Rock 'n Roll Refugee
written by Chris Henry
music & lyrics by Genya Ravan
directed by Chris Henry
choreography by JoAnn M. Hunter & Liz Ramos
music director, orchestrations, arrangements and additional music by Daniel A Weiss
additional music by John Lee Cooper
presented by Royal Family Productions
with Charlotte Cohn, Katrina Rose Dideriksen, Rachel Geisler, Stephanie Israelson, DeAngelo Kearns, Michael Liscio, Lindsay Moore, Kimberlee Murray, Kristin Nemecek, Dee Roscioli, Chris Thorn, Gwynedd Vetter-Drusch, Imogen Williams, and Jessica Wu
Before Goldie and The Gingerbreads, the first successful all-female rock band in 1962, Genya Ravan was Genyusha Zelkovicz, a young girl fleeing Nazi-occupied Poland with her family in search of a hopeful start in America. After passing through Ellis Island and moving to the Lower East Side of New York City, Genyusha, now "Goldie," faced grief, poverty, abuse and loss of identity. With no one to turn to, she forged her own path, found her voice, and changed history.
"… an invigorating coming-of-age bio-musical from Royal Family Productions, is all about Goldie, a 7-year-old Holocaust survivor who arrives in New York from Poland …. Inventively staged by Chris Henry, who also wrote the book … there’s something exciting here." - The New York Times
Rock ‘n Roll Refugee was the beginning of a long relationship with Royal Family and their incredible and fierce Artistic Director, Christine Henry. We would manage Refugee as well as a future workshop of another of Chris’ shows,
Women On Fire: Voices from the Front Line, presented at The Quick Center in Fairfield, working again with producer, Cherly Weisenfeld.
I would also work again with the amazing Dee Roscioli, who played Genya in the musical, whom I hired to be the lead in the concert version of Blood and Fire, a musical I directed that we would present with TRU in their New Voices series.