![]() White (vocals/keys).Īs Shaun talks by phone about the show on a mid-September afternoon, Abigail is otherwise engaged with the couple’s young son, who has come down with a fever. Shaun and Abigail, both of whom sing and play guitar, appear alongside Ashley Baier (drums/percussion), El Beh (cello), Barrie Lobo McLain (vocals/accordion/guitar) and Reggie D. “Hundred Days” is directed by the University of California San Diego grad and top New York theater pro Anne Kauffman, with movement direction by Sonya Tayeh, whose work was seen locally with the Old Globe’s 2013 production of “The Last Goodbye.” The pair created the piece with the playwright Sarah Gancher, who conveniently lives just across the hall from them in a Queens apartment building. But after further revisions, “we finally felt that by the time we got to New York Theatre Workshop, this is what we meant.” (That production led to a prestigious Lucille Lortel Award nomination.) The two, it turns out, have been working on “Hundred Days” from “pretty much the first moment we fell in love,” at a band rehearsal more than a decade ago, Shaun says.Īn earlier incarnation was staged close to five years ago in San Francisco. “I feel there’s a much wider range of music that can exist in theater.” Finding their voices In general, he and Abigail gravitate to work that is “trying to break open this form,” Shaun says. Shaun also reacts enthusiastically to a mention of “Passing Strange,” the groundbreaking, autobiographical Broadway musical by the composer-writer-actor Stew. He cites as a kindred artistic soul the composer Dave Malloy (best-known for the much-admired immersive Broadway show “Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812”) and his recent song cycle “Ghost Quartet,” which likewise was staged at New York Theatre Workshop. “It definitely has a narrative, a story we walk you through,” he says. And yet it’s not “an experimental tone poem” either, Shaun is quick to clarify. Suffice to say, this is not a work with an explicit, conventional dramatic arc. The show is not by any stretch a book musical: Its entire story is told through the songs, which will be released this Friday on a cast album recorded during the 2017 run at New York Theatre Workshop. The work by the two folk-punk musicians has been called a “musical memoir,” although Shaun says they prefer the term “theatrical concert.” It’s also an idea that’s been explored and expressed memorably in musical theater via everything from the “Hello, Dolly!” standard “Before the Parade Passes By” to the “Rent” anthem “Seasons of Love,” with its parsing of a year down to 525,600 blink-and-they’re-gone minutes.īut the approach taken by The Bengsons - the pair’s chosen stage name - brings an extra measure of intimacy and immediacy: Not only did they create “Hundred Days” as a reflection on their own lives, but they star in the show as well. The notion of precious time passing, and of how to make the most of one’s days, seems a natural fit for theater - a creative form whose very evanescence is part of its attraction, and its magic. īook by The Bengsons & Sarah Gancher / Music & Lyrics by The Bengsons / Directed by Anne Kauffman / Movement Direction by Sonya Tayehĭownload our Original Cast Album or stream on Spotify.The title of the show takes its cues from a hypothetical born of the Bengsons’ trepidation: What would you do, and how would you live your life, if you had only 100 days remaining? Thanks to the success and momentum of the NYTW run, we are actively putting together a tour to to launch in the 18/19 season! First up, La Jolla Playhouse September 22-October 21, 2018.Īdditional engagements include Straz Center in Tampa, FL (Jan 15 - Mar 24, 2019) and Arsht Center in Miami, FL (Apr 10 - 21, 2019). ![]() ![]() The show premiered in NY at The Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival in Jan 2017 (where it received its first Critics' Pick review in the NY Times) , and then had a full production at New York Theatre Workshop in November & December of that same year (where it received its second Critics' Pick review). "The Bengsons offer luminous hope that a new generation of talent is taking up Stephen Sondheim's mantle of exquisite ambivalence." - Ben Brantley, The New York Times (2-time Critics' Pick) With magnetic chemistry and anthemic folk-punk music, creators and stars Abigail and Shaun Bengson explore a fundamental question: how do we make the most of the time that we have?Ģ018 Lucille Lortel & Drama League Nominee for Outstanding Musical Hundred Days is an uncensored, exhilarating and heartrending true story about embracing uncertainty, taking a leap, and loving as if you only had 100 days to live.
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