A staged reading of the musical ”Wallenberg” was presented in New York City to a full house on Sunday, September 17th and Wednesday, September 20th as part of the 2006 New York Musical Theater Festival .
Based on the true story of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved 100,000 people from deportation to the Nazi concentration camps, the musical has a book and lyrics by Laurence Holzman and Felicia Needleman, the 2006 winners of the prestigious Kleban Award, and a musical score by Benjamin Rosenbluth. The production is directed by and Emmy Award winner, Annette Jolles.
The title role is played by Thom Christopher Warren, who has appeared on Broadway in The Lion King and Once Upon a Mattress. Also in the cast of 35 are Andrea Burns, seen in Beauty and the Beast and The Full Monty, and George Dvorsky, seen in the Broadway casts of The Scarlet Pimpernel, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Broadway veteran Alice Evans
”Wallenberg” was performed in 2005 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Raoul Wallenberg’s disappearance in front of a full house, with over 200 guests who gathered at the JCC Manhattan to pay tribute to the missing hero. Ambassador Kjell Anneling, Consul General of Sweden in New York at that time, addressed the audience and holocaust survivors Judith Saly and Vera Goodkind, both saved through Wallenberg’s actions, narrated their personal stories and remembered their encounters with the Swedish diplomat.
The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, with branches in New York, Buenos Aires and Jerusalem, is a public non-profit non-governmental organization. Its mission is to develop educational programs and public awareness campaigns based on the values of solidarity and civic courage, ethical cornerstones of the Saviors of the Holocaust.
For more information about the show, please visit www.wallenbergthemusical.com.
For more information about the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, please visit www.raoulwallenberg.net
