The struggle for social justice is under siege in the United States. A new play from award-winning novelist Marc Acito and composer-lyricist and Grammy nominee Amy Engelhardt, “Bastard Jones,” aims to fight back.
Inspired by the 1963 film Tom Jones, the pair believes that you can substitute any discriminated minority for the word “bastard,” and the tale is as relevant today as it was over 250 years ago. Everyone is entitled to the pursuit of happiness, no matter their birth circumstances, and Bastard Jones is about young people banished from their families simply for expressing their true selves. It’s a farce with a rock score is about an outsider’s quest for acceptance.
Broadway librettist (ALLEGIANCE) and award-winning novelist (HOW I PAID FOR COLLEGE) Marc Acito and composer-lyricist Amy Engelhardt (genre-busting Grammy noms THE BOBS). Together they've written BASTARD JONES, a rock musical comedy.
If you saw the Oscar-winning, shagtastic 1963 film TOM JONES (based on Henry Fielding’s 1749 comedy of bad manners), you’re already smiling. But we believe there’s more to the source material. Substitute any discriminated minority for the word “bastard,” and the tale is as relevant today as it was over 250 years ago. Everyone is entitled to the pursuit of happiness, no matter their birth circumstances.
And we’ve used every part of our backgrounds—rock, opera, comedy, social justice —to create a hybrid of the high-brow and low-brow we think of as the “uni-brow.” Genders will bend, patriarchies will be subverted, the limits of good taste tested.
BASTARD JONES will feature a cast of 9 (and a band of 5) that reflects the diversity of America, including people with disabilities.
It will premiere in June 2017 at Nancy Manocherian’s cell theatre in New York City. So we want to complete our funding by April 1st so we can concentrate on putting on a kick-ass show.
The authors are donating their royalties, as well as the 100% of the profits to Cyndi Lauper’s nonprofit TRUE COLORS FUND , dedicated to ending homelessness of LGBT youth.
Please support this project. https://www.gofundme.com/celljones
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