Academy Award Winner and Climate Activist Jane Fonda Stars in the New York Premiere of Dear Everything: A Musical Uprising for the Earth created by V (formerly Eve Ensler), Diane Paulus, Justin Tranter, Caroline Pennell, and Eren Cannata
Dear Everything: A Musical Uprising for the Earth
Book by V (formerly Eve Ensler)
Lyrics by Justin Tranter, Caroline Pennell and V
Music by Justin Tranter, Caroline Pennell and Eren Cannata
Directed by Diane Paulus
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (30 Lafayette Ave. Brooklyn, NY)
April 22, 2026 at 7:30pm
Tickets start at $35
Updated March 30, 2026/Brooklyn, NY—Academy Award winner and climate activist Jane Fonda stars in the New York premiere of Dear Everything: A Musical Uprising for the Earth at BAM on Earth Day, April 22, 2026. Written by Tony Award winner V (formerly Eve Ensler) and directed by Tony Award winner Diane Paulus, the urgent new folk-pop musical arrives at the Howard Gilman Opera House for a one-night engagement that places art at the center of the climate conversation.
Created as an artistic response to our climate emergency, Dear Everything centers youth leadership, intergenerational responsibility, and collective action. The work extends V’s decades-long commitment to harnessing storytelling as a force for cultural and political transformation.
“At a time when we are witnessing extreme weather across every region of the world, the violent dismantling of emissions protections, and the rapid deforestation, drilling, and opening of sacred lands, this musical feels more urgent than ever. Dear Everything offers an antidote — the voices of visionary youth, powerful storytelling, inspirational music, and a deep devotion that opens portals to other realms. After traveling the country with this piece, we have witnessed firsthand the power and joy it ignites, and we are thrilled to bring it to BAM and New York City.” — V (formerly Eve Ensler)
Fonda, whose Jane Fonda Climate PAC focuses on defeating Big Oil by helping elect climate champions on the state and local level, lends her voice to the production as narrator.
“I am honored to have the opportunity to stand on the BAM stage, alongside these powerful performers to bring Dear Everything to New York. Our planet is burning from human-made climate catastrophe, and we need to join together to confront this. Dear Everything is about the power of solidarity and it gives us the anthems we need for the job.” — Jane Fonda
In the face of a full-blown climate emergency, can we band together and intervene before it’s too late? This is the question at the core of Dear Everything. When the adults in a small town try to sacrifice the nearby forests for money, teenager Sophia galvanizes her fellow young people to stop it, endowing them with a sense of empowerment they never thought possible. With an electrifying rock score, Dear Everything is a thrilling call to collective action addressing one of the most pressing issues of our day.
The musical was born through the collective synergy of Tony Award-winning playwright V; the Tony- winning director and Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.), Diane Paulus; Grammy and Golden Globe-nominated songwriter Justin Tranter; singer and songwriter Caroline Pennell; songwriter and music producer Eren Cannata; and orchestrator Daniel Crean; with contributions by Tony Award winner Idina Menzel. Originally developed and produced by A.R.T., produced by V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against women, gender expansive people, and the Earth, in association with A.R.T., the work now makes its New York premiere at BAM. Dear Everything marks the first artistic piece centering around climate from V-Day, long known for its vast survivor-led, grassroots, anti-violence work on college campuses and in communities.
The cast of Dear Everything includes Crystal Monee Hall, YDE, Paravi, Luke Ferrari, Michael Williams, Brittany Campbell, Javier Muñoz, Terence Archie, and Benny Elledge. Casting by Whitely Theatrical. Choreographer, Christiane Hunte, Musical Director, Ryan Cantwell, Lighting Designer, Brandon Stirling Baker, Co-Costume and Production Designer, Myung Hee Cho, Co- Costume Designer, Devon Horn.
