TUNEFUL!
Book by Daniel Goldfarb Music by Bert Berns Directed & Choreographed by Denis Jones
ABOUT
PIECE OF MY HEART is the inspirational story of iconic songwriter Bert Berns, told in parallel with his daughter’s search for the father she never knew. Berns tragically died young, but he left behind an autobiographical body of work full of rock and soul classics.
PIECE OF MY HEART is both a jukebox musical and an in-depth look into the struggles and successes of one of American music’s most prolific songwriters and producers.
PIECE OF MY HEART has been developed over the past decade in and around New York City, including at two of New York’s leading not-for-profit theatre companies - New York Theatre Workshop (Rent) and New York Stage and Film (Hamilton). The musical premiered Off-Broadway at The Pershing Square Signature Center during the summer of 2014. The limited engagement played 100 performances and was extended by popular demand.
PIECE OF MY HEART has a cast of 16 actors (9 principals and 7 ensemble) and 6 swings and understudies, with a band of 9 on-stage musicians playing a score made up entirely of Bert Berns’ songs.
PIECE OF MY HEART is written by Daniel Goldfarb (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Modern Orthodox) and directed and choreographed by two-time Tony Award® nominee Denis Jones (Tootsie, Holiday Inn), who received Lucille Lortel and Callaway Award nominations for PIECE OF MY HEART. The show features music direction by Steven Van Zandt (E Street Band, The Sopranos), and vocal arrangements and orchestrations by Bert Berns’ original arranger/conductor Garry Sherman. Joining the producing team are Steven and Maureen Van Zandt (Renegade Theatre Company, The Sopranos), Paul Shaffer (The Late Show With David Letterman, It’s Raining Men), and Joe Grano (Jersey Boys).
PIECE OF MY HEART is the centerpiece of a multimedia campaign - what The New York Times called “the Berns boomlet.” Other projects include the critically acclaimed biography HERE COMES THE NIGHT: THE DARK SOUL OF BERT BERNS AND THE DIRTY BUSINESS OF RHYTHM & BLUES by author Joel Selvin, and the universally acclaimed documentary film BANG! THE BERT BERNS STORY. Bert Berns was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2016 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2025.
HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT
PIECE OF MY HEART begins the early stages of its development at New York Theatre Workshop. NYTW hosts numerous readings and workshops between 2009 and 2010. 2009
PIECE OF MY HEART is invited to conduct a month-long residency at New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Season at Vassar College. The production is directed by Leigh Silverman and choreographed by Denis Jones. 2011
20122013
PIECE OF MY HEART conducts a series of readings and workshops in anticipation of a commercial Off-Broadway production, including a two-week staged reading at New World Stages. Director/choreographer Denis Jones uses this time to further develop the staging and the dance vocabulary of the show.
PIECE OF MY HEART premieres Off-Broadway on the Irene Diamond Stage at The Pershing Square Signature Center. The New York Times called the show “gorgeously tuneful.” Positive word-of-mouth leads to a two-week extension of the limited engagement. 2014
20152016
Taking lessons learned Off-Broadway, the creative team conducts new work during a series of readings and a formal lab presentation. Marquee producers Steven and Maureen Van Zandt, Paul Shaffer and Joe Grano join the project.
Bert Berns is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 2016
Producers of PIECE OF MY HEART release the acclaimed documentary film BANG! THE BERT BERNS STORY. 20172018
2022
Producers of PIECE OF MY HEART form a new entertainment company to fund Bert Berns stage and film projects.
Bert Berns biopic feature film begins development. 2022
Bert Berns is inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. 2025
PIECE OF MY HEART receives a workshop production in London. 2026
PRINCIPAL CREATIVE & PRODUCING TEAM
Daniel Goldfarb (Playwright)
Bert Berns (Composer and Lyricist)
Denis Jones (Director and Choreographer)
Steven Van Zandt (Music Director and Producer)
Garry Sherman (Music Supervisor, Orchestrator, Arranger)
Snug Harbor Productions (General Management)
Brett and Cassandra Berns (Producers)
Maureen Van Zandt (Producer)
Joe Grano (Producer)
Paul Shaffer (Producer)
Photos (Top to Bottom): From the Off-Broadway production. (Left to Right) Zak Resnick, Gabrielle Ruiz, and Derrick Baskin. Photo by Jenny Anderson. Producers Steven Van Zandt and Paul Shaffer. New York Stage and Film (2011) (Left to Right) Rachel Stern, Christian Carter, Pilar Millhollen, Jarrod Spector, Corey Antonio Hawkins, Michael Millan, Dominic Nolfi. Bert Berns being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Filling that gap in our rock
’n’ roll awareness is the mission behind the gorgeously tuneful new jukebox musical Piece of My Heart: The Bert Berns Story - and if your first response to that title is “Bert who?,” well, that’s exactly the point. But if, somewhere in your head, Janis Joplin just ripped into “Piece of My Heart,” you already know Berns’s music.
When Bert Berns died at 38 in 1967, he left a
voluminous catalog, and Piece of My Heart taps it expertly. “Twist and Shout,” “I Want Candy,” “Hang On Sloopy” and “Everybody Needs Somebody To Love” are among the many familiar songs that the show’s stellar singers and splendid eightpiece orchestra may lodge in your brain...
