The 6th Annual Florida Festival of New Musicals At The Winter Park Playhouse Announces Final New Musical Selections

The Winter Park Playhouse has announced the winning selections for the 6th Annual Florida Festival of New Musicals. This popular festival, which showcases new musical theatre works, is one of very few in the nation and the only one of its kind in the Southeastern region. The festival will take place June 22-25, 2023 at The Winter Park Playhouse (711 Orange Avenue Winter Park, FL 32789.)

Thirty-one new musical works were submitted from writers and composers around the world. After an extensive 6-month review process by an expert panel of professional judges, the final six musicals were selected. The show descriptions and writer/composer information is listed below.

The Florida Festival of New Musicals was created to advance and elevate the original American art form of musical theatre by fostering the development of new musicals and the artistic growth of writers and composers.

The 4-day festival will showcase six brand new, never-before-produced musical works and will bring together writers and composers from around the nation with patrons, artists, press, producers and directors. The first act of each musical will be fully read and sung concert-style, without staging, by casts of professional actors and musicians. Audiences will have the unique and exciting opportunity to see musicals in the early stages of development and offer valuable feedback to the writers in post-reading talkbacks.

General admission tickets to live performances are $10 and a "Festival Fun Pass" is only $50 for all 6 shows. Tickets will go on sale March 14 at 11 a.m. For more information and to purchase festival tickets, call the box office at 407-645-0145 or visit the website www.winterparkplayhouse.org.

The Winter Park Playhouse has also partnered with local hotels that will be offering special discounted rates during the festival. Links and discount codes can be found on the theatre's website or by calling the box office.

Presenting sponsors for The Florida Festival of New Musicals are Dr. Judith Marlowe and Mr. Gordon Blitch. This event is also sponsored in part by Orange County Government through the Arts and Cultural Affairs Program, Winter Park Community Redevelopment Agency, the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs Program and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture and United Arts of Central Florida home of OrlandoAtPlay.com and UAArtsEd.com.

The six new musicals selected for the 2023 Florida Festival of New Musicals are as follows:

Bats On The Moon

Book and Lyrics: Kenny D'Aquila (Vero Beach, FL)

Music: Joel Spineti (Old Lyme, CT)

When the editor of the Sun, a fledging NYC newspaper, proclaims that a renowned astronomer has found proof of life on the moon, chaos ensues. Is it fact or fiction? Based on true events, Bats on the Moon is a fun and fanciful story about life in the early days of journalism - its twists and turns, drama, ambition and intrigue. How will this discovery impact the public and change life here and now?

Gabriel, Blow Your Horn

Book and Lyrics: Bryan Leys (New York, NY)

Music: James Campodonico (Bloomfield, NJ)

A light-hearted fable of good, evil, and shades in between. It's Judgment Day and the Angel Gabriel is assigned to demolish the planet Earth at midnight. But his old girlfriend, Lilith, who is now working for the other team, is doing everything in her infernal power to stop him!

Young Dr. Jekyll

Book: Philip David Stern (Burlington, VT) & Lisa Hopkins (Burlington, VT) Additional Book: Tim Wells (Burbank CA)

Concept, Music and Lyrics: Philip David Stern (Burlington, VT)

The infamous Dr. Jekyll never died. After he was committed to an asylum, his two young sons, Harry and Arthur, were left to fend for themselves in London. The young Dr. Harry Jekyll is on the verge of a mind blowing discovery - an "intelligence" elixir. He is confident this will earn him the notoriety of his heroes Newton and Copernicus and erase the stigma of his last name. The story gets tangled up with a besotted roommate, a meddling landlord, a Smart Tart that contains the potion, and a triple threat French songstress. Science or Will Power, if you really believe something, can it come true?

A Beautiful Place

Book: Linda DeArmond Grady (Prescott, AZ) & Michael Grady (Prescott, AZ)

Music: Craig Bohmler (Phoenix, AZ)

Lyrics: Steven Mark Kohn (Chagrin Falls, OH)

A story inspired by the life of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis who taught art to the children of the Terezin ghetto during World War ll. In 1942, Friedl and her husband Pavel were a part of the thousands of Czech Jews deported to Terezin. A critically acclaimed Bauhaus-trained artist, Friedl packed her one suitcase she was allowed, with paints, paper and books on art. With patience and scarce resources, she taught the children to use their imaginations, rediscover beauty and transform the world in which they now found themselves living.

The Couple Company, The Musical

Book, Music and Lyrics: Jeff Patrick Johnson (Boston, MA)

It's Hollywood, 1976. UCLA film school grads Sonny Wells and Chanelle Williams videotape bar mitzvahs while trying to get their screenplay produced. When Sonny's mother passes, he finds himself the new owner of her lonely-hearts matchmaking agency in Boston. His inheritance comes with a stipulation: in order to sell it, he and Chanelle must stall their film-making careers and operate the wacky singles service for one year. What have they got to lose? Plenty; they're about to learn that some dreams come true... at a price.

The Useful Citizen

Book, music and lyrics: Katya Stanislavskaya (New Paltz, NY / Odessa, Ukraine)

An intriguing examination of America's relationship with poverty vis-à-vis morality. Set in post-Civil War New York State, this musical loosely follows historical figure Josephine "Effie" Lowell. A privileged Civil War widow, Effie dedicates her life to being a "useful" citizen and becomes a renowned charity reformer. As she claws her way up in a world ruled by men, she learns that some of her reforms actually hurt the people they were intended to help.

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