
Theater scores: God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater; Real Life Funnies; Atina: Evil Queen of the Galaxy; Little Shop of Horrors; Kicks; Patch, Patch, Patch; The Apprenticeship Of Duddy Kravitz; Beauty and the Beast; A Christmas Carol; King David; Weird Romance; Der Glöckner Von Notre Dame; The Little Mermaid; Leap of Faith and Sister Act. Film scores: Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Newsies, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Life with Mikey, Hercules, Home on the Range, The Shaggy Dog, Noel, Enchanted and Tangled. Honors: 8 Academy Awards, 7 Golden Globes, 10 Grammys, New York Drama Critics Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk, 2 Tony nominations, the Olivier Award, London’s Evening Standard Award, membership in the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame, a doctorate in Fine Arts from New York University and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Upcoming: Stage adaptations of Aladdin, Newsies and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Broadway: Disney's The Little Mermaid (2008 Tony Award Nomination - Best Score, Grammy Nomination - Best Cast Album). West End: Sister Act the Musical (2009), Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies (2010, Olivier Nomination - Best Musical). Regional: Leap of Faith (Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, 2010). Off-Broadway: Newyorkers (Manhattan Theatre Club, 2001, Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations). Film: Disney's Home On The Range (2004), Disney's Tangled (2010, Oscar and Golden Globe Nominations - Best Song). Awards: The Kleban Award for Lyrics; the ASCAP/Richard Rogers New Horizons Award; the Jonathan Larson Award. Upcoming: Houdini, with composer Danny Elfman, The Hudsucker Proxy, with composer Stephen Weiner, and Beatsville, with composer/lyricist/wife Wendy Leigh Wilf. Glenn lives in New York City and has two sons, Benjamin and Daniel.
Eight Emmys, four Golden Globes, two BAFTAs, The People’s Choice, Parent’s Choice,The Writers’ Guild, TV-Land Legend, and Annie Awards for writing/producing "Cheers" and creating Disney's acclaimed animated series/feature film, "Teacher’s Pet." They enjoy the distinction of writing one of TV Guide's Top Three "Funniest Television Episodes of All Time" for "Cheers." Other TV: "The Jeffersons," "Who’s the Boss," "The Facts of Life," "Family Ties." Broadway: Bill co-wrote The Pee-wee Herman Show. Off-Broadway: Cheri co-wrote Mosaic (Primary Stages). West End: Book for Sister Act (Olivier nomination - Best New Musical). World Premieres: Sister Act (Pasadena Playhouse, Alliance Theater), Princesses (Goodspeed, 5th Avenue Theatre); and Cheri's Hello! My Baby (Goodspeed Festival of New Artists, Rubicon Theatre). Alumni of Second City and The Groundlings, they co-created Instaplay - L.A.'s first and longest-running improvised musical-comedy. Bill is best-selling author of Postcards from the Moon and popular blog, Greetings From Bill. Bill and Cheri love Kit, Teddy and Emma.
Musicals: Xanadu (Tony Nom., Drama Desk Best Book, Outer Critics Circle Best Musical), upcoming Lysistrata Jones. Plays: The Little Dog Laughed (Tony Nom., Olivier Nom. GLAAD Media Best Play), As Bees In Honey Drown (Outer Critics Circle), Mr. & Mrs. Fitch, Music From a Sparkling Planet, The Country Club, Advice From a Caterpillar, The Cartells, upcoming The Nance. Revues: White Lies, Mondo Drama. Screenplays: To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar; Advice From a Caterpillar. Honors: Lortel Playwrights Sidewalk, Ovation Visionary Playwright Award. All praise the Saints Paul, Paul Rudnick for the premise, Paul Downs Colaizzo for the assistance.
Jerry Zaks is currently represented on Broadway by The Addams Family. Mr. Zaks has directed more than 30 productions in New York and has received four Tony Awards, four Drama Desks, two Outer Critics Circle Awards, and an Obie. His credits include Guys and Dolls, Six Degrees of Separation, Lend Me a Tenor, House of Blue Leaves, A Funny Thing…Forum, Smokey Joe's Café, Anything Goes, La Cage aux Folles, The Foreigner, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, A Bronx Tale, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Assassins, Sister Mary Ignatius…, and Beyond Therapy. He directed the award-winning film Marvin’s Room, starring Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton; and Who Do You Love which was featured in the Toronto Film Festival. For TV, he has directed episodes for the long-running hit comedies "Everybody Loves Raymond," "Frasier" and "Two and a Half Men." Jerry is a founding member, and serves on the board, of Ensemble Studio Theater. He received the SSDC’s George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre in 1994 and an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Dartmouth, his alma mater, in 1999. His daughters, Emma and Hannah, are the light of his life.
Theatre: Sister Act (London and Hamburg- Olivier nomination), Mamma Mia! (Worldwide - Dora Mavor Moore Award and Helpman Award nomination); Bombay Dreams (London and Broadway – Tony nomination); Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (worldwide - Olivier nomination, Drama-Logue Award); Jesus Christ Superstar (UK and Broadway); Song & Dance (worldwide - Green Room Award); Candide (Old Vic, London – Olivier Award for Best Musical): Hair ( Olivier nomination); Siegfried and Roy and EFX with Michael Crawford (Las Vegas). Films: Mamma Mia!; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; Never Say Never Again; Excalibur; Hope and Glory and "Jesus Christ Superstar" (Emmy Award). In 1999 Anthony Van Laast was awarded the MBE by Her Majesty the Queen for Services to Dance.
