Park Theatre NJ

07/17/2024

Congratulations to our director Joe LoBianco and our whole Frankenstein team on this film festival win!
Best International Feature Film in the Kodaikanal International Film Festival!

06/11/2024

I'm excited to announce that FRANKENSTEIN won Best International Feature Film in the CIFA film festival!
Joe LoBianco The Frankenstein Musical Maarten Cornelis Tom DiOrio Tamra Pica Daniel Robert Burns Grace Hwoang Lauren Coccaro Marc Christopher Tim Bacskai Jay Lucas Chacon Ren King Daryl Glenn Julie McNamara Rebecca Ponticello Kim Jinhyoung Jeong Eun Kim

05/12/2024

I’m proud to announce that the score from our musical film FRANKENSTEIN, won Best Soundtrack in the Florence International Film Festival – Indie Awards!
You can listen to the soundtrack here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4bSaSNb6XinolAStAey6Qg

And stream the film here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/frankensteinmusical/

05/10/2024

Best Female Actor Grace Hwoang as Elizabeth Lavenza in FRANKENSTEIN!
Rameshwaram International Film Festival

You can watch the film here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/frankensteinmusical/
(discount code: FRANK24C valid through June)

05/06/2024

Best Director: Joe LoBianco for FRANKENSTEIN!
Rameshwaram International Film Festival

You can watch the film here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/frankensteinmusical/
(discount code: FRANK24C valid through June)

05/05/2024

Best Male Actor Daniel Robert Burns as Victor Frankenstein in FRANKENSTEIN!
Rameshwaram International Film Festival

You can watch the film here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/frankensteinmusical/
(discount code: FRANK24C valid through June)

05/03/2024

I am excited to announce that our FRANKENSTEIN won
"Best International Feature Film"
in the Rameshwaram International Film Festival!

(some additional categories to be posted soon!)
You can watch the film here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/frankensteinmusical/
(discount code: FRANK24C valid through June)

04/25/2024

FRANKENSTEIN will be screened this Friday at noon at the Indie Vegas Film Festival at the Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, at (12 PM April 26).

Independent Film Festival in Las Vegas

04/19/2024

Our movie musical FRANKENSTEIN is an Official Selection, and will be screened at the IIndie Vegas Film Festivalat the Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, at 12 PM (noon) on Friday, April 26!

Independent Film Festival in Las Vegas

03/28/2024

I’m excited to announce that FRANKENSTEIN is an Official Selection of the Indie Vegas Film Festival (April 25 – 28), and will be screened in Las Vegas on April 26!

If you can't make it to Las Vegas, you can always stream it here:
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/frankensteinmusical/

03/23/2024

I'm excited to announce that my musical film score for FRANKENSTEIN, won the Bronze Medal for Original Score/Soundtrack in the Global Music Awards!

Soundtrack is here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4bSaSNb6XinolAStAey6Qg
Whole movie is here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/frankensteinmusical/

03/14/2024

Best Musical Film for FRANKENSTEIN!
Stream it on-demand: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/frankensteinmusical/

Joe LoBianco Streaming Musicals The Frankenstein Musical
Tin Mirror Studios Marc Christopher Daniel Robert Burns Grace Hwoang Tim Bacskai Lauren Coccaro Jay Lucas Chacon Daryl Glenn Julie McNamara Rebecca Ponticello Tamra Pica Maarten Cornelis Kim Jinhyoung Jeong Eun Kim

03/03/2024

Here’s our new 25% off discount code (valid through April) to stream our Frankenstein movie, on-demand: FRANK24B
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/frankensteinmusical/
We already won a whole bunch of film awards!

Frankenstein 1h 47m • Musical Theatre, Romance, Science Fiction, Horror • 2023 FRANKENSTEIN (music, book & lyrics by Eric B. Sirota) is a sweeping…

02/25/2024

I'm excited to announce that FRANKENSTEIN won "Best Musical Feature Film" in the Parai Musical International Awards!

Congratulations Joe LoBianco and the whole team on The Frankenstein Musical!
You can watch it on-demand at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/frankensteinmusical/
Here’s a 25% off discount code (valid till 4/30): FRANK24B

02/18/2024

I'm excited to announce that Frankenstein won Best Original Score in a Feature Film, in the Mei International Film Festival!

https://TheFrankensteinMusical.com
Thanks to whole team, especially the amazing voices in the cast, and in particular Jeong Eun Kim and Kim Jinhyoung for music director and orchestration, and Joe LoBianco in the studio.

01/06/2024

Stuck inside with the storm? What a great time to watch our new film!
And here’s a 25% off discount code to stream it on-demand:
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/frankensteinmusical/
FRANK24A (good through the end of the January)

Frankenstein 1h 47m • Musical Theatre, Romance, Science Fiction, Horror • 2023 FRANKENSTEIN (music, book & lyrics by Eric B. Sirota) is a sweeping…

12/04/2023

“A Good Day” which was featured at the concert at the Park, was nominated for “Best New Play or Musical” in the 2023 BroadwayWorld Awards (Philadelphia region).

