Santino Fontana to Lead YOUR OWN THING Benefit Performance at Red Bull Theater

RED BULL THEATER has announced that Tony Award winner Santino Fontana will lead its all-star benefit performance of Your Own Thing, the 1968 hit Off-Broadway rock musical inspired by Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Gabriel Barre will direct, with musical direction by Greg Pliska.

This one-night-only performance will take place Monday December 12th at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at Symphony Space. Further casting will be announced in the weeks to come.

The performance will begin at 7:30PM. This concert event is an important fundraiser for Red Bull Theater. Proceeds help to make all of its programs possible. Tickets for this benefit event, which are now on sale, are $81.50 - $121.50 including fees (most tickets include tax-deductible donation). To purchase tickets for this one night only event, visit redbulltheater.com/your-own-thing.

Red Bull Theater will give the show its first New York presentation in decades with this one-night-only, in-person-only, concert benefit.

With music and lyrics by Hal Hester and Danny Apolinar, and book adaptation by Donald Driver, the original production opened on January 13, 1968, at the Orpheum Theater where it ran for 933 performances. In the late 1960s, a raging storm shipwrecks a young music duo, twins Viola and Sebastian. The pair end up in the land of Illyria, which looks very much like New York City, and the rest is Shakespeare's Twelfth Night-well, kind of. This hit rock musical ran Off-Broadway while Hair played uptown. Your Own Thing won the Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical, Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Production, and the Drama Desk Award (Vernon Rice Award) for Donald Driver as Outstanding New Playwright.

Santino Fontana has cemented himself as one of Broadway's foremost leading men as well as a formidable screen talent. In 2019, Santino won the Tony Award, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for his virtuosic performance as Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels in Tootsie. He is widely known for lending his voice to the villainous Prince Hans in Disney's Academy Award-winning animated feature Frozen. He was also seen in Universal Studio's Sisters opposite Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. His independent film work includes the romantic comedy Off The Menu, psychological thriller Impossible Monsters, and comedy Papercop, for which he won a Best Actor Award at the Williamsburg International Independent Film Festival. On television, Santino was seen on the most recent season of the critically acclaimed "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." He also starred on CW's comedy "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" and NBC's drama series "Shades of Blue," opposite Jennifer Lopez and Ray Liotta, simultaneously. Other television credits include "Fosse/Verdon," "Mozart in the Jungle," "The Good Wife," "Nurse Jackie," and "Royal Pains" as well as the popular web series, "Submissions Only." One of Broadway's brightest stars, Santino is highly regarded for his work onstage. He's received the Tony, two Drama Desks, an Outer Critics Circle, a Lortel, an Obie, and the Clarence Derwent Award for his work in both plays and musicals. The New York Times wrote, "Santino Fontana [is] one of the most promising actors to emerge in the New York theater." Santino received a Tony nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Prince Topher in Cinderella. Other Broadway credits include Hello Dolly! opposite Bernadette Peters, Act One opposite Tony Shalhoub, The Importance of Being Earnest (Clarence Derwent Award), A View From the Bridge, Brighton Beach Memoirs (Drama Desk Award), Billy Elliot and Sunday in the Park with George. Off-Broadway, Santino was acclaimed for his performance in Stephen Karam's Sons of the Prophet. He also starred as John Adams in 1776 and Elliot Rosewater in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, both for New York City Center Encores!. As a vocalist, Santino has performed in jazz venues such as Lincoln Center's Appel Room and Birdland. As an orchestra soloist, Santino has sung at Carnegie Hall, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and other top tier venues with symphonies, big bands, and smaller ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic, the New York Pops and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Gabriel Barre is an internationally acclaimed director who directed Amazing Grace on Broadway. Gabe recently directed a new version of Frank Wildhorn's Wonderland, of which he is now a co-author, at the Tuacahn Theatre in St. George, Utah. Off Broadway credits include the original productions of The Wild Party (by Andrew Lippa), Summer of '42, john & jen and Almost, Maine. National Tours include Amazing Grace, Pippin and Cinderella. Regional theater credits include A Sign of the Times at the Delaware Theatre Company, the original productions of Memphis, as well as revivals of Billy Elliot, Sweeney Todd, Finian's Rainbow and many new musicals at Goodspeed Musicals in CT. Among the many countries he has directed productions in are: China (recent production Sound of the Silk Road), Mexico (Mexican premiere of Billy Elliot), Japan (Japanese co-ed premiere of The Scarlet Pimpernel), Korea (world premiere of the new musical Tears of Heaven) Germany, and numerous shows in the Czech Republic (including Carmen, Jesus Christ Superstar and the new Czech musical Holmes, The Legend). As an actor, he has been nominated for a Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical. Gabe is also busy preparing to direct the world premiere of the exciting new musical Reunion by Frank Wildhorn and Rinne Groff about the reunion of a fictitious band from the Laurel Canyon era and has just directed and choreographed the world premiere production of Here You Come Again which is now touring the country and stars his wife, Tricia Paoluccio, which he also co-authored with her and Bruce Vilanch, with songs by Dolly Parton.

RED BULL THEATER, hailed as "the city's gutsiest classical theater" by Time Out New York, brings rarely seen classic plays to dynamic new life for contemporary audiences, uniting a respect for tradition with a modern sensibility. Named for the rowdy Jacobean playhouse that illegally performed plays in England during the years of Puritan rule, Red Bull Theater is New York City's home for dynamic performances of great plays that stand the test of time. With the Jacobean plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries as its cornerstone, the company also produces new works that are in conversation with the classics. A home for artists, scholars, and students, Red Bull Theater delights and engages the intellect and imagination of audiences, and strives to make its work accessible, diverse, and welcoming to all. We value and practice inclusiveness, equity, and diversity in all of our activities, and are committed to antiracist action. Red Bull Theater believes in the power of great classic stories and plays of heightened language to deepen our understanding of the human condition, in the special ability of live theater to create unique, collective experiences, and in the timeless capacity of classical theater to illuminate the events of our times. Variety agreed, hailing Red Bull's work as: "Proof that classical theater can still be surprising after hundreds of years."

Since its debut in 2003 with a production of Shakespeare's Pericles starring Daniel Breaker, Red Bull Theater has served adventurous theatergoers with Off-Broadway productions, Revelation Readings, and the annual Short New Play Festival. The company also offers outreach programs including Shakespeare in Schools bringing professional actors and teaching artists into public school classrooms; Bull Sessions, free post-play discussions with top scholars; and Classical Acting Intensives led by veteran theater professionals. During the pandemic, Red Bull created several new and ongoing programs to serve audiences and artists with our mission: RemarkaBULL Podversations, Online Readings, Seminars, and more.

Red Bull Theater has presented 20 Off-Broadway productions and nearly 200 Revelation Readings of rarely seen classics, serving a community of more than 5,000 artists and providing quality artistic programming to an audience of over 65,000. The company's unique programming has received ongoing critical acclaim and has been recognized with Lortel, Drama Desk, Drama League, Callaway, Off-Broadway Alliance, and OBIE nominations and Awards.

For more information about Your Own Thing or any of Red Bull Theater's programs, visit www.redbulltheater.com.

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