Youth participation is central to the production’s framework. The performance incorporates young artists and climate advocates, reinforcing its intergenerational structure and grounding its message in lived urgency. Local youth choirs (early teens to 18 years old) are featured in the central role of the “Earth Choir.” At BAM, the choir will include the Broadway for Arts Education Choir and the Brooklyn Music School Choir.
Filmmaker, entrepreneur, V-Day board member, and climate activist Maya Penn contributed to the development of the piece and designed the production’s artwork, extending the project’s collaboration with emerging leaders working at the intersection of culture and climate justice. Tickets are available at BAM.org.
Download Press Images Here.
For press information, contact Cynthia Tate, [email protected]
Produced by V-Day, in association with the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University
Dear Everything is particularly grateful for the generous lead support from Regina K. Scully and the Artemis Rising Foundation.
About the artists
V (formerly Eve Ensler) is the Tony award-winning playwright of many plays, author, and activist. Her play, The Vagina Monologues, is an Obie Award-winning, Olivier-nominated theatrical phenomenon that has been translated into 48 languages and performed in 140 countries. She is the author of numerous books, including the recently released bestseller Reckoning, heralded by the Washington Post as “gutting and gorgeous.” Other best-selling books include The Apology, translated into 20 languages, and In the Body of the World, as well as The New York Times bestseller I Am an Emotional Creature. She starred on Broadway in The Good Body and Off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club in the critically acclaimed In the Body of the World. She helped create That Kindness: Nurses in Their Own Words, presented by BAM in collaboration with theaters across the US, as a tribute to nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. V ‘s latest project, Dear Everything (formerly Wild, world premiere at The American Repertory Theater, December 2021), a musical uprising about climate change and collective action, of which she wrote the story, co- wrote the lyrics, and performed, will go on tour across the country this fall. Her film credits include The Vagina Monologues (HBO), What I Want My Words to Do to You (Executive Producer, Winner of the Sundance Film Festival Freedom of Expression Award, PBS), Mad Max: Fury Road (Consultant), and City of Joy documentary (Netflix). She is the founder of V-Day, the 27-year-old global activist movement that has raised over 150 million dollars to end violence against women, gender-expansive people, girls, and the earth—and founder of One Billion Rising, the largest global mass action to end gender-based violence in over 200 countries, as well as a co-founder of the City of Joy, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She writes regularly for The Guardian. Her new play, THIS IS CRAZY! recently premiered at Symphony Space with an all-star cast including Jane Fonda, Mark Ruffalo, and more.
Justin Tranter (Music & Lyrics) is one of the most in-demand songwriters, producers, and collaborators in music today, an ACLU Bill of Rights Award-winning activist, and founder of Facet Records & Facet Publishing. With over 50 million single sales, 40 billion streams on Spotify and Youtube alone, multiple diamond-certified songs, and dozens of honors including GRAMMY® and Golden Globes® nominations, 14 total BMI Pop Awards and two consecutive “Songwriter of the Year” titles at the BMI Pop Awards, Tranter has lent their talents to several of the most iconic albums in recent memory, including Ariana Grande’s Thank U, Next (2019), Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia (2020), Lady Gaga’s Chromatica (2020), The Chicks’ Gaslighter (2020) and Selena Gomez’s Rare (2020).
Caroline Pennell (Music) is a 29-year-old singer songwriter out of Los Angeles, CA. She’s written songs for and with artists such as Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Benny Blanco, Rita Ora, Vance Joy, Gracie Abrams, G-Eazy, Ava Max, Astrid S, Christina Aguilera, etc. She also releases and tours her own music under the name Carol Ades, most recently completing a North American headline tour as well as several opening tours for artists such as Lizzy McAlpine, Holly Humberstone, and more.
Eren Cannata (Music) is an LA-based Emmy award-winning songwriter, producer, musician and co-owner of Cove City Sound Studios, signed to Warner Chappell / Facet House under world-renowned songwriter Justin Tranter has already taken the music industry by force. His mission statement is to make records that will last a lifetime with an organic palette using the right modern touch. He’s had previous credits / upcoming collaborations with Demi Lovato, Justin Tranter, Bebe Rexha, Julia Michaels, Kesha, John Legend, Idina Menzel, Teddy Swims, Kid Cudi, Billy Porter, etc.
