LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – On Broadway for one night only, two students from Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock got to see their work performed on one of the grandest stages in the world.
Isabella Nguyen and Maya Johnson submitted the winning song “Live Before Life is Gone” from their work-in-progress musical “Less Than Perfect” in the 2024 Musical Theatre Songwriting Challenge.
“It was very little fish in a big pond,” Johnson said.
WATCH: Mount St. Mary students see their song performed on Broadway stage
The competition is presented by the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the National Alliance for Musical Theatre. As winners, the soon-to-be senior students were invited to New York City in June 2024 to work with mentors, culminating in a June 17 concert of their songs.
“We kind of didn’t believe it was happening until we were having it performed in front of us and even then it was like is someone going to like jump out and yell, ‘This is a prank,” Johnson admitted.