Ari Shapiro: Thank You For Listening

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 Shapiro is the award-winning co-host of All Things Considered, NPR’s landmark nightly news program. As a journalist, he has reported from above the Arctic Circle and aboard Air Force One. He has covered wars in Iraq, Ukraine, and Israel, and he has filed stories from dozens of countries and most of the 50 states. Before joining the All Things Considered host team in 2015, he was NPR’s international correspondent based in London. He was previously NPR’s White House Correspondent during the Obama presidency; he embedded with the 2012 presidential campaign of Republican Mitt Romney; and he was NPR’s Justice Correspondent for five years during the George W. Bush administration. Some of his awards include the Silver Gavel, an Edward R. Murrow Award, and the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize.

Shapiro is also a frequent guest singer with the “little orchestra” Pink Martini, from his hometown of Portland, Oregon. He has recorded on four of the band’s albums, singing in English, Hebrew, Ladino, Spanish, Arabic and Armenian. Since his 2009 debut with the band at the Hollywood Bowl, he has performed in many of the world’s most storied venues, including The Royal Albert Hall in London, L’Olympia in Paris, and Carnegie Hall in New York. He has shared a stage with both Chita and Rita (Rivera and Moreno), among other artists. In 2019, he collaborated with Alan Cumming to create Och and Oy: A Considered Cabaret, and they continue to tour together. At the Kennedy Center, he has performed as a guest singer in Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce; as a soloist with The Washington Chorus in Igor Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex; and as a featured singer in the Washington Ballet’s original production of The Sun Also Risess. He was also featured in the American debut of the play, Request Concert, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In 2016 Ari debuted his original one-man cabaret show, Homeward, and has since performed it around the US.

Two performances:

Friday, December 20 at 2 PM
Friday, December 20 at 7:30 PM

Sponsored by TriMet