Music Theatre International Announces All Together Now

New York, NY: Theatrical licensor Music Theatre International (MTI) announces the creation of a weekend-long event , All Together Now! : A Global Event Celebrating Local Theatre, in which schools and theatres around the world are empowered to locally produce and perform an exclusive musical revue featuring songs and scenes from MTI’s beloved shows.

Developed by MTI, and through the generous support of the authors who are contributing their songs to the revue, MTI’s All Together Now! will be entirely free-of-charge to license with no royalty or rental fees. Participating organizations may license MTI’s All Together Now! as a fundraiser for their theatre – and perform it live, streamed, or a combination of both!

The event will be scheduled for one weekend (Friday – Monday) at such a time when it is possible to safely celebrate the return of live theatrical performance. The brand new musical revue will include wonderful selections from everyone’s favourite MTI shows.

More details about the specific scenes and songs included in the show will be forthcoming.

Stuart Hendricks, Managing Director, MTI Australasia, remarked;

With the global closure of theatres, 2020 tested the mettle of our community. Theatres and schools had to find new ways to engage their performers and connect with their patrons. Through virtual choirs, streaming, and socially distanced performances, they rose to the challenge and showed remarkable resilience. MTI’s All Together Now! is a unique musical celebration that our groups can perform as a fundraiser, and serves as a thank you to our valued clients across the world for keeping theatre alive.

“We wanted to find a way for everyone in the theatrical community to come together and connect through our shared love of theatre. We knew that with MTI’s reach and resources, we could help affect positive change. We worked together with our authors, global offices and business partners to offer schools and theatres across the world the opportunity to kickstart their programs with an exclusive musical revue of MTI songs. MTI’s All Together Now! is our way to say ‘thank you’ and give back to all of the hard-working teachers and directors who give so much of themselves to this art form every day,” stated John Prignano, MTI’s Chief Operating Officer and Director of Education & Development.

Throughout the pandemic, the MTI-represented authors and rightsholders around the world have been unanimous and forthcoming in generously offering support to MTI’s customers in every way they’ve been asked,” MTI’s President and CEO, Drew Cohen said. “Now, as we are hopefully on a more discernible path to the return of live theatre, they are contributing material from their beloved (and valuable) shows for our customers to perform in their own venues. While we are realistic and sensitive to the fact that the pandemic remains a reality and unpredictable, we couldn’t be more proud or more excited to plan MTI’s All Together Now! as a way to signal to the world that theatre is coming back.

Carol Edelson, MTI’s Senior Vice President for Professional Licensing commented;

The theatre industry is essentially like one big family. We are grateful to the authors who are helping us create an entirely new show for theatres to present to their patrons. We hope that by offering this stellar new revue on a complimentary basis, theatres can use MTI’s All Together Now! as a way to generate funds for their programs. We’ve never done anything like this before, and we can’t wait to see how our customers embrace this brand new work.

Since March, despite enormous challenges, theatres across Europe have tried valiantly to continue performing whenever and however they can,” added Seán Gray, Managing Director, MTI Europe.  Shows have taken place in pub gardens, makeshift outdoor venues and theatres with greatly reduced capacity during the latter half of 2020 and into 2021. MTI’s All Together Now! will be a powerful way for theatre folk everywhere to celebrate the ‘great reopening’ while raising funding for theatre companies as they recover from the financial impact of the pandemic and plan for a more hopeful future.

Further details on the date and instructions on how groups can participate in this worldwide event celebrating our shared love of theatre will be announced in the coming weeks and months.

In the meantime, please visit http://www.mtishows.com.au/mtis-all-together-now to sign up for the All Together Now! event mailing list.

About Music Theatre International Music Theatre International (MTI) is one of the world’s leading theatrical licensing agencies, granting theatres from around the world the rights to perform the greatest selection of musicals from Broadway and beyond. Founded in 1952 by composer Frank Loesser and orchestrator Don Walker, MTI is a driving force in advancing musical theatre as a vibrant and engaging art form.

MTI works directly with the composers, lyricists and book writers of these musicals to provide official scripts, musical materials and dynamic theatrical resources to over 70,000 professional, community and school theatres in the US and in over 60 countries worldwide.

MTI is particularly dedicated to educational theatre and has created special collections to meet the needs of various types of performers and audiences. MTI’s Broadway Junior™ shows are 30- and 60-minute musicals for performance by elementary and middle school-aged performers, while MTI’s School Editions are musicals annotated for performance by high school students.

MTI maintains its global headquarters in New York City with additional offices in London (MTI Europe) and Melbourne (MTI Australasia) .