A while later, this cameo struck Ms. Bengson as curious. Check out photos from opening night here! Andrew Gans By You can read more of his theater writing. The previously announced Boy Falls from the Sky, Room, and more have new dates. Abigail once served as a background singer for Tune-Yards, but her expressive warmth is also memorable from her role in HBO's "High Maintenance" a year ago, as Kim, the intimacy coordinator who meets an asexual magician. "It's not easy, it's not easy, but it's the way I want to live," Abigail said. And I really hoped that wasnt so.. Eliots work. What Are Theatremakers Doing to Present Safe Productions? Its title song captured and likely inspired 4 million viewers on YouTube, and maybe just nudged Smith to tap The Bengsons to create something for the series they're calling Arena Riffs. The shift in focus from outside to inside clarifies and intensifies what was already an affecting piece. The change in the Off-Broadway theatre's guidelines was tweeted yesterday. Ryan McPhee, can be accessed on the Arena Stage YouTube channel. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Keith Loria is a freelance writer and theater lover who has written about everything from business to sports to real estate with a lot of entertainment writing thrown into the mix. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Three of their singles have been featured on "So You. Do Broadway and Off-Broadway Theatres Still Require Masks? August 11, 2021. Andrew Gans The production opened on Wednesday, November 2, and will conclude as scheduled this Sunday, November 27. La Jolla Playhouse has announced the presentation of Sovereignty Hymns, a commissioned work that features a video series of original songs exploring questions about reproductive liberty. Meg Masseron When I had a miscarriage, that shaped what we were going through, and this became a healing practice for us to make this together.. Allen Willner's shifting lights accentuate that live-gig atmosphere, bathing the stage in one color or another when it's time to really rock out. From left, Jo Lampert, Ms. Bengson and Mr. Bengson in this poignant 90-minute show at New York Theater Workshop. But three weeks is a long time in the newly discovered country of young love. July 27, 2021. Thats true even when you change names and details, and create what Mr. Bengson called the novel-myth version of the story. Yet the acceptability of drawing bystanders into ones own art is one of the great ethical debates in any kind of autobiography. At other times, particularly toward the end, the Bengsons fully embody the roles of Will and Sarah, bringing the whole emotional impact of their musical performance, presence and obvious chemistry into the bittersweet tale of this other, fictional couple. By Dan Meyer By the time of its making, the two and their young son have made their way to her childhood home in snowy Vermont with the likely intent of chronicling their time there in song during an already strange time. I know that in taking this on, I cant be meek, I cant glaze over, I cant allow fear or denial to be the story of our family, because that was toxic, too.. styleElement.type = 'text/css'; So by bringing viewers into their homewarts and allthey will see the dirty dishes in the background as the Bengsons sing and dance together, providing that real intimacy. The Bengsons nightmare scenario is to have family drama break out in the audience, where they would have to witness it from the stage. Ms. Bengson, 35, has a tale to tell about the autumn she was 15, when her family shattered and the seemingly safe Eden she grew up in was lost forever. And I can't imagine wanting it any other way. Photo by Paul de Luna. Staged with resonant economy by the talented Anne Kauffman, with sharp and subtle movement direction by Sonya Tayeh, Hundred Days is cabaret as cri de coeur, and it is advisable to watch it with a handkerchief at the ready. A large-scale show with a chorus, its intended as the second part of a trilogy that will continue with a musical about Mr. Bengsons early life. Dan Meyer | The stage managers are Amanda Spooner and Christopher Kee Anaya-Gorman. January 2, 2022. Yet she is terrified of compounding anyones anguish. He ha (read more about this author). Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's docu-play, with music by Steve Earle, had its 2020 Public Theater run cut short by COVID. The songs are so catchy, propulsive and soul-soaringly jubilant that at some point I realized that I'd spent a large portion of the show with a silly grin on my face. | Ars Novawill celebrate its 20th Anniversary and honor its foundersJenny & Jon SteingartatNova Ball, Ars Novas annual benefit-turned-party of the season. April 15, 2021. For tickets and information visit zspace.org. | Some have come to see it. The Broadway revival, on hold due to the pandemic, will now begin previews March 9, 2022. Raven Brunner | The Daniel Craig-led production is back after cases of COVID within the company put a pause on performances. The Off-Broadway company recently canceled its Under the Radar Festival due to rising case numbers. Their return also marks the launch of their 40th season in operation. La Jolla Playhouse announces the cast and creative team for Hundred Days, book by The Bengsons and Sarah Gancher, music and lyrics by The Bengsons, directed by Anne Kauffman, with movement direction by Sonya Tayeh. More upcoming/ in development: Ohio (piece by piece productions). We filmed it at my moms, in the house I grew up in, which is where we have been staying for the past six months, Abigail said. the Musical!, Tina, David Byrne's American Utopia, Stomp, Jersey Boys, and more. sleeknoteScriptTag.charset = 'utf-8'; By The production runs 90 minutes and has no intermission. | Andrew Gans | Ms. Bengson, 35, has a tale to tell about the autumn she was 15, when her family shattered and the seemingly safe Eden she grew up in was lost forever. Then, in one cataclysmic season, it all falls apart, beginning with a killing that might have been prevented if only the parents hadnt been so committed to a you-choose-your-feelings worldview that they dismissed the signs of mental illness in one of the kids. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. By . The Great Performances broadcast includes interviews with Adrienne Warren, Norm Lewis, Sara Bareilles, Aaron Tveit, Chita Rivera, and more. Michael R. Jackson, John Gallagher, Jr. & More to be Featured in Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3 Concert Series, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tina Fey & More to Celebrate Ars Nova 20th Anniversary at NOVA BALL, Photos: On the Red Carpet for the 66th Annual Obie Awards, Photos: Go Inside Opening Night of WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE SEA at Manhattan Theatre Club, Photos: First Look at WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE SEA at Manhattan Theatre Club, Photo Coverage: The Public Theater Celebrates Launch of 13th Annual UNDER THE RADAR. May 25, 2022, By Even days afterward, having heard the songs only once, I get a surge of visceral pleasure every time one of them runs through my head. March 15, 2022, By Hayley Levitt, But their self-portrait of a show, which was written in collaboration with Ms. Gancher, spends most of its time in the light-devouring shadows of doubt. The front-line team has provided COVID compliance safety for 1.8 million audience members seeing more than 30 shows on Broadway and beyond. The musical, starring Caroline Bowman and Caroline Innerbichler, plays Sheas Buffalo Theatre through September 24. For the first time since the pandemic shutdown, Actors' Theatre in Grand Rapids, Michigan is returning to its home stage at Spectrum Theater on the Grand Rapids Community College campus. By | Ars Nova, which also co-produced Sundown, Yellow Moon, a Rachel Bonds play with music by the Bengsons, has an estimable record with nontraditional musicals that includes birthing Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812. It was the company that matched Ms. Gancher with the Bengsons several years ago. The Bengsons display the pleasures, joys and the emotional tolls of the events of the past year and how they managed to cultivate and hold onto happiness even during these dark, difficult times. Three of their singles have been featured on "So You Think You Can Dance" (FOX). Its been incredible that weve gotten to work through the year, and how this song has gone viral, Shaun said. Both Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker have been fighting cases of COVID, which put the Neil Simon revival on hiatus. A Childhood Eden Seared by Violence. I wouldn't want to forget a moment of it. Like Abigail, the character she plays in The Lucky Ones, Ms. Bengson grew up in an extended hippie family that revolved around a school. Talaura Harms Anne Kauffman and Caitlin Sullivan direct. while examining the way Shaun Bengson's inherited hearing loss intertwines with his journey of losing and finding faith. SHUCKED, SOME LIKE IT HOT Lead Nominations for 2023 Drama Desk Awards, Ars Nova Original Off-Broadway Production, 2018. Wearing a black