Music Theatre International
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Music Theatre International (MTI) represents the secondary performance rights to over 250 musical shows, licensing Broadway musicals to professional and amateur groups throughout the United States and in over 60 countries around the world. Since its founding in 1952, MTI has been supplying scripts and musical materials to theatres worldwide and protecting the rights and legacy of the authors it represents. Whether it is the newest hit from the Broadway or London stage, or a timeless classic, MTI has been cultivating new work and perpetuating the life of the great American musicals such as Guys and Dolls, Disney's Beauty & the Beast, West Side Story, Fiddler On The Roof, The Music Man, Les Misérables, Annie, Ain't Misbehavin', High School Musical, Damn Yankees, Godspell, Little Shop Of Horrors and the musical theatre collection of composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim, among others.
Apart from the major Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, MTI also represents and develops youth shows, revues and musicals which began life in regional theatre and have since become worthy additions to the musical theatre canon.
MTI licenses over 15,000 productions totaling more than 60,000 performances each year in the United States and Canada. Approximately 45,000 amateur and professional theatrical organizations throughout the United States and Canada involve more than three million households each year in performances seen by more than twenty-five million audience members. Whether it's a high school in Kansas, an all-female troupe in Japan or the first production of West Side Story ever staged in Estonia, productions of MTI musicals have touched the lives of hundreds of millions around the world.
MTI is also committed to the idea of theatre as education. Whether it's the twelve thousand high schools who regularly perform our shows, or the many community and professional theatres whose outreach programs introduce new audiences to new works, MTI shares with these educators the goal of raising the next generation of theatre artists and audiences. MTI has taken a leading role in theatre education by creating the MTI Theatrical Resources, a theatrical "tool box" designed not only to help ensure the success of each musical production, but also to establish the study of musical theatre as a permanent part of the high school curriculum.
In 1998, as part of an educational initiative initiate by its Chairman Freddie Gershon, MTI brought classic musical theatre to elementary and middle school-aged students with --The Broadway Junior Collection®. Broadway Junior is a complete package which includes a first-timer's "How To" guide to producing Broadway's most beloved and celebrated musicals -- custom tailored to the needs of young people and schools. The Broadway Junior Collection® provides condensed, author-approved versions of classic musicals like Annie, Guys and Dolls, Into The Woods, and Fiddler On The Roof, Seussical and demonstrates how to make a musical the ultimate interdisciplinary teaching tool. Since 1998 there have been more than 16,000 licensed Broadway Junior productions in elementary and middle schools throughout the United States and Canada. The success of The Broadway Junior Collection® is perhaps best measured in the self-confidence, discipline, character, cooperation and self-esteem instilled in the children who have participated in Broadway Junior productions, as they master the diverse skills necessary to creating a musical.
MTI is also a leader in providing materials to meet the increasing demand for symphonic arrangements of popular theatre music. The MTI Concert Library offers arrangements of selected songs, as well as full scores from Broadway shows.
