AIN’T THAT GOOD NEWS…?

The Bengson's performing on the rooftop terrace of Dayton's Firefly Building

…a butt-kicking, heart-breaking, raucous, Vaudevillian Cabaret!

What?

Yeah…I thought the same thing, the first time I was forcibly encouraged to attend a performance by Shaun & Abigail Bengson.  “What are we going to see again?  Who are these people? Can’t we just go to Chappy’s instead?”

Then, upon exiting the venue I asked…”What did I just see?  Who were those people?  When are they performing again? Is there a CD?”  The performance WAS heart-breaking, it WAS butt-kicking.  I fell in love with these performers, and the 20-some characters from around the world that they introduced me to that evening.

Shaun & Abigail Bengson.  Performers like no other.  To be frank…you, yes YOU….have NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER to miss their performances whenever their nomadic path winds through Southwest Ohio.  Sorry if that sounds too strong for a friendly little blog post, but I am forcibly encouraging you to attend a performance of AIN’T THAT GOOD NEWS by The Bengson’s at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival this week.

Shaun McClain Bengson was a local boy.  Bellbrook.  You might’ve even seen him perform as a kid…BHS marching band & theater productions, Sinclair Jazz Combo, community theater groups. In 2001 he began to explore beyond the Miami Valley.  First he attended college at Indiana University (studied Ethnomusicology & Traditional Indiana Fiddling), then after graduation Shaun moved to New York City as a part of the city’s teaching fellows program.  He became a music teacher in NYC.  He was assigned to a school for special education students, in a unit for students with Autism.  It was in this unit where Shaun crafted programs such as “Little Kids Rock!” and then “The New Manhattan Music Project,” where his students wrote, produced & performed their own musicals.  It was at the performance of these musicals where Shaun found love.  In walks Abigail Nessen, out walks “The Bengson’s,” and a new band called the “Zombie Nationalists.”  They were engaged within two weeks and writing their first musical.

The couple is constantly touring.  They have traveled to South Africa, West Africa, El Salvador, Japan, Mexico, Europe as well as many areas of the U.S.  They perform while touring, but more importantly they connect to the people they encounter,  educating kids and talking with families.  They collect stories along the way.  These stories…NO…these people become the Bengson’s show.

Those of you who attended last week’s production of RENT in C{space got just a glimpse of Shaun & Abigail.  Shaun led the rockin’ band, giving this version of RENT an instrumental style of it’s own.  Abigail portrayed “Mimi.”  Her Mimi was perhaps a tinge “Joplin-inspired.”  She took the dark role & gave it a fierce, hard edge that was probably more truthful to the character than “glam’d” for Broadway.

Currently they are touring with AIN’T THAT GOOD NEWS, finishing up a new album called THE PROOF, and writing their next show which is titled the same as the album.  The new show, which will employ a cast of 12 and an 8 piece band, will be developed through a residency in Vermont followed by an Off-Broadway run in 2011.

AIN’T THAT GOOD NEWS is described as

…a raucous vaudevillian cabaret, full of roaring original music and impassioned characters. The Bengson duo evoke the quintessentially American stories of the immigrant and the outcast and play at the heart of the political struggles of our age through a melding of the musical forms of Tin Pan Alley, the Old South, German Weimar and rock and roll. The show is constantly evolving. As the Bengsons travel, they trade songs and drinks for new stories from the personal to the divine, and shift the work to reflect where they’ve been, and each new community they’re in. This work was made possible through support from the Puffin Foundation.

AIN’T THAT GOOD NEWS opened on Sunday night in the Cincinnati Fringe Festival.  You have three more chances to catch their show, so you will need to start making arrangements today. Hire a babysitter, make dinner reservations and ORDER YOUR TICKETS before they are gone!

AIN’T THAT GOOD NEWS @ The Cincinnati Fringe Festival

Wed. June 9 at 9:30p / Thurs. June 10 @ 8:45p / Sat. June 12 @ 9:00p

Venue: The Coffee Emporium, 110 E. Central Parkway, Cincinnati, Ohio

Tickets:  $12 online at www.cincyfringe.com/aint-that-good-news

More Info:  www.bengsons.com or email Shaun & Abigail at [email protected]

When you get the chance to meet Shaun & Abigail after the show, make sure you give them a hug for us…but be careful what you say…you never know, it might just make it into their next musical!

SA

Shane Anderson & David Brush work with locally based Encore Theater Company. ETC recently moved into the new arts collective space in the Oregon District, along with Zoot Theatre Co. & Rhythm in Shoes. Anderson, Brush & ETC are currently preparing for their upcoming Summer season of new musicals in downtown Dayton: Johnathan Larson’s RENT, [title of show] &Next Thing You Know (a developmental production of a new musical by NYC-based writing team of Salzman & Cunningham)