leather biker jacket over a slinky white dress, the long dark haired Ms. Bengson has an alluring presence, a powerful voice and plays drums. Over the past few weeks, the folk-rock/theatre-making duo and a team of collaborators have been experimenting at the Brooklyn venue on the development of their new work. Colette Alexander, Abigail Bengson, Shaun Bengson, Jo Lampert, Dani Markham, and Reggie D. White, By The first two months of performances take place with social distancing. Other "Arena Riffs" are "The Freewheeling Insurgents" by Psalmayene 'Psalm" 24, which begins March 31 at 7 p.m. and "A More Perfect Union" by Rona Siddiqui April 14 at 7 p.m. Information can be found here. | This. s.parentNode.insertBefore(sleeknoteScriptTag, s); The stage and screen favorite stars in and directs an adaptation of T.S. Which turns out to be all thats needed for a show that celebrates and laments the elusive radiance of a shared life. Dan Meyer | October 15, 2020. The stage adaptation of Baz Luhrmann's film returns to the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. In the new show, an extended family runs a school together, raising their children Abigail, her sisters and their cousins in a kind of hippie idyll. Set to Music? The story looks at embracing uncertainty, taking a leap, and loving as if you only had a hundred days to live. To whatever degree The Lucky Ones is fictionalized, she finds it really lovely to be working on a true story., I spend so much of my life making up characters or brainstorming situations or coming up with scenarios, Ms. Gancher said. INTO THE WOODS & More Lead 2023 Drama League Award Nominations. October 8, 2020. The blessed news comes with some worry; they've suffered a miscarriage once before and had complications with the birth of their son. Abigail and Shaun Bengson are a married composing and performing duo based in NYC and VT who have performed across the country and around the world. Hundred Days now takes place entirely in New York City (mostly in Astoria, Queens), with lots of internal detours into the twisty corridors of each partners mind. Arriving at this realization has been the seed for all sorts of lyric reflections, be it from ancient Greek odists, Renaissance sonneteers or pop balladeers. I recognize its a little codependent.. Dan Meyer } var s = document.getElementById('sleeknoteScript'); Eleven years ago, Abigail and Shaun Bengson met. The Harold Pinter classic opens October 21 as part of the theatre companys Welcome Back season. It was from Robert Fleming, a gay Black man who is executive artistic director of Actors Theatre in . Phylicia Rashad and Brandon J. Dirden star in the Manhattan Theatre Club premiere by Tony nominee Dominique Morisseau. Three weeks later, the couple got married. Check out Samantha Barks, Stephanie McKeon and more in costume. January 6, 2022, By My Joy Is Heavy! Reggie D. White (whose Beyonce parody video "Dunkin Love" is currently going viral) and Amy Lizardo act as stand-ins for the couple in the story, sometimes silently acting out a scene while the Bengsons voice the dialogue in song, and occasionally singing the parts themselves (and forcefully, at that). Up Close & Sweaty with Haus of Sequins, Nightbeast & Kiml, Vienna Light Orchestra Presents: A Tribute to Broadway & The Greatest Showman, The Map for Healing & Recovery Orientation & Sign Up, Darke County Food Truck Rally & Craft Show, Bridgerton Inspired Friends Chai Tea Party. In Hundred Days, real-life married couple Abigail and Shaun Bengson (the duo behind Ars Nova's The Lucky Ones) detail the story of how they . Sign up for reopening news, announcements, and exclusive discounts on tickets to your favorite shows! And Ms. Bengson, in particular, finds herself opening baggage from her past that would seem to make happiness with someone else impossible. Hundred Days, the luminous musical memoir by the Bengsons and Sarah Gancher, is an everyday horror story with a very provisional happy ending like so many chapters of human existence. They begin awkwardly and self-consciously, as if reluctant to commit even to performing. CREDITS Created by and featuring the music of: Abigail & Shaun Bengson Director: Anne Kauffman Book by: Kate E. Ryan Producer (Z Space): Lisa Steindler Then, the pair started to strip the concept back and they arrived at theirpresent concept: "using the theatricality that we gathered and learned along the way, but in service to a humbler story that is hopefully more honest as well," Abigail said. | A look at an Equity-approved musical, an immersive experiment, and an amateur teen show.