New musicals are inherently fragile. Festivals devoted to them, exponentially more so. Chicago has seen ambitious fests showcasing new tuners come and go: The Musical Theatre Writers Workshop, Midwest New Musicals and . . . New Tuners—all shone brightly and went dark. The latest casualty in the field is the New York Musical Festival, where Next to Normal and [title of show] (among others), got early productions. NYMF shuttered suddenly in January, leaving 2020’s festival entrants with little but feedback from the selection committee.
The shows selected for the sixth annual UCMTF each get a minimum of five performances. Underscore provides marketing, performance space, box office, light and soundboards, and board operators. It also manages a massive open-call audition where out-of-towners can cast from local talent and provides visiting artists with a database of Chicago-based designers and recommendations on who to hire.
“In December, the NYMF artistic director emailed—’Look, I don’t want to alarm you, but I’ve quit,’” Liu recalls. “The next day they declared bankruptcy. We’re treating it as a positive thing. I mean, I’m already in negative vacation days just with Chicago. And obviously we now have more money for Chicago.”
Verve takes on pressure of a different kind. The musical, featuring Chicagoan Fran Zell’s book and lyrics and a score composed by the late Karena Mendoza, is rooted in Zell’s experiences at a Curves gym. “I almost didn’t have to read the local newspaper because I got all the news from women chatting at Curves. I mostly just listened,” Zell recalls. Musical theater luminary Joan Mazzonelli will direct a five-woman cast that ranges in age from teen to grandmother. Mazzonelli has a long history of putting new works on their feet: She logged 24 years (1985-2009) as the executive director of Theatre Building Chicago (now Stage 773), in an era when the venue was the city’s premiere spot for brand-new musicals.
Through 2/23: for complete schedule, see website. The Edge Theater (5451 N. Broadway) and the Edge Theater Off-Broadway (1133 W. Catalpa), cmtf.org, $10-$25, $175 for festival pass.
