Wayne Brady, Chris Mann & More To Perform At The 2023 FNAM Benefit

The Foundation for New American Musicals has revealed that Wayne Brady, Anastasia Barzee, Therese Curatolo, Chris Mann and Cheeyang Ng as Guest Artists for its 2023 FNAM Benefit. The annual fundraiser will honor three-time Tony Award-winner Jason Robert Brown (Broadway's Parade, The Bridges of Madison County, Mr. Saturday Night) and ASCAP-Harold Arlen Award-winner Georgia Stitt (Arena Stage's Snow Child, 11th Hour Theater's Big Red Sun, TADA Youth Theater's Samantha Spade, Ace Detective). The husband-wife duo will receive the 2023 FNAM Inspire Award for their contributions to new American musicals. The benefit will also honor FNAM co-founding member Marcia Seligson (Producer of Broadway's Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, Off-Broadway's Not That Jewish), who will receive the 2023 FNAM Founders' Award. The 2023 FNAM Benefit, will also feature performances by Brown and Stitt and a special appearance by Billy Crystal(Broadway's Mr. Saturday Night). Proceeds will benefit FNAM, which is dedicated to educating, mentoring and showcasing the next generations of creators of musicals for stage, screen and new media. The fundraiser will be held on Sunday, October 15, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. at a private residence in the Pacific Palisades. Tickets are limited and available at www.FNAM.us.

"The Foundation of New American Musicals is thrilled to have Jason Robert Brown and Georgia Stitt as our honorees for this year's Inspire Award. FNAM is all about nurturing, encouraging and promoting the works of emerging composers, lyricists and book writers, and Jason and Georgia are certainly an inspiration to all of us," said FNAM Board President, Michael Donovan. "And I, together with the rest of the FNAM Board, am pleased that we will be presenting the 2023 FNAM Founders' Award to our fellow Board member and FNAM co-Founder Marcia Seligson. Marcia was instrumental in the start and development of our organization, and she continues be a champion for new and rising musical artists and creating a safe and industry-supported environment for their work."

Tickets prices for the 2023 Foundation for New American Musical's Benefit are $150 for the FNAM Friend level, which includes admission for one to the benefit performance, access to silent auction, and a light reception; and $200 for the VIP Leader level includes all FNAM Friend benefits, plus prime seating, and two tickets to an upcoming MUSI-CALS event. Proceeds benefit FNAM and its programs. Tickets are available at www.FNAM.us.

The benefit will be held at a private residence in the Pacific Palisades. The address will be given upon purchase of benefit tickets. Capacity is limited.

The Foundation for New American Musicals, now in its 16th year, is dedicated to educating, mentoring, and showcasing emerging creators of original musicals for stage, screen, and new platforms. FNAM supports the creation of new content and provides a voice for the next generation of creators. Embracing four powerful disciplines - story, song, dance, and visuals - musicals have uniquely and memorably inspired deeper empathy and understanding across cultures, ethnicities, and generations. Today, musical theatre has earned a top spot in the cultural conversation. However, while there are many opportunities for performers and technical teams to learn and grow, there are very few programs that introduce musical theatre show writing to high school through college age students and develop promising story tellers, composers, and lyricists. The keystone of all FNAM programs is to provide opportunities for talented newcomers to create and showcase their art.

2023 FNAM BENEFIT HONOREE BIOGRAPHIES

Jason Robert Brown

(2023 FNAM Inspire Award Recipient) is the ultimate multi-hyphenate - an equally skilled composer, lyricist, conductor, arranger, orchestrator, director and performer - best known for his dazzling scores to several of the most renowned musicals of our time, including the generation defining The Last Five Years, his debut song cycle Songs for a New World, and the seminal Parade, for which he won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Score. Parade, written with Alfred Uhry and directed by Harold Prince, won both the Drama Desk and New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards for Best New Musical in 1999, and Parade's record-breaking Broadway production earlier this year, starring Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond, won the Tony Award for Best Musical Revival. Jason's score for The Bridges of Madison County received two Tony Awards (for Best Score and Orchestrations). The Last Five Years, which was cited as one of Time Magazine's 10 Best of 2001, became a feature film starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan. Songs for a New World has been seen in hundreds of productions around the world since its 1995 Off-Broadway debut, including a celebrated revival at New York's City Center in the summer of 2018. 13, written with Robert Horn and Dan Elish, opened on Broadway in 2008 and was made into a feature film for Netflix in 2022. Honeymoon In Vegas opened on Broadway in 2015; and last year saw the Broadway premiere of Mr. Saturday Night (lyrics by Amanda Green), written with and starring the legendary Billy Crystal, for which Jason was nominated for both a Tony and a Grammy Award. Upcoming: The Connector, created with Daisy Prince and Jonathan Marc Sherman, opening January 2024 off-Broadway at MCC Theater; the world premiere of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, adapted from John Berendt's bestselling novel, featuring a libretto by Taylor Mac, at Chicago's Goodman Theater in summer 2024; and an adaptation of Lilian Lee's Farewell My Concubine, created with Kenneth Lin and Moisés Kaufman. Jason's songs, including the cabaret standard "Stars and the Moon," have been performed and recorded by Jennifer Nettles, Brandi Carlile, Audra McDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, Billy Porter, Betty Buckley, Renée Fleming, Jon Hendricks and many others. As a soloist or with his band, Jason has performed concerts around the world. His album "Coming From Inside the House," featuring Ariana Grande and Shoshana Bean, was recorded remotely during the pandemic. His previous albums include "How We React and How We Recover" and "Wearing Someone Else's Clothes." Jason's 2012 concert with Anika Noni Rose was broadcast on PBS, and he was the featured soloist for an episode of "Friday Night Is Music Night," broadcast live from the London Palladium. Jason spent ten years teaching at USC, and has also taught at Harvard University, Princeton University and Emerson College. Jason and his wife Georgia Stitt were honored by the Brady Campaign in 2018 for their commitment to stopping gun violence in America. Jason is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and the American Federation of Musicians Local 802.

