Music Theatre International is bringing back its musical revue All Together Now!, originally designed to help theatre companies pull themselves out of COVID-19 pandemic shortages. Beginning next year, the theatrical licensor will make the title available to theatre companies looking to produce benefit concerts to support disaster relief. As it was the first time around, All Together Now! will be made available free of charge, this time to theatres who have been significantly impacted by natural disasters.
The project began in 2021 as live theatre was beginning to return following a pandemic shutdown. The licensing company launched a global event that saw theatre companies around the world performing All Together Now!, a customizable revue of songs from shows in MTI's catalogue, over one November weekend. MTI waives licensing fees for the revue, allowing as much money as possible to go towards support for the theatre companies themselves. The 2021 iteration raised more than $6 million for the more than 2,000 participating groups.
Groups wanting to perform All Together Now!: A Benefit Event for Disaster Relief will be able to apply online for permission to perform the revue free of charge if they have been negatively affected by a disaster. Interested groups have up to two years after the event to apply, with performances to be held over a single weekend. More licensing parameters and applications will be available at MTIShows.com in early 2025.
"Unfortunately, disasters are a fact of life, and MTI wants to help the theatres who are directly affected by these tragedies," says MTI Chief Operations Officer and Director of Education and Development John Prignano in a statement. "We are incredibly proud of the efforts made for our inaugural All Together Now event and wanted to offer something in perpetuity to our customers for whenever the need arises. This is just one of the ways MTI is able to give back to the theatrical community—it's important and just feels like the right thing to do."
"The first All Together Now event was made possible by the generosity of the writers who created the incredible hit songs in the revue," adds MTI President and CEO Drew Cohen. "We are once again grateful to receive their collective support. We hope this show will make a difference to any theatre experiencing a tragic event."
Authors, estates, and rights holders who have contributed songs to the revue include Lynn Ahrens, Howard Ashman, Sara Bareilles, Lionel Bart, Jason Robert Brown, Mindi Dickstein, Jack Feldman, Stephen Flaherty, Matthew Gerrard, Zina Goldrich, David Hein, Marcy Heisler, Jason Howland, Jonathan Larson, Alan Jay Lerner, Frank Loesser, Frederick Loewe, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez, Alan Menken, Tim Minchin, Robbie Nevil, Tim Rice, Irene Sankoff, Stephen Schwartz, Marc Shaiman, Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman, Glenn Slater, and Scott Wittman.
The revue is structured with multiple song options throughout the concert, giving performing groups the ability to tailor their performance to their actors and community.
Participating theatres will be able to access a special pre-made template on PLAYBILLDER, Playbill's fully customizable, Broadway-quality Playbill program creation platform, that will auto populate their program with all the MTI-approved data for the show, including billing information and song lists.
Visit MTIShows.com.
