Christopher Gattelli's SILENCE! Celebrates 200th Performance Tonight

SILENCE! The Musical, currently nominated for two Lucille Lortel Awards including Best Musical, will celebrate its 200th performance tonight, April 6th at The 9th Space Theatre at Performance Space 122, 150 First Avenue (at 9th St.) SILENCE! The Musical is the unauthorized parody of The Silence of the Lambs, with book by Hunter Bell, music & lyrics by Jon and Al Kaplan, and direction & choreography by Christopher Gattelli. After opening on July 9, 2011 the show immediately became a sold-out phenomenon and was selected by Time Magazine as one of the year's Top 5 Musicals. Due to overwhelming ticket demand, the producers recently put a new block of seats on sale through September 2nd.

In the Academy Award-winning film The Silence of the Lambs, rookie FBI agent Clarice Starling matches wits with the brilliant but insane cannibal, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, to catch the serial killer known only as Buffalo Bill. Clarice faces her own demons while racing the clock to unlock Lecter's clues before another innocent girl is killed and skinned by Buffalo Bill. The laugh-out-loud wicked satire, SILENCE! The Musical, features a singing chorus of floppy eared lambs narrating the action as Buffalo Bill gleefully dances a hoedown while kidnapping hapless Catherine Martin. Even Dr. Lecter, scary as ever, sings about the life he'd like to lead someday outside the prison walls.

David Garrison (Hannibal Lecter), Jenn Harris (Clarice Starling) and Stephen Bienskie (Buffalo Bill) head the cast of SILENCE! The Musical, which also features Callan Bergmann, Harry Bouvy, Ashlee Dupré, Deidre Goodwin, Howard Kaye, Topher Nuccio, Kimberly Stern, Pamela Bob, and Doug Trapp. Music Supervisor is Mark Hartman, with orchestrations by Brian J. Nash.

Created by Jon and Al Kaplan in 2002, SILENCE! began as a collection of songs on the internet which immediately attracted a staggering number of fans. The Kaplans' subsequent screenplay SILENCE! The Musical was adapted by Hunter Bell into a live stage show, which also featured newly composed songs by the brothers. Fueled by a rabid cult following, SILENCE! shattered every box office record at the 2005 FringeNYC Festival, winning the award for Best Musical. SILENCE! The Musical met with further success in London where it garnered ecstatic reviews at the Above The Stag Theatre.

Bookwriter Hunter Bell co-wrote and starred in the Broadway musical [title of show] as well as Now. Here. This. at the Vineyard. Hunter is a co-creator of the web series the [title of show] show, and he recently co-created and wrote a television pilot which has been sold to ABC. Composer/lyricists Jon and Al Kaplan composed the music for two seasons of the animated series Code Monkeys and scored the Syfy Channel film Dinocroc vs. Supergator. They have also written comedy for the 2009 MTV Movie Awards and the 2011 Academy Awards. The Kaplan brothers recently launched a series of viral internet musicals led by their Arnold Schwarzenegger cycle, featuring Conan the Barbarian, Predator, Commando, and more. Director/choreographer Christopher Gattelli choreographed the Broadway productions of Newsies, South Pacific, Godspell, Sunday in the Park With George, 13, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, The Ritz, and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. West End: South Pacific, Sunday in the Park With George. Off-Broadway: Altar Boyz, Bat Boy: The Musical and tick, tick… BOOM!

Set design for SILENCE! The Musical is by three-time Tony winner Scott Pask, with costume design by David Kaley and lighting design by Jeff Croiter.

There have been many recent celebrity sightings at SILENCE! The Musical, including such luminaries as Jodie Foster, Neil Simon, James Earl Jones, Kelly Ripa, Josh Groban, Lisa Lampanelli, Jonathan Demme, Matt Bomer, Joan Rivers, Chita Rivera, Jeremy Jordan, Stephen Schwartz, John Kander, Mario Cantone, Jonathan Groff, Justin Kirk, David LaChapelle, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Willie Garson, TR Knight, Steven Pasquale, Christian Campbell, and Anthony Heald.

The playing schedule for SILENCE! The Musical is Wednesday through Saturday evenings at 8 PM, and Sundays at 3 & 7 PM. Running time is 89 minutes with no intermission. Tickets are $25 - $79 and are available by calling 212-352-3101 or through www.SilenceTheMusical.com.