The danger for any jukebox musical is that the songs will seem like cheesy covers or pale imitations. But when
Derrick Baskin, playing Bert’s loyal friend Hoagy, brings his own sweet vibe to “Twist and Shout,” you’re barely thinking about The Beatles. Instead, and maybe for the first time in years, you’re thinking about the music. When Bert’s bitter widow sings “I’ll Be a Liar,” Linda Hart makes it ferocious, comic and true. And when Jessie, Ilene, and Ilene’s tender younger self (Teal Wicks) sing a bit of “Cry Baby” together, its emotional power feels new.
From the Off-Broadway production. (Left to Right) Zak Resnick, Carleigh Bettiol, Derrick Baskin, Shonica Gooden, Harris Milgrim, Bryan Fenkart. Photo by Jenny Anderson.
The jukebox musical can be an embarrassing phenomenon: a living, breathing pop-music wax museum... Our instinct is to sigh about it, but we shouldn’t. The form is evolving... Done well, jukebox musicals, which are by nature about popular music, can have great music and dramatic insight, too.
Good jukebox musicals come in two basic forms. The first is the straight- up celebration of a body of music, without
significant plot... The other worthy type of jukebox musical, and the much trickier kind to do well, is the biographical musical...
This week, the musical Piece of My Heart, about the Brill Building hit-maker Bert Berns, who wrote “Twist and Shout,” “Hang On Sloopy,” “Brown Eyed Girl,” and others, opens at the Signature Theatre Company. Berns’s name is known to few. The show tells his story in part
Daniel Goldfarb is owed thanks for his Piece of My Heart. The librettist focuses the spotlight on
Berns in a jukebox musical calling attention to a rock ‘n’ roll/r&b composer-lyricistnon-performer. Directed and
through his songs; it’s a Beautiful: The Carole King Musical-style character study whose dark hero is like one of the Jersey Boys. (…) But the moment in Piece of My Heart when Berns rejects Phil Spector’s arrangement for “Twist and Shout” and insists on his own—“It’s ‘Guantanamera,’ not shama-lama-lama!”—made me realize that “Twist and Shout” is based on Cuban rhythms. And this is exciting and valuable—I heard the song anew.
choreographed with verve by Denis Jones, Piece of My Heart is an undeniably rousing work.
From the Off-Broadway production.
(Left to Right) Carleigh Bettiol, Shonica Gooden, Teal Wicks, Gabrielle Ruiz.
Jukebox musicals are the guilty pleasures of Broadway, offering well-heeled patrons the joys of nostalgia and the reassuring sense that the songs we grew up on were classics worthy of revisiting. How else to account for the extraordinary popularity of Jersey Boys, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Motown: The Musical, The Million Dollar Quartet, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Mamma Mia! and Rock of Ages ? Piece of My Heart: The Bert Berns Story is a bargain-basement
jukebox musical as entertaining as the best of those shows.
So: Bert Who? How come we’ve never heard of him until now? That’s the point of Piece of My Heart, the irresistible show with a weird but effective book by Daniel Goldfarb, songs by Berns performed by a cast that goes into overdrive to win our sympathy (they succeed) and a production directed and choreographed by Denis Jones that manages to embrace every cliche of the jukebox genre, and still hold us rapt.
Bert Berns is a name you need to know. Berns’s songs are either intriguingly quirky or gorgeous, even the unfamiliar ones, showing off a stunning emotional range, and here they’re affectingly embedded into his biography.
Refusing
to fall into the trap of most jukebox musicals, where the songs are the jewels and the book is little more than the glue that holds them in place, Daniel Goldfarb took pains to craft a fact-filled, dramatically rich narrative. That Berns’ songs are partly autobiographical — heavy on the heartbreak and angst — made it easier for Goldfarb to integrate them into the story. Under Denis Jones’ inspired direction, the show comes alive with briskly paced scenes…The sensational musical numbers, uplifted by zippy choreography, rival anything on Broadway right now.
Director Denis Jones has crafted it all into a sleek package, with the kind of musically satisfying staging in which the bump of the last song immediately leads into the
following scene. This helps the show pack in more music than you would think possible, and it does so in an authentic-sounding way… If you're looking for an accurate portrayal of history,
don't expect it to come from musical theater. A fun evening of song and dance, on the other hand, it can do. Piece of My Heart does the latter in spades.
From the Off-Broadway production. (Left to Right) Shonica Gooden, Carleigh Bettiol, Linda Hart, Gabrielle Ruiz, Teresa Gattison. Photo by Jenny Anderson.
Bert Berns is the best pop songwriter you never heard of. Piece of My Heart is the best new musical of the summer, and you heard that here first... This is entertainment, and very entertaining it is.
Theshow is a jukebox musical of the highest order, as it cleverly goes beyond the conventions of using the music chronologically. Instead of telling Bert’s story by the songs, they tell it through the songs…The book by Daniel Goldfarb is enviably
efficient, as he makes the most out of both the framing device and fictional liberties…Denis Jones’ directing (and choreography) are vibrant to say the least, as there is not a single moment in the show where you’re not tapping your feet or clutching your heart.
Piece of My Heart is bringing down the house Off-Broadway… A heartfelt “jukebox musical” this bright and bubbly show reveals the man behind the music… Seen through the eyes of his daughter,
the milestones flow together in a sometimes funny, sometimes sad and always entertaining rendition of familiar and enjoyable hits… Intimately staged the musical numbers are like candy, addictive and
energizing, a pleasure to devour… And yes this show certainly does make you feel good. It is an anthem of selfaffirmation so be prepared to leave the theatre with a smile on your face and hope in your heart.
From the Off-Broadway production. (Left to Right) Derrick Baskin, Zak Resnick, and Bryan Fenkart. Photo by Jenny Anderson.
