CREDITS Created by and featuring the music of: Abigail & Shaun Bengson Director: Anne Kauffman Book by: Kate E. Ryan Producer (Z Space): Lisa Steindler By January 7, 2022, By s.parentNode.insertBefore(sleeknoteScriptTag, s); 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. | Do Broadway and Off-Broadway Theatres Still Require Masks? Its possible that we have all been raised in a way that hurt us, Abigail says in the show. So, youre welcome, Louie., The Bengsons married 10 years ago, three weeks after their first date. And I do mean overwhelming. Hello friends!Here's our official Tiny Desk Contest 2020 submission!THE BENGSONSAbigail and Shaun Bengson are a married composing and performing duo who have. Manhattan Theatre Club has announced full casting and performance dates for Where the Mountain Meets the Sea, written by AUDELCO Award nominee Jeff Augustin (The New Englanders, The Morning Show) and directed by Princess Grace Award winner Joshua Kahan Brody, with music by The Bengsons (Hundred Days, The Lucky Ones). This is a true story, Shaun Bengson tells the audience from the stage of the Connelly Theater in the East Village. Is it possible to tell the truth kindly? Ms. Bengson said. | The musical, starring Katrina Lenk and Patti LuPone, was originally slated to open March 22, 2020composer Stephen Sondheims 90th birthday. The letters pile up outside, but if they unplug the radio and the phone, they're disconnected. First he attended college at Indiana University (studied Ethnomusicology & Traditional Indiana Fiddling), then after graduation Shaun moved to New York City as a part of the city's teaching fellows program. Like Abigail, the character she plays in The Lucky Ones, Ms. Bengson grew up in an extended hippie family that revolved around a school. The new Broadway play cancelled its opening night December 20 due to a case of COVID-19 within the company. | When I had a miscarriage, that shaped what we were going through, and this became a healing practice for us to make this together.. | Sonya Tayeh, currently Tony-nominated for Moulin Rouge!, serves as movement director. Adina Verson, at center, in The Lucky Ones, which considers the impact of a killing on Ms. Bengsons seemingly idyllic childhood. I love you so much!. Shaun Bengson, Abigail Bengson, Jeff Augustin, Joshua Kahan Brody, Billy Eugene Jones, Chris Myers From: Photos: Go Inside Opening Night of WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE SEA at Manhattan Theatre Club April 19, 2022, By He became a music teacher in NYC. The form in which the husband-and-wife team of Shaun and Abigail Bengson couch their response is a sort of luxuriant, sentimental-cool folk rock, in which fatalistic and angry drumming figures prominently, along with sweet, swirling chords. Some people in the family Ms. Bengson grew up in dont talk to one another anymore, but for the musical the Bengsons interviewed all of them including the older sibling, so-called, who committed the crime. sleeknoteScriptTag.type = 'text/javascript'; September 13, 2021. July 27, 2021. 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. The stage and screen favorite stars in and directs an adaptation of T.S. Andrew Gans "It's not easy, it's not easy, but it's the way I want to live," Abigail said. Her older sibling, so-called, would respond with feedback on her craftsmanship that helped to shape her as an artist. And with those words, Mr. Bengson and his wife, Abigail the other half of the folk-rock duo the Bengsons, the indie-theater darlings who created the show for Ars Nova attempt to draw a cloak of privacy around themselves and the people they love. Hello friends!Here's our official Tiny Desk Contest 2020 submission!THE BENGSONSAbigail and Shaun Bengson are a married composing and performing duo who have performed across the country and around the world. "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. December 26, 2022, By Shaun has struggled with other health issues over the years, including non-cancerous cysts in his testicles, which he first noticed during lockdown, meaning he was unable to have them operated on. July 27, 2021. The premise of Hundred Days, the new indie-rock musical at Z Space, sounds like it would be a huge downer. The story looks at embracing uncertainty, taking a leap, and loving as if you only had a hundred days to live. Eleven years ago, Abigail and Shaun Bengson met. Dan Meyer Three weeks later, the couple got married. | 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. Copyright 1991-2023 Playbill Inc. All Rights Reserved. Dan Meyer Dan Meyer (Unlike many other such narratives, it's the guy who's wasting away before his time.) January 2, 2022. Their music has been featured several times on So You Think You Can Dance (FOX). May 25, 2022, By By "My Joy is Heavy!" A while later, this cameo struck Ms. Bengson as curious. The Great Performances broadcast includes interviews with Adrienne Warren, Norm Lewis, Sara Bareilles, Aaron Tveit, Chita Rivera, and more. | Dan Meyer Hundred Days (the title refers to packing a whole lifes experience into that period of time) was performed in an earlier version in January at the Under the Radar Festival of experimental theater. And she has a deep affection for the Bengsons. | Roger Catlin, a member of the American Theatre Critics Association,is a Washington D.C.