The First Mouse in Manhattan began where most great musicals do: in a room full of people who had no business being there. Written by Erica Molfetto and William Karras in the NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program in 2020, the show was the feel-good musical its writers needed — a coming-of-age comedy about Antonina Gambino, the first mouse to immigrate to Manhattan and the tight-five that started it all. The show received a concert reading at New York University Tisch and has been featured on Follow Spot Radio on Sirius XM. Ambition doesn't have a size requirement. Neither, it turns out, does a good origin story.