than fame or death? A wild pop-rock-rap-dance-classical-disco-experimental-sign language-multimedia mash-up, Jay Alan Zimmerman's Incredibly Deaf Musical is the heartwarming, booty- shaking autobiography of a man trying everything he can to keep the music flying.

The Kid Who Would Be Pope

Book, Music and Lyrics by Tom Megan and Jack Megan

Billy's the new kid at Our Lady Of Perpetual Motion and he has a lot to learn about parochial school. When he meets his drama teacher Sister Katherine, a beguiling novice who jogs and sings like Julie Andrews, he falls hopelessly in love, resolving to become Pope and change the rules of the church so that they can one day marry. A charming musical about first loves, youthful obsession, and the search for miracles.

The Most Ridiculous Thing You Ever Hoid

Book by Andy Seiler, Jim Beckerman, and Fred Wemyss; Lyrics by Jim Beckerman and Andy Seiler; Music by Jim Beckerman

Based on the "Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel" radio series by Nat Perrin, Arthur Sheekman, George Oppenheimer, and Tom McKnight.

Who can forget Groucho, Chico and Harpo, those three mirth-makers of the silver screen? No one, that's who! But when the Marx Brothers are let loose in an unsuspecting radio studio, the airwaves will never be safe for detergent commercials again! Featuring all new songs and bursting with mayhem, it's a laugh-filled, tune-filled, lunacy-filled extravaganza!

POPart: The Musical

Book and Lyrics by Daryl Lisa Fazio; Music by Aaron McAllister

When 18-year old klutzy outcast, Kitty Katz, leaves her suburban gated community for the Ghetto Art School, she finds art's underbelly to be both seamy and spectacular. With her new friends - an ultra-cool street artist and a kind-hearted boy-genius - Kitty forges through the school's cutthroat and preposterous melée, yearning to be a true artist. Will she find fame? The ghost of Willem De Kooning? Or something real?

The Tenth Floor

Book by Sara Cooper; Music and Lyrics by J. Sebastian Fabal

Locked inside the Tenth Floor, the Miami-Dade Correctional Facility's juvenile division, 16-year-old Victor Alvarez escapes into fantasy to escape the harsh realities of prison and his home life. Fueled by a contemporary rock, hip hop, and salsa-influenced score, this high-energy musical follows Victor as he struggles to come to terms with both the truth of his present and the ramifications of his past - or end up just another ruined kid.

Tess, a new rock opera

Book, Music and Lyrics by Annie Pasqua; Additional Book, Music and Lyrics by Jenna Pasqua

Based on Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

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.

Things As They Are

Book and Lyrics by John Dietrich; Music by Jonathan Comisar

This sweeping portrait of Dorothea Lange examines an artist's journey as complex as the history captured in her work. Best known as the photographer behind the iconic Depression Era image "Migrant Mother," Dorothea fights for the lives of the people she photographs, while constantly torn between the demanding roles of wife, mother, and artist. A woman ahead of her time, living during a tumultuous period in American history, will her relentless devotion to her subjects undermine all hope of keeping her world in balance?

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If you are a producer, director, designer, choreographer, musical director, etc., and want an opportunity to network and find projects to work on at this year's Festival, NYMF will be having a Networking Extravaganza on Saturday, June 5, 6-9pm?at Social, 795 8th Avenue, 2nd Floor (W.48th & W.49th Street)? A cash bar with drink specials will be available, including $3.50 Domestic Bottles, $4.50 Cabernet and Pinot Grigio, and $7 Sliders

If there are any questions about the NYMF Networking Extravaganza, please email literary@nymf.org

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Now entering its seventh year, The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) exists to revitalize musical theater culture by discovering and promoting new musical theater artists, producers and projects; nurturing a vibrant and innovative artistic community; and connecting one of America's greatest art forms with a diverse, contemporary audience.

The 2009 New York Musical Theater Festival enjoyed record ticket sales, up by 20% over last year. Attendance was at an all-time high, with the majority of festival productions playing to over 90% capacity. 87% of festival events sold out most or all of their performances. Due to audience demand, 15 productions received a total of 22 extension performances, twice as many as in 2008.

For more information, please visit: www.nymf.org.

Photo: "Class photo" of the Next Link Writers for the New York Musical Theatre Festival with Executive Director Isaac Hurwitz; Credit: Steven Rosen