Diane Paulus (Director) is the Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theater and a Professor of the Practice of Theater at Harvard University. Broadway: A.R.T.- originated productions of 1776; Jagged Little Pill; Waitress; Pippin (Tony Awards for Best Revival and Best Director); Finding Neverland; The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (Tony Award for Best Revival, NAACP Award for Best Direction); and The Public Theater’s HAIR (Tony Award for Best Revival). Select other work include: the immersive debut of Masquerade, bringing new perspective to the treasured legacy of Phantom of the Opera, N/A (Lincoln Center), Carmen (Glyndebourne Opera Festival); Gloria: A Life; In the Body of the World (A.R.T./Off Broadway); Romeo and Juliet; Becoming a Man; The White Card (A.R.T.); Crossing (A.R.T./BAM); The Donkey Show; and Cirque du Soleil’s Amaluna. She was selected for Boston magazine’s 2023, 2022, 2020, and 2018 lists of Boston’s most influential people, the 2014 Time 100, Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and as one of Variety’s “Trailblazing Women in Entertainment for 2014”. Upcoming productions include THE MONKEY KING (美猴王), by composer Huang Ruo and librettist David Henry Hwang at the San Francisco Opera in Fall 2025.
Credits
Bloomberg Philanthropies is the Season Sponsor
Leadership support for BAM’s strategic initiatives provided by Mellon Foundation
Leadership support for BAM Access Programs provided by the Jerome L. Greene Foundation
Leadership support for BAM programming provided by Howard Gilman Foundation
Leadership support for theater at BAM provided by The Shubert Foundation, Inc. and The SHS Foundation
Leadership support for every season provided by the BAM Board of Trustees, led by Diane L. Max, Chair & Vice Chairs Juliet Moser and Tim Sebunya Leadership support for BAM’s programming and initiatives provided by: Valerie Berlin; brigittenyc; Janel Callon; William I. Campbell & Christine Wächter-Campbell; Jeanne Donovan Fisher; Judith R. & Alan H. Fishman; The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.; Gotham Organization, Inc. Alex Katz Foundation; Adam E. Max (in memoriam) & Diane L. Max; Scott C. McDonald; Darnell-Moser Charitable Fund; Henry and Lucy Moses Fund, Inc.; Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust; PM The Przymusinski Fund; Emilia Sherifova; Jennifer Small & Adam Wolfensohn; Starry Night Fund at The Chicago Community Foundation; Axel Stawski & Galia Meiri Stawski; Robert Tichio; Nora Ann Wallace; James Wilentz & Robin Maxwell;
Major support for BAM’s programming and initiatives provided by: Cheryl & Joe Della Rosa; Steven & Susan Felsher; Barry M. Fox; The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation; Susan Kane; Robin & Edgar Lampert; James I. McLaren & Lawton W. Fitt; Nadia G. McSherry Trust; Richard & Ronay Menschel; The Ambrose Monell Foundation; Eri Nishikawa; The Jerome Robbins Foundation, Inc.; The Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund; Dr. Sheila A. Cain & Bart Sheehan; Brian Stafford & Céline Dufétel; Joseph A. Stern
The BAM facilities are owned by the City of New York and benefit from public funds provided through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs with support from Mayor Zohran Mamdani; the New York City Council including Council Speaker Julie Menin, Councilmember Crystal Hudson, and the Brooklyn Delegation of the Council; and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. BAM would also like to thank the Brooklyn Delegations of the New York State Assembly and New York State Senate, Assemblymember Phara Souffrant Forrest, and Senator Andrew Gounardes. BAM is also grateful for the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Charles D. Schumer, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Representative Nydia M. Velazquez, and Representative Daniel S. Goldman.
