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The musical will appear on the Goodspeed stage from September 8 – October 29 in East Haddam, Conn.

Latest Musical from Internationally Acclaimed Director John Doyle

EAST HADDAM – Goodspeed Musicals announces the cast for the new musical The 12, the third production of its 60th anniversary season. The 12 explores a moment in one of the greatest stories of all time and will appear on the Goodspeed stage from September 8 – October 29 in East Haddam, Conn. 

Jerusalem. The disciples are in disarray. Torn apart by the unthinkable death of their leader, see how twelve ordinary individuals come together to create one of the most powerful movements ever known. Filled with power and passion, The 12 is a universal story of love and how each of us must eventually navigate the loss of whatever we hold most dear. Join us for a profoundly moving musical that you will never forget!

The 12 features book & lyrics by Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Schenkkan (Broadway: All The Way (Tony Award® for Best Play); The Great Society; The Kentucky Cycle (Pulitzer Prize for Drama)), with music & lyrics by Neil Berg (Off-Broadway: The Prince and the Pauper; Regional: Grumpy Old Men: The Musical, Tim and Scrooge).

Pete will be played by Akron Lanier Watson (Broadway: Hamilton, The Color Purple, The Play That Goes Wrong). Andrew will be played by Wonzaā Johnson (Broadway: MJ The Musical; National Tour: Hamilton). Tom will be played by Wesley Taylor (Broadway: SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical, The Addams Family, Rock of Ages). Jimmy will be played by Etai Benson (Broadway: Company, On Broadway, The Band’s Visit; Broadway/National Tour: Wicked). Simon will be played by Gregory Treco (The Terris: The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd; Broadway: Hamilton). John will be played by Kyle Scatliffe (Broadway: Hamilton, The Color Purple, Les Misérables). James will be played by Kelvin Moon Loh (Broadway: Beetlejuice The Musical, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical, The King and I). Tee will be played by Mel Johnson Jr. (Broadway: Kiss Me, Kate; Jekyll and Hyde; Hot Feet). Phil will be played by Brandon J. Ellis (Broadway/National Tour: Bandstand, The Play That Goes Wrong, Once). Bart will be played by Rob Morrison (Goodspeed: Big River; Off-Broadway: Assassins, Frankenstein, Avenue Q). Matt will be played by F. Michael Haynie (The Terris: Band Geeks!; Broadway: Wicked, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Holler If Ya Hear Me). Mags will be played by Adrienne Walker (Broadway: The Lion King; Kiss Me, Kate). Mother Mary will be played by Rema Webb (Broadway: Fat Ham, The Music Man, Escape to Margaritaville).

Understudies for this production are Matt Caplan (Broadway: Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, South Pacific, High Fidelity), Dion Simmons Grier (Off-Broadway: Stardust Road) and Aurelia Williams (Goodspeed: Anne of Green Gables; Broadway: Parade, Once On This Island, In Transit).

Known for masterfully reinventing the stage musical, The 12 will be directed by Tony Award®-winning director John Doyle, who will also musically stage and design the set for the production. Doyle has been Artistic Director of four prestigious regional theatres in the U.K. and has an extensive directing career in theatre, film and opera. His Broadway credits include Sweeney Todd (Tony Award® for Best Director of a Musical), Company (Tony Award® for Best Revival of a Musical), The Color Purple (Tony Award® for Best Revival of a Musical).

Music supervision will be by Drama Desk Award-nominated Greg Jarrett (Broadway: Gigi, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Dames at Sea). Music Direction will be by Goodspeed’s Resident Music Director Adam Souza (Goodspeed: Over 20 productions including Summer Stock, Gypsy, 42nd Street, Cabaret, A Grand Night for Singing, Because of Winn Dixie; Broadway/National Tour: Wicked, Kinky Boots). Costume Design will be by Ann Hould-Ward (Goodspeed: Red, Hot and Blue!; Fiorello!; The Terris: Jokers, Harrigan ‘n Hart; Broadway: The Color Purple, The Visit). Lighting Design will be by Japhy Weideman (Broadway: Shucked; Summer, 1976; The Piano Lesson). Sound Design will be by Jay Hilton who has designed countless productions at both The Terris Theatre and The Goodspeed and serves as Goodspeed’s Audio Supervisor/Resident Sound Designer.

