MELANIE GREENBERG’S PSYCHEDELIC CABARET
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
TO DEBUT AT THE 2021 UNITED SOLO THEATRE FESTIVAL
Review Seats Available for All Shows Including Sold-Out Shows:
October 29 at 9:30pm (sold out) November 06 at 9:30pm November 07 at 3pm (sold out)
new shows are added every time the latest-scheduled show sells out
WHO: Written and Performed by Melanie Greenberg
Directed by Joanie Schultz
Music Director Bill Zeffiro
WHAT: A solo musical written and performed by Melanie Greenberg, debuting at the world’s largest solo theatre festival: The tale of a nice Jewish girl who goes on a psychedelic odyssey through Pentecostal churches, psych wards, the Ivy League and 12-step meetings, finally bringing her closer to God, herself and a resolution of intergenerational trauma. But funny! And with musical homage to Broadway Musical Theatre!
WHERE: Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street New York, NY 10036
WHEN: 3 shows as of now- an additional show will be added every time one of the shows sells out October 29, 2021: 9:30pm - sold out/ review tix available November 6, 2021: 9:30pm - review tix available November 7, 2021: 3:00pm - sold out/ review tix available
COVID SAFETY MEASURES: All patrons 12 & older must be fully vaccinated 2 weeks prior to their performance date regardless of medical excusal. Guests 11 & under must wear a mask at all times. Fully vaccinated guests are required to wear a mask as well.
HOW: TICKETS link here as new show dates are determined
PRESS TICKETS FOR ALL SHOWS ARE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST to Kathryn Musilek: km@sharkpartymedia.com
Thursday, Sep 9, 2021- NEW YORK, NY - The Elephant In The Room, a wry musical from writer/ actor/ musician Melanie Greenberg, is due to premiere at United Solo Theatre Festival at New York’s Theatre Row on October 29 at 9:30pm to a sold-out audience followed by shows November 6th and 7th. The way that United Solo functions dictates that more dates will be added for Greenberg’s solo musical, each time the current on-sale show sells out.
At fifteen, Melanie Greenberg pawned her mother’s fur coat, ran away from home on the Upper East Side and somehow took up with a family of Pentecostal born-agains in Houston. In her quest for freedom, Greenberg unwittingly set off a chain of events that would imprison her literally and figuratively for decades to come.
From the psych ward to a cult-like “therapeutic” boarding school for troubled youth, to the Ivy League, to rehab, Melanie Greenberg spent her adolescence and early adulthood moving through the full spectrum of American institutions, all while trying to make sense of a fraught relationship with her mother. Narrated through the context of a psychedelic ayahuasca trip, one-woman musical The Elephant in the Room outlines this revelatory experience in brutally honest and often hilarious detail, all while paying tribute to the showtunes that helped Greenberg survive the whole ordeal.
By marrying trauma with music and comedy, The Elephant In The Room acts as the narrator’s invitation to the audience to reshape and reclaim their own stories. The process of creating this work has only served to deepen Melanie’s belief that sharing stories is the key to understanding ourselves and others.
About Melanie Greenberg, Writer and Star:
Melanie Greenberg has been writing and performing for her entire life. After overcoming years of trauma and difficulty that estranged her from her childhood passion for performing, she is triumphantly returning to the stage and that original true love. She was the creator and host of the critically acclaimed YouTube channel, Kill Switch. She also wrote, produced and starred in a comedy TV pilot about a middle-aged mom who attempts to become a YouTuber in order to gain the respect of her children.
A believer in the healing power of storytelling, she works with a nonprofit called OPEN DOORS, which provides outlets for black and brown people who use wheelchairs to share their stories. Inspired by the stories she has heard, she decided to tell her own somewhat harrowing and unconventional story in the form of a psychedelic cabaret called The Elephant in the Room. She is currently in the process of creating a nonprofit called The Story Sanctuary in the Berkshires, where individuals and communities in conflict can come together to build empathy and self-awareness through storytelling.
About Joanie Schultz, Director:
Joanie Schultz is an arts leader and director of theatre and opera. She calls home Chicago, but makes homes wherever she is. Joanie’s work includes directing for The Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, The Cleveland Play House, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Studio Theatre in Washington DC, and at least 30 other theatre and opera companies throughout Chicago and the US. Select notable work has included directing the smash hit and long-extended immersive production of Hand to God (Studio Theatre & WaterTower Theatre); her own new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (WaterTower Theatre); the visually stunning world premiere of Frida…A Self Portrait (Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Cleveland Play House, Portland Center Stage); the world premieres of Sarah Gubbins’ Cocked (Victory Gardens Theater), fml: how Carson McCullers saved my life (Steppenwolf Theatre), and The Kid Thing (About Face Theatre/Chicago Dramatists); the critically lauded The Whale and Rest by Samuel D. Hunter (Victory Gardens Theater); the Jeff Award winning productions of In Arabia We’d All be Kings and The Brief History of Helen of Troy (Steep Theatre); site-specific performances of the operas Acis and Galatea (Chicago Cultural Center) and Bluebeard’s Castle (New Millennium Orchestra); and co-creating and directing a 6-hour theatrical adaptation of Wagner’s Ring Cycle (The Building Stage).
About Bill Zeffiro, Musical Director:
William (Bill) Zeffiro is the winner of seven Manhattan Association of Cabaret (MAC)
Awards, two for Best Special Musical Material and five for Best Singing Instrumentalist. He is also the winner of the 2014 Midtown International Theatre Festival award for Outstanding Cabaret Performance. His play,’Frame 313’ was also produced at The Midtown Theatre Festival. Appearances include the Café Carlyle, Town Hall, The Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel and Lincoln Center. In November 2013 he appeared as Richard Nixon at the York Theatre in the Musical Drama ‘Jack’. His songs have been recorded and performed by Tony Award Winner George S. Irving, Ann Morrison and Emily Bergl. Bill wrote book, music, and lyrics for The Road To Ruin which was directed by Broadway legend Pat Birch and made the Talkin’ Broadway Top Ten Best Cast Albums. A CD of all original material, ‘Better Than Nothing, Remastered, The Music Of Bill Zeffiro’ has just been released. In August 2021 his opera, ‘Truman and Nancy’ debuted at the Seagle Music Festival.
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For Interview Requests, High-res Images, and All Other PR Inquiries:
Kathryn Musilek // Shark Party Media // km@sharkpartymedia.com // 347-712-2024