The National Alliance for Musical Theatre will hold its 27th annual Festival of New Musicals on October 15 and 16 at New World Stages. On the Eve, by Michael Federico (book) and Seth and Shawn Magill (music/lyrics), is one of eight new musicals this year. We asked Federico about his playwriting background, his earliest musical theater memory, and his advice to people submitting to NAMT.

My show would be the child of these two musicals:

Threepenny Opera, Cabaret, and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (it's not a musical, but Wyld Stallyns rule!). The result is a classically influenced indie-folk-rock musical in which band members play for their lives.

Pitch your show in 3 sentences:

History is revision. Words are power. Time travel is cool.

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

We have an incredible director, musical director, cast, and producers, so we're extremely open to working with them to make changes during rehearsal if needed.

What is your earliest musical theater memory?

My parents taking me to see Annie at the Dallas Summer Musicals when I was six or seven.

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

I come from a playwriting background and Seth and Shawn [Magill, who wrote the music/lyrics for On the Eve] have played together in a band for years. I think when we all came together to start working on this show is when we started thinking in terms of making musical theatre.

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

Can I use Stephen Sondheim for both?

What would you change about the current state of musical theater?

I'd love to see smaller theater groups get more support in developing new musicals. I think some of the most interesting work can get lost simply due to lack of resources.

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

We hope to do both.

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

We've never put our goals for the show in those types of terms. We've been very lucky to get to work with extremely talented people throughout the development process, and we're just excited to see where we might be able to go from here.

Do you have any wise words for people who may want to submit to NAMT next year?

Have at least one member of your group who is awesome at keeping the other members of the group on deadline.

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/