NMI’s RESOURCE CENTER for musical theatre writers

insider tips

glosssary of terms

FREE format video

public domain ideas

FREE curriculum video

theatre archives

Welcome to the musical theatre writers’ Resource Center.

This is a FREE page hosted by New Musicals Inc.
As of September 1, 2024, we are NO LONGER maintaining a list of Producers and Theatres, or a Contests Listing. We have found we are no longer able to keep those lists properly up-to-date.
BUT we encourage you to check out the offerings from our friends at MusicalWriters.Com who have a wealth of resources for musical theatre writers!
What you can still find on this page is:
  • an idea library of thousands of royalty-free public domain stories and plots
  • a glossary of musical theatre terms (with audio/video examples)
  • access to short videos filled with tips and advice from NMI staff
  • access to critical feedback options and format guidelines from NMI

Enjoy!


FORMAT LIKE A PRO


Watch this FREE video to learn how to implement the FORMAT GUIDELINES specifically designed by New Musicals Inc. Make sure your script and score look professional and are ready to go into development.

Want more tools to help you get your formatting right?

*** VISIT OUR FORMATTING PRODUCTS PAGE ***



LIBRARY OF IDEAS (Royalty Free)

FREE ACCESS to a library of 1000+ downloadable royalty-free stories, plays, plots and other inspiring indeas we’ve found in the public domain for you. There’s a brief excerpt of every item in the library, so you can take a quick glance to see whether or not you want to read the whole text. In addition, the NMI staff has made annotations and recommendations for many of the titles in the library about their potential to become musicals. Save hundreds of hours of research and reading!


Here are some random samples from our listings of story ideas in the public domain:

      • The Bracelet (by Alfred Sutro)
      • The Creditor (by August Strindberg)
      • The Shewing Up of Blanco Posnet (by George Bernard Shaw)
      • A Sale (by Guy de Maupassant)
      • The Log (by Guy de Maupassant)

      *** LINK TO COMPLETE LIBRARY OF IDEAS ***


IMPROVE YOUR CRAFT


New Musicals Inc. offers a whole series of professional online LABS for bookwriters, lyricists, and composers who are serious about improving their craft. This video is a FREE sample of one of the lecture videos from the all new Lyric Lab 1 - Fundamentals.

FREE PROGRESSION HANDOUT


NEED SOME FEEDBACK?


Have you written a musical? Are you working on one? NMI has smart, professional, detailed dramaturges who will help you make sure you are on the strongest path to fulfilling the promise of your work. From video and audio feedback packages to one-on-one dramaturgical sessions, we have what you need to take the next step forward. We even have an annual contest that results in a workshop and concert reading in Los Angeles.

"We really did appreciate all your help - you’ve got just the right tone to critique. It’s a matter of 'A Spoonful of Sugar Helps The Medicine Go Down'!”
                    ~~George Stiles
          (Mary Poppins, Honk, Soho Cinders)

*** Check out NMI's Feedback options ***


MUSICAL THEATRE ARCHIVES


Here's a sample of items from our vault of historical photos, and musical theatre trivia about events that happened THIS month in the past:

      • September 10, 2000     Cats closed on Broadway, having run 7,845 performances. The show spent its last three years as the longest-running show in Broadway history, having eclipsed A Chorus Line for that honor on June 19, 1997.
      • September 6, 1985     A concert version of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s legendary musical Follies played two nights only at Lincoln Center. All 5,500 tickets sold out in less than three hours. The all-star cast included Barbara Cook, Lee Remick, Elaine Stritch, Carol Burnett, Mandy Patinkin, George Hearn, and Comden and Green, among others.
      • September 13, 1948     Nell Carter, Tony Award and Emmy winner for Ain’t Misbehavin’, was born today. Later a television star, Carter’s also appeared in the 1979 film version of Hair and returned to Broadway two decades later to play Miss Hannigan in a revival of Annie.

      *** Click to access the full archives. ***


INSIDER TIPS AND ADVICE


Here is one of our videos with insider tips and advice:


GLOSSARY OF TERMS


Here are some samples from our Glossary of definitions of musical theatre terms. We will be adding to this over time - as well as adding actual sample scores and sound recordings. Check back often!

      • The Making of a Musical:

        by Lehman Engel. New York, Limelight Editions, 1986.

      • Poetic Meter and Poetic Form:

        by Paul Fussell. New York, Random House, 1965.

      • Incidental music:

        Music which is designed to play underneath the action and/or dialogue of the show.

      • Hyphens in lyrics:

        Four general principles of hyphenating lyrics: HYPHENATE: 1) Between double-letters (fun-ny). 2) Between differing consonant sounds (cen-tral, not ce-ntral). 3) Elongate vowels (che-mi-stry); 4) Make exceptions, however, for clarity (book-ing, not boo-king).  Dictionaries aren’t the authority here; your ears are.

        See attached for a more complete discussion and some further examples.

      • Assonance:

        The repetition of vowel sounds in a passage.  Hamilton is ripe with assonance.  Assonance in contemporary (hip-hop) music can function similarly to internal rhymes, allowing words to resonate against each other.  See, for instance, for instance at all the ten trisyllable words from “Right Hand Man” (Hamilton) which have vowels similar to “elephant” in the following:

        …general
        The venerated Virginian veteran whose men are all
        Lining up, to put me up on a pedestal
        Writin’ letters to relatives
        Embellishin’ my elegance and eloquence
        But the elephant is in the room

      *** Click to access the full glossary. ***


Edwin Latell (vaudeville) . Location: The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts / Billy Rose Theatre Division .


Let me entertain you,
Let me make you smile.
Let me do a few tricks,
Some old and then some new tricks,
I’m very versatile.

--Stephen Sondheim