2017 National Music Theater Conference

Three new musicals in development are being presented as staged readings at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, recipient of two Tony Awards and the National Medal of Arts. The three musicals are…

• Home Street Home: a dramatization of survival and self-realization among teenagers living on the street. Based on true stories of the authors’ experiences of homelessness and punk culture, the story revolves around a 16-year-old runaway who plunges headfirst into the subculture of life on the streets.

• iLLA! A Hip Hop Musical: As the 2008 U.S. financial crisis threatens to unravel his family, Prince, a classically trained dancer, dreams of becoming a hip-hop star. Along the way, he falls hard for his competition’s girlfriend and is forced to confront the shattered dreams of his community. It’s a journey of struggle, swagger, and the search for self.

• Superhero: Charlotte and her teenage son Simon have been struggling with grief — and each other — since the death of Charlotte’s husband and Simon’s father a year before. Through their unlikely friendship with a mysterious man in their building, Jim, they move toward reconciliation and renewed hope.