Playbill.com - New Musical All Is Calm, About Christmas Truce of 1914, to Open Off-Broadway

Theater Latté Da's production of All is Calm Allen Weeks

The show brings to life the extraordinary events of the overnight truce between Germany and the Allies during WWI.

BY OLIVIA CLEMENT, Playbill.com
JUL 24, 2018

Peter Rothstein's musical All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 will make its Off-Broadway debut at the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture beginning this November.

The musical details the real-life truce between Germany and the Allies, which occurred on Christmas day during World War I, resulting in a single night of camaraderie, music, and peace before both sides returned to fighting in the morning.

The Off-Broadway production from Laura Little Theatricals and Theater Latté Da will begin performances November 9 ahead of a November 18 opening.

All Is Calm will be brought to life by a cast of ten, and blends iconic WWI patriotic tunes, trench songs, medieval ballads, and Christmas carols from England, Wales, France, Belgium, and Germany with texts woven from letters, autobiographies, poetry, gravestone inscriptions, and an old radio broadcast.

“I wanted to tell the story in their own words,” said Rothstein of his years of research for the musical. “For decades, the truce was considered a romantic fable, fiction, and I wanted to give legitimate voice to this remarkable moment that had somehow been denied its rightful place in history. I cannot express how gratifying it has been to share the story of these heroic men, in their own words, across the country and around the globe.”

All Is Calm is written and directed by Rothstein, with vocal arrangements by Erick Lichte and Timothy C. Takach and music direction by Lichte. The show debuted as a live broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio in 2007 and has since toured the U.S. as a production, playing in such venues as The Kennedy Center, Cal Performances, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Casting for the Off-Broadway premiere will be announced at a later date. The production will feature costume design by Trevor Bowen, lighting design by Marcus Dilliard, and sound design by Nicholas Tranby.

For more information on the show visit Alliscalm.org.