Favor

Favor is a two-act, 5-actor play with music, inspired by a true story: HANSEL HALS, a young Dutch vaudeville performer and immigrant to Germany in the 1920s, achieves resounding success on the German stage for his role in "The Merry Widow" operetta, and works hard to become a major player in the German cinema. His ascension as an increasingly popular movie star parallels the inexorable rise of the German Third Reich, and he soon gains the admiration of the powerful Reich hierarchy and of the Chancellor himself. As he and the culture that adores him face increasingly fraught political and moral choices, can HANSEL HALS, as an acclaimed artist, make a principled stand, and potentially jeopardize the success of his career and his livelihood, or will he make compromises and succumb to the compelling allure of fame, fortune, and favor? What motivates our choices? Political ideology? Religion? Personal philosophy? And what do our choices cost us . . . in the end?