SILENCE! THE MUSICAL Celebrates 500th Performance Today

Off-Broadway's sellout sensation Silence! The Musical will celebrate its 500th performance at the 2 PM matinee today, May 18th at the Elektra Theatre in the heart of Times Square.

Winner of the 2012 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Musical, Silence! The Musical is the unauthorized parody of THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, with book by Hunter Bell, music & lyrics by Jon and Al Kaplan, and direction & choreography by Tony Award winner Christopher Gattelli. After opening initially at Theatre 80 on July 9, 2011 to unanimous rave reviews, the show immediately became a sold-out phenomenon and was selected by Time Magazine as one of the year's Top 5 Musicals.

In the Academy Award-winning film THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, rookie FBI agent Clarice Starling matches wits with the brilliant but insane cannibal, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, to catch the serial killer known only as Buffalo Bill. Clarice faces her own demons while racing the clock to unlock Lecter's clues before another innocent girl is killed and skinned by Buffalo Bill. The laugh-out-loud raunchy satire, Silence! The Musical, features a singing chorus of floppy eared lambs narrating the action as Buffalo Bill gleefully dances a hoedown while kidnapping hapless Catherine Martin. Even Dr. Lecter, scary as ever, sings about the life he'd like to lead someday outside the prison walls.

With Sean McDermott (star of Broadway's MISS SAIGON, GREASE, FALSETTOS, and STARLIGHT EXPRESS) as Hannibal Lecter, the cast of Silence! The Musical also features Laura Jordan (as Clarice Starling), David Ayers, Callan Bergmann, Howard Kaye, Tyler Maynard, Sarah O'Gleby, Ronica V. Reddick, Kevin Spirtas, Kimberly Stern, Natalie Joy Johnson, and Kevin Zak.

Created by Jon and Al Kaplan in 2002, Silence! The Musical began as a collection of songs on the internet which immediately attracted a staggering number of fans. The Kaplans' subsequent screenplay Silence! The Musical was adapted by Hunter Bell into a live stage show, which also featured newly composed songs by the brothers. Fueled by a rabid cult following, SILENCE! shattered every box office record at the 2005 FringeNYC Festival, winning the award for Best Musical.SILENCE! met with further success in London and Los Angeles, where the production received three L.A. Drama Critics Circle Awards.

SILENCE! THE MUSICAL has hosted an unusually large number of celebrity attendees including Jodie Foster, Matt Bomer (twice), Perez Hilton, Joan Rivers, Kelly Ripa, Jonathan Demme, James Earl Jones, Josh Groban, Rachel Dratch, Justin Kirk, T.R. Knight, Andy Dick, Jonathan Groff, Ben Schwartz, Corbin Bleu, Richard Kind, Lisa Lampanelli, Willie Garson, Neil Simon, Lindsey Shaw, Steven Pasquale, Erin Cummings, Jeremy Jordan, Mario Cantone, David LaChapelle, Stephen Schwartz, Linus Roache, Alec Mapa, Christine Lakin, Christian Campbell, James Lapine, Chad Allen, Heather Matarazzo, John Kander, Will Swenson, Chita Rivera, Danny Burstein, Georgia Engel, Barrett Foa, Vicki Lewis, John Billingsley, Tovah Feldshuh, Stephen Flaherty, Julie Brown, Randy Harrison, and James Barbour.

Set design for Silence! The Musical is by three-time Tony winner Scott Pask, with costume design by David Kaley, lighting design by Jeff Croiter, sound design by Carl Casella, and orchestrations by Brian J. Nash.

Produced by Theater Mogul, Silence! The Musical runs 90 minutes with no intermission and the playing schedule is Saturdays at 2 & 7 PM and Sundays at 5 PM at the Elektra Theatre, 669 Eighth Avenue (at 42nd St.) Tickets are available by calling 212-352-3101 or through www.SilenceTheMusical.com.

Photo Credit: Carol Rosegg