A number of new musicals have been announced as some of the entries in the 2nd annual New York Musical Theatre Festival. The selected shows will be presented in this year's NYMF from September 12th to October 12th in New York's Theatre District.
With music by Dana P. Rowe (two-time Olivier award
nominee for The Fix and The Witches of Eastwick)
and book and lyrics by Michael Aman and Oscar E.
Moore, The Ballad of Bonnie & Clyde is a "darkly comic look at the famed outlaw couple," according to production notes.Nerds: a Musical Software Satireby Jordan
Allen-Dutton & Erik Weiner (creators of the Off-Broadway hit The
Bomb-itty of Errors) features music by Hal Goldberg, direction by Andy Goldberg (The Bomb-itty of Errors) and choreography by Dan Knechtegs (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee). The musicals is "an outrageous take on
the parallel stories of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and their trailblazing
transformation from 'garage inventors' to warring titans of the
computer revolution."Soon of a Mornin' is a world premiere by Andrea Frierson-Toney (Once On This Island, The Lion King) based on the tiny African-American community of
Gee's Bend, Alabama, whose quilts and music have been exhibited around
the world (including at NYC's Whitney Museum in 2003). The piece, which
follows the Benders' efforts to rebuild their lives after the era of
slavery ended, is based on 1941 field recordings and received a Parsons Fund
Award from the Library of Congress.
NYMF is America's largest annual musical theatre event, and a flagship program of the National Music Theater Network, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. NYMF previously announced
18 productions selected through its open-submission Next Link Project, will
present more than 30 new musicals in repertory during its 2005 Festival, along
with more than 100 concerts, readings, and special events. Of the productions
featured in last year's Festival, approximately 20% have since been
optioned for additional runs, including Altar Boyz (2005 Outer Critics Circle
Award), Stephen Schwartz's Captain Louie, and the forthcoming productions
of Title of Show, Shout!, and The Great American Trailer Park Musical.