Georgia Stitt

(2023 FNAM Inspire Award Recipient) is an award-winning composer, lyricist, music producer, pianist, and activist. Her original musicals include Snow Child (commissioned by and premiered at DC's Arena Stage, directed by Molly Smith), Big Red Sun (11th Hour Theater in Philadelphia, NAMT 2010), and a children's musical, Samantha Spade, Ace Detective (TADA Youth Theater), which won "Outstanding New Musical" from the National Youth Theatre in 2014 and is now licensed by Concord Theatricals. Other shows include The Danger Year (The Table Co/Lab in Dallas), The Big Boom (with Hunter Foster), The Water (winner of the 2008 ANMT Search for New Voices in American Musical Theater), and Mosaic (commissioned for Inner Voices, starring Heidi Blickenstaff). Georgia has released four albums of her music: A Quiet Revolution (2020), My Lifelong Love (2014),This Ordinary Thursday (2007), and Alphabet City Cycle (featuring Tony-nominated actress Kate Baldwin, 2009). She is currently at work on a new album of theatrical art songs and an oratorio called The Circling Universe. Her choral piece with hope and virtue (using text from President Obama's 2009 inauguration speech) was featured on NPR, and both her orchestral piece, Waiting for Wings, co-written with husband Jason Robert Brown, and her piece for solo clarinet, Fanfare for the Ups and Downs, were commissioned and premiered by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. Georgia served for several years as the composer-in-residence at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, and she has written many pieces for choir, including A Better Resurrection, De Profundis, and The Promise of Light, which has often been performed by the LA Master Chorale. Georgia is the Founder and President of Maestra, an organization that provides support, visibility, and community for women and nonbinary theater musicians, and through that work she has won an Obie Award and has been featured in Forbes, Billboard, Playbill, Opera News, and The New York Times. In collaboration with Lin-Manuel Miranda, she, and her team at Maestra created the RISE Theatre Directory which seeks to build a more equitable and inclusive theater industry by centralizing DEIA tools and resources. Georgia is in leadership at The Dramatists Guild, The Recording Academy's Songwriters & Composers Wing, and MUSE (Musicians United for Social Equity). She has produced albums for Susan Egan, Robert Creighton, Lauren Kennedy, and Kate Baldwin, and has worked in themusic department on projects including Broadway's 2023 revival of Parade, NBC's The Sound of Music (Live!), the film version of The Last Five Years (starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan), Off-Broadway's Sweet Charity (starring Sutton Foster), Disney/ABC's Once Upon a Mattress starring Tracey Ullman and Carol Burnett, and the recent Netflix film, 13: The Musical. In her eight years living in LA, Georgia worked for America's Got Talent, Clash of the Choirs, and Grease: You're the One That I Want, and she wrote songs for MTV's The American Mall. She currently teaches Musical Theater Writing at Princeton University and has previously taught at Pace University and USC. Georgia lives in New York with her husband and their two wonderful daughters, both of whom are extremely musical.

Marcia Seligson

(2023 FNAM Founders' Award Recipient) is a journalist, adventurer (nine African safaris), author of nine published books and a zillion magazine articles. Her first book, The Eternal Bliss Machine, America's Way of Wedding was a best-seller. With a lifelong passion for musical theatre, she created REPRISE: Broadway's Best in LA and was the Producing Artistic Director for over forty events. She co-produced two plays on and off-Broadway and co-founded the Foundation of New American Musicals. Her ninth book, recently published memoir is My Mother Would Hate This Book. Check out her website and blog for stories and more: www.marciaseligson.com.

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