A LITTLE MORE LIGHT: Songs & Stories from Dan Furman's THE JOE HILL REVIVAL is Coming to The Green Room 42

Composer Dan Furman revives a musical more timely today than ever!

Brooklyn Tavern Theater will present "A Little More Light: Selected Songs & Stories from Dan Furman's "The Joe Hill Revival."

Concert is Wednesday, September 6, 7:00 pm: FUNDRAISER CONCERT at The Green Room 42

570 10th Ave, (4th Floor in YOTEL, Times Square), New York City with a portion of the proceeds go to Brooklyn Tavern Theater, a fiscally sponsored non-profit arts organization. Green Room Ticketing Link Green Room tickets start at $19 for Main Dining Room (and go up to $29 for "premium" and $39 for "ringside"). There is a $2.50 per ticket venue facility fee. Streaming tickets are also $19.

The Joe Hill Revival - the full production -- will be at BROOKLYN ART HAUS presented by Brooklyn Tavern Theater. This is the story of Industrial Workers of the World Union songwriter, Joe Hill. Opening Saturday, September 30 @7pm, followed by Saturday matinees @ 2:00 pm on October 7, 14, 21 and 28 at the new BROOKLYN ART HAUS, 24 Marcy Ave, Brooklyn, NY with a special encore performance, November 13, at Edie Jo's, 630 Flatbush Ave, Brooklyn, NY. Visit https://www.joehillrevival.com/ for further info.

Acclaimed composer Dan Furman revives his controversial musical of the life of labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World, Joe Hill.

Book and original music and lyrics by Furman, (with additional lyrics by Joe Hill and others) this full-length rousing musical is directed and choreographed by Jerome Harmann-Hardeman with Lauren Linsey as Assistant Director with a cast including Caitlin Caruso Dobbs, Nicola Barrett, Molly Bremer, Laura Bright, Joe Castinado, Drew Hill, Ace McCarthy, Freddy Daniele, and Aaron de Rose as Joe Hill. Joe Hill - a trade union activist and songwriter - was executed by the state of Utah in 1915.

Hill often rewrote the words of church hymns and popular tunes of his time, converting them into songs of protest and activism. Extending that approach, "The Joe Hill Revival" revives Hill's life and lyrics using the musical language of our time. The audience is given a chance to sing along with Hill's songs and to connect with what inspired movements like the Industrial Workers of the World. In several cases, the original music to Hill's lyrics has been lost and writer and composer Dan Furman has provided new settings. Joe Hill lost his life but not his fight. This musical shows how one man can make a difference and finding joy in living, fighting (and sometimes even dying) for what you believe in.

"This is not just a political or historical," proclaims Furman whose litany of original musicals have enjoyed prosperous runs off-Broadway as well as his home borough of Brooklyn, "it's also a love triangle!" The story is told through original songs peppered with actual lyrics of Joe Hill himself - some not found until after his death.

Hill was originally arrested because he was shot the same night as a grocer in Salt Lake City. Reports were that one of the assailants had been shot in their escape - and so authorities were searching for someone with a bullet wound. Although Hill claimed he was shot by "a friend" in a dispute over a woman, up to his dying day, he refused to speak any further and never took the stand in his defense. Amid lurid stories in the press of radical IWW mobs threatening society, Hill was railroaded to his execution in November of 1915, even though a motive was never established, and all the evidence was, at best, circumstantial. The woman in the love triangle was never publicly mentioned in the trial-Joe wouldn't allow it. But Hilda Erickson visited Hill in prison every Sunday from his violent capture (shot by police while he lay in bed) to his final week in November of 1915.

Central to the historical part of the story is the bold activism of the IWW, the Industrial Workers of the World, of which Joe Hill was a member. The IWW was formed in the early years of the 20th century and their radical approach to unionism was welcomed by many workers. They did not recognize all the divisions within industries and attempted to organize all workers into "One Big Union." "They did not recognize divisions within industry and attempted to organize all workers into "One Big Union." They rejected the exclusion of African Americans, Asians, and other nationalities from labor unions and sought to organize women workers as equals. They refused to sign contracts with employers, preferring verbal agreements that preserved their right to strike. They even encouraged unemployed workers to join the union." This was especially important in the American West of the early 1900s, where Eastern corporations operated huge labor-intensive mining and logging industries with no obligations to the health, safety or quality of life of their workforce.

The Joe Hill "Revival" brings these struggles back to life.

Green Room 42 is in the heart of the New York theatre district while Brooklyn Art Haus is located minutes from the Lorimer stop on the L train. Edie Jo's is on Flatbush Ave near Prospect Park in Brooklyn.Drinks and snacks will be available at all performances.

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