BASTARD JONES

Before we started our campaign, we raised $90K privately, including generous grants from three nonprofit foundations.  This campaign represents the remainder needed to fund sets, costumes, lighting, sound, PR and other expenses for this 9-actor,  5-piece band production.

SO NOW THAT YOU’VE WATCHED OUR VIDEO…
Support our raucous new musical, make a bold statement for civil rights AND get a tax deduction.

100% of the ticket sales from this production will go to charity.

SUCH A DEAL!

WHO ARE WE?  
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 we've written BASTARD JONES, a rock musical comedy.

WHEN AND WHERE? It will premiere in June 2017 at Nancy Manocherian’s cell theatre in New York City. 

WHAT IS IT? 
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  features a cast of 9 (and a band of 5) that reflects the diversity of America, including people with disabilities.

WHY NOW ?
The struggle for social justice is under siege in the United States. The values of tolerance and diversity, on which this nation was founded, are under attack. BASTARD JONES, a farce with a rock score is about an outsider’s quest for acceptance.

AND… THE SHOW ITSELF IS A BENEFIT? WOW!
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.

HOW COME? 
BASTARD JONES is about young people banished from their families simply for expressing their true selves. Sadly, the same situation still plays out today, particularly with LGBTQ youth, who make up 40% of all homeless people ages 16-24.

In keeping with Lauper’s subversive spirit, idiosyncratic humor and enormous heart, we think it’s fitting that we produce a hilarious musical for a serious cause, particularly one with a score by an unconventional female rocker like Amy Engelhardt. (In 2013, Cyndi Lauper became the first woman to win the Tony Award for Best Original Score, for KINKY BOOTS.)

The cell theatre is a 501(c)3 (that’s tax jargon for a nonprofit), so your donation to them is tax-deductible. Not only has the cell generously donated their space, they have pledged to donate ALL of the production’s profits to the True Colors Fund.

WHAT AM I WAITING FOR?
We don’t know!
Donate now, and please share this campaign with EVERYONE YOU KNOW.

Watch this site for updates featuring Broadway and Hollywood celebs you know and love!

Ohhhhh myyyy! This show belongs on Broadway!”
           – civil rights and social media icon George Takei

WE ARE ALL THE BASTARD JONES.