His Tony® Award-winning Musical Comedy The Mystery of Edwin Drood Playing at The Goodspeed Now
EAST HADDAM, Conn. (April 29, 2024) – Goodspeed Musicals proudly welcomes Tony® award-winning playwright, composer and lyricist Rupert Holmes for a special talkback and to sign his New York Times best-selling mystery novel, Murder Your Employer, exclusively for the Goodspeed audience between performances of The Mystery of Edwin Drood at The Goodspeed in East Haddam, Conn. Holmes will hold the talkback on Wednesday, May 8, at 4:45 p.m. (after the 2 p.m. matinee performance), and sign books immediately following. He will also sign books from 6:30-7:15 p.m. (before the 7:30 p.m. evening performance). The public is welcome to attend the talkback and book signing if they do not have tickets for the performances. Books will be available for purchase at the event.
Holmes latest novel Murder Your Employer reached #6 on the New York Times‘ best-selling hardcover fiction list, #1 on Barnes and Noble’s Bestseller List, was one of their Top Ten Mysteries of 2023, and one of Amazon’s Best 50 Books of 2023. It will be the Barnes and Noble Mystery Pick of May. The Audiobook read by Neil Patrick Harris has been at #1 or the nearby vicinity for over a year at Amazon, and was nominated for an Audie award for Best Mystery Audiobook. It is currently being translated into 11 foreign language editions and has already been released in England with a rave from the London Times.
Holmes was the first person to singly win Tony Awards for book, music and lyrics of a musical, this for The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which also won the Tony for Best Musical in 1986. The Drama Desk bestowed all identical honors with yet another to Holmes for Best Orchestration. Drood’s 2012-2013 Broadway return received a Best Revival Tony nomination. Holmes has written, arranged and conducted platinum recordings for Barbra Streisand and is a pop songwriter of Top 40 recordings including his own #1 hit “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” (Broadway: Curtains; Say Goodnight, Gracie; Accomplice; A Time to Kill).
The Mystery of Edwin Drood is currently playing at the Goodspeed in East Haddam and runs through June 2nd, 2024. Curtain times are Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Thursday at 7:30 p.m. (with select performances at 2:00 p.m.), Friday at 8:00 p.m., Saturday at 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. (with select performances at 6:30 p.m.). The production is rated PG-13.
Tickets are available through the Box Office (860.873.8668), open weekdays at 10:00 a.m. and weekends at 11:00 a.m., or online at goodspeed.org. For show highlights, exclusive photos, special events and more, visit us at goodspeed.org and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Tams-Witmark LLC. www.concordtheatricals.com
ABOUT GOODSPEED MUSICALS
Goodspeed Musicals has achieved international acclaim and is the first theatre in the nation to receive two Tony Awards for outstanding achievement in musical theatre. Under the leadership of Donna Lynn Hilton, Artistic Director, and David B. Byrd, Managing Director, Goodspeed Musicals is dedicated to the celebration, development and advancement of musical theatre. Goodspeed creates powerful, world-class productions of enlightening new and established works to delight, inspire and challenge audiences on its two stages – The Goodspeed in East Haddam, Conn., and The Terris Theatre in Chester, Conn. From Goodspeed, 21 musicals have gone to Broadway (including Man of La Mancha, Annie, Shenandoah and Holiday Inn) and 88 world premieres have been launched. Goodspeed’s Festival of New Musicals, GoodWorks commissioning program and the Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Grove at Goodspeed are distinguished cornerstones of the organization that highlight its commitment to nurture creators and the creative process. Goodspeed also maintains The Scherer Library of Musical Theatre and The Max Showalter Center for Education in Musical Theatre. The organization is supported in part by the Burry Fredrik Foundation; the Connecticut Office of the Arts, which also receives funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; The Hoffman Auto Group; Masonicare; The Richard P. Garmany Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving; The Shubert Foundation; and WSHU Public Radio. Additional support is provided by Sennheiser, the official audio sponsor; and United Airlines, the official airline of Goodspeed Musicals. For more information, visit www.goodspeed.org.