Tonya, Nancy, Clones & The Statue of Liberty: Eight Shows at NYMF 2015 that Caught Our Eye

The twelfth annual New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) kicks off on July 7. Over the course of three weeks, dozens of new shows will show what they’ve got to investors, insiders and those musical theater early adopters. The festival fostered such favorites as Altar Boyz, [title of show], Next to Normal and (just last year) Clinton: The Musical, so here’s your chance to say you saw it first. We perused the list of this year’s entries; here are eight shows with titles, premises, creative and stars that have our attention. For the full lineup and tickets, visit the NYMF website. 

Tonya and Nancy: The Rock Opera
Full production; July 9, 11, 12, 14 & 16
It’s a tale we all know too well. Take figure skating’s most infamous brawl, add some glam and turn it into a musical comedy. And that’s just what creator Elizabeth Searle and composer Michael Teoli did. Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan’s 1994 Olympics debacle, knee whack and all, heads to the stage with Rent alum Tracy McDowell and Wicked’s Jenna Leigh Green. Having seen an earlier production at the American Repertory Theatre’s workshop space Oberon, we can promise a night of camp, belting and maybe at one point a fantasy boxing sequence.

Manuel Versus The Statue of Liberty
Full production; July 21, 22, 25, 26 & 27
The 2014 Developmental Reading Series Award-winning tuner gets a full staging at this year’s festival. Noemi de la Puente, David Davila and Howard Post’s show inspired by the true story of a Princeton student who came to America as an undocumented child immigrant from the Dominican Republic. He gets the chance to study at Oxford with a Rhodes Scholarship, but can’t leave the country. Cue a boxing match with Lady Liberty herself (played by the electrifying Shakina Nayfack) that bring the fight for immigration reform to the ring.

Where All the Rivers Go to Sleep
Concert; July 18 & 19
Cora, a young prostitute, falls in love with a Creole woman named Apolline and introduces her to live in the brothel. When Apolline’s husband returns from the north, love turns to jealousy and desperation as Cora sets out to keep Apolline. An interracial lesbian relationship in New Orleans’ red-light district may not seem like a story crying out for a musical treatment, but what we’ve heard of Jesse Gelber and Kate Manning’s score is captivating. Think Jerome Kern meets Scott Joplin meets Louis Armstrong. Hear it in concert with a 12-piece orchestra.

Held Momentarily
Full production; July 20, 23, 25, 26 & 27
It’s a horrific pair of words that New Yorkers hear all too often. Trapped on a subway train with five strangers is no fun, and it’s less fun when one of them just went into labor. Oliver Houser brings his show to NYMF after presenting it at the 2014 NY International Fringe Festival. The ensemble cast includes The Voice finalist India Carney. Singing on the train is a faux pas, but after listening to her, we’ll give her a free pass.

Song for the Fallen
Full production; July 21, 24, 25, 26 & 27
She’s the famed 19th century Parisian courtesan you know and love. Maybe. Marie Duplessis gets an MTV makeover in a vaudevillian cabaret that serves as her final lavish party before (spoiler) dying of consumption. She’s inspired such characters as La Dame Aux Camelias and La Traviata’s Violetta and Moulin Rouge!’s Satine. Now, she’s telling her own story in a show by the Australian-based Sheridan Harbridge (who also stars as Marie) and Basil Hogios. Remember: She’s not dancing too fast; it’s the violins that play too slowly.

The Runaway Clone
Reading; July 9 & 12
It’s the year 2250. Thanks to a mysterious agency, cloning is a very real cure for feeling lonely or missing deceased loved ones. But can memories be cloned, too? It’s a madcap premise, and having attended an earlier reading last year, we can promise you it’s kookier than it sounds. But book writer Pamela Eberhardt brings plenty of heart to human and almost-human relationships, and composer Jonathan Brenner’s melodies are remarkable and—truly—uncloneable.

Rails
Reading; July 17 & 20
Tom Kenaston and Tom Paitson Kelly’s musical spans four generations as Maggie, just before moving to a senior home, goes on one last journey through her own life story with her grandson. As we learned from another multigenerational musical about passing on tales, be the hero of your story, and the world will soon be yours, right? A host of Broadway names will take part in the developmental reading, including Joe Cassidy (If/Then), Matthew Hydzik (Side Show), Leah Horowitz (Follies) and Robb Sapp (Wicked).

Claudio Quest
Full production; July 7, 10, 12, 13 & 14
Three things that we’ve always said musical theater needed more of: video game princesses, killer eggplants and platypuses. This new show from Drew Fornarola and Triassic Parq’s Marshall Pailet has all three. Avenue Q Tony nominee John Tartaglia directs the tuner about two brothers on an 8-bit mission. And in true Tartaglia fashion, there are puppets. The cast features a mix of fresh faces and Broadway alums, including Rock of Ages’ Andre Ward and Bring It On’s Lindsey Brett Carothers. Controller sold separately.