Santino Fontana, winner of Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in a 2019 production of Tootsie, is to star as Szpilman. After the production’s development reading in New York at the end of last month, Szpilman’s son, Andrzej, said: 'I was thrilled by Fontana’s power of expression and by the reaction of the audience, which included many Broadway celebrities. They were moved to tears. In my view, in the present situation, notably the war in Ukraine, this production is what the world needs.'
Described as a play with music, The Pianist features an original score by Dutch concert pianist Iris Hond. The project is in the hands of Robin de Levita Productions, Gorgeous Entertainment, and Wolk Transfer Company. The Pianist is adapted for the stage and directed by Emily Mann, whose credits include acclaimed Broadway productions such as Murder on the Orient Express or A Streetcar Named Desire.
Producer Michael Wolk has described The Pianist as 'a soaring tale of survival and triumph through music, a riveting story that is fiercely present tense.'
He added: 'Though set in the past, it shows us that just like today, worlds are destroyed when we demonize each other. And it gives us hope by showing how human connections and the power of music can transcend hate and fear and heal our hearts.'
Born in 1911, Szpilman studied piano performance and composition in Warsaw and Berlin. He worked at Polish Radio for four years until September 23, 1939. On that day, he played the last recital of Chopin’s music in the studio of Polish Radio, which subsequently stopped functioning as a result of German bombings.
Szpilman miraculously avoided capture by the Nazis. In the final months of the war, he found shelter in the ruins of Warsaw and survived thanks to the help from his Polish friends and a German Army officer. After the war, he served as director of Polish Radio’s music department for 18 years.
Szpilman then founded the Warsaw Piano Quintet, which toured around the world for more than two decades. His compositional output includes some 500 songs, many of which became hits, and several symphonic works that have remained in the concert repertoire until today.
He died in 2000 at the age of 88.
(mk/pjm)