Benjamin Scheuer, a singer/songwriter, award-winning Broadway performer, author and stage-four Hodgkins Lymphoma survivor is coming to Cal State Long Beach.
He currently spends his nights performing his one-man show “THE LION,” which won the 2015 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, at the Geffen Playhouse in L.A. His residency there, lasting from Jan. 4 to Feb. 19, will take a brief halt when he sets up stage at The Pointe, located under the yellow steps of the Pyramid on Wednesday from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Admission for the show, entitled “Making Good Things Out of Bad Things,” will cost $10 for the general public; however, Scheuer invites students and faculty from CSULB and Cal State Fullerton to join him for free in this night of stories, songs and videos. The show is also free for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society patients and families.
The event will be split up into two portions, with the first hour being “stories and songs.” This section will contain Scheuer’s presentation and an audience Q&A. The second hour will be a book signing for his book “Between Two Spaces,” during which guests can meet and greet the artist as they help themselves to coffee and desserts.
“Between Two Spaces” is a collaboration between Scheuer and photographer Riya Lerner that began shortly after Scheuer’s diagnosis. The artist book contains 27 black and white photographs of his journey, alongside text selected from Scheuer’s journals, with an introduction by Scheuer and an afterword by Lerner.
Lerner and Scheuer donate 50 percent of the book’s earnings to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Former tour partner Mary Chapin Carpenter said this about Scheuer’s performances:
“What I respect the most about Benjamin’s gifts is his ability to not only tell a story – a deeply personal one at that – but to make the listener feel that wrapped inside that deeply personal narrative is something quite universal.”
Those going to the show unfamiliar with Scheuer’s work might walk away kicking themselves for not discovering him sooner, but one lucky audience member will be leaving with two tickets to see his show “THE LION” at the Geffen Playhouse.