Kokandy Productions Presents the CHICAGO MUSICAL THEATRE FESTIVAL

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).

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.