As a professional, year-round musical theatre largely focused on producing lesser-known and new musicals, The Winter Park Playhouse believes wholeheartedly in the importance of fostering the development of new works. Thus the Playhouse created and launched The Florida Festival Festival of New Musicals in 2017.

The Florida Festival of New Musicals has been created to advance and elevate the original American art form of musical theatre by fostering the development of new musicals and the artistic growth of writers and composers.

The festival will showcase six brand new, never-before-produced musical works and will bring together writers and composers from around the nation, with patrons, artists, press, producers and directors. The first act of each selected musical will be fully read and sung concert-style, without staging, by varying casts of professional actors and musicians. Patrons will have the unique and exciting opportunity to see musicals in the early stages of development and offer valuable feedback to the writers in a post-reading talkback.

The festival is led by Playhouse Artistic Director Roy Alan. It is the only one of its kind in the region, similar to musical theatre festivals featuring new works that take place in New York City, Seattle, Chicago, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. It provides a unique insight into how a new musical comes to life.

Each submitted application will be read, evaluated and critiqued by a panel of industry professionals. The panel will make their final selection of six musicals in March. Along with members of the artistic community, the general public is encouraged and invited to attend and be engaged in this unique and exciting theatrical experience.

New musical applications for 2022's 5th Annual Florida Festival of New Musicals will start being accepted on July 1, 2021. Guidelines and application information will be posted on the website soon!

General admission
(in-person ticket for one new musical)
$10

Florida Festival Fun Pass
(all 6 shows!)
$50

All Festival performances will offer socially-distanced general seating and a mask requirement will be in place for all patrons and staff.

To purchase festival tickets for in-person performances, click on the buttons beneath the show descriptions below or call the box office at 407-645-0145.

The ticketing system will automatically apply the in-person Festival Fun Pass pricing to your cart after you have selected a performance of each new musical.

The six featured new musicals of the 2021 Festival include:

The Golden Door

Book by Michelle Van Doeren and Andrew Swensen
Lyrics by Andrew Swensen
Music by Scott Anderson

The Golden Door tells the story of hope and courage as we face injustice, and the story of preserving dreams and ideals as we confront painful realities. It follows five young people traveling from Europe to Ellis Island in 1903, and the story of a contemporary Arab-American girl reading the diary of the protagonist 100 years later. The Golden Door explores how dreams lift us one person at a time and how cruelties wound us one person at a time, teaching us that great dreams require great courage.

The Lost Girl

Music & Book by Ben Bonnema
Lyrics & Book by Arianna Rose

Set in 1909 London against the backdrop of the Suffragette Movement, The Lost Girl is about integrating our past into our present and deciding who we want to be moving forward. Shaken by the death of her husband, Wendy tells her daughter Jane the Neverland stories as escapism. But each sibling begins to experience strange and vivid memories, forcing the question—could it all be real? With a lush orchestral score, The Lost Girl is an unapologetically feminist piece about reclaiming the right to have adventures at any age.

Love, Always

Book by Bill Connington
Music and Lyrics by Michael Cooper

Two actors play twenty-two roles in this romantic musical that travels backwards over the course of 100 years. Relationships may change, but the most important thing is love—always.

Tangled Webbs

Book and Lyrics by Gary Brumburgh
Music by Ron Creager

Tangled Webbs is a zany, light-hearted musical spoof of daytime soap operas set during TV's early heyday. The story takes place in the conservative, fictional town of Willowcrest during the "Camelot" summer of 1963. The saga centers around the virtuous, much-admired Webb family -- their friends, their foes, their fate.

What Have They Done with Lolana Lamour?

Book & Lyrics by Bryan Leys
Music by Mary Feinsinger

Welcome to Beverly Hills where con-women, gangsters and scoundrels meet up in the grand foyer of the mansion owned by screen legend Lolana Lamour. When a desperate real estate agent comes calling, she triggers a series of wild events involving the movie star's wacky maid, her officious personal assistant, a visiting burglar and a frozen corpse All this is complicated by the arrival of three New Jersey gangsters looking to meet the star. Plots and counterplots are hatched resulting in competing Lolana Lamours, screwball romantics, and a runaway wheelchair. What have they done with Lolana Lamour? You'll find out!

Zack Hill and The Rocket Blaster Man Adventure

Book by Werner Trieschmann
Music & Lyrics by Thomas Tierney
Based on the comic strip Zack Hill by John Deering and John Newcombe

Zack Hill follows the struggles of Zack, a 9-year-old boy who yearns for a normal home. Jan, his widowed mother, runs a boarding house full of eccentric characters – Mrs. Belmont, a cranky older woman who menaces Zack with a hairbrush; Mr. Grumbine, an ominous hermit and Vince and Carl, bachelor pals with polar-opposite personalities. When Jan is confronted with a financial crisis that may force her to sell the house, Zack is determined to "Save the Day." Even though his solution backfires, Zack finds his dream of home was closer than he thought.

The Winter Park Playhouse is deeply grateful to the following sponsors
for their generous support to help make the
4th Annual Florida Festival of New Musicals possible!

PRESENTING SPONSORS

Dr. Judith Marlowe and Mr. Gordon Blitch

SPONSORS

Orange County Government through the Arts and Cultural Affairs Program

Winter Park Community Redevelopment Agency

State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs Program and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture

United Arts of Central Florida, home of OrlandoAtPlay.com and UAArtsEd.com

The audition dates for the 2022 Florida Festival of New Musicals have not been set yet, so please check back in early spring of 2022 for more information.

The Winter Park Playhouse is an equal opportunity employer, dedicated to a policy of non-discrimination in employment on any basis including age, race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, marital status or veteran status, the presence of a non-job-related handicap, genetic information or any other legally-protected status.