Skylar Astin, Elizabeth Gillies and More Join WE CHOSE TO GO TO THE MOON at Carnegie Hall

American History Unbound has set an all-star lineup of performers for its return to Carnegie Hall with We Chose to Go to the Moon. Directed by Tony Award-winner Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening, Chess), the program features vignettes and vocal performances by stage and film star Skylar Astin (Pitch Perfect, Spring Awakening), who will portray Neil Armstrong, Grammy Award nominee Brent Comer (The Outsiders), Claybourne Elder (Company, “The Gilded Age”), TV star Elizabeth Gillies (Netflix’s “Dynasty”), Tony Award nominee Taylor Louderman (Mean Girls), and Grammy and Tony Award-nominee Joy Woods (Gypsy, Six). As previously announced, Neil Armstrong’s son Mark Armstrong and granddaughter Kali Armstrong will perform a special tribute to the astronaut.

We Chose to Go to the Moon is an immersive sensory theatrical experience that tells the dramatic tale of America’s race to space and decision to land a man on the Moon in one of the most ambitious scientific and exploration achievements in history. The production is a “living documentary,” blending theater, concert, and documentary storytelling to create a vivid on-stage experience of an iconic moment in history.

John Monsky tells the story through multiple perspectives, following the journeys of pioneers in space exploration including: astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, and Ed White; Mission Control trailblazer Poppy Northcutt and NASA “Hidden Figures” mathematician Katherine Johnson; and the families behind America’s ambitious space program such as Janet Armstrong and Betty Grissom. Audiences are transported from quaking launch pads at Cape Canaveral to the tension-filled rooms of Mission Control and into the living rooms where families watched their loved ones literally disappear into the skies as people around the world watched history unfold in real time.

Set against a cultural soundtrack of music from the era performed by this outstanding cast of acclaimed Broadway actors with Orchestra of St. Luke’s – the performance reaches a crescendo in the fulfillment of President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 challenge to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth before the end of the decade. The words of the astronauts, engineers, and their families recall the excitement, the fear, and the triumph of the race to space. In a breathtaking moment, viewers will see American flags that the astronauts brought to the Moon and back.

Developed over several years by historian, writer, and narrator John Monsky, the production is directed by Tony Award-winner Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening, Chess) and will be performed for two nights only—Tuesday, April 7 and Wednesday, April 8, both at 7:30 p.m.—in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage. Ian Weinberger (Chess, Hamilton) conducts top Broadway vocalists and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in music from the era—popular, patriotic, and protesting, including, “Fly Me to the Moon,” “Rocket Man,” “Space Oddity,” and “My Generation.”

We Chose to Go to the Moon will be filmed by Academy Award-producing RadicalMedia – Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) – for a national television broadcast this Fall, coinciding with the commemoration of America’s 250th anniversary and Veterans Day.