THE HELLO GIRLS to Play the Kennedy Center & Symphony Space This May

Prospect Theater Company's production of The Hello Girls will play Washington, DC for one night only on Tuesday, May 7th at 7:30pm in the Terrace Theater at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in a special staged concert presented by the Doughboy Foundation. Tickets, starting at $40, are now on sale.

The production will also receive a special one night only presentation as part of Prospect's IGNITE Series in New York City on Sunday, May 12 at 6:30pm at the Peter Norton Symphony Space (2537 Broadway, at 95th Street). Tickets, starting at $30 for students with ID (includes facility fee), are on sale now, and can be purchased at www.symphonyspace.org or www.prospecttheater.org.

The critically-acclaimed musical tells the story of the first women soldiers in the U.S. Army, who served on the front lines during World War I, acting as bi-lingual Signal Corps Telephone Operators. Deployed to France, they connected over 26 million calls and remained to assist during the post-war period, including at the Treaty of Versailles that officially ended the war. Colloquially known as the ‘Hello Girls', over thirty of the women received individual commendations, including Grace Banker who received the Distinguished Service Medal. Despite their key role in the American combat effort, when they returned home the women learned that the War Department did not consider them military veterans. They fought for their rights valiantly until 1977, when congress finally acknowledged their veterans' status.

These special engagements will reunite members of the world premiere actor-musician cast, including Ellie Fishman (Into the Woods) as ‘Grace Banker', Arlo Hill (Phantom of the Opera), Chanel Karim-khani (The Goree All Girl String Band), Andrew Mayer (The Great Comet of 1812), Ben Moss (OBIE Award, Oratorio for Living Things), and Lili Thomas (Chicago). Additional casting will be announced shortly.

The show features music and lyrics by award-winning composer Peter Mills, with script by Mills and Cara Reichel. Choreography is by Christine O'Grady and music direction is by Ben Moss, and the production is directed by Cara Reichel.

Prospect Theater Company commissioned, developed, and premiered The Hello Girls in 2018, when it played off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters, and earned multiple Drama Desk and Outer Critics' Circle Award nominations.

In advance of the Kennedy Center ticketed performance, there will be a free family-friendly mini-concert performed by The Hello Girls cast at the National World War I Memorial in Washington, DC. Hosted by the US World War I Centennial Commission and the Doughboy Foundation, this special sneak-peek event will take place on Sunday, May 5th at 4:00pm. More information on the free mini-concert can be found at: www.doughboy.org/events.

This presentation of The Hello Girls is a partner-project supported by the US World War I Centennial Commission and the Doughboy Foundation. The Centennial Commission was established by the US Congress in 2013, to create public awareness regarding America's involvement, and sacrifice, in World War I.

The Hello Girls is an external rental presented in coordination with the Kennedy Center Campus Rentals Office and is not produced by the Kennedy Center.

The NYC performance is made possible in part by funding from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

For more information on all The Hello Girls musical, please visit www.thehellogirlsmusical.com.

THE HELLO GIRLS - CALENDAR OF EVENTS

DC / The Hello Girls Musical Sneak-Peek Mini-Concert
Sunday, May 5 at 4pm
Free, open to the public
www.doughboy.org/events
The National World War I Memorial:
1493 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004

DC / The Hello Girls Musical Kennedy Center Concert
Tuesday, May 7 at 7:30pm
Tickets starting at $40
https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/explore-by-genre/theater/2023-2024/the-hello-girls/
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Terrace Theater
2700 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20566

NYC / The Hello Girls at Symphony Space
Sunday, May 12 at 6:30pm
Tickets starting at $30 with Student ID (includes fees)
https://www.symphonyspace.org/events/vp-the-hello-girls
Symphony Space
2537 Broadway, New York, NY 10025

BIOGRAPHIES


Ellie Fishman (Cast: Grace Banker) is so happy to be back with The Hello Girls after originating the role of ‘Grace Banker' Off-Broadway! First National Tour: Into The Woods (u/s Cinderella, others), Miss Saigon (Ellen), Finding Neverland. Off-Broadway: The Hello Girls (Grace Banker). Regional Theatre: The Music Man (Marian/Goodspeed), Les Miserables (Fantine/Witchita), Rags (Goodspeed), The Sound of Music (Maria/City Springs). B.F.A University of Michigan.

Arlo Hill (Cast) is an actor, singer, voiceover artist, and startup founder. Appearances include Broadway (Phantom), Lincoln Center (Carousel), Encores (Where's Charley?, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Little Me, Most Happy Fella), the Kennedy Center (Music Man), and Off-Broadway (The Hello Girls). His solo show about the life & work of Frank Loesser has been seen at a range of cabaret venues including 54 Below. Voiceover includes Ken Burns' & Lynn Novick's Hemingway. Harvard; NYU Grad Acting.