-based arts writer whose work appears regularly in SmithsonianMagazine.com. Talaura Harms There'd be much more unplugging to be done today. Abigail Bengson and Shaun Bengson Emilio Madrid-Kuser "In our new work, the idea is that loss is the mechanism by which God comes close," says Abigail Bengson. The concert's creative team also includes assistant director Keenan Tyler Oliphant, lighting designer Alejandro Fajardo, projection designer Jeff Sugg, scenic and costume designer DOTS, associate projection designer Simon Harding, producer Wendy vanden Heuvel, and executive producers Kendra Bator and Tom Casserly. Can they make it through the term without the worry? // Set the style properties for the paragraph element (ATLs Humana Festival; Manhattan Theatre Club), (New York Live Arts, Jacob's Pillow), and, (piece by piece productions). Andrew Gans A cross-country road trip that occupied the shows center 11 months ago has been jettisoned. | paragraph.style.height = '0px'; Bursts of banter lead into . | Ancram Opera House presents AN EVENING WITH THE BENGSONS at the Circa 1799 Barn in Ancramdale. A trio of the indie-folk duos songs have also been featured on So You Think You Can Dance, and one of their most recent singles, The Keep Going Song, has been viewed more than 4 million times on social media. Set in crunchy small-town New England (a part of Vermont that happens to be in Maine), its a follow-up to Hundred Days, a musical memoir of the Bengsons beginnings as a couple that was a hit last fall at New York Theater Workshop. But open to the possibilities of what will happen - and openness is the vanguard of this duo, who are more honest to their songwriting than many people are to their own selves - they turned on cameras. The piece is based on the couple's real-life story of how they got together and fell in love. Either way, the closest Ms. Bengson has felt to how she did before her family cracked apart is with the artistic family behind The Lucky Ones, a show that allows her to spend time again in her childhood Eden, if only in her imagination. But its what Im trying to do., One of my sisters, she said, Dont let your fear get in the way of the truth of this, Ms. Bengson added. Writing music together has been a profound way that we learn about each other, and what we think about the world, and how we think about ourselves. (La Jolla Playhouse, New York Theatre Workshop, US Tour). September 8, 2021. The Harold Pinter classic opens October 21 as part of the theatre companys Welcome Back season. | 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. What did our critic think of OPEN at Nu Sass? Such considerations are usually private matters. 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. INTO THE WOODS & More Lead 2023 Drama League Award Nominations. Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.. Though initially charming, Hundred Days goes off course during its second half. They have received the Jonathan Larson and Richard Rodgers Awards and nominations for the Drama Desk, Drama League, and Lucille Lortel Awards. Dan Meyer | var sleeknoteScriptTag = document.createElement('script'); I wonder if she really wanted to give me eggs, or if she just wanted to make sure I was O.K.. Were interested in seeing if we can look at that loss as an opportunity to see the divinity in one another.. Their remarkable submission - just 27 minutes, streaming free through the Arena website - shows the couple sharing their lives through the cruel winter of our pandemic, but also willing and very able to sing about it in real time. By The blessed news comes with some worry; they've suffered a miscarriage once before and had complications with the birth of their son. } 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. Website by, The Bengsons create new indie-folk musical for Arena Stage, A global community celebrates Passover with The Third Seder concert on Sunday, Washington Stage Guild revives Shaws Devils Disciple with simplicity and skill, Getting to know Elizabeth Dinkova: I like creating a brave space, When I like a play, I get obsessed: Karin Rosnizeck on The Body of a Woman as a Battlefield, I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky remains sharply poignant, Calendar: Play Readings, Workshops, and Theater Events in the DMV, Rorschach Theatre announces free staged readings of three new plays, Keegans Boiler Room Series announces seven new play workshops, 2023 Womens Storytelling