ISSAQUAH AUGUST 7-9, 2026
Francis J. Gaudette Theatre
Hear the next big thing at our 2026 Festival of New Musicals!
This musical-packed weekend brings together the nation’s brightest musical theater writers and provides Seattle area theater-lovers with the rare opportunity to see first-hand how a new musical comes to life.
$10 Festival tickets will go on sale later this month.
FRIDAY, AUG 7, 7:30 p.m. Widows
SATURDAY, AUG 8, 2:00 p.m. Love Is Dead
SATURDAY, AUG 8, 5:00 p.m. Jet City Improv presents: An Improvised Musical
SATURDAY, AUG 8, 8:00 p.m. Let Me Fly
SUNDAY, AUG 9, 2:00 p.m. An Optimist Guide to the Dark Ages
August 7, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Book by Matthew Greene
Music and Lyrics by Kira Stone
Bonnie feels trapped in her 1950s suburban life until a hit-and-run accident ends her abusive marriage and brings her face-to-face with a group of supportive fellow widows at the funeral home. Soon Bonnie learns that these ladies were responsible for her husband’s death and the demise of countless other monstrous men like him. Given the chance to join them in their vigilante ways while her suspicious brother-in-law breathes down her neck, Bonnie wonders if she’s the murdering kind.
With a driving pop score, a dark sense of humor, and a big moral predicament, Widows takes the audience on one woman’s dizzying quest to regain her power.
MATTHEW GREENE (Book) Plays include Thousand Pines (Westport Country Playhouse), Good Standing (United Solo Festival), and Gregorian (Working Artists Theatre Project). His works have been developed with the Jerome Robbins Foundation, Laurents-Hatcher Foundation, and Vineyard Arts Project. In 2020 he received the Stiles + Drewe Prize for musical theatre. He is also a mystery novelist, an advocate for arts education equity, and a proud member of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop.
KIRA STONE is a composer, lyricist, and writer creating bold, pop-driven theatrical work that centers complex female perspectives. Her musicals include Salem, Built for This, Widows, Pride & Prejudice: An Ardent New Musical (commissioned by Concord Theatricals), Madhouse, and more. A recipient of the ASCAP Foundation Cole Porter Award, her work has been developed at leading institutions nationwide, creating art where pop music carries the pulse of female ambition and transformation.
August 8, 2026 at 2:00 p.m.
Book and Music by Brett Ryback
Book and Lyrics by Jeff Luppino-Esposito
It’s a rom-com to die for! Created by rising star writers Brett Ryback and Jeff Luppino-Esposito, Love Is Dead is a wildly irreverent, girl-meets-ghost musical comedy that’s screamingly funny and bursting with spirited, pop-infused songs.
On Halloween weekend, heartbroken and recently single Jordan books a solo getaway to write the article that could change her life. When she finds her guest house has an unexpected roommate—a devastatingly sexy ghost who lives to torment short-term renters—sparks fly, souls collide, and things get delightfully weird.
Sometimes the only way to feel alive again… is to fall for someone who isn’t.
JEFF LUPPINO-ESPOSITO (book & lyrics) is thrilled to bring Love Is Dead to Village Theatre. He’s best known for his work as a writer, lyricist, and director on the musical podcast In Strange Woods, an iHeartRadio Award nominee for Best Fiction Podcast. Other credits include the stage show Nantucket! The MusACKal the short film How She Was, and ample embarrassing comedy videos on the Internet. More at: www.JeffLE.me
BRETT RYBACK is the recipient of the ASCAP Foundation’s Cole Porter Award. Works include: the musical podcast In Strange Woods (iHeartRadio Award nominee), Passing Through (Goodspeed); Nate the Great (Licensed by TRW); and Joe Schmoe Saves the World (NAMT, ASCAP/Dreamworks Workshop). His award-winning plays Weïrd and A Roz By Any Other Name are both published in The Best American Short Plays 2007-2008. He lives in LA with his husband and his miniature schnauzer, Hilde. www.brettryback.com
August 8, 2026 at 5:00 p.m.
Featuring the We Have Some Notes Ensemble
You bring the title—we bring the show. With Broadway in our hearts and chaos in our hands, the cast creates a fully improvised musical right before your eyes. No script. No plan. Every word, step, and note is made up on the spot—raw, fearless, and on fire.
From show-stopping numbers to wild twists, this is musical theater like you’ve never seen before. One night only. One chance to witness the magic. Don’t miss it.
JET CITY IMPROV has been Seattle’s premiere improvised theater company in Seattle since 1992. As one of the oldest improv theaters in the region, they are known for their flagship Ensemble, the live and improvised movie re-dubbing show Twisted Flicks, and over 100 genre-based improvised plays as well as more edgy late-night shows, experimental pieces, festivals, and opening up the stage for guest teams from Seattle’s independent improv scene. Jet City also provides classes through The Improv Academy and outreach opportunities through Improv for Good
August 8, 2026 at 8:00 p.m.
Book and Original Lyrics by Minhyung Cho
Music by Chanhong Min
English Translation and Lyrics by Michael K. Lee
1969. Apollo 11 lands on the Moon. That same night in a backwoods city in Korea, Namwon–the town tailor– receives an acceptance letter to Korea’s finest Design Academy, getting him closer to achieving his dreams. While envisioning the future, his life is unexpectedly transformed by a cosmic event, rendering him unconscious.
