The way new musicals reach audiences is broken.
A show can take ten years to get to a stage. Extraordinary scores disappear into workshops. Writers spend their lives waiting for permission. And unless you live near New York, London, or one of a handful of major cities, chances are you never get to experience new musical theater at all.
Vala was created to change that.
Not by replacing theater. By expanding it.
We are building a new kind of regional theater for the world, one that combines music, storytelling, and emerging technology to help new musicals reach audiences faster, farther, and more affordably than ever before.
At the center of that idea is the Muzi™.
A Muzi is a short-form musical film told in six episodes, featuring original songs, cinematic storytelling, and performances by Broadway, Off-Broadway, and internationally recognized artists. Think of it as the EP of musical theater: the first 20–25 minutes of a new musical, fully realized and released for a global audience.
Here are three ways Vala is helping reinvent how musicals reach the world.
1. The Muzi™: A New Format for a New Audience
For the last fifty years, a new musical had only a few paths forward: a regional production, a workshop, or a Broadway gamble costing millions and millions of dollars before anyone even knows if the audience is there.
The Muzi creates a third path.
Six episodes. Original songs. A complete artistic experience designed to be watched anywhere in the world, on any screen.
Some of these stories may eventually become Broadway productions, films, or television series. Some may remain Muzi. All are equally exciting to us.
What matters is that the work finally has a way to reach people.
Our first slate launches globally on Bloomsday – June 16, 2026:
- Himself & Nora: the love story behind Bloomsday itself, created in partnership with the James Joyce Centre in Dublin
- A Complicated Woman: featuring the voice of Tony nominee L Morgan Lee, and original production directed by Jeff Calhoun
- Pissin’ With the Tall Dogs: the story of rock legend Bonnie Bramlett, created with Bonnie herself
- Nightmare Alley: a noir musical for the screen featuring Tony winner Michele Pawk
Episode 1 of every Muzi is free. After that, viewers can purchase individual episodes or the complete Muzi collection.
Because before audiences can support new musicals, they have to discover them.
2. Education That Is Forever Free
At Vala, we believe the audience of tomorrow is built through education today.
We are proud to distribute the Johnny Mercer Foundation’s educational programs and curriculum materials including teacher guides, songwriting instruction, and classroom resources used in schools across the United States and internationally.
These programs meet national standards and are currently used in dozens of states and countries, now through partnerships with organizations such as the Kevin Love Foundation.
And they are free.
Forever free.
We will never place a paywall between a young person and the opportunity to discover music, storytelling, or their own creative voice.
Students can write songs. Teachers can build accredited coursework. Schools can integrate our materials into music, drama, and language arts programs at no cost.
This is not a marketing strategy for us. It is part of the reason Vala exists.
3. Artists Using AI for Artists
The cost of developing a musical has become overwhelming.
Workshops. Readings. Cast albums. Out-of-town productions. Years of development before a show ever reaches an audience, if it reaches one at all.
AI gives us another way forward.
Not by replacing artists, but by giving artists new tools.
Every Muzi begins with writers, composers, actors, musicians, and storytellers. The human beings remain at the center of the work. AI helps us create the cinematic world around them, allowing stories that might once have required enormous budgets to finally begin to be seen.
That is what we mean when we say:
Artists using AI for artists.
We also believe artists deserve to participate in the success of the work they help create. Every Muzi includes a transparent participation pool shared among writers, performers, directors, and editors.
Real artists. Real work. Real ownership.
We believe technology should serve the art — not replace it.
Discover the Future of Musical Theater
Vala launches globally on Bloomsday, June 16, 2026.
Four original titles. New musicals released in a format that did not exist a year ago.
Somewhere between theater, music, film, and streaming lives a new artistic form. We are excited to help build it.
Episode 1 of every Muzi is free.
And education will remain forever free.
As long as we are breathing, we have the ability to choose.
We choose to help new musicals reach the world.
— Jonathan Brielle