(AGENPARL) – Tue 29 April 2025 A blue text on a white background
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: APRIL 29, 2025
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MTI ANNOUNCES REPRESENTATION OF
LIVELY MCCABE ENTERTAINMENT’S
NEW “HITS MUSICALS COLLECTION”
OF JUKEBOX MUSICALS POWERED BY
THE PRIMARY WAVE MUSIC CATALOG
(New York, NY) – Music Theatre International (MTI) has acquired the rights to the “Hits Musicals Collection” from Lively McCabe Entertainment (LME), the theatrical development company behind Clue and Mystic Pizza founded by Chairman Michael Barra and led by President Allison Bressi. These titles are part of LME’s previously announced slate partnership with Primary Wave (PW) and are co-developed with PW’s Chief Content Officer, Natalia Nastaskin, and Chief Operating Officer, Ramon Villa. The collection will include previously announced stage adaptations of the cult films Girls Just Want to Have Fun (from M Dickson, Lauren Marcus, and Georgia Stitt) and Can’t Hardly Wait (from Sinead Daly and Jesse Vargas), as well as newly announced projects from writers Sandy Rustin, Neena Beber and Mitchell Kriegman, and Jeremy Desmon.
The “Lively McCabe Hits Musical Collection” will initially feature projects including:
THE SANTA SWITCH
The Santa Switch from book writer Jeremy Desmon and arranger/orchestrator Jesse Vargas will be released by MTI later this year, following its recent World Premiere production at Florida’s Titusville Playhouse in late 2024. Set in mid-century New York City (and the North Pole), The Santa Switch is the magical tale of how Santa and Mrs. Claus try to retire, but in doing so, they must pass on the baton to the new Santa. When the magic sleigh bells choose a young New York ad exec for the iconic position, he declines the offer, putting the North pole and the fate of Christmas in jeopardy of disappearing forever.
The Santa Switch includes the hit Christmas songs “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree,” and “A Holly Jolly Christmas,” as well as popular songs including “What A Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong, “Best Day of My Life” by American Authors, and Kelly Clarkson’s “Breakaway,” among many others.
ALWAYS SOMETHING THERE…
Always Something There…, written by Sandy Rustin with arrangements and orchestrations from Geoffrey Ko, will have its world premiere at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, Illinois this June, directed by James Vásquez. When Samantha Craig wakes up on the morning of her 45th birthday in her 18-year-old life, she has a chance to rewrite her past and land herself in the future of her dreams. 
Featuring a score of 80s hits made famous by Madonna, Whitney Houston, Culture Club, Naked Eyes, The Go-Gos, and Tiffany, among many others, Always Something There… is a modern musical homage to the beloved teen-flicks of the 1980s. 
GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN
Featuring a book by Lauren Marcus and M. Dickson, arrangements and orchestrations by Georgia Stitt, and direction by Jennifer Werner, Girls Just Want to Have Fun is currently in early development.
Based on the screenplay by Amy Spies (Beverly Hills, 90210) and featuring the title song written by Robert Hazard and made famous by Cyndi Lauper, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, tells the story of high schooler Janey, a talented gymnast, who has always followed the orders of her strict Army colonel father and stayed out of the spotlight. However, when she moves to a new town and meets bold, supportive Lynne, she disobeys her father for the first time to enter a TV dance competition. The characters of Janey and Lynne were originally played by Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt in the 1985 film, which also featured Shannen Doherty, Jason Silverman, and Lee Montgomery. 
The musical features a score of 1980s hits made famous by artists such as Whitney Houston, Huey Lewis and the News, Olivia Newton-John, Culture Club among others, as well as iconic songs from the original film such as “Dancing In Heaven” and “I Can Fly.”
CAN’T HARDLY WAIT
Adapted from the screenplay by Deb Kaplan and Harry Elfont, Can’t Hardly Wait features a book by Sinead Daly, arrangements and orchestrations by Jesse Vargas, and direction by Kate Sullivan, and is currently in early development.
Can’t Hardly Wait follows a group of high school seniors on the eve of graduation, as they navigate the ending of this chapter of their lives at a classmate’s house party. What will the future bring? That is a question for another day. The musical will feature a score of top-charting hits from the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.
