American Academy Of Dramatic Arts To Develop New Musicals WINNER And MUCH ADO With Launch Of New Works Project

The American Academy of Dramatic Arts will launch the New Works Project on December 15 and 16, 2025, with readings of the original musicals WINNER and MUCH ADO. The project will provide Academy students the opportunity to engage with developing work by living writers. The presentations will take place in New York.

“We hope to thoughtfully and articulately convey the power of original musicals and their unique development processes, while celebrating an extraordinary ensemble of student actors,” said Musical Theatre Department Head Joe Barros. “With the philosophy that musicals are about us and that musicals are healing, the project offers Academy students a glimpse inside the blueprint of original musicals being developed in real time by living playwrights.”

WINNER, written by Nico Juber (Millennials Are Killing Musicals) and Joe Barros, centers on a rigged high school election in 1999 and features a female-identifying queer narrative. The work has been developed in New York and London, at UC San Diego with Blindspot Collective, and at The Johnny Mercer Writers Grove at Goodspeed Musicals.
MUCH ADO, by Ben Diskant, is a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s comedy set among high school seniors navigating their final year, drawing on influences from Grease and Mean Girls while reimagining the story through contemporary communication.

The readings will be performed by Second-Year Musical Theatre students Taylor Bumann, Riley Canalejo, Patrick Carpenter, Esha Chatha, Ria Chhabra, Jahlil Coleman, Jasper Eichel, Charlize Elizabeth, Zoë Fletcher, Brigid Fuller, Dani George-Garcia, Matthew Gory, Evy Gover, Salimah Hankins, Nejra Jerlagic, Daniel M. Lane, Via Lofton, Caden Mills, Theo Nobrega, Jayme Lolita Pacheco, Zach Pollard, Schenoa Ramos, Jafet Rodriguez, Luca Schultze, Jacob Smith, Aurlia Snyder, Leonie Thomas, Eddie Thompson, and Jay Wilson. Barros will direct both presentations, with music direction by Matthew Russell for Winner and Rob Baumgartner, Jr. for Much Ado.

Prospective Musical Theatre students and others seeking information about the New Works Project may contact Joe Barros at jbarros@aada.edu.

The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, founded in 1884 as the first college for actors in the English-speaking world, trains a diverse community of developing performers through a two-year conservatory program, an invitation-only third-year repertory company, and summer programs. Alumni have received 113 Oscar, 361 Emmy, and 102 Tony nominations.