Fusion Theatre was founded with the vision of merging classical text with classical music and to bring these merged productions to the stages of New York. I am a founding member. www.fusiontheatrenyc.com

We first took the play Huis Clos (No Exit) by Jean Paul Sartre and extended his vision of hell - adding a prologue with opera death scenes for the characters while the Valet became Boito’s Mefistofele.

Our second piece took Jean Anouilh’s Antigone and integrated incidental music for the play by Saint-Saëns and Verdi arias at key moments to illuminate the inner life of each character.

In March of 2023 we produced Medea/Médée weaving together the Jeffers edition of the play with the opera by Cherubini. In places, the texts were so similar we were able to move seamlessly between speech and singing. It was the closest we have come to a true fusion.

Review of Antigone by Jean Anouilh

The sympathetic Creon brings us to a high point of this production: …Groen, the magnificent bass, singing “Ella giammai m’amo,” the aria sung by an equally distressed King Philip II in Verdi’s Don Carlo. Omigosh. What an experience, to hear this full, operatic bass not in a vast opera house but in the intimate setting of, yes, off-Broadway! Groen’s interpretation of the aria, his acting, his strength and his pathos – again, seen close – are thrilling. If there were no other reason to see this play – and there are many others – Groen’s “Ella giammai m’amo” would be of itself worth all.”   

Yvonne Korshak, LET’S TALK OFF BROADWAY.COM