2009 Festival Of New American Musicals Held April-July

The 2009 Festival of New American Musicals, a four-month musical theatre festival, will be held in April through July, 2009, throughout Southern California. Marcia Seligson, Bob Klein, and Linda Shusett are the Executive Producers of the second annual Festival.

The Festival of New American Musicals is home to full productions, staged readings, workshops of musicals in progress, cabaret events, concerts, master classes and other events. The producers are working in partnership with over thirty Southern California area performing arts organizations, each of which will produce a new American musical during the Festival time period.

The venues include Orange County Performing Arts Center, Pantages Theatre, Alex Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Granada Theatre in Santa Barbara, El Portal Theatre, La Mirada Theatre, Colony Theater, Rubicon Theatre, Boston Court Theatre, and Blank Theatre. The University of Southern California, Fullerton College, and Marquez Elementary School are also participating.

Seligson, Klein and Shusett are working closely with two primary creative advisors, celebrated Broadway composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz, composer-lyricist of "Wicked," "Pippin," and "Godspell," and Michael Kerker, Director of Musical Theatre of ASCAP, the major organization which represents American theater composers.

The honorary co-chairs of the Festival are Schwartz, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, Jason Alexander and Angela Lansbury.

Marcia Seligson said, "We learned a lot from the first Festival last year - including the fact that we began working with theatres on their 2009 offerings before the 2008 Festival was completed.

Linda Shusett said, "This year, we have purposely broadly defined ‘new musicals,' in order to draw as much attention as possible to this art form. For the Festival, a new musical can be anything from a show having its very first public reading, to a recent Broadway show that didn't receive the attention it fully deserved. And we are working hard to enlarge the scope of the support that we lend to the theatres that participate in the Festival."

Bob Klein said, "When you look through the offerings, you will find world premieres, recent musicals, and even the 25th anniversary of the longest running off-Broadway revue in American musical theatre, ‘Forbidden Broadway.' All of it attests to the liveliness and variety of the telling of stories through words and songs. There are some of the greatest American musical theatre talents represented here, as well as grade school students who are learning to sing their stories."

Last year, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was quoted in the Christian Science Monitor as saying, "Los Angeles is pushing this country's cultural envelope across the arts spectrum - from experimental architecture to our unabashed pursuit of edgy, young composers - and I could not be prouder to add performing arts to the list. I hope this ambitious festival blossoms into a magnet for new talent for years to come."

The impetus for this Festival was born out of observing how many new musicals are launched from Southern California's regional theatres. Some of Broadway's biggest hits, "Wicked," "Jersey Boys," "Drowsy Chaperone," and "Curtains," and the upcoming "9 to 5," and "Minsky's" were developed in Southern California.

Festival advisor Stephen Schwartz said, "In my capacity as artistic director of the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop and as one of the judges for the Jonathan Larson Foundation grant, I have heard the work of so many promising and talented young musical theatre composers and lyricists. The fact that this Festival will give many of them a chance to be showcased and celebrated very publicly here on the West Coast is a truly fantastic gift."

A major element of the Festival is the education component - to bring new musicals into the schools and students into the theatres. Honorary chair Stephen Sondheim said, "What impresses me most about the Festival is its producers' vision for developing new and young musical theatre audiences all around Southern California. By working directly with ethnically diverse high schools and colleges and helping them produce new musicals in their schools, the organizers of the Festival hope to ignite a passion for theater in these young people."

Seligson founded and was Producing Artistic Director of Reprise! Broadway's Best, which has become the leading Southern California musical theatre presenting classic American musicals, from its inception in 1995 until 2005. Bob Klein was a founding board member of Reprise!, and headed the company's successful effort to market rarely revived Broadway musicals. Shusett was a producer on last year's Festival, has worked in the film business and is also a performer.

The Festival of New American Musicals is presented by Bank of New York Mellon. Main sponsors are the ASCAP Foundation, KUSC, BACKSTAGE, Greenberg & Glusker, and The Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

The Festival's website is now online at www.lafestival.org.

The events of the 2009 Festival of New American Musicals:

Pre-Festival event -- "The Wild Party" Book, Music and Lyrics by Andrew Lippa. In one night of sex, love, betrayal, and booze, anything can happen when everyone joins the party. Andrew Lippa's contemporary score thrills in "The Wild Party," based on a 1920s poem by Joseph Moncure March. UCLA's Northwest Campus Auditorium. March 12 - 13. Tickets are free. Act III Theatre Ensemble donations are encouraged. Ticket reservations by emailing actiiite@gmail.com with the email subject WILD PARTY TICKETS. Please include your first and last name, the number of tickets, and a contact number.

Pre-Festival event -- Fullerton College High School Theatre Festival. Estimated participants - 1,500 high schools students from all over Southern California. For the first time in the 20-year history of this major high school theatre festival, over 150 schools have the opportunity to create an original short musical and enter it for awards. This new "original musical" category is sponsored and supported by the Festival of New American Musicals. NAMIS (New American Musicals in the Schools) is a major focus of the festival's educational outreach program. March 13 - 14.

Pre-Festival event -- RATED RSO: The Music And Lyrics Of Ryan Scott Oliver. Richard Rodgers and Jonathan Larson award-winning composer and lyricist Ryan Scott Oliver will bring sexy schoolteachers, Bostonian rent-boys, obsessive homicidal teenagers, and fairy dust to The Theatre at Boston Court, featuring a talented cast from Broadway to LA, singing their faces off to his wide-ranging work. The Theatre at Boston Court March 27 at 7pm and 9:30pm; www.brownpapertickets.com; 626-683-6883.

"That Beautiful Laugh" Conceived and Directed by Orlando Pabotoy. This is a raucous exploration of when laughter becomes beautiful -- rhythmically driven and a high-energy comedy with original songs and music by the cast and some new renditions of the old.
CSULB Theatre Arts - The Players Theater March 27-April 18. (562) 985-5526 www.csulb.edu/depts/theatre/.

"No Way To Treat A Lady" (Los Angeles Premiere) by Douglas J. Cohen -- A serial killer is on the loose, and detective Morris Brummell is on the case. Can he find the killer, get the girl, and appease his disappointed mother -- all before the next chorus? It's a game of cat and mouse -- a tour de force with 4 actors playing 17 roles -- and a murderously fun time! Winner of the Richard Rodgers Award, this musical is based on the novel by William Goldman ("The Princess Bride," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"), which was adapted as a movie of the same name, this hilarious, sexy musical gives new meaning to "knock 'em dead." Colony Theatre; April 15 - May 17. Ticket Information: (818) 558-7000 x15; www.colonytheatre.org. [Media Contacts Colony Theatre -- David Elzer elzerd@aol.com; (Academy for New American Musical Theatre - Scott Guy academy@anmt.org].

"The Girl, The Grouch and The Goat" (West Coast Premiere) Book by Jack Helbig, music and Lyrics by Mark Hollmann. A farcical, musical romp through ancient Greece from Mark Hollmann, the co-creator of "Urinetown." Journey with the Chance into a parched village on the outskirts of Athens that has been in a drought for decades. The only working well in town is controlled by a nasty old grouch named Clemnon, who delights in price-gouging his neighbors. His obsession with maintaining his water monopoly is only matched by his determination to keep his daughter away from all the men in town -- however, what will happen when she falls in love with the son of Clemnon's sworn nemesis, a wealthy and strong-willed widow? Will the gods create mischief? Will it finally rain? Will someone catch one of those wild goats?
Chance Theatre; April 17 - May 24. Ticket Information: (714) 777-3033/ (866) 811-4111; www.chancetheater.com. [Media Contact: Casey Long casey@chancetheater.com ].