Please vote for “A GOOD DAY" (Shawnee Playhouse)” here: https://www.broadwayworld.com/philadelphia/voteregion.cfm for “Best New Play or Musical”

Thanks!

Voting is Now Open!

11/10/2023

Frankenstein, that played Off-Broadway for 3 years and recently adapted as a motion picture, filmed at the Park Theatre, was awarded Best Director (Joe LoBianco), Best Actor (Marc Christopher) and Best Original Score (Eric B. Sirota) in the New York Movie Awards!
The film streams on-demand.
See https://TheFrankensteinMusical.com for both movie and soundtrack links.

FRANKENSTEIN was also awarded:
2nd place: Feature Film
2nd place: Actress (Grace Hwoang)
2nd place: Cinematography (Joe LoBianco)
3rd place: Screenplay (Eric B. Sirota)
3rd place: Producers

07/12/2023

New screen adaptation of Off-Broadway musical, Frankenstein. Filmed as a movie at the Park Theatre in Union City. Streaming on-demand
https://fb.watch/lJtjCWyBJs/

07/05/2023

This month marks the bicentennial of the first theatrical adaptation of Mary Shelley‘s Frankenstein, “Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein” by Richard Brinsley Peake, which premiered on July 28, 1823. This coincides with the release of the most recent adaptation, the Joe LoBianco film version of my musical theatre work, which ran Off-Broadway on-stage for three years prior to the pandemic. It opened in 2017 around the time of the bicentennial of Mary Shelley’s novel, which was written in 1816 and published in 1818. And now reimagined and adapted for screen with an expanded, sweeping romantic orchestrated score.
It was filmed here at the Park Theatre in Union City, New Jersey.
(Streams on-demand at https://www.StreamingMusicals.com/film/frankenstein/)

In Mary Shelley‘s novel (titled “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus”), Victor Frankenstein works in isolation. He tells no one of his endeavors. He does not share it with Elizabeth, his best friend Henry, nor his teachers, and he has no assistant. This is actually key to the story since Victor’s flaw as a scientist was not “hubris” as is often said, but rather “his lack of collaboration, mentorship and peer review”. And in this new adaptation, that was maintained. But Victor’s main flaw which led to the tragic outcome, was not about science, but his lack of empathy for his creation, his child; in a sense it is about bad parenting. And the musical is about the human need for a love and companionship; the heart of Mary Shelley‘s story.

In popular culture, the character known as Igor, Victor’s assistant, has become embedded in people’s minds as part of Frankenstein. However, no such character existed or could have existed in Mary Shelley‘s novel, for the reason described above. Igor was not a 20th century Hollywood invention! The 1823 stage adaptation, Presumption, had added a character named Fritz, a bumbling assistant. In fact, in the 1931 Hollywood classic, the assistant was named Fritz. It later evolved into what we now know as Igor, first appearing in Son of Frankenstein (1939) where Bela Lugosi played “Ygor”. And canonized as “Aiy-gor” in Young Frankenstein. Recently the 2015 film, Victor Frankenstein, is described as the story told through the eyes of Igor, played by Daniel Radcliffe.

One can understand why such a character would have been created for a stage adaptation. Unless the play was framed as a monologue to Walton (the ship captain who rescued him from the ice in the arctic), as Mary Shelley’s novel was, he would have no one to talk to. It clearly makes a play or film easier to write, even if it changes key elements of Mary Shelley’s story. Adaptations are just that – adaptations. Being ‘true to the story’ is a relative thing. The novel was structured and written by Mary Shelley as a work for the printed page. Stage and screen are different mediums. Adaptation is necessary. This new musical is “a contemporary work of musical theatre which honors the source material.”

But to adapt Frankenstein as a work of musical theatre successfully in this way was not an easy task. The novel is not structured in a way easily conducive for it. And perhaps that is why it took me 36 years to learn the craft, write and rework, till it opened Off-Broadway in NY in 2017.

It was another adaptation of Frankenstein that spurred me to write the musical. I had first read Frankenstein in 8th grade. In 1981, during winter break of my first year in grad school at Harvard where I was studying Physics, my mother took me to a preview of the infamously short-lived Broadway production of the Gialanella play, based on Mary Shelley's novel. I thought, ‘Why aren’t they singing?!’ I re-read the book and heard the story sing in my head as a musical. Like Victor Frankenstein, I was a scientist working towards my degree, far from home and far from the girl I loved, and the story spoke to me both intellectually and emotionally. At that point I decided to adapt the novel as a musical.”

The new film adaptation is not simply a video capture of a live stage performance, the kind which is quite prevalent now. It was reimagined for the screen and filmed and edited like a movie musical with studio recorded songs, edited effects, and lots of post-production. The musical score was expanded and orchestrated, and the cast was also enlarged. Some scenes were re-ordered and a song added. However, the fundamental choices made in my stage adaptation are in the movie.

More info at https://TheFrankensteinMusical.com

06/18/2023

Filmed at the Park Theatre!
FRANKENSTEIN, the long running Off-Broadway musical that was scheduled to be performed at the Park in the Spring of 2020, was re-imagined for screen, and filmed there as a movie musical in 2021, with an expanded and fully orchestrated score.
After almost two years of post-production, the movie is released and can be streamed on-demand (for $7.99) at any time of your convenience, at https://www.StreamingMusicals.com/film/frankenstein/
Details and the trailer can be found at TheFrankensteinMusical.com

07/29/2021

The concert on the 31st is postponed. A new date will be forthcoming.