The original cult classic film starred Lauren Ambrose, Ethan Embrey, and Jennifer Love Hewitt, and featured Selma Blair, Jenna Elfman, Peter Facinelli, Seth Green, Melissa Joan Hart, Jaime Pressly, Jerry O’Connell, Freddy Rodríguez, Sara Rue, Jason Segal, and Sean Patrick Thomas, among others. 
STUCK IN THE 90s
From the creator of “Clarissa Explains it All,” Mitchell Kriegman and writer Neena Beber (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), comes Stuck in the 90s. A group of Millennials stuck in their nostalgia for the 90s, and equally stuck in the way their lives have turned out, are unexpectedly transported back in time to the actual 90s. Now they are literally stuck in their best decade! So, uh, is that a good thing or not? As they encounter their past and the world the way they used to be, they have to work through their rosy memories and resolve the real issues about their lives in order to return to the present – all the while, singing and dancing to the hits of the decade.
Stuck in the 90s features a score from artists including Christina Aguilera, NSYNC, The Cranberries, and Ace of Base, arranged and orchestrated by Jesse Vargas. A world premiere directed by Ashley Rodbro is soon to be announced.
“MTI is thrilled with our partnership with Lively McCabe Entertainment,” said John Prignano, Chief Operating Officer & Director of Development and Education for Music Theatre International. “These exciting new shows feature some of the most recognizable songs of all time and we cannot wait to bring The Hits Musicals Collection to theatres and schools across the country.”
Michael Barra, Founder and Chairman of Lively McCabe Entertainment said, “I’ve had the pleasure of working with Drew and John and the entire team at MTI going back nearly 15 years, and we couldn’t be happier to partner with them on this collection of new musicals. Bringing our development partners at Primary Wave into this collection at MTI feels like a match made in heaven.”
“Co-producing a slate of musicals with the prolific team at Lively McCabe has enabled us to incorporate our extraordinary music library into a fun and evergreen collection of family entertainment.” said Natalia Nastaskin, Chief Content Officer of Primary Wave. “Having the expertise of MTI to bring these musicals to the world is an undeniable path towards extending the legacies of iconic and legendary songs.”
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 100,000 professional, community and school theatres in the US and in over 150 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).
ABOUT LIVELY MCCABE ENTERTAINMENT
ABOUT PRIMARY WAVE
Primary Wave Music is the leading independent publisher of iconic and legendary music in the world. The company is home to some of the most iconic songwriters, artists, and record labels across the history of recorded music including Bob Marley, Prince, Stevie Nicks, Notorious B.I.G., James Brown, The Doors, Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, Smokey Robinson, Whitney Houston, Ray Charles, Burt Bacharach, Neil Sedaka, Bing Crosby, Luther Vandross, Olivia Newton-John, Isaac Hayes, Andre 3000, Ric Ocasek, Axl Rose, Steven Van Zandt, Aerosmith, Def Leppard, America, War, Teddy Pendergrass, Count Basie, Traveling Wilburys (Bob Dylan), Donny Hathaway, Joey Ramone, Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots), Jerry Jeff Walker, Bob Burns (Lynyrd Skynyrd), George Brown (Kool & The Gang), Sly & The Family Stone, Boston, Alice Cooper, Paul Anka, Boy George and Culture Club, Allee Willis, Paul Rodgers, Free, The Cranberries, Steve Cropper, Sarah McLachlan, Alice In Chains, Air Supply, Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme), Julian Casablancas (The Strokes), Huey Lewis and the News, Itzhak Perlman, PF Sloan, Glenn Gould, Gin Blossoms, Spin Doctors, Disturbed, George Merrill & Shannon Rubicam, Steve Porcaro, Styx, Keith, Forsey, Jeff Porcaro, Chuck Mangione, Chris Isaak, Sun Records, Times Music (subsidiary of the Times of India Group), Nas Nuvens Catalog, and many more. The songs represented by Primary Wave include over 1000 Top 10 singles, and over 400 #1 hits. Since its inception in 2006, Primary Wave Music has embraced an entrepreneurial spirit, offering, and executing proactive one-of-a-kind ideas, unique services, and marketing campaigns for our artists. Primary Wave has earned a stellar reputation for being forward thinking and re-introducing classic artists and their music into the modern marketplace as well as nurturing young talent to become legends themselves. This success is based upon our team of seasoned and creative executives collaboratively working together closely with our artists as partners. As a company, we strive for excellence in the pursuit of iconic artists and catalogs that not only reflect great artistry, but impact and influence culture.
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