Philly loves new musicals
Curtain Up Philly! is a celebration of new musicals that runs March 7 - April 21, 2024. Share the excitement as the curtain rises for the first time on 20+ new musicals presented by four local companies - Pier Players, Theatre on the Verge, MusiCoLab and Polyphone (UArts). Click here to read our press release!
March 7 - 16 at Theatre Exile
The Angry Grammarian
Music and lyrics by Jeffrey Barg
Book by David Lee White
Original story by Jeffrey Barg and David Lee White
Presented by Pier Players Theatre Company
Greg is "The Angry Grammarian” — a newspaper columnist who’s passionate about predicates, consumed by commas and seduced by subjunctives. Lisa is a more pragmatic grammarian who loves language just as much as he does. What starts as attraction quickly evolves into a darker rivalry. Will grammatical gusto be enough to keep them together? THE ANGRY GRAMMARIAN is a new musical for anyone who's ever been pissed off that someone used quotation marks "for emphasis."
Visit @pierplayers and @angrygrammarian on Instagram, Pier Players Theatre Company on Facebook, and the Angry Grammarian website.
March 17, 23 and 24 at Abington Arts Center
New Musicals Festival
Theatre on the Verge's New Musicals Festival is a developmental program intended to highlight original stories told by early and mid-career musical theatre writers. This year's festival will feature three in-person days of concert readings at Abington Art Center in Jenkintown PA on March 17th, 23rd, and 24th, as well as a day of streaming virtual readings of new works on March 22nd. In total, this inaugural festival will feature 19 new shows in various stages of development. The readings are open to all members of the public as well as industry professionals and potential collaborators.
On Instagram: @theatreontheverge
Tickets are pay-what-you-can. We suggest a contribution of $15 per person per show, 2 shows for $25 a person, or 4 shows for $40 a person. However there is no required minimum, and we will not turn anyone away. All proceeds will go towards supporting the artists who worked on the festival.
April 14 and 15 at the Louis Bluver Theater at the Drake
MusiCoLab presents "A Closer Look"
On Sunday April 14 and Monday April 15 (during Philly Theatre Week), MusiCoLab will present “A Closer Look,” the first presentation in its new Spotlight Series. In this program, we will present substantial excerpts (about a half hour) from three new musicals by Philly creators.
Take "a closer look" at the exciting and innovative work being created by hometown writers and composers. Learn more about the works selected for this program below!
April 18 - 21 at the Philadelphia Arts Bank
Polyphone 2024
Now in its tenth year, Polyphone is a festival of new and emerging musicals at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
Polyphone represents an institutional effort by UArts to change how musicals are born and how young theater makers are trained. Each spring we bring cutting-edge creators of new musical theater to Philadelphia to collaborate with student casts and production teams on new musicals in process. Over the course of seven weeks, guest artists engage in targeted exploration of their work and make changes while seeing their musicals on their feet for the first time. In the final week, we share our process with audiences in the form of off-book staged concert productions with a small band and elements of theatrical design. The result is not a final product, but an epic sharing of process.
Polyphone has made a transformative impact on hundreds of young artists, audiences and the field of new musicals.
Polyphone selections for April 2024 and ticketing information will be available soon!
