Newport NewWorks Unveils Lineup for Summer 2026 Musical Theater Festival
The festival will feature Stupid by Benjamin Scheuer and Simon Scheuer, The Debutantes by Sam Norman and Eliza Randall, and A Life Worth Living by Jeffery Chen.
Newport NewWorks Musical Theater Festival will return this summer, taking place August 2 - 16, 2026 and features three new musicals.
Building on the success of its 2025 festival, Newport NewWorks returns this August to once again ignite Newport, RI with rehearsals, workshops, and public presentations of new musicals by emerging and award-winning artists. They will have the opportunity to develop and evolve their work with the support of Broadway-level actors, musicians, and industry professionals. All festival artists will reside in Newport for the duration of the festival, during which they will write, work, play, and be inspired by the idyllic and culturally rich surroundings of Newport. Each musical will undergo an intensive two-week residency development process, culminating in public presentations that invite audiences into the heart of the creative process. This year’s public presentations will take place in the 300-seat Casino Theatre, a larger venue due to the popularity of last year’s inaugural season.
The inaugural Newport NewWorks Festival, in August 2025, showcased two new musicals, one of which was Ink & Paint by Danielle Moore and Marjorie Duffield, a sweeping documusical illuminating the overlooked women artists of Disney’s golden age. Following last summer’s festival and public presentation, Ink & Paint went on to have an invitation-only industry reading in NYC in January 2026 at Roundabout Theater Company’s Black Box Theatre at the Steinberg Center, headlined by celebrated actors Sierra Boggess, Jason Gotay, Gizel Jiménez, and Ashley Spencer.
STUPID
A genius new musical
Book, music and lyrics by Benjamin Scheuer and Simon Scheuer
Agnes and Ferdinand are geniuses. But when they meet one another, things get stupid.
Benjamin Scheuer’s musical The Lion won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance and an Off-West End Award for Best New Musical, and has had over 20 productions worldwide. His album Songs from The Lion has four accompanying videos (directed by Academy Award-winner Peter Baynton) which have won prizes including Best Commissioned Film at the Annecy Film Festival, and two consecutive Public Choice for Best Music Video at the British Animation Awards. His musical Hundred Feet Tall, written with Melis Aker, was produced by The Old Vic in London. For the Birmingham Royal Ballet, Benjamin wrote and produced the music for Empty Stage, “the best dance film of the year” (The Guardian). He is the author of two children’s books: “Hibernate With Me” and “Hundred Feet Tall” (translated into five languages). Forthcoming: A Mountain For Elodie (Signature Theatre, DC; 2027.) The Dung Beetle’s Deli, with Simon Scheuer (Little Angel Theatre, London.) Treasure, with bookwriter Rick Elice. Recipient of the Kleban Prize for Lyrics.
Simon Scheuer is a humourist and songwriter. He co-wrote the original verse poem “The Dung Beetle’s Deli,” which he adapted for the stage with his brother Benjamin and Melis Aker, on commission by Little Angel Theatre, London. Simon contributed songs to the films A Street Cat Named Bob (Sony Pictures), The Real Thing (Parkville Pictures), and the album/theatre project Cover My Tracks (The Old Vic). He has been part of the Harry Chapin ASCAP Songwriters Workshop and the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Workshop. He has written and released several albums with The Surfboard Six.
THE DEBUTANTES
Book and Lyrics by Sam Norman
Music by Eliza Randall
Set in war-torn Britain in 1940, The Debutantes tracks the meteoric rise — and quiet erasure — of the improbable female codebreakers of Bletchley Park.
Sam Norman is a librettist and lyricist for musicals and operas. Recent projects include THE DEBUTANTES (Manhattan Musical Theatre Lab, Newport NewWorks Award), ECHOLOCATION (Stiles + Drewe Mentorship Award 2025–6) and COME DINE WITH ME: THE MUSICAL (Norwich Playhouse, Edinburgh Fringe, off-West End Turbine Theatre). He is a resident artist at the American Lyric Theater and member of the Experiments in Opera Writers’ Room 4.0, as well as a Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriter, an American Opera Initiative Fellow, a winner of the Stephen Spender Prize for Poetry in Translation, a Broadway Future Songbook writer, and a four-time finalist for the Stiles & Drewe Best New Song Prize. His screenplay GAMESTOP won the ScreenCraft TV Pilot Fellowship 2024, and his book of comic poems, A Teen’s Guide to Modern Manners, was published by Little, Brown. Sam is a proud member of Mercury Musical Developments, the Dramatists Guild and the BMI Librettists Workshop.
Eliza Randall is a composer, pianist, and serial hobbyist originally from the Las Vegas Valley. Her compositional works include ECHOLOCATION (Stiles + Drewe Mentorship Award 2025–6, Arts Council England Grant Recipient), THE DEBUTANTES (Manhattan Musical Theatre Lab, Newport NewWorks Award), BLACK HOLES LIKE DONUTS (Symphony Space), and THE YELLOW WALLPAPER (Alleyway Theatre, finalist for Mazumdar Prize). She is a Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriter and Broadway Future Songbook writer, and has had compositions performed at Lincoln Center, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, The Other Palace, and Hackney Empire. As a pianist, recent productions include A New Brain at Barrington Stage (Associate MD) and the National Tour of Wicked (Keys 3).
A LIFE WORTH LIVING
Book, music and lyrics by Jeffery Chen
When high school senior Gavin Zhou involuntarily lands himself in a residential treatment facility, he must confront the grief, guilt, and broken relationships he’s been running from—all while navigating an unexpectedly colorful community of patients and staff.
Jeffery Chen is an Asian American filmmaker, comedian, and songwriter from New York City and San Francisco. A recent Princeton graduate in Neuroscience and Musical Theatre, he creates original work that explores mental health through humor and emotional honesty. His musical A Life Worth Living, inspired by his experience in adolescent treatment, premiered at Princeton in 2024. As a stand-up comedian, he has opened for The Daily Show’s Roy Wood Jr. and SNL’s James Austin Johnson. He is a proud member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild of America.
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