Baby Boomer Baby’s well received and successful run at the Plaza Theatre in 2016 prompted PGA Arts Center producers Dana Matthow and Philip Roger Roy to approach the multi-talented actor/comedian about returning to South Florida for a limited engagement at their newly opened Palm Beach Gardens theatre. Tommy Koenig’s one man ‘musicomedy’, which just completed a successful engagement at the Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix, Arizona, is a flashback through our times and the music that defined them”. Baby Boomer Baby will open at the PGA Arts Center on April 27th.
Baby Boomer Baby has been called well written, wildly entertaining, high energy, touching, and very, very funny. It is Koenig’s story, told from his distinctly Baby Boomer perspective. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1953, the year Rock and Roll was born, and was raised in Rockaway Beach, the son of a musician who played with Glenn Miller during World War II. Koenig was greatly influenced by chance meetings with John F. Kennedy and later George Carlin, and mostly by what the Beatles brought – the influence of music on Boomers’ culture and personal choices. In Baby Boomer Baby Koenig recounts the years he struggled to keep up with the changing times, just missing Woodstock by a few miles; the rites of passage of College, Travel, Sex, and Drugs; and the ever changing cultural and political landscape that music unleashed as it morphed from Disco to Punk to MTV to Rap and beyond.
During the show Koenig channels dozens of well-known – and original – characters in a one man tour de force spanning 7 decades. With original songs and parodies of everyone from The Beatles to Lady Gaga, and from Doo Wop to Hip Hop, Koenig’s impressions include Elton John, Billy Joel, Blondie, Willie Nelson, Tina Turner, Bruce Springsteen, The Bee Gees, the Eagles, among others.
Tommy Koenig was voted ‘Best New Comic’ by the New York Daily News in 1980. The multi-faceted comedian, actor, writer, and teacher cut his comedic teeth in such iconic venues as Dangerfield’s, The Copacabana, and The Playboy Club, where he opened for Jazz greats like Lionel Hampton and Damita Jo. He also appeared frequently on stand-up comedy shows (A&E’s Comedy on the Road from London, Jamaica, New York and Los Angeles, as well as Evening at the Improv, MTV’s Half Hour Comedy Hour, and Showtime’s Comedy Club All Stars. Koenig was one of the rare comics to appear on Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert; he has opened for Warren Zevon, Alvin Lee, Bonnie Raitt, Dave Mason, Los Lobos, and Joan Jett. He has also guest-starred on numerous television programs – from Miami Vice‘ to Boston Legal and from ‘Not Necessarily The News to The Onion News Network. Koenig co-starred in the med-school spoof film Stitches, and was part of Mel Brooks’ ensemble casts of Robin Hood-Men in Tights and Dracula – Dead and Loving It.
Koenig has written for the National Lampoon, and starred in two of their rock and roll comedy stage shows: If We’re Late Start Without Us and Class of ’86 (which was filmed for Showtime). He also teaches Stand Up Comedy at the Comics Studio in New York. One of his students, Brad Zimmerman, has just completed a successful run at the PGA Arts Center in My Son the Waiter: A Jewish Tragedy.
Baby Boomer Baby was first conceived and performed in 2011 at The Santa Barbara Theatre in Puerto Vallarta. It made its US debut in 2013 as a benefit for victims of Hurricane Sandy, and its Off Broadway debut at Stage 72. It returned to Puerto Vallarta at The Boutique Theatre in 2014. The show also played at The Downstairs Cabaret Theatre in Rochester and Shea’s Smith Theatre in Buffalo, New York, The Stateside Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas, Sparta Avenue Stage, in Sparta, New Jersey, and The Tiawaga Theatre in Oswego, New York.
Tickets for Baby Boomer Baby are on sale now, and can be purchased on line at www.pgaartscenter.com or by calling 1-855-448-7469. For group sales (12+), call 888-264-1788. Tickets for all shows are $45. The PGA Arts Center is located at 4076 PGA Boulevard, Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410. Ample parking is available within close proximity to the theatre. For more information about Baby Boomer Baby, Tommy Koenig, and/or the PGA Arts Center please contact Carol Kassie at carol@carolkassie.com at 561-445-9244.
