The New York Musical Festival (NYMF) is an annual three-week summer festival which presents more than thirty new musicals at venues in New York City's midtown theater district. More than half of these productions are chosen by leading theater artists and producers through an open-submission, double-blind evaluation process; the remaining shows are invited to participate by the Festival's artistic staff.
As of 2017, the festival has premiered over 425 musicals, which have featured the work of over 8,000 artists and have been attended by 300,000 theatergoers. NYMF alumni productions had been produced in all fifty U.S. states (plus the District of Columbia,) and in 27 countries worldwide, having been seen by approximately four million people. Twenty NYMF shows have had cast albums recorded, and about a quarter of all NYMF shows go on to have further productions.
History
NYMF audiences have enjoyed premieres of new musicals from Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States, featuring a broad spectrum of contemporary musical styles including R&B, jazz, hip-hop, Broadway, emo-pop, rock, punk, ska, country and opera. NYMF premieres have ranged from original pieces like Next To Normal, Altar Boyz, Gutenberg! The Musical!, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, and title of show, to adaptations of classic stories like Caligula, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, R.U.R. (Save The Robots), and Much Ado About Nothing (About Face).
In addition to full productions, NYMF presents a wide range of special events, readings and concerts of new music, educational seminars, explorations of musicals in TV and film, and unusual collaborations with other New York-based arts organizations. In 2011, The Festival introduced NYMF meets NYMIF, partnering with the New York Musical Improv Festival in a weekly series in which NYMF performers were paired with performers from the Magnet Theater to create completely improvised musicals. In 2005, the Festival featured a series of co-productions with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater exploring the nexus of improvisation and musical theater. NYMF has also partnered with The Paley Center each season to present special screenings of Musicals on Television.
Also in 2005, the New York Musical Theatre Festival received the 21st Jujamcyn Theaters Award, a $100,000 prize given to a not-for-profit institution that has made an "outstanding contribution to the development of creative talent for the theatre."
NYMF also features a Dance Series, celebrating the fusion of musical theatre and dance. Each series included one new musical commissioned by the Festival: Common Grounds (2006), Platforms (2007), Wild About Harry (2008), and Andy Warhol Was Right (2009).
During the off season, NYMF produces a number of concerts, from large star-studded evenings like "The Unauthorized Musicology of Ben Folds", to intimate events like a salon with Grammy Award nominee and Spring Awakening composer Duncan Sheik. It also operates a year-round writer service program, The Next Link Project, which provides dramaturgical, professional, entrepreneurial and financial support to help writers bring their musicals to fruition as fully staged productions. The Next Link Project culminates with twelve writing teams each year receiving subsidized productions in NYMF's fall Festival.
On July 17, 2008, the musical title of show became the first show to transfer from the New York Musical Theatre Festival to a commercial Broadway production when it opened at the Lyceum Theatre. The show closed October 12, 2008 after playing 13 previews and 102 performances. It was produced by Kevin McCollum, the producer of Rent and Avenue Q, as well as Roy Miller, producer of Drowsy Chaperone, the Vineyard Theatre, Laura Camien and Kris Stewart, founder emeritus of the New York Musical Theatre Festival.
In 2009, Next To Normal became the second show to transfer from the New York Musical Theatre Festival to a commercial Broadway production. It became a smash hit at the Booth Theatre, winning 3 Tony Awards including Best Score and Best Leading Actress In A Musical. "Next To Normal" went on to win the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, only the ninth musical to be so honored in the history of that award. It was far and away the biggest success to emerge from NYMF, catapulting its cast and creative team to stardom, and played 21 previews and 733 regular performances before it closed on January 16, 2011.
Also in 2009, NYMF began a partnership with the Daegu International Musical Theatre Festival (DIMF), which shares its dedication to new musicals and new artists. The partnership includes a production exchange, which began with the hit Korean production of My Scary Girl at NYMF, and continued in the Summer of 2010 with the 2009 NYMF musical Academy at DIMF. NYMF's Korean production of Academy received awards for Best Musical and Best Supporting Actor at the annual Daegu Musical Theater Awards.
On September 10, 2012, Chaplin became the third musical to transfer from NYMF to the commercial Broadway stage when it opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater. It closed on January 6, 2013, after 24 previews and 136 performances. Rob McClure received a Tony nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Musical.
In 2013, NYMF won a Special Drama Desk Award "for a decade of creating and nurturing new musical theater, ensuring the future of this essential art form."
Nerds: A Musical Software Satire, from NYMF 2005, was meant to be the fourth Broadway transfer of a NYMF show when it opened at the Longacre Theatre in 2016. However, it lost a major investor a month before its scheduled opening, when the cast was already in rehearsal, and the opening was cancelled. The show already had successful runs in Philadelphia, where it won Barrymore Awards, but has yet to be seen in New York City since NYMF.
