*NEW YORK, NY – It’s being called groundbreaking. It’s the new feature-length hip-hop/R&B musical
Hal Kingand it’s scheduled to be released by Gravitas Ventures and it will premiere across platforms on Tuesday (02-09-21). Set in a late-1950s jazz-era Midwestern town,
Hal King brilliantly modernizes and musicalizes William Shakespeare’s
Henry IV and
Henry V, and the iconic character of Young Hal.
Hal King opens in a speakeasy, where the jazz is smooth and the good times flow. Young Hal revels at the center of it all, a cool cat with a posse of pals and a standing invite to the chanteuse’s dressing room. On the other side of town and what might as well be a world away, Hal’s father, a local politician and community leader speaks about strengthening the African- American community. Hal wants no part of that world — or the responsibility that comes with it — until tragedy strikes and takes him overseas to the Korean War, where he fights bravely and returns home a changed man, ready to take his place honoring his family legacy. He meets Kat, who shares his passion for the community – and who is also the daughter of his father’s bitter rival. It is a tale of family, rivalry, jealousy, self-discovery and forbidden love, told in a soaring celebration of music, dance, theater, poetry, cinema and above all, storytelling.