Hit Machine by Jonathan Caren

Two brothers.

One hit-making powerhouse.

One flailing musician.

Hit Machine is an emotionally charged collision between two estranged brothers whose reunion spirals into a wild fight over family, memory and who gets to control the narrative of their shared past.

Bound by the same bruised childhood and divided by success, they’re dragged into a final, desperate collaboration - where the only way to tell the truth is to turn it into a song.

Featuring original music by three-time Grammy Award winner Ben Harper, Hit Machine is an intimate and explosive play about brotherhood, male violence, creative theft and the cost of turning pain into art.

Hit Machine was a finalist for the Eugene O’Neill’s 2025 National Playwrights Conference and selected for IAMA’s New Works Fest and The Working Theater’s inaugural Stage Left Festival.