In Transit became the fourth NYMF show to open on Broadway, when it opened at the Circle in the Square Theatre on November 10, 2016. The show was part of NYMF's inaugural year in 2004; it was titled Along the Way. The show closed after 145 performances on April 16, 2017.
Notable alumni productions
Broadway
- title of show (NYMF '04) The Lyceum Theatre, 2008
- Next to Normal (NYMF '05 as Feeling Electric) The Booth Theatre, 2009-2011
- Chaplin (NYMF '06) Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 2012
- In Transit (NYMF '04) Circle in the Square, 2016
Off-Broadway
Organized by year the show was in NYMF.
2004
- Altar Boyz - New World Stages, 2005â€"2010
- The Great American Trailer Park Musical - New World Stages, 2005
- Captain Louie - York Theatre, 2005
- Shout! The Mod Musical - Julia Miles Theatre, 2006
- Yank! - York Theatre, 2010
- The Blue Flower - Second Stage Theater, 2011
2005
- The Big Voice: God or Merman? - Actors Temple Theater, 2006-2007
- Rooms: A Rock Romance - New World Stages, 2009
- The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World - Playwrights Horizons, 2011
2006
- Gutenberg! The Musical! - 59E59 and Actor's Playhouse, 2006
- Tales of Custard the Dragon - DR2 Theater, 2008
- Things to Ruin - Second Stage Theater, 2009
2007
- My Vaudeville Man (NYMF '07) The York Theatre Company, 2008-2009
- With Glee (NYMF '07) Kirk Theater, 2010
- Unlock'd (NYMF '07) The Duke on 42nd Street, 2013
2008
- Play It Cool (NYMF '08) Acorn Theater, 2011
- Bedbugs!!! (NYMF '08) ArcLight Theater, 2014
2009
- Fat Camp (NYMF '09) American Theater of Actors, 2012; Theatre Row, 2015
- The Last Smoker in America (NYMF '09) Westside Theater, 2012
- F#@king Up Everything (NYMF '09) Elektra Theater, 2013
- Liberty - Theatre 80 St. Mark's, 2014
2010
- The Other Josh Cohen (NYMF '10) SoHo Playhouse, 2012
- Vote for Me: A Musical Debate (NYMF '10) Roy Arias Studios & Theatres, 2014
- Jay Alan Zimmerman's Incredibly Deaf Musical - Marjorie S. Deane Little Theatre, 2012
2011
- Balls...The Musical? - Lion Theater, 2011
- Cyclops: A Rock Opera - Ars Nova, 2014
- The Kid Who Would Be Pope - Ars Nova, 2014
2012
- Himself and Nora (NYMF '12) Minetta Lane Theatre, 2016
2013
- Marry Harry York Theatre, 2017
2014
- Clinton: The Musical (NYMF '14) New World Stages, 2015
2015
- Real Men: The Musical (NYMF '15) New World Stages, 2015
In total, over 30 NYMF shows have gone on to Off-Broadway.
NYMF Awards for Excellence
At the end of every festival starting in 2006, a jury of Broadway professionals gave out awards for excellence to the deserving productions in that year's festival. There is also a "Best of Fest" award that the public votes for. 2013 was the first year where the public and the jury agreed on a best musical (Volleygirls).
The NYMF Awards do not serve as a good barometer for future success. No musical that won "Most Promising New Musical" has yet had an off-Broadway production. Two "Best of Fest" winners have been seen Off-Broadway: Unlock'd (NYMF '07) and Fat Camp (NYMF '09). The only other awarded musicals that have transferred Off-Broadway were two winners of Excellence in Writing (Book): Gutenberg! The Musical! (NYMF '06) and F#@king Up Everything (NYMF '09).
In 2016, the Best Musical category was split by types of production.
From 2013 to 2015, another category was added for Outstanding Musical Direction. It was won by Crossing Swords in 2013. In 2014, the award went to The Gig. In 2015, it was awarded to Acappella.
At least eight awards for Outstanding Individual Performance are also given out every year. Notable past winners include Michelle Federer, Andrea McArdle, Andy Mientus, Anthony Rapp, Linda Hart, J. Robert Spencer, Tony Sheldon, and Max von Essen. Starting in 2015, awards were also given out for performances in categories such as "Outstanding Performance in a Lead Role" and "Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role." It is unclear how a performance gets entered in one of those categories as opposed to Outstanding Individual Performance.
References
Notes
External links
- The New York Musical Theatre Festival Official Site
- New York Musical Theatre Festival Downstage Center XM radio interview at American Theatre Wing, 2006
- [20] Los Angeles Times feature on the 2006 New York Musical Theatre Festival
