NY Musical Theater Fest unveils slate
Dozen Next Link Project offerings announced
Fest, which has served as the launching pad for shows including "Altar Boyz" and the Broadway-bound "[title of show]," has announced the dozen offerings of its Next Link Project, which provides professional and financial support to the developing tuners selected.
Comedic subjects on the bill include mutant bedbugs ("Bedbugs!! The Musical" by Fred Sauter and Paul Leschen), a drag queen who almost kills a Cuban dictator ("Castronauts or: How I Killed Fidel" by Bobby Houston and Randy Courtes) and tourists in Israeli who imagine they have become biblical figures ("The Jerusalem Syndrome" by Laurence Holzman, Felicia Needleman and Kyle Rosen).
More serious topics range from child abuse ("Love Jerry" by Megan Gogerty) to small-town tragedy ("Twilight in Manchego" by Matt Gould) to the Holocaust ("To Paint the Earth" by Daniel F. Levin and Jonathan Portera).
Three Bard-based shows are James Goode's "Midnight, South Carolina" ("Hamlet" in the Civil Rights era); David Arthur and Jeffrey Lodin's "About Face" ("Much Ado" in the 1950s) and Dan Collins and Julianne Wick Davis' "Wood" ("Midsummer" in modern day).
Submissions was reviewed by a jury that included lyricist-librettists Lynn Ahrens and Michael Korie, thesps Audra McDonald and Norbert Leo Butz and helmers Michael Mayer and Susan Stroman, among others.
About a dozen more participating tuners remain to be announced. Fifth annual fest will run Sept. 15-Oct. 5.
