Music Theatre International

Updated on Oct 26, 2023

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Registration Required Headquarters New York City Type of business Private		Launched June 17, 2008 Founded Manhattan

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Music Theatre International (MTI) is a licensing agency theatrical based in New York City.

Description

MTI was founded in 1952 by American composer and lyricist Frank Loesser and orchestrator Don Walker. Along with the licensing rights to Loesser's works, the licenses production rights of numerous Broadway, Off-Broadway, and West End musicals, including many hit shows.

Musical types

MTI currently holds seven types of musicals one can license.

MTI Show: These are shows from various types of theater such as Broadway. These include musicals as Ragtime, Ain't Misbehavin', and Seussical.

Broadway Junior: These sixty-minute musicals have been adapted for middle school kids to perform. Any subject matter deemed inappropriate have been cut. It also is reduced to one act. These include junior versions of Annie, Fiddler On The Roof, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, and The Music Man.

Broadway Kids: These thirty-minute musicals have been specially adapted for elementary kids to perform. These musicals have been made exclusively for the Kids Collection. Such musicals include Winnie The Pooh, The Lion King and 101 Dalmatians.

Musicals From The Disney Collection: Consists of musicals originally produced by Disney.

School Editions: These are Broadway musicals that have been adapted for high school kids to perform. These musicals have reduced certain subject matter, orchestration, and more. Such School Editions include Rent, Sweeney Todd, Les Misérables and Avenue Q.

Theatre For Young Audiences: These seventy-minute musicals have been adapted for adults to perform for children. The difference is that the cast requirement is small (usually 6-12).

Concert Library: This collection has Broadway songs adapted for concerts.

Theatre on the Edge: These are musicals that "move audiences to the edge of their seats with excitement and anticipation". These musicals tend to have adult themes. These musicals include Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Caroline, Or Change, and Next to Normal.

MTI ShowSpace

MTI ShowSpace is a non-profit social networking site for people involved in musical youth theatre and putting on live Broadway shows – like High School Musical, The Lion King Jr., The Music Man, Aladdin, Jr., Guys and Dolls, and Annie – can go to find out anything they need to know. Users include current and aspiring actors, actresses, dancers, composers, authors, producers, educators, students, and fans of musical theatre.

Discussions commonly cover things like building scenery, making costumes, memorizing lines, learning lyrics or whatever is needed. There are also stories about being nervous before performances (and what to do about it), talking to crowds and even histories of shows.

Already popular on the new site is an eBay-style forum that allows for the rental or resale of used set pieces, props and other materials for staging the tuners licensed by MTI.

MTIShowSpace has a number of features which users may interact with. They include blogging, bookmarking common interest websites, community rentals, file sharing, discussion forums, job posts, polls, contests, user videos, and an area to connect with friends and other users.

Key executives

Freddie Gershon, Chairman
Drew Cohen, President
John Prignano, Senior Operations Officer
Carol Edelson, Sr. VP., Licensing
Peter Gerstheimer, Chief Financial Officer
Brian O'Sullivan, Director of Amateur Licensing
Larry Lees, Director of Music, Materials and Product Development

Rating system

MTI uses a rating system that determines the content in the musical and it is shown on their website. The ratings are as follows:

References

Music Theatre International Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

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