New York Musical Theatre Festival Closes, 10/17

On Sunday, October, 17 the 2010 New York Musical Theatre Festival officially comes to a close.  This year's festivities included 30 new and exciting shows and ran September 27- October 17.

Full productions featured at this year's festival included: Above Hell's Kitchen, Bloodties, Fellowship!, Fingers and Toes, Frog Kiss, The Great Unknown, The History of War, I Got Fired, Jay Alan Zimmerman's Incredibly Deaf Musical, The Most Ridiculous Thing You Ever Hoid, My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding, Nighttime Traffic, Pandora's Box, Petrouchka, POPart: The Musical, Shine!, Show Choir!, Special Letter, The Tenth Floor, Tess: a new rock opera, Therapy Rocks, Things As They Are, Trails, Trav'lin, V-Day, Vote For Me, Without You

The New York Musical Theatre Festival provides a launching pad for the next generation of musicals and their creators to ensure the continued vitality of America's greatest art form. We discover, nurture, and promote promising musical theatre artists and producers at all stages of development, and inspire a diverse audience through vibrant, accessible, powerful new work.

Inaugurated in 2004, NYMF's largest program is the annual festival that bears its name.  Inspired by the independent film movement, the New York Musical Theatre Festival blends the economy of scale and grassroots mechanisms of film festivals with a professional support network and technical framework designed specifically for new musicals, to provide an unrivaled showcase of new musicals and emerging talent.

The Festival gives artists the crucial chance to hone their craft and their musicals, by realizing their shows in three dimensions before a live and responsive audience - and it delivers greater production value and promotional reach than its participants could otherwise afford.  By consistently attracting the participation of well-known actors, directors and other established members of the theatre industry, the Festival has also created an environment rich with mentorship opportunities for newer artists, and made the festival a leading spot for the discovery of talented new performers, directors, choreographers, designers, and producers - as well as writers.

The largest annual musical theatre event in the world, the Festival presents 30 productions each fall in the heart of New York City's theatre district, alongside a dazzling array of readings, concerts, and other special events.  It is attended by an audience of more than 30,000 theater lovers and by producers, talent scouts, and other industry insiders.  Of the 232 new musicals presented at the Festival since its inception in 2004, more than 60 have gone on to successful productions on Broadway, off-Broadway, in almost every U.S. state and in more than a dozen countries around the world.