New York Musical Theatre Festival announces the festivals 18 musicals

The New York Musical Theatre Festival announced the 18 new musicals selected for this year�s Next Link Project, to be presented as part of the third-annual New York Musical Theatre Festival, from 10 Sep - 1 Oct 2006.

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) is a three-week celebration highlighting the next generation of musicals and thecommunity of writers and artists working in musical theater today.

Isaac Robert Hurwitz, NYMF Executive Producer said �It�s going to be an electrifying third season for NYMF. We�ve got an excitingly diverse group of terrific new musicals on tap, chosen from more than 300 submissions.�

The following 2006 Next Link Project selections were announced on 21 May 2006 at Unleashing the Next Link, a special kick-off event at New World Stages in Manhattan.

Further information to be announced.

• Desperate Measures
  A Western musical loosely based on Measure for Measure.
  Music: David Friedman
  Book & Lyrics: Peter Kellogg
  Synopsis: A hotheaded young cowboy, is sentenced to hang for killing a man in a bar fight. When his sister Susanna, a novice nun in a nearby Franciscan mission, pleads for his life, the Governor offers to pardon Johnny � if Susanna will sleep with him. What to do? The sheriff suggests Susanna say yes and then, under cover of darkness, switch places with one of the saloon girls. What happens next makes for a desperate mix of comedy, suspense and romance.
  
• EMERALD MAN
  A modern day Don Quixote, based on a true story.
  Music: Marc Bosserman and Tom Valdez
  Book and Lyrics: Janet Cole Valdez
  Synopsis:Duncan, obsessed by comic books and superheroes, witnesses a murder by his step-dad. Running for his life, he makes a painful discovery: no one is coming to the rescue. After putting on the ring of the father he never knew, he dubs himself �Emerald Man,� vowing to right the world�s wrongs. With step-dad hot on his trail, Duncan makes us ask �Who�s Really Crazy?�
  
• FLIGHT OF THE LAWNCHAIR MAN
  A new musical about a guy with a dream, a chair and 400 helium-filled balloons.
  Music and Lyrics: Robert Lindsey-Nassif
  Book: Peter Ullian
  Jerry Gorman is a guy from Passaic, New Jersey with 400 helium-filled balloons, a Wal-mart lawnchair and a dream. Though it seems totally impossible, Jerry longs to fly, despite being dyslexic and terminally average. His does battle with the FAA, the CIA and Wal-mart as he fights to fulfill his Jerriosity and join the Greats of Aviation in the sky!
  
• GO-GO BEACH
  The beach party gang go-go-goes flower power!
  Music: Michael Shaieb and Brent Lord
  Book and Lyrics: John Wimbs Jr.
  Synopsis:A new musical fable told in the style of the �60s beach party movies. It�s a coming-of-age story about a surfer who gets into trouble with his girlfriend when he falls for a runaway teen pop star, and his relationship with a flower child who helps him find the true meaning of love. GO-GO BEACH features an original score inspired by the surf sound, girl groups, go-go music - and a little flower power as well.
  
• HAVE A NICE LIFE
  A musical about six strangers, their therapist and a group therapy session.
  Music, Lyrics & Book: Conor Mitchell
  Synopsis: A musical about group therapy. Six strangers and their therapist come together one night and divulge the funniest, scariest, darkest and most embarrassing personal confessions to each other. They learn that to be honest with others, they have to be honest with themselves. This new musical explores the barriers we put up and the consequences when they come down.
  
• HOT AND SWEET
  An all-girl �40s big band strives to make it to the top.
  Music, Lyrics and Book: Barbara Schottenfeld
  Synopsis: It is 1945 and the men are serving overseas. Who is going to keep Americans dancing back home? The Honeytones, the Chicagoan all-girl swing band! Passionate about their music, these beautiful �Rosie-the-Riveters with Rhythm� are willing to risk everything in order to play. Hot and Sweet interweaves the moving stories of these pioneering musicians--their dreams, their loves, their struggles, and their bittersweet triumphs. A hot and exhilarating jazz-based score, played by the onstage women themselves, brings to life this uplifting celebration of human potential.
  
• JOURNEY TO THE WEST
  A classic Chinese legend is reincarnated as a multi-cultural theatrical experience.
  Music: Richard Oberacker
  Book and Lyrics: Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker
  Synopsis: Elements of Peking Opera, Kabuki, Modern Dance and Martial Arts combine to bring a two-thousand-year-old Chinese literary masterpiece to life. Chronicling a scholar�s messianic quest across the Asian continent in search of the salvation of mankind, gods and monsters do battle in a work both intimate and epic. Asian, Arabic, African and rock musical influences sing a universal song of world peace.
  
• KINGDOM
  King Dres rises to power in the Almighty Latin King/Queen Nation.
  Music: Ian Williams
  Book and Lyrics: Aaron Jafferis
  Synopsis: Andres and Juan pledge themselves to the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation. As Kings, they get the power and respect they�ve always wanted, but at what cost? A hip hop/rock/Latin musical based on a true story�just not the true story you expect.
  
