PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Release #1
African American Musical Triumphs at World’s Biggest Arts Festival
Critical Acclaim and Two Edinburgh Festival Fringe Awards for
Best Musical Nominee and Social Impact Award
See the trailer here.
2019 & 2018 Best Musical nominee (MusicalTheatreReview.com)- Henry Box Brown- a Musical Journey - Performed to sold-out audiences at the renowned Edinburgh International Fringe Festival.
The acclaimed musical inspired by the true story of an escaped 1850s slave, returned to the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival for a second year, where it garnered a second nomination for Best Musical- as well as the Social Impact Award.
An amazing fusion of Gospel, R&B, blue grass, traditional and original negro spirituals, the show has been updated with new choreography and now features live musicians and incredible African drumming.
Henry Box Brown is a compelling and unmissable true tale of an 1850s Virginia slave who mails himself to freedom in a box. Performed for over 30,000 people from UK to the US, it’s a crowd-pleaser that shines a light on our capacity to transcend.
Led by acclaimed NYC recording artist and actor, Paul G, the show is performed by a superb 16-strong New York cast of top Gospel singers and Broadway actors it was described by The Times as “compelling … bold … wonderfully written and portrayed” and has garnered five stars from the international theater press – earning a string of excellent reviews ★★★★★ British Theatre Guide ★★★★★ Musical Theatre Review ★★★★ Diva Review ★★★★ Fringe Review ★★★★ The List ★★★★ Broadway Baby ★★★★ Broadway World.
Press Release #2
Championed by the Baha’i Unity Center of NYC, the acclaimed musical is written by NEA award-winning writer, Mehr Mansuri directed by Tony Award winner Ben Harney (Dreamgirls) with stunning vocal arrangements by music director, Jeffrey Bolding, of Harlem’s infamous, Abyssinian Baptist Church, and rich score by Oscar nominee, Jack Lenz (Passion of Christ) and includes eye-popping choreography by, Najee Brown. The music was co-composed by Mehr Mansuri, Frank Sanchez, Sam Urdang and show stopper gospel medleys composed and arranged by international Gospel music director, Eric Dozier.
STORY LINE: The emotional musical journey follows the story of a young man’s bid for freedom, transported across the Northeast by train and boat while nailed inside a box just 3ft by 2ft, after his children and pregnant wife were sold by the slave owner.
Many of the themes are highly resonant today – oppressed people forced into exile by brutal regimes, the destruction of families when parents and children are forcibly separated. But it is equally about the triumph of the human spirit – and the discovery of decency and kindness in the most unexpected places.
Mehr Mansuri, the show’s writer (who had to escape from her native Iran due to the regime’s persecution of the Baha’i religious community), said:
“Henry’s story truly resonates today – a father thrown into despair and exile after the brutal separation of his family by the greedy and the powerful.
“But it’s also about just how profound Henry’s faith was in the face of evil, maintaining his belief in the simple goodness of people and the human capacity to make great sacrifices for others.”
In collaborating with African American artists and authors over the last 30 years, Mehr found cultural synergy in a mutual oral traditions of storytelling, but she soon realized that their collaboration was offering audiences much more than an opportunity for cultural appreciation and preservation, but an opportunity for audiences to find relief in ‘freedom of conscience’.
“A freedom of conscience that recognizes that we cannot and must not sit still in these tumultuous times where racism is all but sanctioned,” says Mehr, “a freedom of conscience where we did not readily and unquestioningly accept history books that removed the truth, misled young readers and distorted humanity’s nastiest past, brutal inclinations and darkest days….but rather we found the courage to confront our past…and perhaps forge new paths towards a future of truth, beauty and true nobility…and there by achieve a new freedom. A freedom of conscience.”
Brown’s escape to freedom was made possible by the help of African American and white abolitionists. Some members of the cast are the descendants of African American slaves and some are descendants of slave owners.