Do you want to reach new audiences and generate passive income from performances of your new musical? Submit your show for representation by a licensing agency who can connect your show to amateur and professional theaters around the US and the world. On this page you’ll find submissions information for musical licensors and publishers.
If you’re lucky enough to have had a high-profile show on Broadway or the West End, you will probably already have heard from companies like Broadway Licensing (and their imprints Stage Rights, Dramatists Play Service, and Playscripts), Music Theatre International, Josef Weinberger LTC (London), or Concord Theatricals and their imprints, Samuel French, Rodgers & Hammerstein, or Tams-Witmark. These companies are not open to submissions by un-agented writers or without first-class productions.
Most writers will want to seek out companies that accept submissions and match the show’s target demographic, as described below. We recommend you only submit a show that matches a licensing company’s expressed desires and catalog, ideally with production history and reviews. Be sure your demo has high quality singing and your presentation package is polished and professional.
Timeline for Licensing a Musical
The process may take over a year as, ideally, you would choose your preferred company, submit the show to them, and wait several months to hear back, if at all. If you are submitting a show simultaneously to more than one company, it’s polite to mention that in your cover letter.
Once your show is accepted, it’s still a good idea to help market it with a website that has music clips and notices, and to support your ongoing work through social media efforts.
Need help with your presentation package? Email Rebecca at rebecca@musicalwriters.com for design help with your show art, pitch deck, social media, invitations, and website.
Licensing Agencies Open to Submissions
GENERAL
Broadway DNA specializes in connecting emerging shows and playwrights with international licensing opportunities around the world. If you believe you have a unique show that can benefit from international licensing and has a strong affinity with our business and artistic vision, you are welcome to submit pitch materials to info@broadway-dna.com. Please include: show synopsis, production and/or development history, script sample and/or song demos, and your website or author bio. For more information, and what they’re currently looking for (scroll to the bottom), see www.broadway-dna.com/contact.
Heartland Plays Inc. publishes musicals and plays of the “quality and diversity to meet the needs of most theatres and producing organizations; Professional, Community, Summer Stock, College, High School, and Theatre for Children and Youth.” Visit www.heartlandplays.com/submissions/
SheNYC Arts, the country’s leading femme-led nonprofit championing gender equality in arts and entertainment, is proud to announce the launch of its newest wing: New Pages, a theatrical licensing division of the organization. With the new licensing wing, SheNYC will make their previous SheNYC, SheLA, and SheATL Summer Theater Festival shows available for licensing for productions nationwide. All proceeds from licensing fees will be split between SheNYC Arts and the writers of the shows, bolstering SheNYC’s fight for gender equity, while putting money directly into the pockets of marginalized artists. Any new shows that participate in their Summer Theater Festivals across New York City, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Dallas-Fort Worth will be eligible to join the library of licensed scripts. For festival consideration, they accept full-length plays and musicals during an open submissions period. In order to apply, you must be a playwright or composer of a gender-marginalized group (including cis women, trans people, and non-binary people), or a writing team that is made up of at least 50% people from a gender-marginalized group. Questions about the licensing program can be directed to licensing@shenycarts.org and festival submission info can be found at https://shenycarts.org.
Theatrical Rights Worldwide has a significant catalog, and they do accept submissions of new musicals. “If you feel your musical is ready for production, please send a copy of your script and samples of your music (for example: piano-vocal music), as well as any production history (regional theatre, new work festival, or educational environment) to TRW at submissions@theatricalrights.com” For more information, visit Theatrical Rights Worldwide – FAQ page (bottom of page)
Uproar Theatrics looks for excellently-crafted plays and musicals, bursting with nuance, complexity, compassion, and a deep and unrelenting love of humanity. Pieces that zoom in on all kinds of lives, not just those we’re used to seeing on the mainstage. For both plays and musicals, they’re looking forward to reading your pieces that have had at least one complete, full production. Send all relevant materials (script / libretto / demos / press packet / development and production history / anything else that might be helpful) to submissions@uproartheatrics.com. Visit https://www.uproartheatrics.com/contact for more information.
