THE GOSPEL OF JOHN Starring Ken Jennings Opens This Weekend at the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture

This weekend, the Christmas season commences at the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street at the corner of Elizabeth Street, NYC) when performances begin for The Gospel of John, conceived and performed by award-winning Broadway veteran Ken Jennings (Sweeney Todd, Grand Hotel, Side Show). Jennings brings the Gospel to life on stage - in just 90 minutes. Directed by John Pietrowski (Artistic Director of Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey), The Gospel of John plays a limited four-week engagement, starting this Saturday, November 30 and playing through December 29 at The Sheen Center's Black Box Theater. The official opening is Sunday, December 8 at 3PM. Tickets are available online at SheenCenter.org, by phone at 212-925-2812, or in-person at The Sheen Center box office Monday to Friday noon to 5PM and one hour before performances.

St. John's Gospel filled from start to finish with eyewitness details that came from John's life with Jesus. For over 2,000 years, this written testimony from John's personal experience has been proclaimed all over the world. Ken Jennings will tell it to audiences as if for the first time, as it was originally told by the Beloved Disciple - so that they too may have a personal encounter this Christmas season.

Ken Jennings is best known to Broadway audiences for creating the role of Tobias Ragg in the Broadway premiere of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Jennings received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical for this role. He created several other roles on Broadway including Georg Strunk in Grand Hotel: The Musical, The Boss in Side Show, and memorably played Finian in Finian's Rainbow at the Irish Rep.

"I memorized this first as a prayer, not as a play," says Ken Jennings. "I started memorizing The Gospel of John as a spiritual practice during a difficult time in my life. I've always had an affinity for John, which has always seemed to truly be a firsthand narrative by a man who was actually there."

The Gospel of John features scenic design by Charlie Corcoran (The O'Casey Trilogy and The Emperor Jones at the Irish Rep), lighting design by Abigail Hoke-Brady (MukhAgni at Ars Nova), costume design by Tracy Christensen (Broadway's Sunset Boulevard, All Our Children at The Sheen Center), and sound design by M. Florian Staab (Dublin Carol at the Irish Rep, The Dead, 1904).

The Gospel of John plays a limited four-week engagement, November 30 through December 29 at The Sheen Center (18 Bleecker Street at the corner of Elizabeth Street, NYC) in the Black Box Theater. The official opening is Sunday, December 8 at 3PM. The Gospel of John plays 7PM evening performances Thursdays and Fridays, and Saturday, Dec. 7; 11AM matinees on Tuesdays, Dec. 3 & 10, and Thursdays, Dec. 5 & 12; 2PM matinees on Saturdays, Nov. 30, Dec. 14, 21 & 28, Wednesdays, Dec. 4, 11 & 18 and Tuesday, Dec. 24; and 3PM matinees Sundays, Dec. 1, 15, 22 & 29. There is no evening performance on Saturday, Nov. 30. Preview tickets (through Dec. 7) are $50 and $65 VIP reserved seating. After opening, all evening performances are $60 and $75 VIP reserved seating; and all regular matinees are $50 and $65 VIP reserved seating. (Seating is general admission. VIP reserved seating is in the first two rows.) Student rush tickets will be available an hour before any performance for $25 with a valid current student ID. $30 under 30 available in person at the box office. For groups of 10 or more, please contact GreatWhiteWay.com at 212-757-9117.