• LUNCH
  Everyone�s favorite subject
  Music, Lyrics & Book: Shawn Northrip
  Synopsis: Multiple stories unfold in the cafetorium of Benjamin Franklin Middle School as the students experience their first crushes and first kisses; as a best friend becomes jealous of a girlfriend; and an eighth grade formal dance becomes a riot when the self-anointed popular girl fails to be elected Queen of the dance.
  
• OEDIPUS FOR KIDS!
  A child-friendly Oedipus Rex goes horribly, horribly wrong.
  Music: Robert J. Saferstein
  Book and Lyrics: Kimberly Patterson and Gil Varod
  Synopsis: Join Oedipus as he takes an exciting journey across ancient Greece to become king! You�ll learn all about blind people, family love, and communicable diseases! Sing along to favorite songs like �What�s It Like When Ya Get the Plague?� and �A Little Complex�!
  (Warning: Explicit Content, Parental Guidance Suggested.)
  
• PIECE
  Music and Lyrics: Scott Alan
  Book: Tara Smith
  Synopsis: Upon returning to her childhood home following the passing of her mother, Katherine Mathews finds herself clinging to the memories of her past; re-examining conversations she�s had with her mother at the ages of 17, 26, and 35. In a soaring musical full of unexpected recollections, Katherine pieces together the patterns of a life filled with promise and compromise, third strikes and second chances, and always, a mother�s unconditional love.
  
• THE PIPER
  Jack the Ripper meets the Pied Piper, with a haunting Celtic score.
  Music, Lyrics & Book: Marcus Hummon
  Synopsis: Set in the poverty of 19th century Boston, The Piper is the story of three people trying to form a family: an ex-prostitute, her murder and a border under suspicion of murder. Weaving a tapestry of hope and desperation, unfulfilled longing and terrible retribution, this Celtic musical explores the power of storytelling and offers a chilling gesture of poetic justice.
  
• Prozak and the Platypus
  An old fashioned girl-meets-platypus story.
  Music: Jill Sobule
  Book and Lyrics: Elise Thoron
  Synopsis: Rock club and science lab are rival testing grounds in which an angry teenager and her scientist father explore avenues into human consciousness and the question of their family�s survival. Rooted in Australian aboriginal mythology of dreamtime and neurological research on the brain, the play has a platypus who dreams become the link between father and daughter. And his brain becomes the epicenter of scientific and mythological exploration.
  
• RIVER�S END
  Mysterious disappearance of real-life honeymooners, presented from two points of view.
  Music: Chuck Larkin
  Book and Lyrics: Cheryl Coons
  Synopsis: Based on the real-life disappearance of Glen and Bessie Hyde, who vanished on their daredevil honeymoon to Grand Canyon in 1928. The musical weaves together two completely different versions of their journey, with two pairs of actors playing the Hydes, and two surprising theories of what might have happened to them.
  
• THE SCREAMS OF KITTY GENOVESE
  A chamber opera based on the true story of a young girl�s tragic murder
  Story and Libretto: David Simpatico
  Music: Will Todd
  
• SMOKING BLOOMBERG
  A ruined drycleaner seeks revenge on Mayor Bloomberg for his smoking ban.
  Book, Music and Lyrics: David Cornue, Sam Holtzapple, Warren Loy and Chris Todd
  Synopsis: A musical satire about a Korean dry-cleaner�s quest for revenge against Mayor Bloomberg and the smoking ban that has ruined her business. However, the issues run much deeper than local politics and the current mayoral administration. Full of edgy, contemporary humor, this show is a biting, irreverent lampoon of American democracy and the individual�s place within it.
  
• THREE SIDES
  Three people, one relationship. Even the simplest things can get complicated.
  Music & Lyrics: Grant Olding
  Book: Grant Olding with Toby Davies
  
  
• WARRIOR
  Music, Lyrics & Book: Marcus Hummon
  Born in the Indian territories before the massacre at Wounded Knee, Jim Thorpe�s life spans the tragedy of America�s inability to come to grips with the inclusion of its native population.

Now in its third year, NYMF exists to provide a launching pad for emerging musical theatre writers, composers, lyricists and performers, and to bring a new generation of work to new and diverse audiences.

Each year, 18 of the festival�s selections are chosen by a jury of theater luminaries from open submissions to the Festival's Next Link Project. This year�s seven-member jury includes seven-time Joseph Jefferson Award winner Gary Griffin, Tony winner David Henry Hwang, three-time Tony winner Thomas Meehan, Pulitzer Prize winner and two-time Tony winner Marsha Norman, Drama Desk nominee Anthony Rapp, Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad and Tony-winning producer Michael Rego.

By creating an lower-risk infrastructure based around an economy of scale, NYMF is able to provide artists with professional and creative resources they would not be able to afford or access � including professionally equipped Off-Broadway theaters, full technical and design support, marketing opportunities and press exposure, industry introductions and more � enabling new musicals to break through the �glass ceiling� between the developmental process and full production.

Sold-out festival runs and strong reviews have led to commercial options for many past NYMF shows, and off-Broadway productions of Altar Boyz, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Captain Louie and most recently [title of show] and Shout!.