Ari Shapiro: Thank You For Listening
An Evening of Songs and Stories
August 8, 2024
7:30pm
75 minutes with no intermission
Curran Theatre | 445 Geary St. San Francisco, CA 94102
One of the most recognized and beloved American storytellers, Ari Shapiro (NPR, Pink Martini) returns to the stage with a new cabaret solo show. Hilarious, moving, and uplifting, Thank You For Listening adapts tales from Shapiro's best-selling memoir The Best Strangers in the World into an evening of stories and songs about the power of listening to bridge divides.
"I've used the phrase Thank you for listening to mean so many things," Ari says, "It's versatile, sort of like Shalom, Aloha, or Bless Your Heart." In this show with music direction by Henry Koperski, Ari shares behind-the-scenes stories of flying on Air Force One and reporting from war zones, imparts lessons he learned from his fortune teller grandmother, and recites selected excerpts from his treasured collection of hate mail - all in an exploration of the profound difference that merely listening to one another can have on the world. With songs from Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Taylor Swift, Stephen Sondheim and Rufus Wainwright among many others, audiences will leave Thank You For Listening feeling more hopeful about the world around them... and may never listen to All Things Considered in quite the same way again.
"Ari's got this gorgeous singing voice." - Broadway World
"If he does want to quit that day job, he'll do just fine." - The Oregonian
"He defies all we hear about the ugliness of radio people." - GQ