Keen Company's 2020-'21 Season will feature a series of all-star benefit broadcasts, beginning with Howard Koch's legendary adaptation of War of the Worlds made popular by Orson Welles followed by Sorry, Wrong Number by Lucille Fletcher, which was once called "the greatest single radio script ever written."
Each one-night only event will feature a starry cast performing the audio piece live, and include a talkback after the show with artists. Tickets to these fundraiser events will support Keen Company's Hear/Now audio theater season, as well as our Keen Playwrights Lab for mid-career writers and Keen Teens which serves students in all five boroughs of NYC. Tickets are only $25 and are available on at
broadwayondemand.com.
Today Keen Company Artistic Director
Jonathan Silverstein announced the complete cast for War of the Worlds, led by
Jason Tam, who will be joined by
Arnie Burton,
Dan Domingues,
Morgan Siobhan Green,
Courtney Thomas, and
Khiry Walker. War of the Worlds will have original music by
Paul Brill and live Foley effects by
Nick Abeel.
"Since the early days of the pandemic, I became increasingly obsessed with old time radio and the ways these early pioneers provoked their audience to use their imagination in new ways. One of the greatest of these programs is
Orson Welles's War of the Worlds, which skillfully used "fake news" to create real life panic on October 30, 1938. 82 years later, I am thrilled to be collaborating with a wonderful group of talented and generous Keen friends to create an all new audio version of this famous broadcast, including welcoming aboard new artists
Nick Abeel, who will be doing live foley sound effects, and
Paul Brill, who is contributing original music. I look forward to sharing this one of a kind revival, which will not only entertain, but also bring to light some eerily similar themes between its original broadcast and today. It'll be the perfect event to get us all ready for Halloween," said Mr. Silverstein.
This one-night only benefit performance of
Howard Koch's adaptation of
H.G. Wells' classic novel was made infamous during its original broadcast, sounding so realistic it incited mass hysteria across America and elevated "fake news" to an art form. Listen as a news station reports sinister machines and mysterious creatures making their way towards New York City, during Keen's starry live performance of one of the most famous radio plays in history on the night before Halloween.
Orson Welles's legendary production originally aired on October 30, 1938 as part of The Mercury Theater on the Air and was similarly the product of NYC theater company learning to diversify.
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