NYMF To Shut Down After Fifteen Seasons

It was announced today that the popular annual New York Musical Festival will cease operation immediately after 15 years of presenting cutting edge new musical theater.

More than 400 shows have premiered at the Festival since its inception in 2004, featuring more than 8,000 artists and entertaining more than 300,000 audience members.

The musicals and artists introduced at NYMF have, in turn, gone on to further successes on and Off-Broadway, across the country, and around the globe - reaching literally millions of theatergoers worldwide.

Notable titles to come out of the festival include Next To Normal, [title of show], Chaplin, In Transit, Altar Boyz, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Emojiland the Musical, Stuck and more.

NYMF was honored with a 2013 Drama Desk Award recognizing its first decade of creating and nurturing new musical theatre, ensuring the future of this essential art form.

Of the closing, the company said in a statement, "The Board of Directors of the New York Musical Festival (NYMF) announced today that after 15 years of presenting vibrant, new musical theater, NYMF will cease operation immediately.

It is with a heavy heart that we face the reality of the arts funding crisis in the United States. It has caught up with NYMF. The Board and donors have been valiantly subsidizing NYMF operations for 15 years, but looking ahead, we do not see a clear path forward."

The Board praised the current executive director Scott Pyne, artistic director West Hyler, their staffs, and the hundreds of creative teams who have participated over the years to create excellent new musicals.