Festival to feature 27 performers, Brett Widmann, Chicago WordPress Developer. Shaun Bengson, 34, cracked up at this, seated beside her in the apartment in Alphabet City where they stayed through early previews, to be close to the theater. Its conversational, sometimes it seems like a music video or a dance party, sometimes it seems like youre going for a walk with us, Shaun said. Manhattan Theatre Club is presenting the New York premiere of Where the Mountain Meets the Sea, written by AUDELCO Award nominee Jeff Augustin (The New Englanders, The Morning Show) and directed by Princess Grace Award winner Joshua Kahan Brody, with music by The Bengsons (Hundred Days, The Lucky Ones). This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Ryan McPhee The production began previews at London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane in August. When not writing, Keith can be found playing with his daughters, Jordan and Cassidy. | By 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 . | Then in early July a pivotal phone call came. The front-line team has provided COVID compliance safety for 1.8 million audience members seeing more than 30 shows on Broadway and beyond. March 20, 2021 Shaun and Abigail Bengson met in New York City at a party and after talking, decided to start a band together. Yet she is terrified of compounding anyones anguish. | Logan Culwell-Block 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. But on top of this there is hope in the form of a pregnancy. Ryan McPhee The stage managers are Amanda Spooner and Christopher Kee Anaya-Gorman. Part of that was an awareness, new to Mr. Bengson, of what a fragile thing a family can be. Like Hundred Days, The Lucky Ones is directed by Anne Kauffman and has a book co-written by the playwright Sarah Gancher, who is the Bengsons neighbor across the hall in Ridgewood, Queens. Dan Meyer The album is produced by The Bengsons, Ian Kagey, and Kurt . The Joaquina Kalukango-led production has been on hiatus since April 7. With creator Sara Bareilles back in the lead role, the musical grossed more in single-day ticket sales than any other show in the history of the Barrymore. Mr. and Ms. Bengson, known for their eloquent musical contributions to downtown New York theater pieces, are one of those rare couples who really did fall in love at first sight (at a massive anti-folk folk-punk old-timey neo soul band rehearsal). And maybe hurt us so badly that we will hurt other people.. Before the pandemic hit, the couple were working on the music for a play at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, and after one performance, the country shut down. Their video for The Keep Going Song has been viewed over 4 million times. In her own family, opinion about the existence of the show is divided some of those depicted vehemently in favor, some opposed. Ms. Bengson is sure of her right to tell such a story onstage because it is a fundamental trauma of her past, overlapping though it does with other peoples pain and struggles. Marc J. Franklin May 7, 2021. Terence Wilton and Max Hutchinson Will Star in West End Return of, Jesse Williams, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, More Confirmed to Return to Broadway's, Broadway Shows Will Require COVID-19 Vaccines for Employees Under Actors Equity Agreement, Ali Stroker, Larry Owens, More Among Little Islands NYC Free Festival Headliners, Tony Awards, Sidelined by the Pandemic, Sets September Date for 4-Hour Celebration, New York to Lift Capacity Restrictions on Broadway and More Beginning May 19, SBA's Grant Program for Shuttered Venues Operators Delays Application Process. Theyre people with a lot of pain and a lot of damage, she said, but also a lot of strength and a lot of magic., They are also so intertwined, personally and professionally, that they share a bio in the program for The Lucky Ones., Is that gross? Ms. Bengson asked recently, in the tone of someone checking to make sure she doesnt have lipstick on her teeth. | The Broadway revival, on hold due to the pandemic, will now begin previews March 9, 2022. Dan Meyer In 2001 he began to explore beyond the Miami Valley. // Define the CSS rule for the .my-paragraph class In the 27-minute piece, the Bengsons present an intimate portrait of celebrating joy during difficult times, which for the couple included dealing with chronic pain and suffering a miscarriage during the COVID-19 lockdown. Shaun said that the material they had been working on all got scrapped once the protests started they started to re-approach the entire project. So it was no surprise when Arena Stage reached out to the Bengsons to take part in the theaters three part-commissioned music series, Arena Riffs. One isn't necessary. February 3, 2022, By | The message of Each Kindness should be shared to people everywhere, and the music of Rootstock Republic should be enjoyed by all. BroadwayWorld