A Message from Arnold Mittelman After a career in not-for-profit and commercial theater spanning more than 40 years I was honored in 2007 to found the National Jewish Theater / Foundation and in 2010 to assume leadership of its Holocaust Theater International...
Atomic
Leo Szilard is the brilliant physicist who unlocks the secret of atomic power. But war turns his hopes for mankind into a billion-dollar race against a German bomb. Ethics, loyalty and true love are tested as Leo and his fellow scientists struggle to save both the world and their own humanity.
Format: Full Length Musical, Historical Drama
Cast Size:5M,2W
Character breakdown:
CHARACTERS
- Casting: 5M, 2F
- Casting Attributes: Strong Role for Leading Man (Star Vehicle)
- Casting Notes: Optional: 1 male and 1 female understudy
- LEO SZILARD (30) – A brilliant Hungarian physicist with an annoying habit of always being right. He sees the future and science as the way he’s going to save it.
- TRUDE WEISS (20) – A gifted doctor. She’s smart enough to know how tough a life with Leo will be, and strong enough to deal with that.
- ENRICO FERMI (30) – Italian Nobel-winning physicist. If it’s not science, he’s not interested.
- ARTHUR COMPTON (30) – Nobel-winning quantum physicist and head of the Chicago Metlab. Torn between science and religion, morality and duty.
- EDWARD TELLER (30) – A Hungarian genius like Leo with a more aggressive World view. He wants a bigger bomb.
- LEONA WOODS (20) – The only woman on the Metlab team, but she’s not going to let that stop her.
- ROBERT OPPENHEIMER (30) – The bomb is his ticket to the recognition his brilliance deserves. It’s an expensive ticket.
- GENERAL GROVES (30) – Highly intelligent and quite reasonable. Till you get in his way. He will use the bomb to end the war. Yes he will.
- PAUL TIBBETS (30) – A fearless young pilot with a keen sense of duty. If he can’t win the war single-handed, he’ll show how it’s done.
- LAVERNE / MAE / LENA (20) – Rosie the Riveter meets the Andrews Sisters.
- BARTENDER (20)
- FEMALE SCIENTIST (20)
- SCIENTIST (20)
- U.S. MILITARY MEN x 2 (20)
N.Y. COMMUTERS x 7
- VOICES – News Announcers, Scientist, Roosevelt, Truman, Japanese Announcer
Notes:
Off Broadway Musical “Atomic“- the story of Hungarian Jew, Leo Szilard, the man who first conceived the means to harness atomic energy; a love story set around the historic creation of the atomic bomb.
Most people know about the atom bombs that ended WWII. However the story of the scientists that created those bombs is a gripping tale of hope and fear that still remains largely untold. Particularly the story of Hungarian Jew, Leo Szilard, the man who first conceived the means to harness atomic energy; alerted the US Government to the threat of a Nazi atomic bomb; co-designed the world’s first nuclear reactor; and then, once Germany had surrendered, tried to prevent his creation’s use against Japanese cities. It’s the story of Frankenstein’s monster with far higher stakes. And it actually happened.
S T O R Y
The atom bomb’s creation during WWII was an unprecedented collaboration of minds. America’s brightest academics. Brilliant refugee scientists fleeing the terrors of Europe. Government and military leaders. An army of construction and factory workers with no idea what they were working on. A tossed salad of humanity, united and driven by urgent necessity. Battling the clock, bureaucracy and each other to beat Hitler to the weapon that would decide the war. Only once Germany had surrendered did focus shift to Japanese cities. By then the project had grown too big to stop. But one man did try to stop it. A man since buried by history, but without whose intellect and determination the weapon that could end us might never have had its start. His name is Leo Szilard. His is the story of the bomb we only thought we knew.
Snapshot
Original or Prominent Production:
Acorn Theatre NYC, 2014
Acorn Theatre NYC, 2014
Original Source Material: Leo Szilard
Nationality of Author: Australian
Original Language: English
Publisher:
Origin Theatrical
Production Rights Holder:
ORiGiN™ Theatrical Pty Limited
www.origintheatrical.com.au
Level 1, 213 Clarence Street, Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
HTC Insights
Views, reference and research of interest.
Lifetime Achievement Award
On September 30, 2024, French playwright, Mr. Jean Claude Grumberg received the Lifetime Achievement Award. It was presented by NJTF HTII President, Arnold Mittelman with Dominique Trimbur, PhD-Manager for the History of Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, Teaching of the Holocaust of Fondation Pour La Memoir de la Shoah Project.
Many Questions and a Few Answers
by Robert Skloot 2022 NJTF HTII Lifetime Achievement Award AHO Winter Conference, Miami, FL I’d like to begin my remarks by asking the question that all of us have been asked often: “Why do you do the work you do?” There are, of course, many answers, but I’d imagine...