Chanel Karimkhani (Cast). Off-Broadway: The Hello Girls (listen on Spotify/Apple), Bach and Bleach, The Goree All Girl String Band. Off-off Broadway: Don't Do This To Us, Chamber Music, Sympathy in C. Regional credits include: Beeزنبور (Portland Headwaters Theatre), Sister Act (Arvada Center), Death Takes a Holiday (Arvada Center). Europe: There's Nothing Rougher Than Love – a cabaret (Paris, France - Broadway Au Carré). B.F.A. Musical Theatre graduate from University of the Arts. Thank you to my cast, creative team, and family/friends… your believing in me makes magic on stage!

Andrew Mayer (Cast). Credits include B'way: The Great Comet of 1812, A Christmas Carol. Off-B'way: I Spy a Spy, Dying for It (Atlantic). Regional: It Happened in Key West (Fulton), The Band's Visit (Huntington), Oliver (Goodspeed). TV: “The Girls on the Bus”, “Wu-Tang”, “Law & Order”, “Black-list”. Education: BU School of Theater, Manhattan School of Music, LAMDA. Andrew regularly per-forms with event bands all over the US. Also a stage combat specialist, you can find him in hit video game Red Dead Redemption 2.

Peter Mills (Music / Lyrics / Script) wrote lyrics and music and co-wrote the book for The Hello Girls (4 Outer Critics Circle nominations, 3 Drama Desk nominations, Drama League nomination for Outstanding Production of a Musical, and an Off-Broadway Alliance nomination for Best New Musical). The Hello Girls premiered in 2018 in NYC, released a cast album in 2019, and has since had over fifty productions across the USA and around the world. Mills also penned lyrics for The Honey-mooners (Paper Mill), Iron Curtain (Prospect, Village Theatre), and The Oscar Micheaux Project (upcoming). As a composer/lyricist, his other shows include Illyria, The Flood, The Underclassman, and Golden Boy Of The Blue Ridge. He has been honored to receive the Kleban Prize for lyrics, the Fred Ebb Award, the ASCAP Cole Porter Award and Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, Drama Desk Award nominations for The Pursuit Of Persephone (Best Music / Best Orchestrations), and a grant from the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation. MFA: NYU's Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program. Peter also teaches at NYU and at Princeton University.

Ben Moss (Cast / Music Director). Recent credits include Oratorio for Living Things at Ars Nova (Obie Award, Lucille Lortel Award) and Prospect Theater's The Hello Girls. Broadway: Head Over Heels, Amélie, Deaf West's Spring Awakening. Other credits: Penelope (Signature Theatre), Azul (Eugene O'Neill Theater Center), Heather Christian's PRIME (Playwright's Horizons “Soundstage”), Arlington (Vineyard Theatre), After Anatevka (Audible), and appearances at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center. He is the composer of the new musical Don't Call Me John! and the music director of the Broadway Sings concert series.

CHRISTINE O'GRADY (Choreographer). Broadway/Tours: Hair (Resident/Associate Dir./Chor.), Legally Blonde (SDC Observer), Pete the Cat's Big Hollywood Adventure (Dir./Chor.). Off-Broadway: The Hello Girls, The Underclassman, and Iron Curtain as well as revivals of tick, tick…BOOM!, and john and jen. Regional: Mark Taper Forum, Barrington Stage Company, TheaterWorks Hartford and the Totem PolePlayhouse. Awards: SDCF's Charles Abbott Directing Fellowship (The Guthrie); Moss Hart Award (The Outcast of Sherwood Forest, RIYT); and a NYIT Award for Outstanding Choreography for The Drowsy Chaperone (Gallery Players). Member: SDC and MTEA. Christine is an Assistant Professor of Theatre (Directing) and on the Graduate Faculty at Penn State.

Cara Reichel (Director / Script) is the Producing Artistic Director of NYC's critically-acclaimed, OBIE and Drama Desk Award-winning Prospect Theater Company. She collaborates frequently with fellow founding Prospect artist Peter Mills and together they have created over a dozen new musicals, including The Hello Girls, The Underclassman, Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge, The Flood, and Illyria. Cara directed the NYC premiere of Einstein's Dreams, which received multiple 2020 Drama Desk Award nominations, and has developed works at the O'Neill Theatre Center, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre's Festival of New Musicals, Phoenix Theatre Company, Surflight Theatre, Goodwill Theatre, and the Village Theatre's Festival of New Musicals. Cara is co-librettist on The Oscar Micheaux Project, a new jazz musical featured in the 2023 NAMT Festival of New Musicals and developed at Goodspeed Musicals' Johnny Mercer Writers Grove. She was commissioned by Theatrical Rights Worldwide and BMG to create a female-forward jukebox musical, The Olympians.

Lili Thomas (Cast) is thrilled to return to The Hello Girls fresh off her history-making run as ‘Mama Morton' in Chicago on Broadway. Also seen as ‘Cynthia Murphy' in Dear Evan Hansen (1st Nat'l). Off-B'way: We're Gonna Die (Second Stage), The Hello Girls (Prospect @ 59E59), Only Human (St. Clements). Select regional: PCLO (Great Comet), Berkeley Rep (Octet w/Dave Malloy), Lincoln Center (NYPhil). NYU/Tisch. For my “Mustard 1 & 2” who still know every word to this show!

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