Chris Zaccardi will be the Production Stage Manager. Casting for this production is by Craig Burns, CSA, for The Tesley Office.

The 12 is produced by special arrangement with Joe Grano and Cody Lassen.

The 12 will run September 8th – October 29th, 2023. [Official Press Opening: September 27, 2023.] Curtain times are Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Thursday at 7:30 p.m. (with select performances at 2:00 p.m.), Friday at 8:00 p.m., Saturday at 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. (with select performances at 5:30 p.m.).

Tickets are available through the Box Office (860.873.8668), open weekdays at 10:00 a.m. and weekends at 11:00 a.m., or online at goodspeed.org. For show highlights, exclusive photos, special events and more, visit us at goodspeed.org and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

Gale Anne Hurd – Vania Exerjian Award for Women’s Leadership in Film — Tonya Lewis Lee – Vania Exerjian Award for Empowering Women — Robert Schenkkan – Vania Exerjian Award for Writing Social JusticeSRFF2023 the 10th-anniversary edition of SR Socially Relevant™Film Festival NY, SRFF 2023, red carpet opens March 16, at the Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater at 5:30 PM. The Opening Ceremony, and Honor Awards at 6:00 PM.The honorees are Gale Anne Hurd (Award-winning Film and TV Producer), Tonya Lewis Lee (producer, film director, writer, entrepreneur, and women’s health advocate), and Robert Schenkkan (Pulitzer and Emmy Award-winning author). The Vania Exerjian award is named after Festival Founding Artistic Director Nora Armani’s cousin who was the victim of a hate crime. To read more, click here.

The event is on Sunday, April 23, at 5 p.m. at Bay Street Theater.

Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts has announced Page to Stage: The Craft of Adaptation, a New Perspectives Series panel discussion with playwright and director Vincent Murphy and Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan on Sunday, April 23, at 5 p.m. at Bay Street Theater. The conversation immediately follows the culmination of the one-day creative writing workshop, Page To Stage, led by Murphy from 1 to 4 p.m., and will be facilitated by Artistic Director, Scott Schwartz. To read more click here

Robert Schenkkan is now represented for Theater by Patrick Herold at UTA. 

The Musical, THE 12, book/lyrics by Robert Schenkkan and music/lyrics by Neil Berg is now scheduled for full production at The Goodspeed Opera House in September 2023. It will be directed by multiple Tony-award winning director, John Doyle. The creative team met with AKA to discuss the marketing and branding campaign. More to come!

The Hideaway Entertainment’s adaptation of Martin Gray’s best-selling book For Those I Loved has found a writer. Robert Schenkkan, co-screenwriter of Hacksaw Ridge and a Tony winner for his Lyndon Baines Johnson bio-drama All the Way, will develop and pen a script for the limited series based on the life story of Martin Gray. Schenkkan will also executive produce and adapt the bestselling book by the father of Jonathan Gray, The Hideaway Entertainment founder and CEO. To read more, click here.

Politics and theatre are often intertwined… some have even said that writing drama is an inherently political act. Writing an explicitly political work, though, has its own unique set of consequences and considerations.

Join DG Copyright Management [DG©M] on Friday, October 16 at 3:30pm EDT, for a conversation with Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning author Robert Schenkkan [All the Way, Great Society, Building the Wall, The Kentucky Cycle], in which we will examine the process of writing politics. Topics will include: What motivates a political work? How can a political work impact and build community? What rights issues are involved when writing about political figures? What are the consequences? This discussion will be moderated by DG Co-Executive Director and DG(c)M Board Member, Ralph Sevush. 