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Academy Award Winner and Climate Activist Jane Fonda Stars in the New York Premiere of Dear Everything: A Musical Uprising for the Earth created by V (formerly Eve Ensler), Diane Paulus, Justin Tranter, Caroline Pennell, and Eren Cannata
Dear Everything: A Musical Uprising for the Earth
Book by V (formerly Eve Ensler)
Lyrics by Justin Tranter, Caroline Pennell and V
Music by Justin Tranter, Caroline Pennell and Eren Cannata
Directed by Diane Paulus
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (30 Lafayette Ave. Brooklyn, NY)
April 22, 2026 at 7:30pm
Tickets start at $35
Updated March 30, 2026/Brooklyn, NY—Academy Award winner and climate activist Jane Fonda stars in the New York premiere of Dear Everything: A Musical Uprising for the Earth at BAM on Earth Day, April 22, 2026. Written by Tony Award winner V (formerly Eve Ensler) and directed by Tony Award winner Diane Paulus, the urgent new folk-pop musical arrives at the Howard Gilman Opera House for a one-night engagement that places art at the center of the climate conversation.
Created as an artistic response to our climate emergency, Dear Everything centers youth leadership, intergenerational responsibility, and collective action. The work extends V’s decades-long commitment to harnessing storytelling as a force for cultural and political transformation.
“At a time when we are witnessing extreme weather across every region of the world, the violent dismantling of emissions protections, and the rapid deforestation, drilling, and opening of sacred lands, this musical feels more urgent than ever. Dear Everything offers an antidote — the voices of visionary youth, powerful storytelling, inspirational music, and a deep devotion that opens portals to other realms. After traveling the country with this piece, we have witnessed firsthand the power and joy it ignites, and we are thrilled to bring it to BAM and New York City.” — V (formerly Eve Ensler)
Fonda, whose Jane Fonda Climate PAC focuses on defeating Big Oil by helping elect climate champions on the state and local level, lends her voice to the production as narrator.
“I am honored to have the opportunity to stand on the BAM stage, alongside these powerful performers to bring Dear Everything to New York. Our planet is burning from human-made climate catastrophe, and we need to join together to confront this. Dear Everything is about the power of solidarity and it gives us the anthems we need for the job.” — Jane Fonda
In the face of a full-blown climate emergency, can we band together and intervene before it’s too late? This is the question at the core of Dear Everything. When the adults in a small town try to sacrifice the nearby forests for money, teenager Sophia galvanizes her fellow young people to stop it, endowing them with a sense of empowerment they never thought possible. With an electrifying rock score, Dear Everything is a thrilling call to collective action addressing one of the most pressing issues of our day.
The musical was born through the collective synergy of Tony Award-winning playwright V; the Tony- winning director and Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.), Diane Paulus; Grammy and Golden Globe-nominated songwriter Justin Tranter; singer and songwriter Caroline Pennell; songwriter and music producer Eren Cannata; and orchestrator Daniel Crean; with contributions by Tony Award winner Idina Menzel. Originally developed and produced by A.R.T., produced by V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against women, gender expansive people, and the Earth, in association with A.R.T., the work now makes its New York premiere at BAM. Dear Everything marks the first artistic piece centering around climate from V-Day, long known for its vast survivor-led, grassroots, anti-violence work on college campuses and in communities.
The cast of Dear Everything includes Crystal Monee Hall, YDE, Paravi, Luke Ferrari, Michael Williams, Brittany Campbell, Javier Muñoz, Terence Archie, and Benny Elledge. Casting by Whitely Theatrical. Choreographer, Christiane Hunte, Musical Director, Ryan Cantwell, Lighting Designer, Brandon Stirling Baker, Co-Costume and Production Designer, Myung Hee Cho, Co- Costume Designer, Devon Horn.
