Listing of Past Festival Presentations

The 17th Annual Festival of New Musicals was held in New York City at Dodger Stages, 340 W. 50th Street (between Eighth and Ninth Avenues) on Sunday, September 25 and Monday, September 26, 2005 for an invited audience of NAMT members and other theatre industry professionals.

If you are interested in finding out more information about these shows, please contact kirsten@namt.org.

Following is information about the 2005 Festival presentations:

Book & Lyrics by Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker
Music by Richard Oberacker

In Saint Louis, in 1952, a troubled 10 year-old boy named Billy Lucas receives the gift of a model airplane from his foster parents. The plane unlocks a door to a mystical world of dreams and visitations. With an "Ace" fighter pilot as his guide, Billy embarks on a series of heroic and haunting World War I and World War II adventures, revealing his own true identity, the secrets of his past, and the key to his future. Mixing humor and heart, this musical chronicles the tragedy and transcendence of three generations of an American family.

Book by Marsha Norman
Lyrics by Beth Blatt
Music by Jenny Giering

Mary Baker didn't want to be a maid. But it was 1817 in England, and she was nobody, so what choice did she have? Go to America. And that journey is where we find her, on the dock in Bristol - she's put on a turban and is speaking a made up language. She soon attracts the attention of a smooth talking Irishman who "translates" for her, and an American patron. Mary Baker realizes they want a princess, and she becomes one, Princess Caraboo. Based on a true story, Mary Baker manages to fool the scientists who are sent to examine her, and convince the nobles who gather to celebrate her. It's about a girl who didn't want to stay where she was put, in her place, in her time. It's about a girl who wanted more. And got it.

Music & Lyrics by Lee Summers
Book by Lee Summers and Ben Blake

The soaring '70s. Platform shoes, skyhigh 'fros, and a beat to take you even higher. When an aspiring funkmaster reaches for the stars, he's caught in an uproarious battle between good and evil, funk and disco, Kentucky fried and Harlem's catfish surprise. Can he win the girl, gain the gig, and rescue the recipe from heinous hands?

Book and Lyrics by Ryan Cunningham
Music by Joshua Salzman

Set in New York City, I Love You Because follows Austin Bennet, a young greeting card writer whose life is turned upside down when he finds his girlfriend in bed with another man. Forced back out into the treacherous New York dating scene, Austin meets Marcy, whose spontaneity is matched only by her ability to drive him insane. A comedy that explores the rules and nuances of dating because sometimes love is learning how to love someone, not in spite of their differences, but because of them.

Book & Lyrics by Brian Crawley
Music by Andrew Lippa

A Little Princess is the story of a little girl with a great big imagination. Separated from her father and the open-hearted Africans who have helped him raise her, young Sara Crewe is sent to boarding school in London. When things go badly for her there, her imaginative powers come to the rescue helping to transform a drab institution into a place of magic and mystery. As the girl wins the affection of the other boarders she draws the ire of Miss Minchin, the dour headmistress; Sara is made a servant to the institution when her father is reported dead, and his fortune seized. Sara counters all Miss Minchin's best efforts to degrade her with the grace and virtue of a little princess.

Book by Andrew Gerle and Eddie Sugarman
Lyrics by Eddie Sugarman
Music by Andrew Gerle
Additional Story by Matt August

Based on the classic Frank Capra film, this jazz-driven show tells the story of greed, lies, ideals and a media battle for the heart of the American people. When newspaper reporter Ann Mitchell loses her job at the height of the Great Depression, she uses her last column to print a phony letter from a "John Doe" who plans to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge to protest the state of the society. Ann never imagines her prank will spark a nationwide movement, leaving her and the country, forever changed.

Book by Daniel Goldfarb
Music and Lyrics by David Kirshenbaum

A nervous groom, a statue of Christ, and a 500-year-old Jewish caveman converge to make miracles happen during a tropical storm on one magical night in Rio. Part farce, part fable, Party Come Here tells the story of a collision of cultures as tantalizing as the sexiest city in the world. Mistaken identity, spirituality, hope, family, sex - all set to irresistible Latin rhythms. From the author of Modern Orthodox and the composer of Summer of '42 , this is an outrageous, original, outlandish, oddball, optimistic, ohmigod, one-of-a-kind show.

Book and Lyrics by Cheri Coons
Music by Chuck Larkin

River's End is based on the true story of Glen and Bessie Hyde, a daredevil couple who vanished on their honeymoon to the Grand Canyon in 1928, while attempting to run the entire length of the Colorado River in a boat they built themselves. River's End weaves together two completely different scenarios of what might have happened to the couple, with two pairs of actors playing Glen and Bessie Hyde.