New Musical MARLEY Breaks Box Office Records in Baltimore

The World Premiere production of Marley, a new musical with music and lyrics by Bob Marley, and written and directed by Center Stage Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah, became the highest grossing single ticket show and the highest attended show in the 52-year history of Baltimore's Center Stage.

Marley earned nearly 50 percent more than the previous highest grossing single ticket show in Center Stage's history, the 2011 production of The Wiz.

"I'm thrilled that almost every single performance sold out, but reading letters from patrons telling me Marley was a healing experience for them is what makes me proudest of this production," Kwei-Armah says.

"We saw a huge increase in attendance and ticket sales with this spectacular show," Center Stage Managing Director Stephen Richard says. "We knew Marley was going to be successful, but we were elated with the universally positive feedback from patrons and overwhelming clamor to get tickets to see this production."

Telling the story of a pivotal moment in Bob Marley's life in the late 1970s, when he spent two years of self-imposed exile in London after surviving an assassination attempt in his home in Jamaica, the musical marks the first time Marley's legendary music has been featured in a biographical context on the stage. The production ran May 8 through June 14, 2015.