Comedy Central's Tommy Koenig to Bring BABY BOOM BABY to the Palm Beaches Theatre, 4/28-5/15

Comedy Central/National Lampoon star Tommy Koenig's Baby Boom Baby has been called wildly entertaining, touching, and very, very funny! It has also been called well-written, high energy, and invigorating. Koenig will bring his one man "'musicomedy'- a flashback through our times and the music that defined them" to the Palm Beaches theatre from April 28th through May 15th.

Baby Boom Baby is Koenig's story, told from his distinctly Baby Boomer perspective. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1953, the year Rock and Roll was born. The son of a musician who played with Glenn Miller during WW2, Koenig was greatly influenced by chance meetings with John F. Kennedy and later George Carlin, and mostly by what the Beatles brought - the influence of music on Boomers' culture and personal choices. In Baby Boom Baby Koenig recounts the years he struggled to keep up with the changing times, just missing Woodstock by a few miles; the rites of passage of College, Travel, Sex and Drugs; and the ever changing cultural and political landscape that music unleashed as it morphed from Disco to Punk to MTV to Rap and beyond.

During the show Koenig channels dozens of well-known - and original - characters in a one man tour de force spanning 7 decades. With original songs and parodies of everyone from The Beatles to Lady Gaga, and from Doo Wop to Hip Hop, Koenig's impressions include Elton John, Billy Joel, Blondie, Prince, Tina Turner, Bruce Springsteen, The Bee Gees, the Eagles, among others.

"Baby Boom Baby is the culmination and combination of my work in theatre, stand-up comedy, music and art," Koenig explains. "I get to do it all in this one show. Most of my career I have done all these things separately. I have been an actor since I graduated college ( SUNY Buffalo); a stand-up comedian since the early wave of comedy clubs that spread across the country; a sketch player as well as writer with National Lampoon (If We're Late Start Without Us on tour and Class of '86 Off Broadway and filmed for Showtime); a musical parodist who opened for headliners such as Bonnie Raitt and Joan Jett; co-writer with musicians like Bernie Worrell of The Talking Heads and P Funk; and an artist with many commissions and sales of my 'Paintings in 3D' series. In Baby Boom Baby I get to bring all this into play.

Koenig's first one-man show, The Living Experiment, began in 1987 and ran through 1992 with extended runs in New York and Los Angeles: "It was the first time I had done a show alone but with an ensemble of characters, some of which still appear in Baby Boom Baby - I've learned that some routines take years to be perfected and evolved," he explains. "As George Carlin said "After 35 years of doing this I'm finally starting to figure some of this shit out".

"It was when I was invited to be an Artist in Residence at The Santa Barbara Theatre in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in 2009 that the idea for the show really began. For years I'd wanted to do a show called Baby Boom Baby, telling my personal story and the story of my generation through the rock and roll music that influenced Boomers just like me.

"I realized although the nostalgia machine was finally getting to our generation with shows like Beatlemania and Beautiful, there wasn't a show that told the whole story of what it was like to be a Baby Boomer growing up through the decades. I felt that the musical impressions and characters would be entertaining - but what surprises me most is how my story is resonating with the audiences and how they're really embracing it and the message in it - a return to Peace, Love and Understanding - which is also very rare these days. And there's nothing better than having a fellow graying Boomer rush back down the aisle and exclaim "That was ME!!" Seeing that audiences of every age who attend the show are 'getting it' is a revelation and inspires me to keep doing this show."

Tommy Koenig has appeared in movies (Mel Brooks' Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Mel Brooks' Robin Hood: Men in Tights) and on television (Boston Legal, Miami Vice, Not Necessarily the News); he was featured on NBC's Don Kirshner's Rock Concert where he appeared with David Bowie and Rick James. Around the country in various arenas he opened for artists as varied as Warren Zevon, Alvin Lee, Bonnie Raitt, Dave Mason, Los Lobos, and Joan Jett. Tommy Koenig teaches Stand Up Comedy at the Comics Studio in New York. One of his students, Brad Zimmerman, has just completed a sold out run at the Palm Beaches Theatre in My Son the Waiter: A Jewish Tragedy.

Baby Boom Baby will run from April 28th through May 15th at the Palm Beaches Theatre in Manalapan (formerly Florida Stage/Plaza Theatre). Tickets are on sale now, and are available on line at http://palmbeachestheatre.org or by phone at 855-728-8497. Tickets for Baby Boom Baby are $40. For group rates (10 or more) call 561-362-0003.

To post a comment, you must register and login.