was there for the special night and you can check out photos from the red carpet here! | Created by Abigail and Shaun Bengson (Hundred Days), the series is inspired by interviews with people whose lives have been impacted by abortion.In this work, the Bengsons queried, can we have an empathetic conversation about . November 21, 2022, By July 29, 2021. The cast of Hundred Days was made up of Colette Alexander, Abigail Bengson, Shaun Bengson, Jo Lampert, Dani Markham, and Reggie D. White. The subsequent revisions suggest that autobiography is a highly mutable art form. | sleeknoteScriptTag.charset = 'utf-8'; SHUCKED, SOME LIKE IT HOT Lead Nominations for 2023 Drama Desk Awards, Ars Nova Original Off-Broadway Production, 2018. Louie, their blond-ringleted toddler, is a year and a half old, and Ms. Bengson throws up her hands at the challenge of not swearing in front of him. When new work is offered, it streams online, often created by the artists themselves. styleElement.styleSheet.cssText = cssRule; By Rocking cellist El Beh doubles as the compassionate doctor who has to break the bad news (a far cry from the creepy nurse she played in Symmetry Theatre's recent Carnival Round the Central Figure). This year has really been about connection, and we have connected to people all over the world in a very real and humbling way.. By Sign up for reopening news, announcements, and exclusive discounts on tickets to your favorite shows! | The Rob McClure-led musical has been facing breakthrough COVID cases among its cast. The result is a raw and personal expression, wrapped in splendid music and honesty. In a dynamic staging by director Anne Kauffman, the show has the look and feel of a rock concert, complete (at least on opening night) with a roaring crowd. All this is supposedly taking place in the 1940s, but the period setting never becomes important or even discernible, and of course it has no bearing on the musical style. 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 theatre company expects to resume performances, on Broadway and off, this fall. 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. Visually, the piece is as bright as The Bengsons' surroundings (and outlook). Otherwise manning a DJ set that includes an old-fashioned gramophone, Jo Lampert gives an achingly resonant performance as Will's best friend Max, a boisterous and bawdy dude whose devotion to his friend is absolute and tinged with (seemingly platonic) yearning. can be accessed on the Arena Stage YouTube channel. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. } else { Logan Culwell-Block We and our partners share information on your use of this website to help improve your experience. That was 13 years ago, and today, the dynamic duo composes and performs together around the world. So The Lucky Ones is wounded autobiography veiled in fiction. 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. I dont know. Then I got pregnant, so we started to feel our way into that being part of the piece. He ha (read more about this author). wait for it. My Joy Is Heavy! See who is performing and learn how to purchase tickets! This. You have entered an incorrect email address! Mr. Bengson, who exudes a defensive deadpan calm that hints at demons scrambling beneath, sums up their chronicle with the jaunty disclaimer, So here it is, the sound of introverts pining! That may not sound like much fun. The Bengsons. Working in the first few months of the pandemic at Shaun's parent's home in Dayton, Ohio, they mustered as much uplift as they could for "The Keep Going Song," a show presented (virtually, of course) through the Actors Theater of Louisville. They have received the Jonathan Larson and Richard Rodgers Awards and nominations for the Drama Desk, Drama League, and Lucille. Shaun Bengson, left, and Abigail Bengson in Hundred Days at the New York Theater Workshop, a musical that charts the couples up-down-and-up-again relationship. The story is of the classic boy-meets-girl, boy-gets-girl, boy-loses-girl-because-life-is-nothing-but-loss mold. July 20, 2021. Ms. Bengson says that she and her husband are both profoundly introverted, but you wouldnt know it from talking with them. October 12, 2020. | Tickets are now on sale forManhattan Theatre Clubs New York premiere ofWhere the Mountain Meets the Sea, written by AUDELCO Award nomineeJeff Augustin(The New Englanders, The Morning Show) and directed by Princess Grace Award winnerJoshua Kahan Brody,with music byThe Bengsons(Hundred Days,The Lucky Ones). The Bengsonss distinctive stage presence matches the story they tell. The play is currently in previews at the August Wilson Theatre. 