Kokandy Productions is pleased to announce the official selections for the annual Chicago Musical Theatre Festival, a celebration and showcase of the growing field of musical theatre creators from Chicago and beyond. The 2025 Festival will feature concert presentations of five new musicals over the course of one weekend from April 3 – 6, 2025 on The Chopin Theatre Mainstage, 1543 W. Division St. in Chicago. Tickets ($20 per performance) are now on sale at bit.ly/CMTF2025.
Now in its 8th year, CMTF was created with the belief that there's a wealth of musical theatre creators in Chicago and around the country, but the high risks of producing new musicals offers limited opportunities for emerging authors to have their work seen and heard. CMTF is designed to provide much-needed artistic resources for writers to have their work supported, explored, and most importantly – performed! Since its inception in 2014 by Underscore Theatre Company, CMTF has brought 60 new musicals to Chicago stages. Following a four-year hiatus, CMTF returned last year under the stewardship of Kokandy Productions.
Festival Producer Nicholas Reinhart comments, "Each year, we are amazed by the creativity, passion and innovation that today's musical theatre writers bring to the table, and this year was no exception. After receiving nearly 100 submissions from across the country, we are thrilled to present five new, original musicals, including two musicals geared towards young audiences and families. We are continually proud to foster a space where bold storytelling and fresh musical voices can flourish, and we hope audiences join us at The Chopin in April."
Executive Producer Scot Kokandy adds, "CMTF 2025 has been sponsored by an anonymous donor, whose generosity will help this year's festival thrive."
The full-line up and performance schedule includes:
Thursday, April 3 at 7:30 pm: Bend Toward the Light
Friday, April 4 at 7:30 pm: Man of the People: The Trials of Huey Long
Saturday, April 5 at 2:30 pm: Queen Bea
Saturday, April 5 at 7:30 pm: The Muses
Sunday, April 6 at 2:30 pm: Big Wig
Bend Toward the Light
Music by Sarah Slipp
Book and Lyrics by Bryce Palmer
A sung-through, two-hander musical that explores the fractured relationship between Asher Fitzgerald and his twin sister, Willow over the course of a real-time interrogation, as Asher recounts a recent trip that he and Willow took together into the woods to recover a time capsule that they buried in their childhood.
Man of the People: The Trials of Huey Long
Book, Music and Lyrics by Wyatt Andrew Brownell
The one-of-a-kind story of Louisiana political icon Huey Long. From his beginnings as a poor young salesman, Huey rises to the highest levels of success in American politics, making many friends and many more enemies along the way.
Queen Bea
Book, Music and Lyrics by Scott Evan Davis & Jason Marks
In a royal kingdom where honey flows, a reluctant bee discards her calling to accept the responsibility of becoming Queen. But can a wise firefly, and a near death experience by a praying mantis convince Beatrice to return home before it's too late to save her colony?
The Muses
Book, Music and Lyrics by Liam P. Mulligan
William Albright, a struggling opera composer, finds that his best friend and muse, Laura, is engaged to an electrician after being gone on a week-long Spring Break trip. On Laura's wedding day, William appears before the wedding to tell her how he loved her, and then he leaves her to begin a five-year search for closure filled with 8 doppelgänger "Lauras" based on the Greek Muses.
Big Wig
Book and Lyrics by Jonathan Keebler
Music by Ryan Korell
Conceived by Bryan McCaffrey
Based on the book by Jonathan Hillman
This irrepressible musical celebrates drag kids, individuality and self-confidence from the perspective of a fabulous wig!
In addition to the five musicals selected for performance, the CMTF selection committee would like to commend the following musicals as finalists for the Festival: New York Letters (Book by Mare Rozzelle, Music and Lyrics by Glenn Prangnell & Mare Rozzelle), Quillén (Music and Spanish Lyrics by Pablo Concha, Book and English Lyrics by Jamie Buxton), Savage: The Unconquerable Wanda Savage (Book by Nicolette Blount & Lindel Hart, Music and Lyrics by Nicolette Blount), Star Machine (Book by Hollee Temple & John Temple, Music and Lyrics by Gideon Temple & Hank Temple) and Who Needs Love? (Book by Keith Huff, Music by Joel Evans, Lyrics by Adryan Russ).
CMTF 2025 Artist Biographies
Sarah Slipp (Music, Bend Toward the Light) is a composer, flautist, orchestrator and music teacher from New Brunswick, Canada. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance from Acadia University and studied Graduate Musical Theatre Writing at NYU Tisch. Sarah is passionate about using music as a dramatic language to help deepen an audience's experience of a story.
Bryce Palmer (Book and Lyrics, Bend Toward the Light) is a bookwriter, composer and lyricist. He studied Theatre & Music at Vanderbilt University, where he finished in the top 100% of his class and graduated Sicut Vix ("just barely"). MFA: NYU. He is a proud member of the BMI Lehman Engel Advanced Songwriting Workshop and The Dramatists Guild.
Wyatt Andrew Brownell (Book, Music and Lyrics, Man of the People: The Trials of Huey Long) is an actor, musician, songwriter and playwright based in Lubbock, TX. He began writing songs at fifteen, but first ventured into writing for the theatre during his senior year at West Texas A&M University with the one act piece BFA Project: The Musical! Since graduation, Wyatt has continued to work as both an actor and a writer. Man of the People is his first full-length work.
Scott Evan Davis (Book, Music & Lyrics, Queen Bea) is a multi-award-winning NYC-based composer, lyricist, vocal coach, musical director and social media personality. His musical Indigo premiered in 2023 and will play London's Curve Theatre in May 2025. Named New Yorker of the Week for his work with autistic artists, and his songs have been performed worldwide.
Jason Marks (Book, Music & Lyrics, Queen Bea) is a Richmond, Virginia-based award-winning actor, singer, composer and music director. He has performed on regional stages all over the United States, and his original works for young audiences have toured with Virginia Repertory Theatre, and been seen by thousands of school children across the nation.
Liam P. Mulligan (Book, Music & Lyrics, The Muses) is a composer, writer and music director who studied at Moravian College and Carnegie Mellon University. He has written musical and dramatic works for stage, screen, and concert hall. Mulligan regularly serves as arranger, music director and conductor for theatrical productions and new musical workshops in Pennsylvania, New England and New York City.
Jonathan Keebler (Book and Lyrics, Big Wig) is a NYC-based lyricist and bookwriter. Notable works include A Most Average Musical, Gay Card and Meet and Run. His work is licensed by MTI and Uproar Theatrics. He is a member of the Theatre Now Writers Lab and the Dramatist Guild. Music available on streaming.
Ryan Korell (Music, Big Wig) is an award-winning composer, arranger and orchestrator whose work has been featured globally. Credits include Gay Card, Meet and Run, Love in NY and The Bridges of Madison County (Broadway). He is an alumnus of Vanderbilt University and NYU Tisch. Find his music on any streaming platform.
About Kokandy Productions
Founded in 2010, Kokandy Productions seeks to leverage the heightened reality of musical theatre to tell complex and challenging stories, with a focus on contributing to the development of Chicago-based musical theatre artists, and raising the profile of Chicago's non-Equity musical theatre community.
The company's artistic staff is comprised of Derek Van Barham (Producing Artistic Director), Scot T. Kokandy (Executive Producer) and Adrian Abel Azevedo & Leda Hoffman (Artistic Associates). The Board of Directors includes Preston Cropp, Scot T. Kokandy, Danielle Sparklin and Katie Svaicer.
For additional information, visit www.kokandyproductions.com.
