Greene Space Hosts Talk with MEMPHIS' Kimball, Glover & More, 4/5

On Monday, April 5th, WNYC's The Greene Space presents an intimate evening with MEMPHIS bookwriter and co-lyricist JOE PIETRO (I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change) and stars Montego Glover and Chad Kimball.

CELESTE HEADLEE, co-host of WNYC and PRI's The Takeaway and a trained classical soprano, will lead a discussion that goes behind the scenes and into the musical and social landscape that Memphis explores.

MEMPHIS is the current Broadway musical that was inspired by the legendary DJ Dewey Phillips and the music that became known as "rock 'n' roll."

He's a young, white radio DJ named Huey Calhoun whose love of music transcends race lines and airwaves. She's a black singer named Felicia Farrell, whose career is on the rise, but who cannot break out of segregated clubs. What happens when a 1950's Memphis DJ with white listeners decides to play African-American music? Is Memphis ready for it? Is America?

Video excerpts of the play will be folded into the dialogue.

The evening's conversation will be available as a live video webcast at www.wnyc.org/thegreenespace.

Tickets to the event are $20 and available at http://beta.wnyc.org/thegreenespace/events/2010/apr/05/memphis-new-musical-broadway/.

WNYC Radio is New York's premier public radio franchise, comprising WNYC FM, WNYC AM, and WQXR, as well as www.wnyc.org and www.wqxr.org. As America's most listened-to AM/FM public radio stations, reaching more than one million listeners every week, WNYC extends New York City's cultural riches to the entire country on-air and online, and presents the best national offerings from networks National Public Radio, Public Radio International, American Public Media, and the British Broadcasting Company. WNYC 93.9 FM broadcasts a wide range of daily news, talk, cultural and music programming, while WNYC AM 820 maintains a stronger focus on breaking news and international news reporting. Classical 105.9 WQXR is New York City's sole 24-hour classical music station, presenting new and landmark classical recordings as well as live concerts from the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic, among other New York City venues, immersing listeners in the city's rich musical life. In addition to its audio content, WNYC produces content for live, radio and web audiences from The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, the station's street-level multipurpose, multiplatform broadcast studio and performance space. For more information about WNYC, visit www.wnyc.org.

MEMPHIS opened to critical acclaim on October 19, 2009 at Broadway's Shubert Theatre (225 W. 44th Street) The show features a brand new score with music by Bon Jovi's founding member and keyboardist David Bryan and lyrics by Bryan and Joe DiPietro (I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change), who also pens the musical's book. Bryan and DiPietro also collaborated on the current award-winning off-Broadway hit, The Toxic Avenger. MEMPHIS is based on a concept by the late George W. George (producer of the Tony nominated Bedroom Farce and the film My Dinner With Andre), with direction by Tony nominee Christopher Ashley (Xanadu) and choreography by Sergio Trujillo, who is currently represented by an astonishing four shows on Broadway (Memphis, Jersey Boys, Next to Normal and The Addams Family). For additional information and tickets, visit www.memphisthemusical.com.