Theater News

NYMF Selects Musicals for Next Link Presentation

David Friedman
David Friedman

The 18 musicals that will be presented as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival’s 2006 Next Link Project have been selected and announced. The festival will take place September 10-October 1 at various Off-Broadway venues. Here are the Next Link selections, in alphabetical order:

Desperate Measures, by David Friedman and Peter Kellogg, is an updated version of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure set in the West; Emerald Man, by Marc Bosserman, Tom Valdez, and Janet Cole Valdez, concerns a comic book fan who goes on a quest for justice after witnessing his stepfather’s murder; Flight of the Lawnchair Man, by Robert Lindsey-Nassif and Peter Ullian, is about a man who yearns to fly.

Go-Go Beach, by Michael Shaeib, Brent Lord, and John Wimbs, Jr., is the story of a surfer who falls for a runaway teen pop star; Have a Nice Life, by Conor Mitchell, is about a group therapy session; Hot and Sweet, by Barbara Schottenfeld, is about an all-girl 1940s big band trying to make it to the top; Journey to the West, by Richard Oberacker and Robert Taylor, charts a scholar’s messianic quest across the Asian continent; Kingdom, by Ian Williams and Aaron Jeffries, is a hip-hop Latin musical based on a true story.

Lunch, by Shawn Northrip, takes place in the cafeteria of a middle school; Oedipus for Kids, by Robert J. Saferstein, Kimberly Patterson, and Gil Varod, is an unusual take on the classic Greek myth; Piece, by Scott Alan and Tara Smith, is a memory piece about a woman recalling her life with her recently deceased mother; The Piper, by Marcus Hamilton, is set in the underbelly of 19th-century Boston; Prozak and the Platypus, by Jill Sobule and Elise Thoron, focuses on an angry teenager and her scientist father.

River’s End, by Chuck Larkin and Cheryl Coons, is based on the disappearance of real-life honeymooners Glen and Bessie Hyde in 1928; The Screams of Kitty Genovese, by David Simpatico and Will Todd, recounts the true story of a murdered Queens resident; Smoking Bloomberg, by David Cornue, Sam Holtzapple, Warren Loy, and Chris Todd, is a musical satire about a Korean dry cleaner’s revenge against Mayor Bloomberg for implementing the no-smoking ban; Three Sides, by Grant Olding and Toby Davies, tells the story of three people sharing one relationship; and Warrior, by Marcus Hummon, is based on the life on Jim Thorpe.

For more information, visit www.nymf.org.