In Partnership with Broadway on Demand, Playscripts and The Dramatists Guild of America, Announce Seven Winning Plays, their 2020 Digital Premiere, and a Nationwide Reading.

 New York, NY, October 15, 2020 – #ENOUGH is proud to announce the selection of seven plays by teen playwrights chosen by nationally recognized dramatists Lauren Gunderson, Academy Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney, Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Schenkkan, Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang, and Karen Zacarías, as the winners of #ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence, a national short play competition for middle and high school students.

On December 14, 2020 — the eight-year remembrance of the shootings at Sandy Hook — the winning titles will receive their digital premiere on the streaming platform Broadway on Demand and be made available for free for organizations to stage readings locally. #ENOUGH received 184 submissions from 23 states and three countries when it called on teens to write 10-minute plays that confront the issue of gun violence. The seven winners are Adelaide Fisher’s Ms. Martin’s Malaise, Eislinn Gracen’s Guns in Dragonland, Azya Lyons’ Togetha, Debkanya Mitra’s Malcolm, Olivia Ridley’s Ghost Gun, Sarah Schecter’s Hullabaloo, and Elizabeth Shannon’s Loaded Language. Each winner will receive a digital premiere on Broadway on Demand, have their play published and licensed through Playscripts in Spring 2021, and Guild membership and craft training through the Dramatists Guild’s Young Dramatist Initiative. “I was incredibly impressed by the skill, inventiveness, and passion of the young playwrights who contributed works for #ENOUGH,” says panelist judge David Henry Hwang, whose work includes M. Butterfly and the 2020 Pulitzer Prize finalist musical Soft Power. “The winning plays are entertaining, insightful, and thought-provoking. Collectively, they provide proof that the future — of our theatre and our nation — is in good hands.” From Dec. 14-20, the plays will receive a national audience with readings viewable for free on the streaming platform Broadway on Demand produced by Alliance Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Orlando Repertory Theatre, and South Coast Repertory. #ENOUGH is also making the plays available for free as part of its Nationwide Reading on December 14. Schools, theatres, and community organizations can stage a reading of the plays, either virtually or in-person where possible, and follow that reading with a post-show discussion on gun violence and committing to an action item on gun violence specific to their community. “We can’t talk about gun violence in America only in the aftermath of the most tragic incidents,” says Michael Cotey, producer of #ENOUGH, “Through the Nationwide Reading and the Digital Premiere we’re allowing every community to create the space and address the impact of gun violence now.”

Dick Wolf is betting on Las Vegas.

The mega-producer’s Wolf Films and Universal Television are developing a drama series about the rise of Sin City called American Babylon. The potential series is being readied for pitches to premium cable outlets and streaming platforms.

The project comes from creator Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Schenkkan and Bruce McKenna — both veterans of HBO’s The Pacific — who will executive produce with Wolf and Tom Thayer, Wolf’s producing partner on unscripted series including Cold Justice and Criminal Confessions. It will tell the story of Las Vegas’ rise through the viewpoints of three families: young mobster Sammy Wise and his iron-willed wife, Esther; ambitious Black businessman Jefferson Delandro, his wife, Edda May, and their daughter, Bella, who fight the structural racism of the “Mississippi of the West”; and aspiring reporter Michael Arcona, who’s committed to finding the truth no matter the cost. To read more, click here.

In his first foray into the premium TV series marketplace, uber producer Dick Wolf is prepping American Babylon, a period drama chronicling the epic story of the creation of Las Vegas – the American Dream written in blood and neon. He has partnered on the project with long-time collaborator Tom Thayer, Pulitzer Prize winner and The Pacific writer Robert Schenkkan and The Pacific creator Bruce C. McKenna.

The marquee pitch, from Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television, will be taken out to premium cable networks and streamers later this month. Created by Schenkkan and written by him and McKenna, American Babylon  is inspired by “The Money and the Power: The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America“ by Sally Denton & Roger Morris, to which Universal Television has acquired the rights. To read more, click here.