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Goodspeed Musicals Hosts 41 Writers for theAnnual Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Grove

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19 Brand New Musicals Will Be Developed DuringThis Year’s Exclusive Retreat and Features:

EAST HADDAM, Conn. (Jan. 22, 2026) – Goodspeed Musicals is proud to announce the participants for the 14th annual Johnny Mercer Foundation (JMF) Writers Grove at Goodspeed Musicals, which will be held Jan. 26 – Feb. 22 on the Goodspeed campus in East Haddam, Conn. A distinguished group of 41 established and emerging composers, lyricists and librettists representing 19 new musicals will gather in East Haddam creating a truly exceptional environment for discovery and inspiration at one of the premier writers’ residencies in the nation.
 
Established in 2013, the JMF Writers Grove is an unparalleled, long-term residency program devoted exclusively to musical theatre writing. Providing a sanctuary for composers, lyricists and librettists to embark on new musical theatre work or to devote a substantial amount of time to a work in progress, the Grove is a colleague-to-colleague program. For four weeks, starting Jan. 26, the writing teams work in residence in Goodspeed’s Artists Village, each team in their own house, with whatever support is needed, from dramaturgical to Goodspeed’s fine music department. In the evenings writers get together in an informal, salon-style environment to share the day’s work. This gathering allows the artists an invaluable opportunity to gain insight from one another. The Grove is the ultimate think tank of veteran Broadway and young working professionals in theatre today.
 
“The Mercer Grove at Goodspeed is a haven of creativity. We are tremendously grateful to the Johnny Mercer Foundation and our many new works supporters who make this month of inspiring work possible,” said Donna Lynn Hilton, Goodspeed Musicals’ Artistic Director.
 
Jonathan Brielle, Executive Vice President of the JMF and Writer/Producer in Residence stated, “Now more than ever, musical storytellers are essential to imagining a brighter future. The JMF Writers Grove at Goodspeed is one of the rare places where our work is allowed to grow with trust and care.”
 
Over the course of the program, Jonathan Brielle will again serve as Writer- and Producer-in-Residence. He is a Broadway songwriter/writer as well as a producer and writer advocate whose work spans stage, television, and education. With music and lyrics for Foxfire (Broadway, starring Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn); book music and lyrics for Himself and Nora (Off-Broadway, Outer Critics Best Musical nomination, James Joyce Center, Ireland and The Old Globe). Regional credits also include A Complicated Woman (music and lyrics, Terris Theatre/Goodspeed) and Nightmare Alley (Geffen Playhouse, NYMF). His cabaret musical 40 Naked Women, A Monkey and Me, developed at the O’Neill Cabaret Conference ran at the Axelrod Theater with Tovah Feldshuh. In Las Vegas, Brielle created Enter The Night (12-year run, Stardust Hotel) and MadHattan (New York, New York Hotel). He has also produced national tours (Rugrats Live, Goosebumps Live!) and writes for the TV series Wonderama. He serves as Executive Vice President of the Johnny Mercer Foundation. A former National Projects Director of the Songwriters Guild of America, Brielle is the founder of Vala, a platform for launching musicals and providing Forever Free arts education for grades K–12. Jonathan continues to work from Brielle Studios in a restored 1846 schoolhouse in N.J.
 
Blair Russell will serve as Resident Producer. He is a Tony nominated producer and developer of theatre and live performance whose experience ranges from fringe festivals to Broadway shows. His most recent projects include Pop Off, Michelangelo! which concluded a hit run in the West End and Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year. Some other projects include the hit concept album of EPIC: The Musical by Jorge Rivera-Herrans, the 12-time Tony-nominated Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris, Lizard Boy by Justin Huertas, and the concept recording of the new musical For Tonight by Shenelle Salcido and Spencer Williams.
 
Joining the Grove for a third year is Rose Oser as the Resident Dramaturge. A Brooklyn-based theatremaker from the San Francisco Bay Area, they currently serve as the Producing Director of National Queer Theater (NQT), where they co-lead the organization’s programming and strategy.
 
Clifford Lee Johnson III returns to the Grove as Dramaturge where he previously served as the resident dramaturge for a number of years prior to a brief hiatus. He is a dramaturge and producer who specializes in developing new musicals and was the Director of Musical Development at Manhattan Theatre Club from 1993 to 2009.
 
Goodspeed’s Artistic Director Donna Lynn Hilton continues to guide efforts on the JMF Writers Grove at Goodspeed alongside Goodspeed’s Associate Artistic Director Michael Fling.
 