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. By They were so sure that each was the one for the other that they married three weeks after they met, having summarily displaced a pre-existing boyfriend (in her case) and roommate (in his). Nominated for a 2018 Lucille Lortel Award, Hundred Days runs in the Playhouse's Mandell Weiss Forum September 22 - October 21. Review Roundup: NEW YORK, NEW YORK Opens On Broadway! The production, directed by Anne Kauffman, premieres December 4 after beginning previews November 15. This poignant 90-minute show, which opened on Monday night at the New York Theater Workshop, is a response to one ineradicable and devastating fact of life. Shaun and Abigail Bengson met in New York City at a party and after talking, decided to start a band together. Abigail Bengson and Shaun Bengson Emilio Madrid-Kuser. Theres a line near the start of the new musical The Lucky Ones thats a deliberate hedge an explanation of the rules of the show that also leaves those rules a little murky. By // Create a new style element Their video for, has been viewed over 4 million times. Logan Culwell-Block const styleElement = document.createElement('style'); Andrew Gans | By Just by being so real and powerful, and serving as kind of an emotional catharsis for our own time of global trauma, "My Joy is Heavy!" We wrote our first song together on that first night, Abigal said. 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 incredible Molly Smith [Arena Stage artistic director] reached out to us and said we could create whatever we wanted, Abigail said. August 11, 2021. Yet the acceptability of drawing bystanders into ones own art is one of the great ethical debates in any kind of autobiography. 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.. Actors' Equity Sets Protocols For the Return of In-Person Auditions, Playwrights Horizons Drops COVID-19 Booster Requirement, Two Years After the Shutdown, Broadway is Back, Broadway Mask, Vaccination Policies to Remain in Place as New York Lifts Its Own Requirements, Broadway COVID Safety Team Celebrates 2,000 Broadway Performances, Broadway Week's 2-For-1 Ticket Deals Extend Through February 27, Audible Theater Sets Off-Broadway Return for, New York City Center Will Require Proof of COVID-19 Booster in Addition to Complete Vaccination, The Public Theater Will Require Proof of COVID-19 Vaccination and Booster, Go Inside Rehearsal for Jason Robert Browns, 2020 Tony Award Nominations Announced October 15. For tickets and information visit zspace.org. They have received the Jonathan Larson and Richard Rogers Award and nominations for the Drama Desk, Drama League, and Lucile Lortel awards. 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. A half-hour into an emotionally delicate interview, there was a soft knock on the front door: Ms. Gancher, bringing over some eggs in the shell. Raven Brunner March 4, 2022, By A young couple meets, falls in love and gets married right away, only to find out that one of them has a terminal illness and not long left to live. Their notable "Hundred Days," celebrated the meeting of Abigail and Shaun Bengson even as they imagined a time when death would do them part. The more the piece evolved and the more collaborators got involved, the more the couple moved toward an honest and real portrayal of their feelings, fears and everything in between. January 19, 2022, By Mr. Bengson, 34, cracked up at this, seated beside her in the apartment in Alphabet City where they stayed through early previews, to be close to the theater. March 3, 2022, By Abigail Bengson is such a compelling, empathetic figure, with a voice grounded in a folk, shape note singing and gospel as she expresses herself further with upraised hands. | This is the person, no longer institutionalized, whose life Ms. Bengson is most fearful of harming with The Lucky Ones, an ensemble piece in which a cascade of events results in the dissolution of her family, including her parents marriage. A look at an Equity-approved musical, an immersive experiment, and an amateur teen show. But seemingly off-the-cuff stage patter in the beginning later becomes needed background for plot points in the play. 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. would be just as splendid live, but the ability to capture its creation in real time where it happened amid moving music that seems to pour forth simultaneously adds a much deeper impact. Often, they jump and dance in their own kitchen, an intimacy that can't quite be replicated on stage. Dan Meyer At least at the start, they also nursed the nave wish to repair what had been broken in Ms. Bengsons adolescence to Parent Trap the family, as Mr. Bengson put it. Running time: Twenty-seven minutes, followed by a 15 minute discussion between The Bengsons and Molly Smith. // Append the CSS rule to the style element Three weeks later, the couple got married. The Off-Broadway company recently canceled its Under the Radar Festival due to rising case numbers. | "Hundred Days" runs at La Jolla Playhouse's Mandell Weiss Forum until oct. 21, 2018.

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