Lightman, who penned the 1993 best-selling novella on which the musical is based, will speak prior to the 7:30 PM concert. Einstein's Dream features a book by Joanne Sydney Lessner (Fermat's Last Tango), music by Joshua Rosenblum (Bush Is Bad) and lyrics by Lessner and Rosenblum.
The cast for the evening will include Tony nominee Alison Fraser (Gypsy, The Secret Garden), Kate Shindle (Legally Blonde), John Treacy Egan (The Little Mermaid, The Producers), John Bolton (Curtains), Peter Buchi, Maya Goldman (How the Grinch Stole Christmas!), Amy Justman (Company, White Christmas), Jim Weitzer (Phantom of the Opera) and co-creator Joanne Sydney Lessner. Jen Bender directs.
The previously announced Gregg Edelman and Laura Osnes have withdrawn from the concert.
Einstein's Dreams, according to press notes, "finds a young Albert Einstein trapped in an unhappy marriage and an unhappy job well-beneath his intellect. The musical, like the book, places Einstein in a dreamscape that conjures up an array of theoretical realms of time, all of them visions that probe the essence of time, the adventure of creativity, the glory of possibility — and the siren call of a beautiful, elusive woman named Josette."
Songs in the musical include "Are You There?," "The End of Time," "Time Stops," "The Red Hat," "I Want to Love You," "I Will Never Let You Go," "High Speed Motion," "Now Backwards Moving Time" and "Einstein's Dreams." David Loud will lead a six-piece chamber orchestra. The concert presentation benefits the Harpswell Foundation, an organization created in 1999 to provide education, housing and leadership training to children and young women in the developing world.
(The presentation should not to be confused with Albert Innaurato and Charles Gilbert's musical adaptation of the same property. The Lessner-Rosenblum Einstein received its world premiere in 2005 at Lisbon's Teatro da Trindade.)
Tickets, ranging $21-$101, are available by phoning (212) 864-5400 or by visiting SymphonySpace. A select number of $10 rush tickets will be available the day of the performance.
Symphony Space is located at 2537 Broadway at 95th Street in Manhattan.
