JERSEY BOYS Raises More Than $40,000 For VH1 Save The Music Foundation

Broadway In Chicago is thrilled to report that the Chicago company of Jersey Boys has raised $41,524 to benefit Chicago Public Schools through the VH1 Save The Music Foundation. 

As part of the Chicago company's one-year anniversary this October, Jersey Boys pledged to donate a dollar from each ticket sold to an October performance, enough to provide instruments to jump start an instrumental music program in one of Chicago Public Schools. Jersey Boys has raised enough money to contribute to not one, but two Chicago Public Schools this year.  The VH1 Save The Music Foundation, in partnership with Comcast, will add to the Jersey Boys contribution and donate a total of $60,000 worth of new musical instruments to restore two of Chicago Public Schools' music education programs for the 2008/2009 school year.  The recipients of this award will be announced on Tuesday, December 16, 2008.

This donation is part of an ongoing effort by VH1 Save The Music Foundation and Comcast to guarantee that all students in Chicago Public Schools receive music education as part of their core curriculum.  Since 1999 Comcast and VH1 Save The Music Foundation have provided $1,7550,000 worth of musical instruments to restore music programs in 69 Chicago Public Schools. Now in its eleventh year, the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning VH1 Save The Music Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of education in America's public schools by restoring music education programs in cities across the U.S. and raising awareness of the importance of music participation for our nation's youth.  For information on VH1 Save The Music Foundation, visit www.VH1SaveTheMusic.com.

"Comcast is proud to support the restoration of musical instruments in the schools through our partnership with VH1 Save the Music Foundation and Chicago Public Schools," says Steve Reimer, Senior Vice President of Comcast Greater Chicago Region, "We encourage other corporations to join in our mission and applaud the Jersey Boys for their support."

"Having just celebrated The Foundation's 10th anniversary, we are happy to continue our mission by partnering with Comcast and the Chicago company of Jersey Boys," said Paul Cothran, Executive Director, VH1 Save The Music Foundation. "Their ongoing support helps us to ensure that students throughout Chicago Public Schools receive the benefits of music and continues to raise public awareness about the need for music education programs."

Since the VH1 Save The Music Foundation was created in 1997, more than $43 million worth of new musical instruments have been donated to 1,600 public schools in 100 cities, improving the lives of more than 1.2 million children.

Cast members from the Chicago company of Jersey Boys will teach a master class at Chicago's Talcott Fine Arts and Museum Academy (1840 W Ohio, Chicago) on Tuesday, December 16 at 12:30 p.m.  Talcott Fine Arts and Museum Academy received band instruments from the VH1 Save The Music Foundation in 2006, and the Chicago company of Jersey Boys will help them put those instruments to use in a workshop to teach students the genre of music sung by the Four Seasons, and general tenets of musical theater.

Jersey Boys is the story of how a group of blue-collar boys from the wrong side of the tracks became one of the biggest American pop music sensations of all time.  They wrote their own songs, invented their own sound and sold 175 million records worldwide - all before they were thirty.

Presented by Broadway In Chicago and TheatreDreams, Jersey Boys, now playing at the Bank of America Theatre (18 W. Monroe St.), premiered in Chicago on October 5, 2007 and became a resident production on February 27, 2008.  Directed by two-time Tony® Award-winner Des McAnuff, Jersey Boys won both the 2006 Tony® Award for Best Musical and the 2006 Grammy Award® for Best Musical Recording, and continues to break box office records on Broadway, around the country, and at the Bank of America Theatre in Chicago.

Jersey Boys is written by Academy Award® -winner Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe and choreography by Sergio Trujillo. Jersey Boys is produced by Dodger Theatricals, Joseph J. Grano, Tamara and Kevin Kinsella, Pelican Group with Latitude Link and Rick Steiner.

For more information on Jersey Boys, go to www.JerseyBoysChicago.com or www.BroadwayInChicago.com.

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