After funding issues and the resignation of its senior leadership team, The New York Musical Festival is ending operation.
According to Broadway News, the festival has not yet paid out owed ticket sales from 2019. Artistic Director West Hyler, Executive Director Scott Pyne and General Manager George Youakim resigned Wednesday in response, after having worked on an unpaid basis for months. The festival featured staged productions, readings and concerts of musicals in development.
The New York Musical Festival filed for bankruptcy Thursday in the Southern District of New York. In a statement Thursday, the board of directors cited a nationwide funding crisis as a reason for ending the festival.
“It is with a heavy heart that we face the reality of the arts funding crisis in the United States. It has caught up with NYMF. The Board and donors have been valiantly subsidizing NYMF operations for 15 years, but looking ahead, we do not see a clear path forward,” the statement read.
The festival has been operation since 2004 and included developmental productions of Next to Normal, In Transit, [title of show] and Emojiland.
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