New Musical WINNER from Joe Barros and Nico Juber Will Have a Reading This Week

New York Theatre Barn and The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts have launched the New Works Project to support the development of original culture shifting musicals. The inaugural musical Winner will have its first reading on Friday, May 26, 2023 in New York City.

Written by Joe Barros (Artistic Director, New York Theatre Barn) and Nico Juber (Millennials Are Killing Musicals), Winner is about a rigged high school election in 1999. The show is an entirely original story based on entirely too many true events, and asks the question: If everyone’s losing, who wins? “At the center of this original story, Winner explores a female-identifying queer narrative,” Barros said. “The central characters, Autumn and Stevie, are exploring and navigating their queer identities as high school students at the end of the last millennium. Their hidden queerness and relationship become public when the truth about the election is revealed.” In the summer, Winner will have a developmental production in the West End as part of The London Summer Music Theatre Academy.

The reading is directed by Joe Barros, with music direction/vocal arrangements/additional music by Bálint Varga, and the cast includes NYCDA Musical Theatre alumni Jasmine Garvin, Magali Guerree, Jake Guthrie, David Nacio, Kenza Nejmi, Matt Tierney, and Gavin Wycuff. Robert Cott is the stage manager, and Mike Walsh is the associate director.

The New Works Project makes space to incubate original musicals created by writers from underrepresented communities. The project also creates performance opportunities for NYCDA alumni and offers them a glimpse inside the blueprint of an original being developed in real time. New York Theatre Barn has been an inclusive home for original culture shifting musicals during incubation since 2007. The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts is a two-year college conservatory offering collaborative programs in Acting for Film & Television, Musical Theatre Performance, and New Media for Actors.