07/26/2021

It was A Good Day

07/23/2021

The virtual program for the concert, Saturday at 2 PM at Ellsworth Park, can be found at this link.
https://agooddaymusical.com/program/

07/23/2021

Introducing cast member, Andrew Leonforte, who will be performing in "A Good Day - a concert of musical theatre songs by Eric Sirota" on July 24 and July 31.

Andrew Leonforte is an Actor/singer/songwriter born and raised in Bronx, NY. He has two songs out on major distribution platforms which were both well received. He has been involved in musical theatre since the age of 8, some credits include John Handly in All Hands On Deck (National Tour), Crutchie in Disney’s Newsies (Regional) Chad in Disaster, (New York) Rapunzel's Prince in Into the Woods (New York) You also might recognize him as Young Joe Gideon in Fosse/Verdon on FX. Special thanks to his parents for their continued love and support.

07/23/2021

Introducing cast member, Grace Hwoang, who will be performing in "A Good Day - a concert of musical theatre songs by Eric Sirota" on July 24 and July 31.

Grace Hwoang is a singer-songwriter, music producer, opera singer and actress who hails from Los Angeles, California. Coming from a solid background of classical music, having had training in classical piano from the age of 7 and earning her Bachelor’s of Music Performance degree in Opera at the Aaron Copland School of Music, she has performed in various concerts and recitals as an opera singer and musical theater actress, as well as writing her own original music. Her most recent venture includes producing and releasing her first pop-genre single “Heaviness.” She regularly shares her works on her Instagram page and Youtube channel, as well as Spotify and Apple Music under the name “Grace Juhe”.

07/22/2021

Introducing cast member, Dylan Bivings, who will be performing in "A Good Day - a concert of musical theatre songs by Eric Sirota" on July 24 and July 31.

Dylan Bivings is a graduate of Five Towns College with a BFA in the Theatre Arts. He has been in a number of New York City and Regional Theatre shows. Some of which include Samson the Musical (Raca), The Proust Virus (Thrall), Go My Child (Priest 1/ Eliezer), We Will Rock You (Khashoggi) Evita (Che), Frankenstein (Henry), Wicked City Blues (Harry), Aida (Ensemble/ Mereb u/s), and more. He is also slated to play Daniel in 54 Sings Once on this Island once performance venues are allowed to open up again. When he is not acting, he also spends his time writing original pieces. Writing is a huge passion of his and he is currently working towards trying to get one of his works produced. He would like to thank his friends and family for always supporting him in his career and being with him through every step of the way.

07/22/2021

Introducing cast member, Devyn White, who will be performing in "A Good Day - a concert of musical theatre songs by Eric Sirota" on July 24 and July 31.

Devyn White is excited to be on stage again performing Eric Sirota's work alongside so many talented performers. Recent Off Broadway credits include: The Imbible, Vox Lumiere's Phantom of the Opera, Miles Thorn Master Illusionist, and 420: The Musical. She would like to thank her husband for his support and God for His many blessings.

07/21/2021

Introducing cast member, Jay Lucas Chacon, who will be performing in "A Good Day - a concert of musical theatre songs by Eric Sirota" on July 24 and July 31.

Jay Lucas Chacon is excited to be in his first performance since March of 2020!

Jay founded the startup ViOp Productions, a virtual opera production company set up to employ artists to create and continue working through virtual medium creating opera on film, filmed concerts and online recitals, and virtual readings. He produced and performed in a duet recital Crossing Paths as well as Rodolfo in a film version of La bohème Act 3 by Leoncavallo, The Spirit of Christmas; a holiday special, and The CHESS Project featuring music from the musical Chess, where Jay sang the role of Anatoly.

Companies Jay has worked with are On Site Opera, New Camerata Opera, Apotheosis Opera, Long Island Opera Company, Saint Petersburg Opera Company, Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre, and Bronx Opera in such roles as Innkeeper/Governor in Man of La Mancha, George Page in Sir John in Love, Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro and The Barber of Seville, Schaunard in La bohème, Alfio in Cavalaria Rusticana, and The Count in Capriccio. In the summer of 2019, Jay made his international debut in Montréal as a guest artist with L'Institut Canadien d'Art Vocal performing the role of Rodolfo in the Leoncavallo La bohème

07/21/2021

Introducing cast member, Lauren Coccaro, who will be performing in "A Good Day - a concert of musical theatre songs by Eric Sirota" on July 24 and July 31.

Lauren is very excited to be back on stage as a soloist for this amazing concert! Lauren is a graduate from Five Towns College with her BFA in Theatre Arts. Some of her past credits include Elizabeth understudy in Frankenstein the Musical, Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors, Tracy Turnbald in Hairspray, Eponine in Les Miserables and she has worked with MTI as a dancer, singer and actor in their choreography DVD's. She would like to thank her friends and family for all their endless support. Break a leg to the cast and crew!