SIDDHARTHA, THE MUSICAL Concert Set for 54 Below Tonight

Fresh off of its smash-hit European tour, Siddhartha, The Musical (www.SiddharthaTheMusical.com) makes its American premiere with three special concert performances at 54 Below (254 West 54th Street) tonight, January 23rd at 7pm and January 24th at 7pm and 9:30pm. Tickets are priced at $40 (which includes a cocktail reception beginning an hour before each performance). Siddhartha, the Musical in Concert is produced by Gloria Grace Alanis, Fabrizio Carbon and Broadway International Entertainment (BIE).

Inspired by Herman Hesse's timeless novel, the musical tells the story of Prince Siddhartha's spiritual quest for enlightenment with a sizzling, Italian and South Asian-influenced pop-rock score and raw, sexy performances. This adaptation of one of the world's most iconic emotional journeys will delight fans of the novel, and audiences who appreciate the unique transformative power of musical theatre.

Written and directed by Isabella "Isabeau" Biffi with music by Isabeau and Fabio Codega, Siddhartha, the Musical will be performed in Italian with English narration and, in addition to 54 Below, will also play Herb Alpert's Vibrato Grill in Los Angeles from January 27th - January 28th and Costa Careyes Private Estate Resort in Careyes, Mexico on February 1st.

In 2006, singer-songwriter Isabeau was contacted by the Opera Jail, a maximum-security prison in Milan, to conduct a musical workshop, aiming to help rehabilitate its inmates. During the workshop, she established a musical theater program where all Opera prison inmates, even those with life sentences, participated as cast and crew. Three successful musicals later, Siddhartha, the most recent, transferred to a professional theater in Milan, to critical and commercial praise.

"It is astonishing that Siddhartha's evolution began in the Italian prison system, and grew into a full scale musical that has toured extensively through Italy in the last year," said producer Gloria Grace Alanis. "We are excited to introduce Siddhartha, the Musical into the US marketplace, and hope that this concert version will give audiences a taste of what's to come for our show."

Herman Hesse's novel Siddhartha is one of the best-regarded and most widely read books of the twentieth century, and contributed to Hesse's reception of the Nobel Prize in 1946. The novel has been translated into dozens of languages, including several different English versions, and was adapted into a film in 1972. In the nearly hundred years since its publication, Siddhartha has sold tens of millions of copies, and is still taught regularly in schools and universities around the world.

Siddhartha, The Musical in concert plays 54 Below (254 West 54th Street) on January 23rd at 7pm and January 24th at 7pm and 9:30pm. There is a $40 cover charge (which includes a cocktail reception beginning an hour before each performance). Tickets and information are available at www.54Below.com. Tickets on the day of performance after 4:00 are only available by calling (646) 476-3551.