SILENCE! THE MUSICAL Celebrates 300th Performance Tonight, 8/1

Off-Broadway's SILENCE! The Musical will celebrate its 300th performance tonight, August 1st at the brand 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, the show 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.

Married with Children star David Garrison (Hannibal Lecter), Jenn Harris (Clarice Starling), Stephen Bienskie (Buffalo Bill) and Queer as Folk's Randy Harrison (Dr. Chilton) head the cast of SILENCE! The Musical, which also features Ashlee Dupré, Howard Kaye, Nick McGough, Topher Nuccio, Ronica V. Reddick, Kimberly Stern, Pamela Bob and Doug Trapp. Music Supervisor is Mark Hartman, with orchestrations by Brian J. Nash.

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. 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 at the Above The Stag Theatre.

A long list of luminaries have turned up in the audience at the hit show over the past year including Jodie Foster, Matt Bomer (twice!), Joan Rivers, Jonathan Demme, Kelly Ripa, James Earl Jones, Josh Groban, T.R. Knight, Jonathan Groff, Justin Kirk, Neil Simon, Corbin Bleu, Ben Schwartz, Lisa Lampanelli, Willie Garson, Mario Cantone, Erin Cummings, Linus Roache, Stephen Schwartz, Jeremy Jordan, David LaChapelle, Steven Pasquale, James Lapine, John Kander, Chita Rivera, Georgia Engel, Shuler Hensley, Brent Barrett, Danny Burstein, Donna McKechnie, John Rando, Christian Campbell, Reed Birney, Stephen Flaherty, Tovah Feldshuh, Karen Ziemba, Kara Lindsay, Alec Mapa, Chris Barron, Barrett Foa, Cady Huffman, Barbara Feldon, Seth Rudetsky, Eden Espinosa, Telly Leung, Daniel Reichard, John Cunningham, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Charlotte d'Amboise, Lindsay Nicole Chambers, John McDaniel, JohAnna Day, Carol Woods, and Anthony Heald.

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