PARTICLE FEVER Musical in Development By David Henry Hwang

Particle Fever, a new musical about one of history’s most consequential scientific experiments, is currently in development. Particle Fever features a book by Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang, with music and lyrics by Bear McCreary and Zoe Sarnak, and is directed by Leigh Silverman, who recently received a Tony Award nomination for her direction of the Broadway musical Suffs.

Based on the 2013 documentary film about the largest scientific experiment ever undertaken, Particle Fever follows the elite team of characters, er, scientists who discovered “The God Particle” and forever altered mankind’s understanding of its own existence in the process. This breathlessly triumphant and deeply human new musical features an instantly memorable new score brimming with heart, humor, and hope. An exploration of the very nature of exploration itself, Particle Fever proves that even the very best theories are often no match for reality.

Regarding the project, the producers commented, “Theater artists, like scientists, are called to probe the biggest, most confounding questions in the universe. How lucky we are to have such a stellar team of fellow explorers to collaborate with on Particle Fever. As anyone who has followed their careers would expect, David Henry Hwang, Bear McCreary, Zoe Sarnak  and Leigh Silverman are creating something brilliantly authentic with this work. Even more impressive -- they’ve uncovered the inherent hilarity and joy that lie at the heart of human ambition, making this journey every bit as entertaining as it is enlightening.” 

There was a recent industry-only reading of Particle Fever in New York City.  Directed by Leigh Silverman, the reading was made possible by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which also supported the documentary.

Learn more and stay up to date on the future of this musical here.

More About Particle Fever

Particle Fever is a 2013 documentary film tracking the first round of experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland. The film follows the experimental physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) who run the experiments, as well as the theoretical physicistswho attempt to provide a conceptual framework for the LHC's results. The film begins in 2008 with the first firing of the LHC and concludes in 2012 with the successful identification of the Higgs boson.

The Communication Awards of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine awarded a $20,000 prize for excellence in communicating science to the general public in Film/Radio/TV to David Kaplan and Mark Levinson for "Particle Fever" on October 14, 2015. The awards are given to individuals in four categories: books, film/radio/TV, magazine/newspaper and online, and are supported by the W. M. Keck Foundation.

Biographies

David Henry Hwang’s (Book) stage works includes the plays M. Butterfly, Chinglish, Yellow Face, Kung Fu, Golden Child, The Dance and the Railroad, and FOB, as well as the Broadway musicals Elton John & Tim Rice’s Aida (co-author), Flower Drum Song (2002 revival) and Disney’s Tarzan. Hwang is a Tony Award winner and three-time nominee, a three time OBIE Award winner, and a three-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is also the most-produced living American opera librettist, whose works have been honored with two Grammy Awards, co-wrote the Gold Record Solo with the late pop icon Prince, and worked from 2015-2019 as a Writer/Consulting Producer for the Golden Globe-winning television series “The Affair”. He is currently writing the live-action musical feature film The Hunchback of Notre Dame for Disney Studios and a biopic about Anna May Wong to star actress Gemma Chan. Hwang serves on the Board of the Lark Play Development Center, as Head of Playwriting at Columbia University School of the Arts, and as Chair of the American Theatre Wing, founder of the Tony Awards. M. Butterfly recently returned to Broadway in a revival directed by Julie Taymor, which marked Mr. Hwang’s eighth Broadway production. His newest work, Soft Power, a collaboration with composer Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home), premiered in 2018 at Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Theatre, where it won six Ovation Awards. Its subsequent run at the Public Theatre in NYC received four Outer Critics Honors, eleven Drama Desk Nominations, and was a Finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Drama.

Bear McCreary (Music & Lyrics) Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning composer Bear McCreary began his career as one of the final protégés of film music legend Elmer Bernstein, with whom he worked for nearly a decade. He has since become one of the most sought-after talents in the music industry today. His recent projects include Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the critically acclaimed Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot Film 10 Cloverfield Lane, Orion’s latest reimagining of the classic 1988 slasher film Child’s Play, Universal/Blumhouse smash hit Happy Death Day; the Netflix films Rim of the World and Eli, Apple’s new drama series “SEE”, AMC’s global phenomenon “The Walking Dead”, Disney’s long-running series Marvels’ “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”, Sony PlayStation’s award-winning game, God of War, and the drama feature The Professor and the Madman, starring Mel Gibson and Sean Penn. Forbes recently declared “as a composer, his genre track record is one of the most impressive in modern day Hollywood.” McCreary burst onto the scene scoring the influential and revered series “Battlestar Galactica”, his music for which was lauded by Variety as “innovative” and “like no other” by NPR. McCreary won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme for Da Vinci’s Demons, a musical palindrome that sounds the same forwards and backwards. McCreary also received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his work on “Black Sails”, “Outlander” and “Human Target”, and he has twice been awarded ASCAP Composer of the Year by his peers. McCreary frequently performs in concert throughout North America and Europe, including the Getty Center, the Hagen Philharmonic and Ballet in Germany, the Television Academy, and the Golden State Pops Orchestra. In July 2014, Maestro Gustavo Dudamel conducted a suite of McCreary’s music with the L.A. Philharmonic and L.A. Master Chorale at the Hollywood Bowl. In quiet moments (few and far between), McCreary often wonders what his longtime friend and mentor Elmer Bernstein would say about his career. Sadly, he will never know. The iconic Bernstein passed away on the very day that McCreary began composing his original score for his first television series, “Battlestar Galactica”. McCreary says he will always look back with gratitude to the day when he first crossed paths with Bernstein. “Elmer’s guidance was a gift I can never repay,” McCreary said. “But I will spend my life trying to do so.”

