The New York Musical Theatre Festival

Mission and History

NYMF exists to ensure the future vitality of America’s greatest art form by providing an affordable way for artists to mount professional productions that reach their peers, industry leaders, and musical theatre audiences, and by serving as the preeminent launching pad for stylistically, thematically, and culturally diverse new musicals.

Like any great art form, musical theatre is shaped by the events and philosophies of the day. The strength and vitality of musical theatre lie in its ability to stay fresh and relevant. It was with that idea in mind, ten years ago, that the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) was created – to provide an effective platform to introduce new shows, new perspectives, and new blood into the musical theatre canon.

The first Festival, staged in 2004, featured over thirty new fully staged full-length musicals and was met with critical and popular acclaim. More than 350 shows have premiered at the Festival since then, featuring more than 8,000 artists and entertaining more than 300,000 audience members. The musicals and artists introduced at NYMF have, in turn, gone on to further successes on and Off-Broadway, across the country, and around the globe – reaching literally millions of theatergoers worldwide.

This year, NYMF was honored with a Drama Desk Award recognizing its first decade of creating and nurturing new musical theatre, ensuring the future of this essential art form.