Zak Resnick, Leslie Kritzer & More to Lead Industry Readings of Bert Berns Musical PIECE OF MY HEART This Week

Merged Work Productions (lead producers) and Jack Thomas (Executive Producer) announced today that Piece of My Heart: The Bert Berns Story, the crowd-pleasing musical based on the life and songs of legendary songwriter Bert Berns that played Off-Broadway last summer, is headed for Broadway. With a book by Daniel Goldfarb, direction and choreography by Denis Jones, and featuring the stirring songbook of songwriter/producer Bert Berns, Piece of My Heart: The Bert Berns Story, will hold two industry readings this week, on Thursday, February 26, and Friday, February 27, featuring members of the original Off-Broadway cast.

The cast of the readings for Piece of My Heart: The Bert Berns Story includes Zak Resnick as Bert Berns, Drama Desk Award nominee Leslie Kritzer, Theatre World Award-winner Linda Hart, Joseph Siravo, Tony Award nominee de'Adre Aziza, Derrick Baskin, Carleigh Bettiol, Bryan Fenkart, and Mark Zeisler, with an ensemble that includes Teresa Gattison, Shonica Gooden, Ralph Meitzler, Harris Milgrim, Michael Millan, Gabrielle Ruiz and Heather Parcells.

The creative team for Piece of My Heart: The Bert Berns Story also includes Garry Sherman (Music Supervision, Orchestrations & Arrangements) and Lon Hoyt (Music Direction and Additional Vocal Arrangements).

Bert Berns, whose life is also the subject of the just-released book Here Comes the Night, was born in New York in 1929 and died tragically of a heart attack at just 38 years of age. But in his short career, Berns left an indelible mark on popular music; he made fifty-one pop chart singles in seven years and became one of the most successful songwriters of the 1960s. Piece of My Heart: The Bert Berns Story tells his remarkable story, once dubbed by Rolling Stone "one of the great untold stories of rock and roll," through his hit songs, which include "Twist and Shout," "Tell Him," "I Want Candy," "Hang On Sloopy," "Cry Baby," "Piece of My Heart," and many more.