Next thing he knows, everything has changed yet seems eerily familiar. The year is now 2020 and he meets Sunhee, an elderly woman who agrees to help him. Determined to return to 1969 and the love of his life, Jungbun, Namwon constructs his plan to go back in time.
An utterly charming story of love across time and space, the Festival marks Let Me Fly’s debut full English translation, following on the heels of its critically-acclaimed run in South Korea.
Based on the original IP of Let Me Fly Ltd.
Developed by PROSLAB and Wooran Foundation
MINHYUNG CHO Born and raised in Korea, Minhyung Cho is a musical theatre writer and lyricist. Her credits include book and lyrics for Jungle Life, Myeong-dong Romance, Cha_me, Super Closet, and Let Me Fly. She has also translated and adapted Islander the Musical and translated and revised the play Life of Pi. Her work has reached international audiences through licensed productions of Cha_me in Japan and Let Me Fly in Taiwan.
CHANHONG MIN Born and raised in Korea, Chanhong Min is a musical theatre composer. His credits include music for Laundry, Rimbaud, Maurice, and Let Me Fly. He has also composed for film, web dramas, and numerous theatre productions. He is the recipient of Best Lyrics and Composition at the 4th Musical Awards, and Best Music Awards at the 5th Yegreen Musical Awards and the 7th Korea Musical Awards.
MICHAEL K. LEE (English translation) American-born with Korean roots, Michael is an international actor, writer and producer. To date, he has appeared in over 40 professional stage productions both in the US and abroad, including shows at Village Theatre such as The King and I, The Who’s Tommy (Seattle Times Footlight Award), and Jesus Christ Superstar. He has also made numerous television appearances, including the globally #1 ranked Netflix series, XO, Kitty. Current projects involve introducing Korean content to international audiences, as well as producing an original Korean musical in 2027.
AUG. 9, 2026, 2:00PM
Music by Michael Kooman
Book and Lyrics by Christopher Dimond
The Dark Ages: A time of plagues, pestilence, and poor personal hygiene.
But in the midst of the mud and the muck, Percival von Schmootz remains impossibly hopeful. In fact, he is the world’s one and only optimist, which does not go unnoticed by the jaded residents of his hometown, who are constantly irritated by his positive worldview.
When the Bubonic Plague wipes out the entirety of said hometown, Percival sets out on a quest to personally end the Dark Ages. His efforts meet with hilarious failure at every turn, until he ultimately learns what enlightenment truly means.
With the signature humor of Village favorites Kooman & Dimond (The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes, The Break) and a ridiculously fun musical theater score, An Optimist’s Guide to the Dark Ages will have audiences walking out with a sunnier outlook—and an urge to wash their hands.
An Optimist’s Guide to the Dark Ages, formerly titled The Enlightenment of Percival Von Schmootz, was originally commissioned by the Canadian Music Theatre Project. It received further development from the American Music Theatre Project, Adirondack Theatre Festival, and the Bloomington Playwrights’ Project. The show will be presented in New York City as part of the Stagedoor Foundation’s inaugural New Next Now festival in early 2027.
MICHAEL KOOMAN and CHRISTOPHER DIMOND are an Emmy-nominated writing team for the stage and screen. They wrote more than 150 songs for Disney’s Vampirina, an animated musical TV series reaching over 100 million viewers in 115 countries.
Other television work includes Netflix’s Ridley Jones, Dead End: Paranormal Park, and Spirit Rangers.
Their other stage projects include Romantics Anonymous (Shakespeare’s Globe – written with Emma Rice), The Noteworthy Lif of Howard Barnes (Village Theater), The Break (Village Theatre Festival of New Musicals 2024), Finn (John F. Kennedy Center – written with Chris Nee), Orphie & The Book of Heroes (John F. Kennedy Center), Judge Jackie: Disorder in the Court (Pittsburgh CLO), Dani Girl (Exit, Pursued by a Bear), Golden Gate (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Homemade Fusion (Edinburgh Fringe Festival) and Junior Claus (Orlando Repertory Theatre).
Michael and Chris have written songs for Patti Lupone, Audra McDonald, Sutton Foster, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Patina Miller, Sara Ramirez, Christian Borle, Andrew Rannells, Santino Fontana, Christopher Jackson, Skyler Astin, James Monroe Iglehart, Anna Camp, Jane Lynch, Henry Winkler, Rachel Bloom, Donald Faison, Alfred Molina, Taran Killam, and Wanda Sykes.
Awards and honors include the Fred Ebb Award, a Jonathan Larson Grant, the Mary Rodgers/Lorenz Hart Award, the Samuel French Next Step Award, the Burton Lane Award, and the Harold Adamson Award. They are members of the Dramatists Guild and ASCAP, and are proud alumni of Carnegie Mellon University.
Their debut album, Out of Our Heads, and the world premiere recording of The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes are now available on Apple Music and Spotify.
Learn more at www.koomandimond.com @koomandimond
Your contribution to Village Originals is an investment in the future of musical theater. As a supporter, you’ll gain access to a host of private panel discussions and exclusive, behind-the-scenes events with our artists—many of whom are on the forefront of new musical theater.
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Friday: 12:00 p.m.– 7:00 p.m.
Saturday: 12:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
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