The Silence of the Lambs, winner in all five top categories at the 1992 Oscars including Best Picture, was released internationally 21 years ago this month. SILENCE! The Musical, the unauthorized parody of The Silence of the Lambs, will celebrate the classic thriller’s birthday with a special added late show this Saturday, February 25th at 10:30 PM at The 9th Space Theatre at Performance Space 122, 150 First Avenue (at 9th St.) This season’s hit, SILENCE! The Musical, has a book by Hunter Bell, music & lyrics by Jon and Al Kaplan, and direction & choreography by Christopher Gattelli, and has been extended 5 times to date.
Also in celebration, the company will appear at Barnes and Noble on the Upper East Side (86th and Lexington) for a performance and cast album signing, as previously announced. The original cast recording, produced by Michael Croiter and Rich Affannato, is now available in stores and at Amazon.com on the Sh-K- Boom/Ghostlight Records label.
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 must face her own demons and race the clock to unlock Lecter’s clues before another innocent girl is killed and skinned by Bill. It’s a hair-raising thriller that’s kept countless millions on The Edge of their seats and permeated the pop lexicon with delightfully creepy quotes like “I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti” and of course “It places the lotion in the basket.” At long last, this delicate symphony of suspense has been turned on its ear and retold in the only way it can be – as a musical. A singing chorus of floppy eared lambs narrates the action; Buffalo Bill gleefully dances a hoedown while kidnapping hapless Catherine Martin; and even Dr. Lecter, scary as ever, sings about the life he’d like to lead someday outside the prison walls.
David Garrison (Hannibal Lecter), Jenn Harris (Clarice Starling) and Stephen Bienskie (Buffalo Bill) head the cast of SILENCE! The Musical, which also features Callan Bergmann, Harry Bouvy, Ashlee Dupré, Annie Funke, Deidre Goodwin, Howard Kaye, Topher Nuccio, 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. 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 where it garnered ecstatic reviews at the Above The Stag Theatre.
Bookwriter Hunter Bell co-wrote and starred in the Broadway musical [title of show] as well as Now. Here. This. at the Vineyard. Hunter is a co-creator of the web series the [title of show] show, and he recently co-created and wrote a television pilot which has been sold to ABC. Composer/lyricists Jon and Al Kaplan composed the music for two seasons of the animated series Code Monkeys and scored the Syfy Channel film Dinocroc vs. Supergator. They have also written comedy for the 2009 MTV Movie Awards and the 2011 Academy Awards. The Kaplan brothers recently launched a series of viral internet musicals led by their Arnold Schwarzenegger cycle, featuring Conan the Barbarian, Predator, Commando, and more. Director/choreographer Christopher Gattelli choreographed the hit Broadway revival of South Pacific, Godspell, Sunday in the Park With George, 13, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, The Ritz, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and Newsies (upcoming). West End: South Pacific, Sunday in the Park With George. Off-Broadway: Altar Boyz, Bat Boy: The Musical and tick, tick… BOOM!
