The University of Michigan Department of Musical Theatre to Present New Works Festival 2026

The University of Michigan Department of Musical Theatre is currently hosting two creative teams for their New Works Festival, which will be presented in February to an invitation-only audience. This year’s festival shows are Little Red and Marian: The Musical.

ABOUT Little Red:

Little Red has book and lyrics by Sophie Boyce and music by Veronica Mansour. As a team, they won the 2024 Richard Rodgers Award and the 2025 Fred Ebb Award. The show is directed and choreographed by Katie Spellman (The Notebook, Huzzah), with music supervision by Matt Deitchman and music direction by Noah Landis. The show’s synopsis as described by its creators: Little Red is the tale of a troubled teen training under the enigmatic “Granny” to become the ultimate Wolf-Killer. Flipping the script on the original fairytale, this is a dance-driven, horror-tinged musical with a score that fuses folk, pop, and opera. A thrilling journey of discovery, it explores the mechanics of fear and polarization, and asks whether light can be found in the darkness of the woods.

ABOUT Marian: The Musical:

Marian: The Musical is conceived by Elkin Antoniou G, Chelsea Marie Davis, and Caleen Sinnette Jennings, and features music by Davis and Victoria Theodore, lyrics by Davis and Emily Ruth Hazel, and a book by Jennings and Antoniou, with arrangements and music supervision by Theodore. Marian will be directed by André Garner and choreographed by Taylor Mackenzie Smith, and is produced by Liquid Theatre Collective and Executive Producer Randy Donaldson (The Scottsboro Boys). Other commercial producers include Amy Gewirtz (The Band’s Visit, Come From Away), Alexa Fleur, and Claire Wilkes. Liquid Theatre Collective holds the exclusive musical stage rights to the Marian Anderson Archival Estate. The show’s synopsis as described by its creators: It’s 1939—and much like today—economic turmoil, racial tension, and political division consume America. When world-famous Black contralto Marian Anderson is denied a stage in Washington, D.C., an international Civil Rights controversy explodes. Offered the chance to sing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before an unprecedented, racially integrated audience, Marian is catapulted into a personal crisis the night before she gives the performance of a lifetime.

U-M New Works Festival Artistic Director Lynne Shankel (Perpetual Sunshine & The Ghost Girls, White Girl in Danger, Life After, Allegiance) speaks about the festival: “It’s so important that our students are exposed to the process of working on new pieces of musical theatre—it’s what they will spend an incredible amount of time doing in their careers if their paths take them to New York. I couldn’t be more excited about having these two teams in residence this month to work directly with our students and to share both of these incredible pieces next month.”

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