The National Alliance for Musical Theatre will hold its 27th annual Festival of New Musicals on October 15 and 16 at New World Stages. We caught up with Jeff Talbott (book/lyrics) and Will Van Dyke (music/lyrics), whose musical Imagine Harry is one of the eight new works this year.

My show would be the child of these two musicals:

The Last Five Years meets Rent meets, um, Ben Folds' album Way to Normal?

Pitch the show in 3 sentences:

An imaginary friend quits the business and runs into one of his clients who is now a young adult drifting through life. They have to help each other grow up. Adventures await.

How open are you to changing what you’ve written during the rehearsal process?

Completely, let's say 233%.

What is your earliest musical theater memory?

Jeff: Getting on a bus and taking it three hours to Denver, Colorado to see the national tour of A Chorus Line.

When did you realize that you wanted to make musical theater?

We both did in high school; but in different decades.

How did pursuing an education in musical theater help to shape your voice?

Every class helps hone how you hear/see the world from a musical standpoint - which clarifies how you write. Every day of life does that, too.

Who is your favorite classic musical theater composer? And your favorite composer working today?

Jeff: Too many to narrow it down (though I am partial to Will Van Dyke).

Considering that theater is often able to touch on important social issues in ways that Hollywood and TV haven’t, what kinds of stories would you like to tell through musical theater in the future?

All of them. We have several ideas up our sleeves. Up next: sweeping emotions in the pioneer West.

What is more important to you: entertaining audiences, or making them think?

Can't we do both? And also: making them FEEL is even better.

As a musical theater creator, do you think of Broadway as your ultimate goal?

Nope. Writing good or even great musicals is the goal.

The National Alliance for Musical Theatre's Festival of New Musicals will be held October 15-16 at New World Stages.  For more information visit: https://namt.org/