Cast Set For BEN FRANKLIN IN PARIS Concert at 54 Below
One-night-only concert reunites Grand Hotel alums Timothy Jerome and Keith Crowningshield with Willison.
54 Below has announced full casting for Ben Franklin In Paris: A Revolutionary Musical Celebrating the 250th Anniversary of America's Independence. This intimate immersive concert staging will be presented for one performance only, on Sunday, September 13th, 2026, at 7pm, and marks the first time this musical play from Broadway's Golden Age will be seen on a New York stage since the original 1964 production.
Produced, directed, and hosted by Tony Award© nominee and Theatre World Award winner Walter Willison (Grand Hotel, Two By Two, Pippin) with musical direction by Yasuhiko Fukuoka, also starring Bistro and MAC Award winner Ann Kittredge (Dessa Rose, A Christmas Carol, King David), Keith Crowningshield (Grand Hotel, Jelly's Last Jam), Tony Award nominee Timothy Jerome (Grand Hotel, Me and My Girl, The Rothschilds), Keaton Miller (Somewhere, Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors at the Straz Center), Zoë Parrish (Steps the Play, NYC workshops: YES! The Musical, Zombie Musical), Ron Spivak (Man of La Mancha regional tour), Melinda Hopkins (Two By Two regional tour), and Sheila Wormer (The Magic Flute at the Salzburg Music Festival). Willison, Jerome, and Crowningshield previously appeared together in the original Broadway cast of Tommy Tune's Tony Award© winning Grand Hotel.
The creative team also includes associate director Joanne Rush (A Chorus Line, Shirley MacLaine at The Palace, Asking for It), costume coordinator Mitchell Bloom (27 Broadway shows, The Metropolitan Opera), Zoë Parrish is assistant director, and Luke Byrne is stage manager.
It's 1776, the colonies are in peril of losing the Revolutionary War, and America's First Diplomat is dispatched to Paris to convince King Louis VI to enter into a military alliance with the burgeoning nation. In this uplifting musical retelling of that historic journey, Ben rekindles a former romance, his grandson, Temple, discovers himself, and along with the playwright Beaumarchais they encounter adventure, intrigue, spies and songs of inspiration (“Half the Battle”), wit (“I Invented Myself”, “God Bless the Human Elbow”), wisdom (“Look for Small Pleasures”), and love (“To Be Alone With You”), with lyrics by Sidney Michaels, Tony Award© nominee for Best Author of a Musical, and music by Mark Sandrich, Jr., with additional songs by Jerry Herman, on the heels of his triumph with Hello, Dolly!. What better way to celebrate America's sesquicentennial than with this musical play that celebrates the First American.
Ben Franklin in Paris opened on Broadway on October 27th, 1964, starring Robert Preston, Swedish stage star Ulla Sallert, and Susan Watson, directed and choreographed by Michael Kidd. In the decades since, the show has gained cult status because of its original Broadway cast recording, which has become a favorite of musical theatre fans, aficionados, and historians alike.
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