SILENCE! Celebrates 400th Performance This Sunday

Off-Broadway's sellout sensation Silence! The Musical will celebrate its 400th performance at the 3 PM matinee this Sunday, November 18th at the new Elektra Theatre in the heart of Times Square, 669 Eighth Avenue (at 42nd St.) Winner of the 2012 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Musical, Silence! The Musical is the unauthorized parody of The Silence of the Lambs, with book by Hunter Bell, music & lyrics by Jon and Al Kaplan, and direction & choreography by Tony Award winner Christopher Gattelli. After opening at Theatre 80 on July 9, 2011 to unanimous rave reviews, the show immediately became a sold-out phenomenon and was selected by Time Magazine as one of the year's Top 5 Musicals.

In the Academy Award-winning film The Silence of the Lambs, rookie FBI agent Clarice Starling matches wits with the brilliant but insane cannibal, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, to catch the serial killer known only as Buffalo Bill. Clarice faces her own demons while racing the clock to unlock Lecter's clues before another innocent girl is killed and skinned by Buffalo Bill. The laugh-out-loud wicked satire, Silence! The Musical, features a singing chorus of floppy eared lambs narrating the action as Buffalo Bill gleefully dances a hoedown while kidnapping hapless Catherine Martin. Even Dr. Lecter, scary as ever, sings about the life he'd like to lead someday outside the prison walls.

Featured in the cast of Silence! The Musical are Stephen Bienskie, Pamela Bob, Harry Bouvy, Ashlee Dupré, Stephen Hanna, Natalie Joy Johnson, Howard Kaye, James Moye, Topher Nuccio, Ronica V. Reddick, Kimberly Stern, and Doug Trapp.

Created by Jon and Al Kaplan in 2002, SILENCE! began as a collection of songs on the internet which immediately attracted a staggering number of fans. The Kaplans' subsequent screenplay Silence! The Musical was adapted by Hunter Bell into a live stage show, which also featured newly composed songs by the brothers. Fueled by a rabid cult following, SILENCE! shattered every box office record at the 2005 FringeNYC Festival, winning the award for Best Musical. Silence! The Musical met with further success in London and Los Angeles where it garnered ecstatic reviews.

SILENCE! The Musical has hosted an unusually large number of celebrity attendees over the past year including Jodie Foster, Matt Bomer (twice), Joan Rivers, Jonathan Demme, Kelly Ripa, Perez Hilton, James Earl Jones, Josh Groban, Rachel Dratch, Justin Kirk, Jonathan Groff, Richard Kind, T.R. Knight, Andy Dick, Neil Simon, Jeremy Jordan, Corbin Bleu, Ben Schwartz, Lisa Lampanelli, Willie Garson, Mario Cantone, Erin Cummings, Linus Roache, Stephen Schwartz, David LaChapelle, Steven Pasquale, James Lapine, John Kander, Chita Rivera, Heather Matarazzo, Christine Lakin, Georgia Engel, Danny Burstein, John Rando, Christian Campbell, Will Swenson, Reed Birney, Stephen Flaherty, Tovah Feldshuh, Alec Mapa, Barrett Foa, Julie Brown, Cady Huffman, Barbara Feldon, Shuler Hensley, Michelle Clunie, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Seth Rudetsky, Scott Lowell, Donna McKechnie, James Barbour, Telly Leung, Howard McGillin, Brent Barrett, Karen Ziemba, Eden Espinosa, John Cunningham, Daniel Reichard, Tricia Walsh Smith, Charlotte d'Amboise, Kara Lindsay, John McDaniel, Chris Barron, Lindsay Nicole Chambers, Alex Wyse, Carol Woods, JohAnna Day, and Anthony Heald.

More Articles by This Author...