Youth participation is central to the production’s framework. The performance incorporates young artists and climate advocates, reinforcing its intergenerational structure and grounding its message in lived urgency. Local youth choirs (early teens to 18 years old) are featured in the central role of the “Earth Choir.” At BAM, the choir will include the Broadway for Arts Education Choir and the Brooklyn Music School Choir.
Filmmaker, entrepreneur, V-Day board member, and climate activist Maya Penn contributed to the development of the piece and designed the production’s artwork, extending the project’s collaboration with emerging leaders working at the intersection of culture and climate justice. Tickets are available at BAM.org.
Download Press Images Here.
For press information, contact Cynthia Tate, [email protected]
Produced by V-Day, in association with the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University
Dear Everything is particularly grateful for the generous lead support from Regina K. Scully and the Artemis Rising Foundation.
About the artists
V (formerly Eve Ensler) is the Tony award-winning playwright of many plays, author, and activist. Her play, The Vagina Monologues, is an Obie Award-winning, Olivier-nominated theatrical phenomenon that has been translated into 48 languages and performed in 140 countries. She is the author of numerous books, including the recently released bestseller Reckoning, heralded by the Washington Post as “gutting and gorgeous.” Other best-selling books include The Apology, translated into 20 languages, and In the Body of the World, as well as The New York Times bestseller I Am an Emotional Creature. She starred on Broadway in The Good Body and Off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club in the critically acclaimed In the Body of the World. She helped create That Kindness: Nurses in Their Own Words, presented by BAM in collaboration with theaters across the US, as a tribute to nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. V ‘s latest project, Dear Everything (formerly Wild, world premiere at The American Repertory Theater, December 2021), a musical uprising about climate change and collective action, of which she wrote the story, co- wrote the lyrics, and performed, will go on tour across the country this fall. Her film credits include The Vagina Monologues (HBO), What I Want My Words to Do to You (Executive Producer, Winner of the Sundance Film Festival Freedom of Expression Award, PBS), Mad Max: Fury Road (Consultant), and City of Joy documentary (Netflix). She is the founder of V-Day, the 27-year-old global activist movement that has raised over 150 million dollars to end violence against women, gender-expansive people, girls, and the earth—and founder of One Billion Rising, the largest global mass action to end gender-based violence in over 200 countries, as well as a co-founder of the City of Joy, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She writes regularly for The Guardian. Her new play, THIS IS CRAZY! recently premiered at Symphony Space with an all-star cast including Jane Fonda, Mark Ruffalo, and more.
Justin Tranter (Music & Lyrics) is one of the most in-demand songwriters, producers, and collaborators in music today, an ACLU Bill of Rights Award-winning activist, and founder of Facet Records & Facet Publishing. With over 50 million single sales, 40 billion streams on Spotify and Youtube alone, multiple diamond-certified songs, and dozens of honors including GRAMMY® and Golden Globes® nominations, 14 total BMI Pop Awards and two consecutive “Songwriter of the Year” titles at the BMI Pop Awards, Tranter has lent their talents to several of the most iconic albums in recent memory, including Ariana Grande’s Thank U, Next (2019), Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia (2020), Lady Gaga’s Chromatica (2020), The Chicks’ Gaslighter (2020) and Selena Gomez’s Rare (2020).
Caroline Pennell (Music) is a 29-year-old singer songwriter out of Los Angeles, CA. She’s written songs for and with artists such as Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Benny Blanco, Rita Ora, Vance Joy, Gracie Abrams, G-Eazy, Ava Max, Astrid S, Christina Aguilera, etc. She also releases and tours her own music under the name Carol Ades, most recently completing a North American headline tour as well as several opening tours for artists such as Lizzy McAlpine, Holly Humberstone, and more.
Eren Cannata (Music) is an LA-based Emmy award-winning songwriter, producer, musician and co-owner of Cove City Sound Studios, signed to Warner Chappell / Facet House under world-renowned songwriter Justin Tranter has already taken the music industry by force. His mission statement is to make records that will last a lifetime with an organic palette using the right modern touch. He’s had previous credits / upcoming collaborations with Demi Lovato, Justin Tranter, Bebe Rexha, Julia Michaels, Kesha, John Legend, Idina Menzel, Teddy Swims, Kid Cudi, Billy Porter, etc.
