Ben Platt has the Tony Award for “Dear Evan Hanson” and a load of other awards and starred already in Netflix’s “The Politician.” He’s on his way.
So it turns out the 26 year old Ben has an older brother, Jonah, age 33, who’s also an actor and aiming toward Broadway in a new musical.
Jonah stars in the musical adaptation of a great 1999 Miramax movie called ” A Walk on the Moon.” Performances are scheduled to begin April 21 at New Jersey’s George Street Playhouse. The limited engagement will continue through May 17. The show already had a tryout in San Francisco. If things look good, we could see “Moon” in New York rather sooner than later.
Tony Goldwyn directed the movie, which starred Diane Lane and Liev Schreiber as Pearl and Marty Kantrowitz, a couple who get caught up on the outskirts of the 1969 Woodstock festival. Their marriage is tested when Pearl meets Viggo Mortensen’s Walker Jerome, a charismatic hippie called “The Blouse Man.” (Frankly, they should change the title of the musical to that.) Jackie Burns will play Pearl. She and Jonah were each in “Wicked” on Broadway.
Pamela Gray wrote the book based on her original screenplay, and wrote some of the song lyrics. The bulk of the music and lyrics are by Paul Scott Goodman, and musical supervision is by Tony nominee Greg Anthony Rassen.
Can Jonah sing? Yes. Plus, his parents are producer Marc Platt and wife Julie who have five children altogether. This means more of them are probably heading into show business. God bless. This is one talented family! Jonah got married in 2018 to Courtney Galliano, a dancer and actress.
