The Team
Royal Road Productions
Royal Road Productions' mission is to conceive and present innovative musical-theatrical productions for stage, film, television, and streaming media.
In 2015, Royal Road Productions produced a centennial tribute concert at The Town Hall honoring theater legend Eric Bentley's 100th year, which was filmed and will soon be released, featuring the world premiere of unpublished Songs for Mother Courage by Darius Milhaud and Eric Bentley. The event was hosted by Michael Riedel and included speeches by Tony Kushner and Austin Pendleton, among others luminaries of the theatre, and the film of this historic event is soon to be released.
Will There Still Be Singing? A Hanns Eisler Cabaret, a project about the life and times of the Austro-German composer, featuring Eisler's songs with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht in English versions by Eric Bentley, was met with tremendous success in the U.S. at Café Sabarsky, Metropolitan Room, and Princeton University, as well as at a special performance in Berlin at the Brecht-Haus (where the graves of Brecht and Eisler are located).
Another recent production produced by RRP was On Hollywood and Weimar The Songs of European Composers from the Golden Age of Film. The show was presented to full houses across NYC venues, including the legendary cabaret club Feinstein's/54 Below, Off-Broadway's York Theater, and elsewhere. It has also presented other innovative programs at Carnegie Hall (Weill), the Goethe Institutes of Boston and Los Angeles, and Symphony Space. royalroadproductions.com
Karyn Levitt, producer
Karyn Levitt is the founder and President of Royal Road Productions. Ms. Levitt has produced/performed numerous theatrical concerts at prestigious venues, including The Town Hall, Carnegie Hall (Weill), Off-Broadway’s York Theater, and Symphony Space. She has also performed at colleges and universities, including Princeton, Vassar, USC, Oberlin, and Bates, at cultural venues, such as Brecht-Haus in Berlin and the Goethe Institutes of Boston and Los Angeles, and at Shakespeare & Company. Other career highlights include recording her album, Eric Bentley’s Brecht-Eisler Song Book, and writing/performing shows, including Will There Still Be Singing? A Hanns Eisler Cabaret and On Hollywood and Weimar: The Songs of European Composers from the Golden Age of Film at Feinstein’s/54 Below, Cafe Sabarsky, Metropolitan Room, Triad Theater, and beyond. Ms. Levitt is a graduate of Oberlin College, where she earned her degree, with Honors, in English Literature. Her professional background also includes acting, composing, writing, editing, and performance coaching. She looks forward to bringing her shows about Eisler and the other great European film composers to Los Angeles and the capitols of the European countries where the composers are from, including Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, and Russia.
Glen Roven, co-producer, supervising editor, and conductor
July 13, 1958 – July 25, 2018
Glen Roven grew up in Brooklyn, NY. A prodigious musical talent, he debuted at age 19 with Sugar Babies, starring Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller, becoming the youngest conductor in Broadway history. A two-time Emmy winner, he was at home equally in the classical and popular repetoires. He conducted for Placido Domingo, Kathleen Battle and Renee Fleming, as he did for Patti LuPone, Wynton Marsalis and Sammy Davis, Jr. A composer himself, he wrote 29 song cycles which have been performed around the world. He has produced and composed for Jason Alexander, Dolly Parton, Michael Douglas and Tyne Daly, and conducted Frank Sinatra’s final television concert. He was the founder of both GPRecords and Roven Records. He was chosen to conduct four Presidential Inaugural Concerts, as well as America’s Millennium Celebration, which was produced by Steven Spielberg.
Aryeh Finklestein, literary curator and co-producer
British-trained and Boston-based, Aryeh Finklestein is a librettist, musician, literary scholar, translator and reviewer. As librettist, he has written several full-length oratorios in collaboration with composer Charles D. Osborne. Their acclaimed Souls On Fire featuring narrator Leonard Nimoy was performed at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center. The same venue saw the premiere of their Kings & Fishermen narrated by Theodore Bikel. Other Osborne-Finklestein pieces have been performed at The Wang Center in Boston, and The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Warren Elgort, film director
Warren Elgort is an American film director. He was born in New York City to photographer Arthur Elgort and opera director Grethe Holby. His father is of Russian-Jewish heritage, while his mother has Norwegian and British Isles ancestry. Growing up, Warren graduated from Trinity School in Manhattan. He went on to receive his Bachelor of Arts in Writing, graduating with honors from Johns Hopkins University. While completing his studies in Baltimore, he was selected to teach creative writing to inner city middle school students for two years and earned All America Athletic Honors for tennis.
Warren began his professional career working as a Digital Imaging Technician and 2nd Camera Assistant on a low budget film. From there he worked as a Camera Assistant for cinematographers William Rexer and Mihai Malaimare Jr. In 2015, he founded a production company in his own name and started directing for brands like: Omega, Kodak, Forever 21, Town & Country Magazine, Vice, Patou, Oscar de la Renta, Glass Magazine, Paper Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, Universal Music Group, Bergdorf Goodman, Chalayan, Line TV and The Sunday Times Style.
Warren is currently a Film and Television Production M.F.A. student at the University of Southern California.
Joshua Graubart, attorney
Joshua Graubart is an experienced counselor and advocate whose practice focuses on the entertainment, media, and technology industries, with a concentration on cross-border transactions. He regularly counsels and represents clients from all over the world in connection with American intellectual property law, and US clients with respect to their rights overseas.
Peter Dingens, publicity
Peter Dingens is a PR Manager with a background of twenty years in artist public relations and artist management in New York and Berlin. For several years he worked for the PR and Management firm of Herbert Breslin in New York and thereafter independently representing some of the world’s leading artists for their international public relations. Peter maintains wide-ranging contacts in the classical music business and with the international media. He received his M.A. in Political Science, History and Economics from the University of Bonn, Germany.