Photo Coverage: Vanessa Carlton, Lauren Marcus & More Celebrate Opening Night of NYMF

Just last week, the New York Musical Festival, which nurtures the creation, production, and public presentation of stylistically, thematically, and culturally diverse new musicals to ensure the future vitality of musical theatre, celebrated opening night!

To kick off the 2019 season,Lauren Marcus performed a brand-new song written especially for the evening by Ben Bonnema (The Apple Boys). Following that, the stars of Be More Chill (Lauren Marcus and Gerard Canonico) and King Kong (Eric William Morris) performed a new song by 2019 NYMF Honorary Chair Joe Iconis.

Now in its sixteenth year, the Festival is the premier musical theater event in the world. The preeminent site for launching new musicals and discovering new talent, the Festival provides an affordable platform for artists to mount professional productions that reach their peers, industry leaders, and musical theater fans. More than 100 Festival shows have gone on to productions on and Off-Broadway, in regional theaters in all 50 states, and in more than 20 countries worldwide. Festival alumni have received a wide array of awards including the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In 2013, NYMF received a special Drama Desk Award in recognition of its work "creating and nurturing new musical theater, ensuring the future of this essential art form."

BroadwayWorld is taking you inside opening night below!

Photo Credit: Monroe George