Diane Paulus (Director) is the Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theater and a Professor of the Practice of Theater at Harvard University. Broadway: A.R.T.- originated productions of 1776; Jagged Little Pill; Waitress; Pippin (Tony Awards for Best Revival and Best Director); Finding Neverland; The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (Tony Award for Best Revival, NAACP Award for Best Direction); and The Public Theater’s HAIR (Tony Award for Best Revival). Select other work include: the immersive debut of Masquerade, bringing new perspective to the treasured legacy of Phantom of the Opera, N/A (Lincoln Center), Carmen (Glyndebourne Opera Festival); Gloria: A Life; In the Body of the World (A.R.T./Off Broadway); Romeo and Juliet; Becoming a Man; The White Card (A.R.T.); Crossing (A.R.T./BAM); The Donkey Show; and Cirque du Soleil’s Amaluna. She was selected for Boston magazine’s 2023, 2022, 2020, and 2018 lists of Boston’s most influential people, the 2014 Time 100, Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and as one of Variety’s “Trailblazing Women in Entertainment for 2014”. Upcoming productions include THE MONKEY KING (美猴王), by composer Huang Ruo and librettist David Henry Hwang at the San Francisco Opera in Fall 2025.
Credits
Bloomberg Philanthropies is the Season Sponsor
Leadership support for BAM’s strategic initiatives provided by Mellon Foundation
Leadership support for BAM Access Programs provided by the Jerome L. Greene Foundation
Leadership support for BAM programming provided by Howard Gilman Foundation
Leadership support for theater at BAM provided by The Shubert Foundation, Inc. and The SHS Foundation
Leadership support for every season provided by the BAM Board of Trustees, led by Diane L. Max, Chair & Vice Chairs Juliet Moser and Tim Sebunya Leadership support for BAM’s programming and initiatives provided by: Valerie Berlin; brigittenyc; Janel Callon; William I. Campbell & Christine Wächter-Campbell; Jeanne Donovan Fisher; Judith R. & Alan H. Fishman; The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.; Gotham Organization, Inc. Alex Katz Foundation; Adam E. Max (in memoriam) & Diane L. Max; Scott C. McDonald; Darnell-Moser Charitable Fund; Henry and Lucy Moses Fund, Inc.; Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust; PM The Przymusinski Fund; Emilia Sherifova; Jennifer Small & Adam Wolfensohn; Starry Night Fund at The Chicago Community Foundation; Axel Stawski & Galia Meiri Stawski; Robert Tichio; Nora Ann Wallace; James Wilentz & Robin Maxwell;
Major support for BAM’s programming and initiatives provided by: Cheryl & Joe Della Rosa; Steven & Susan Felsher; Barry M. Fox; The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation; Susan Kane; Robin & Edgar Lampert; James I. McLaren & Lawton W. Fitt; Nadia G. McSherry Trust; Richard & Ronay Menschel; The Ambrose Monell Foundation; Eri Nishikawa; The Jerome Robbins Foundation, Inc.; The Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund; Dr. Sheila A. Cain & Bart Sheehan; Brian Stafford & Céline Dufétel; Joseph A. Stern
The BAM facilities are owned by the City of New York and benefit from public funds provided through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs with support from Mayor Zohran Mamdani; the New York City Council including Council Speaker Julie Menin, Councilmember Crystal Hudson, and the Brooklyn Delegation of the Council; and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. BAM would also like to thank the Brooklyn Delegations of the New York State Assembly and New York State Senate, Assemblymember Phara Souffrant Forrest, and Senator Andrew Gounardes. BAM is also grateful for the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Charles D. Schumer, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Representative Nydia M. Velazquez, and Representative Daniel S. Goldman.
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