Milan will host the Musical Awards, the first world award dedicated to the best productions from over 40 countries.
And it will do so with the International Musical Festival, whose first edition will be held in June 2022. For the debut, since there were no original productions in 2021, only career awards will be awarded, but from subsequent editions all and 14 prizes, the golden spiers made with Candolia marble used for the Milan Cathedral, divided into various categories.
The winners will be chosen by a creative advisory board which includes international stars such as Whoopi Goldberg and Lorella Cuccarini. "The world of the Italian musical deserves this light on itself - said Cuccarini - it deserves respect because it has been very successful for years, it attracts a heterogeneous audience and brings to the theater even those who usually don't go there". She, who with 'Grease' was one of the forerunners of the musical in Italy, now with this festival hopes that "Milan will become the capital of the musical along with Broadway and the West End". And with her the organizers hope so, starting with the executive producer Fabrizio Carbon: "We realized that - he said - there was no recognition that would reward the excellence of the art of musical on a global level: in America they have the Toni Awards ,in England, the Laurence Olivier Awards, but nothing that brings together the excellence of musicals worldwide in a single award ".
The idea also convinced Simone Genatt, founder of Broadway international Group and Broadway Asia: "There is no better time than this to restart, we are like in the twenties of the last century, we can join forces to celebrate Italy and artistic power of the musical ". And not only artistic: the musical is a driving genre for the entertainment world, with numbers such as 250 million spectators and tickets sold for 13 billion in 2018 alone. Just think that in Germany - recalled the artistic director Diego Montrone, pianist and conductor - more tickets are sold for the musical than for football matches.
For the first edition of the festival, the organizers plan to bring a couple of shows to Milan, perhaps to be shown later in Lombard theaters, as proposed by the regional councilor for culture Stefano Bruno Galli. There will obviously be the gala evening for the awards ceremony, while the location has not yet been defined: "We had the Opera House in mind, recommended to us by the Municipality," said Carbon, but the theater, which today should have hosted the presentation of the review, since the last inspection it has been declared unfit for use.
The festival should also have a television aspect: "We are quite ahead with Rai", said Carbon, explaining that for editions from 2023 onwards the nominations will be made with a mechanism similar to that of the Golden Globes, thanks to the reports of the press of the various countries involved.
Each year, as anticipated, there will be an international jury: "We have invited Bocelli to Bolle, as well as stars from Russia to Korea, and there will be - concluded the producer - international guests".