TYA/Family/Educational
Beat by Beat Press is a team of playwrights and arts educators passionate about inspiring kids through theatre, with a contemporary new catalogue of award-winning children’s musicals and teaching drama resources. Typically they develop every musical in-house. However they’re always on the look-out for incredible high-quality shows and writers. They only accept musicals that have had full staged productions. The material should be appropriate for kids in elementary and middle school with large, flexible casts. The show should have music completed. If you have a popular published children’s book, they will consider having their team take a look at it for potential musicla adaptation. If you are a graduate of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop or NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Program, they encourage you to submit your musical. To submit a musical, email submission@bbbpress.com . Include a one-page synopsis, author bios, production history, and at least 3-4 high-quality MP3s of the show’s best songs. Visit https://bbbpress.com/faq for more information.
Drama Source. As they say on their home page, “We Specialize In G-Rated, Family-Friendly Plays & Musicals.” They prefer to receive submissions in August since their main reading time is September 1 – October 31. Drama Source Submissions Guidelines
Eldridge Plays and Musicals accepts musicals suitable for performance by community theatres as well as junior and senior high schools. These can be full length, works for children, religious, or holiday themed. No explicit adult content or graphically defined situations accepted. https://histage.com/submission-guidelines-2
Pioneer Drama Service licenses short musicals to schools, churches, and other groups. They accept unsolicited submissions for ensemble-oriented shows that have a running time between 20 and 90 minutes. Submissions must be family friendly in both subject and language. They prefer casts that are balanced or favoring females (or gender neutral). They should have vocal ranges specifically written for amateur voices. Start with a query letter. See Pioneer Drama Service submission guidelines.
Theaterworks USA is a provider of extensive Theater for Young and Family Audiences that commissions creative professionals at all stages of their careers to help bring high-caliber programming to theatergoers of all ages in New York City and throughout North America. Works that they’ve commissioned, including The Lightning Thief and Junie B. Jones, have gone on to be licensed by MTI and Samuel French. Interested writers should submit a resume to https://twusa.org/about/work-with-us/.
Twisted Plays are written and prepared for schools, community theatres, children, and anyone interested in some good, wholesome fun! Categories include kids, preteens, teens, and adult plays and musicals, with additional subcategories like multicultural musicals, animal musicals, holiday musicals, and religious musicals. Submissions can be sent on their website at https://twistedplays.com/.
TYA (Theater for Young Audiences) Show Rights is the licensing division of New York City Children’s Theater. TYA Show Rights accepts original plays and musicals for young audiences that ask big questions, incite curiosity, and spark spirited discussions among kids, parents, and teachers. They will accept and consider manuscripts ONLY if they meet the criteria found on their website at https://tyashowrights.com/submissions/.
YouthPlays welcome submissions of challenging, entertaining plays and musicals that are appropriate for teen and younger actors and/or audiences. They accept unsolicited submissions of full scripts only from current YouthPLAYS authors, US-based BIPOC authors age 20 or older (please identify yourself as BIPOC in your Note to the Publisher), and for the New Voices One-Act Competition for Young Playwrights (see website for details). All other authors may email a query (no scripts, please) about a single play to submissions@youthplays.com. See https://www.youthplays.com/submit_play.php for more information.
PLAYS ONLY
Broadway Publishing Inc. has a primary mission to publish full-length, contemporary American plays, and they do not accept unsolicited submissions of musicals, individual short plays, or short play collections. Adaptations of classics are welcome. They generally acquire plays after a “definitive” production on or Off-Broadway, or at a professional theater, but recognize that only a limited number of plays have the good fortune to receive a major production, and so maintain an open submission policy. More information at https://www.broadwayplaypublishing.com/faqs/submissions/.
Dramatic Publishing’s extensive catalog of dramatic works is popular for use by high-schools, children’s theatres, professional and community theatres. They accept and consider unsolicited manuscripts of plays ONLY if they meet one of the following criteria: they publish one or more works by the author, the author has one or more works published by another major licensing house, the author is represented by a credentialed theatre or literary agent, the work has had at least two separate, fully-staged equity or amateur productions within the past five years. They no longer consider any unsolicited musicals or adaptations of A Christmas Carol, classic fairy tales, folktales, or Shakespeare. Visit their website for clear guidelines: Dramatic Publishing
Natalie Jean Rine is a NYC-based Producer, Author, and the Founder of Broadway DNA.
Natalie brings experience in global IP management for entertainment companies including Peanuts Worldwide, Rodgers & Hammerstein, DreamWorks Animation, and Broadway productions and tours throughout Asia.