Zoe Sarnak (Music & Lyrics) is a New York City-based composer, lyricist, and writer. She grew up in Princeton, NJ the daughter of two professors, a mathematician and a philosopher. Zoe attended Harvard University where she studied both Molecular and Cellular Biology and Music – a combination that deeply informs her perspective as a writer. She is a recipient of the 2018 Jonathan Larson Award, and a finalist for the Ebb Award, Kleban Award, and Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award. Her work has been developed with and presented by Second Stage, New York Stage & Film, The Public, Roundabout Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Geffen Playhouse, New York Theatre Workshop, WP Theatre, MCC, and many others. Upcoming productions include: A Crossing (with Josh Bergasse and Mark St. Germain, Barrington Stage Company), Afterwords (with Emily Kaczmarek, 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle), Split (with Michele Lowe, Transport Group Theatre Company). Theatrical projects in development include: Galileo (with Danny Strong, Michael Weiner and dir. Michael Mayer), The Lonely Few (with Rachel Bonds, Geffen Playhouse commission, New York Stage & Film 2021), Empire Records (with original screenwriter Carol Heikkinen), Secret Soldiers (with Marsha Norman and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Williamstown commission), A Beautiful Mind (developed with dir. Tyne Rafaeli and ATG, Universal, Imagine), Particle Fever (with David Henry Hwang and Bear McCreary), Afloat (with Emily Kaczmarek, WP Theater commission), as well as consulting and co-writing music for Thelma and Louise (Neko Case, Halley Feiffer, dir. Trip Cullman) and Band Aid (with Zoe Lister-Jones, dir. Leigh Silverman). Zoe has several upcoming television and film projects including two TV shows in development with Danny Strong Productions and 20th Century Fox and a musical film with Liza Chasin (3dot Productions) and Molly Sims. Her music has been featured by the NY Times Live, The Shannara Chronicles (Spike), Silent Witness (BBC) and in benefit concerts and albums for Everytown.

Leigh Silverman (Director) was recently nominated for the Tony Award for her direction of the new musical Suffs (winner of two Tony Awards), currently on Broadway, and began its life at The Public Theatre.  Her other Broadway credits include Yellow Face (upcoming); Grand Horizons; The Lifespan of a Fact; Violet (Tony Award nomination), Chinglish; and Well. Recent projects include Harry Clarke (West End, BRT, Vineyard, Audible);  Merry Me (New York Theatre Workshop); The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (The Shed, Center Theatre Group); Soft Power (Center Theatre Group, SF Curran, The Public Theatre); Hurricane Diane (New York Theatre Workshop). For Encores!, she directed Violet; The Wild Party; Sutton Foster’s streaming concert, Bring Me To Light. For Audible: Yellow Face; Harry Clarke; Dykes to Watch Out For.  She is the recipient of the 2011 Obie Award, and the 2019 Obie for Sustained Excellence. 

Megan Kingery (Producer) POE Global Executive Producer is a Tony-nominated “Producer of Everything”. Megan was the Creative Producer of “Blue Man World,” Blue Man Group’s first exploration into print (2016 by Blackdog and Leventhal / Hachette). Notable projects include Natasha, Pierre, and The Great Comet of 1812 (Tony Nomination), Fun Home (Tony Award), Hand to God (Tony nomination). Executive Producer of The Subject, a feature film by Chisa Hutchinson, directed by Lanie Zipoy, starring Jason Biggs and Aunjanue Ellis, and Adam Mann (Not His Real Name) a new play by Marin Gazzaniga based on “Caught in the Pulpit: Leaving Belief Behind” by Daniel C. Dennett and Linda LaScola, in development with The Civilians. Experiential Producer of the “In Her Shoes” campaign for Santander Bank, winner of Best Experiential and Best Tech for Good IDEAS award, and Best Experiential for AICP.

Annie Roney (Producer) is the founder and CEO of ROCO Films, a documentary distribution and production company. She is co-founder of Film Platform, a global subscription streaming service for colleges and universities allowing students and faculty to actively use documentaries in the classroom and for research. In 2013, Annie screened the documentary Particle Fever and discovered for the first time the joy of “doing physics” and why the pursuit mattered. The documentary proves what she loves most about the documentary genre: the experience of personal discovery gained through the lens of other people’s stories. Since founding ROCO Films in 2000, ROCO has distributed and or Executive Produced award-winning documentaries with 18 consecutive years receiving an Oscar nomination. Films include Born Into Brothels, Hoop Dreams, Jesus Camp, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, The Weather Underground, Promises, Street Fight, No End in Sight, How to Survive a Plague, The Invisible War, Particle Fever, Inequality for All, Girl Rising, Miss Representation, Cartel Land, The Hunting Ground, RBG, The Grab, Food Inc. 2, and Sabbath Queen.