Roberto Righi, CEO of the Milano Musical Awards (MMA), together with MMA’s board and Broadway International Group, announced an international collaboration to bring together creatives and talents of musical theatre from across all continents in the inaugural Festival Internazionale del Musical (International Festival of Musical Theatre) to be staged during the Milan, Italy Summer next year.
Academy and Tony Award winner Whoopi Goldberg introduced a teaser video that brought together stars from Broadway, The West End, Asia, Latin America and Russia as they belted out “Magic to Do” from the musical Pippin by Academy and Grammy Award winner Stephen Schwartz.
Kim Young Sook, Seoul (The Last Empress), Lea Salonga, Manilla; (Miss Saigon), Luz Angélica Herrera Vàzquez, Cancun, LaytonWilliams. London (Billy Elliott, Everybody’s Talking about Jamie), Anastasia Styazhkina, Moscow
Yingfei Liu, Shanghai, Janie Dee-London (Follies, Hand to God, The Boy Friend), Eleonora Barbacini Ibrahim, Dubai, Laura Osnes, New York City (Cinderella), BenVereen, New York (Jesus Christ Superstar, Pippin)
For the Inaugural Festival, several acclaimed musical productions will be invited to perform in prominent theatres in Milan and the Lombardy region over a two-week period in Summer, 2022. The Festival will include a Gala Event, featuring performers and presenters honoring a Musical Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. The recipient honoree will be announced in the fall of 2021.
Top 10 Picks: Best Showtoons
- Hello – The Book of Mormon
2. Thank U – Jagged Little Pill
3. And you don’t even know it – Everybody Loves Jamie
4. Sun and Moon – Miss Saigon
5. Waving through a window – Dear Evan Hansen
6. Ex Wives – Six the Musical
7. I’m Here (02:57) – The Color Purple
8. Show me Love – & Juliet
9. Defying Gravity – Wicked
10. Wait for Me – Hadestown
The moment Pippin re-opened commercial theatre in Sydney was one of the most special moments ever! And such a fitting song for us to kick it off with!