Welcome to Maya: The Musical

A person and person posing for a pictureDescription automatically generated Hi! We’re Cheeyang Ng & Eric Sorrels!

Along with Associate Producers Mehr Kaur and Devi Peot, we make up the Maya Development Team.

Stephen Schwartz (Wicked) calls Maya: The Musical "fresh and interesting. The heart of Māyā lies in the music."

We've had an incredible five months on both sides of the ponds. Last November, we presented Māyā in concert in New York City with the support of Prospect Musicals. In February, we brought Māyā all the way to London to share with the top artistic directors and producers in the West End and U.K. regional scene, and we're excited to share more news on that front soon.

But first...we're headed to the recording studio to make a CONCEPT E.P.!

If you're here reading this, you may be interested in supporting for Māyā's journey. The fastest, simplest, and most impactful way will be making tax-deductible donation right here on this page. With your support, we will make this E.P. sound as epic as humanly possible.

If you want to learn a little more about the show’s history, and its growth from a seed to a large banyan tree, read on!

Seed: NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program

The first seed of Māyā: A New Musical was planted in 2018 with a text exchange:

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Originally titled “The Golden Threshold,” (inspired by Sarojini Naidu’s debut collection of poetry) We presented a first draft in April 2019 as our Thesis Presentation for NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.

Germination: Non-Profit Development

5 months later in September, we had our first developmental workshop with Live & In Color (Artistic Director: Devanand Janki), directed by Arpita Mukherjee where the cast and creative team got to live and work together full time for two weeks in Connecticut. At the end of the workshop, we had our first public staged reading.

We continued development in 2020 with a student reading at Pace University in January, and presented our first Industry Reading in February by Hypokrit Live Arts (Artistic Director: Arpita Mukherjee). In early March, we received the Eric Weinberger Emerging Librettist award from Amas Theatre, which promised a grant and a reading in New York City later that year.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit!

When theatres across the country shut down, we continued development on opposite sides of the world (Cheeyang with their family in Singapore, Eric with his in Tennessee). We worked with The Eugene O’Neill Incubator, Asolo Rep Ground Floor and were featured in the Festival of New Musicals at the National Alliance of New Musicals (NAMT) in 2021.

Post-pandemic, we finally presented Maya: The Musical in New York City publicly for the first time with Amas Musical Theatre (Artistic Director: Donna Trinkoff) in three invited presentations at the Off-Broadway Theatre Row.

Sapling: Finding Our Voice

2023 gave Cheeyang & Eric the opportunity of a lifetime — the chance to present their show to one of their heroes, Stephen Schwartz (Wicked), in Los Angeles as part of the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop.

"Fresh and interesting.
The heart of Māyā lies in the music."

-Stephen Schwartz

At the beginning of 2024, we continued development in Los Angeles with Musical Theatre West.

Blooming: New York & London

On November 21, we presented a sold-out Maya: In Concert with Prospect Musicals and the National Asian Artists Project (NAAP)!

And finally, in February 2025, we had an enormously successful Industry Workshop in London.

Helmed by 2 x Olivier Nominated Director Milli Bhatia (seven ways of killing kylie jenner, Royal Opera House) and with voices and collaborators from all over the world, Māyā has grown from a single seed into a truly global musical.

A person and person taking a selfieDescription automatically generated If you’ve made it this far, thank you from the bottom of our heart for taking an interest in our show’s journey, and we hope you’ll make a tax-deductible donation while you’re here.

No amount is too small to help us on our journey. Thank you for your belief and your support!

Find us on Instagram & Tiktok @maya.themusical; or on our website at www.mayathemusical.com

Special Thanks to: Randall Eng, Mindi Dickstein, Sybille Pearson, Arpita Mukherjee, Devanand Jenki, Donna Trinkoff, Amy Rogers, Noah Hadland and Eric Fegan.

Maya Development

Help us get to London!