A musical inspired by the closure of Lycoming Mall will be premiering in New York City this February.

Ben Fish, of Brooklyn, New York, who spoke to the Williamsport Sun-Gazette last February about a musical he wrote loosely based on his time working at the T-Mobile during the last days of the mall, will finally get to see his idea come to life.

“It’s just so amazing that this is finally coming to pass,” Fish said.

“The Final Days of Lycoming Mall” will premiere at the New York Theater Festival at the Teatro Latea, 107 Suffolk St., New York. The shows will be at 9 p.m. Feb. 2 and 4, and 6:45 p.m. Feb. 7.

Five years ago, he had come to Lycoming County to help out the store because of its staffing shortage.

“If I could go back and see myself sitting on that bench with absolutely nothing to do, I would tell myself ‘Good job remembering as much as you did about this place,'” Fish said. “‘You’re going to make it out and you’re going to accomplish the things you want to accomplish, but only if you stick with it.'”

And stick with it he did.

He and Beto González, who worked on the show’s book and music, went to a writer’s retreat last year to finish the show.

“It was a resounding success,” Fish said. “We finished the last three songs we needed. The second day of being up there, we sat down in giant reclining chairs and spent 11 hours rewriting the entire book in order to make it submittable for the festival we were going to apply for. The festival’s 90-minute limit is very important.”

A few days after submitting their show to the New York Theater Festival, thinking maybe it could work out, they heard back that they had been accepted.

“We got to work doing more rewrites, assembling casts, getting the band, getting a director and working on budgeting,” Fish said. “It’s been a nonstop process for the last few months, assembling the last few details.”

The New York Theater Festival has been around for about 13 years, he said. It showcases almost 100 shows every six months. Because they host so many shows throughout the year, they require a lower threshold to have a show featured there.

“The limiting factors are self-produced,” Fish said. “We have enough money in savings and friends within industries to pull this thing off and that’s mostly thanks to Beto and the connections he’s made in the last year.”

During the festival, shows occur daily. Their 9 p.m. shows will follow performances happening at 6:30, which means the shows must go up and come down quickly.

“Our closing night 6:45 show, we’re going to have about 25 minutes to completely unload the show into cars because there’s no loading zone,” FIsh said. “We have to plan what we can fit in two cars because that’s all we can bring. It’s a fun problem to solve. Obviously it’s a little bit of a challenge. The festival is giving us a venue, a sound board and a light board.”

For Fish, the most important thing the venue provides are dates, a hard deadline that has to be met, which he said has been beneficial. Fish and González finished the sheet music for actors and the orchestra, as well as recorded vocal demos so people can hear all of the songs.

“Going to the festival to see other shows to see how they’re running things, what kind of set they’re bringing is, has been super fun,” Fish said. “There are so many incredible eclectic and diverse writers.”

Rehearsals began this month.

“We got a bunch of fun people involved in that,” Fish said. “It’s going to be an absolute whirlwind. … I’ll be playing myself which is going to be a fun little wrinkle.”

Fish’s dream is to see the show go more nationwide to areas that have dead or dying malls like the Lycoming Mall.

“Williamsport has a downtown theater that would be very nice for our show,” Fish said.

Tickets can be purchased at https://innovationtickets.com/product/the-final-days-of-lycoming-mall. Find out more information about the show by following them on Instagram at @themallmusical.