The partnership with the JMF serves as a confluence of Goodspeed’s long-held mission of fostering new works and JMF’s dedication to nurturing the discipline of songwriting. With this unique collaboration, Goodspeed continues to be an incubator for the next generation of musical theatre artists and performers, as well as the home of the American Musical. This is best illustrated by several projects that Goodspeed has moved from the JMF Writers Grove at Goodspeed to further development, including The Snow Goose by Scott Gilmour and Claire McKenzie that will premiere at Goodspeed in August 2026, Little Miss Perfect by Joriah Kwame that opens in February 2026 at Olney Theatre Center, and The Brown Musical: A New Brown Musical by Rona Siddiqui that was recently featured at its annual Festival of New Musicals; full productions at The Terris Theatre of A Complicated Woman by Ianne Fields Stuart and Jonathan Brielle and Private Jones by Marshall Pailet, which was subsequently produced at Signature Theatre; the acclaimed 2019 productions of Passing Through by Brett Ryback and Eric Ulloa, and Hi, My Name Is Ben by Scott Gilmour and Claire MacKenzie; as well as the 2017 productions of Deathless and Darling Grenadine. Other notable productions from the Grove include the Pulitzer Prize and 2022 Tony Award-winner for Best Musical A Strange Loop by Michael R. Jackson; The Little Big Things, which premiered at @sohoplace in London’s West End garnering three Oliver nominations in 2024 including Best New Musical; as well as Why Am I So Single? by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, which recently ran in London’s West End.
 
The Grove is pleased to announce that the 2026 participants are (in alphabetical order): Gina Naomi Baez, Martin Batchelar, Carlos Bauzys, Kim Bixler, Jonathan Brielle, Jake Brunger, Bryn Christopher, Pippa Cleary, James Cooper, Tyler Joseph Ellis, Adrian Blake Enscoe, Kyle Ewalt, Coyle Girelli, David Gomez, Jacinth Greywoode, Jessia Hoffman, Jason Huza, Mark Thomas Johnson, Jessica Kahkoska, Josh Kobak, John-Michael Lyles, Dylan MarcAurele, Daniel Mertzlufft, AriDy Nox, Billy Recce, Barret Riggins, Adam J. Rineer, Felipe Segovia Sanhueza, Ken Savage, Katie Lynne Sharbaugh, Sydney Torin Shepherd, Jacob Ryan Smith, Regina Strayhorn, Alyssa Sunew, Graham Techler, Riley Thomas, Ben Thornewill, Nicola Vazquez, Maiga Vidal, Yoni Weiss, and Laura Zlatos.
 
ABOUT THE JOHNNY MERCER FOUNDATION
The mission of the Johnny Mercer Foundation (JMF) is to support the discipline of songwriting in the tradition of the Great American Songbook as exemplified by the life and work of the legendary Johnny Mercer: lyricist, composer, performer, collaborator, and producer. The Foundation continues Johnny’s legacy by partnering with individuals and organizations dedicated to celebrating and nourishing the disciplines he mastered and the causes he and his wife Ginger Mercer championed.
 
JMF has created a number of dynamic creative joint ventures with several prestigious institutions including the JMF Writers Grove at Goodspeed Musicals, Accentuate the Positive Programs in Southern California and New York’s Kaufman Music Center, the JMF Musical Theater Composition Residency at the Alliance Theatre (Atlanta), the JMF Young Songwriters Intensive at Snow Pond Center for the Arts (Maine), the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project at Belmont University (Nashville), and the Johnny Mercer Archives at Georgia State University. For more information, please visit www.johnnymercer.org.
 
ABOUT GOODSPEED MUSICALS
Goodspeed Musicals is a nonprofit arts organization that has achieved international acclaim and is the first theatre in the nation to receive two Tony Awards for outstanding achievement in musical theatre. Under the leadership of Donna Lynn Hilton, Artistic Director, and Vanessa Logan, Managing Director, Goodspeed Musicals is dedicated to the celebration, development and advancement of musical theatre. Goodspeed creates powerful, world-class productions of enlightening new and established works to delight, inspire and challenge audiences on its two stages – The Goodspeed in East Haddam, Conn., and The Terris Theatre in Chester, Conn. From Goodspeed, 21 musicals have gone to Broadway (including Man of La Mancha, Annie, Shenandoah and Holiday Inn) and 91 world premieres have been launched. Goodspeed’s Festival of New Musicals, GoodWorks commissioning program and the Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Grove at Goodspeed are distinguished cornerstones of the organization that highlight its commitment to nurture creators and the creative process. Goodspeed also maintains The Scherer Library of Musical Theatre and The Max Showalter Center for Education in Musical Theatre. The organization is supported in part by the Burry Fredrik Foundation; the Connecticut Office of the Arts, which also receives funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; Masonicare at Chester Village; The Richard P. Garmany Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving; The Shubert Foundation; Smith Farm Gardens; and WSHU Public Radio. Additional support is provided by United Airlines, the official airline of Goodspeed Musicals. For more information, visit www.goodspeed.org.

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