Broadway: The Farnsworth Invention, Jersey Boys (Tony Award nom.), The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. London's West End: Sister Act, Jersey Boys. Off-Broadway: Public Theater, MTC, NYTW, IRT. Regional: La Jolla Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center, Portland Center Stage, Seattle Rep, Florida Stage. Architectural design: New World Stages NYC. Awards: Best Set Design 2009 Theatregoers' Choice Award, 2005 Lumen Award, Best Set Design 2003 Drammy Award; 2000 Carbonell Award; Best Touring Production 2003 L.A. Ovation Award.
Lez Brotherston is an associate artist of Matthew Bourne's company New Adventures. Productions include: Swan Lake (Tony Award Best Costumes, Drama Desk Awards for Best Set and Costumes and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Costumes); Cinderella (Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance); Play Without Words (Olivier nomination Best Set); The Car Man; Edward Scissorhands; Highland Fling; Design for Living (Olivier nomination Best Set and Costumes 2011); The Real Thing (Old Vic); Women Beware Women; Really Old, Like 45 (National Theatre).
Natasha Katz has designed extensively for the theatre, opera, and dance. Recent Broadway: Elf, Collected Stories, The Addams Family, The Little Mermaid, The Coast of Utopia/Salvage (Tony Award), Spelling Bee, Tarzan, Aida (Tony Award), Sweet Smell of Success, Twelfth Night, and Beauty and the Beast. Other: Sister Act (London, Hamburg), Cyrano (Metropolitan Opera), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Royal Ballet, London), Carnival of the Animals (NYC Ballet), Don Quixote (ABT) and concert acts for Shirley MacLaine, Ann-Margret and Tommy Tune.
Broadway: 9 to 5 (Drama Desk & Ovation nominations), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Little Mermaid, Tarzan, In My Life and Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays. Credits as associate sound designer / production engineer for Broadway and worldwide productions: The Lion King, Mary Poppins, The Producers, Hairspray, Aida, Titanic, How to Succeed…, Big, The Who's Tommy, Guys and Dolls and The Buddy Holly Story. Other credits include: Emma, Leap of Faith, Robin and the 7 Hoods, Sammy, Ace, Savion Glover, extensive concert touring with Dionne Warwick, Burt Bacharach and Gregory Hines and recording engineering at Electric Lady Studios. John is married to singer/songwriter Catherine Porter with whom he has a gem of a daughter, Ruby.
Broadway/tours: Baby It’s You!, Catch Me If You Can, Priscilla, Spider-man, Million Dollar Quartet, The Addams Family, Memphis, Rock of Ages, Wicked, Next to Normal, 9 to 5, In the Heights, South Pacific, Peepshow in Vegas. Off-Broadway: Atlantic, MCC, Signature. Film: Margin Call, Howl, Sex and the City, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, I Love You Phillip Morris, Rachel Getting Married, Dan in Real Life, Then She Found Me, Across the Universe, Ira & Abby, Rent, Pieces of April, Camp.
Broadway: Arcadia, A Steady Rain, Shrek, The Country Girl, The Little Mermaid, Legally Blonde, Spamalot, Butley, Tarzan, Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life, The Odd Couple, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Fiddler on the Roof, Nine, Gypsy, Flower Drum Song, Sweet Smell of Success, The Invention of Love, Aida, The Iceman Cometh, Annie Get Your Gun, Chicago, Sideshow, Steel Pier, Big, Sunset Boulevard. Film credits include: It’s Complicated, Angels In America (Emmy nominated), Too Wong Foo....
Current projects: The Addams Family (Broadway and National Tour), The Book of Mormon, Peter Pan (threesixty entertainment), The Mountaintop, Relatively Speaking, Man and Boy, Sons of the Prophet, An Evening with Patti and Mandy, and Stick Fly. Past projects include over 150 Broadway shows and their tours. Aurora Productions is Gene O'Donovan and Ben Heller with Stephanie Sherline, Jarid Sumner, Liza Luxenberg, Anita Shah, Anthony Jusino, Steven Dalton, Eugenio Saenz Flores, Isaac Katzanek, & Melissa Mazdr.
Steven Beckler has been stage managing Jerry Zaks shows since the national tour of Tap Dance Kid in 1985. Some of their other associations include: Guys and Dolls, Anything Goes, The House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation, Smokey Joe's Café, Wenceslas Square and Laughter on the 23rd Floor. Other Broadway credits include: 'night, Mother; High Fidelity; Moon Over Buffalo; Grease and Wicked.
Original Broadway: Mary Poppins, Never Gonna Dance, Brooklyn, Mamma Mia!. Also, great time spent at Wicked, La Cage aux Folles, The Phantom of the Opera. National tours: Mamma Mia!, Barry Manilow’s Copacabana. Proud volunteer for BC/EFA. Love to Mom and Herbie. Actors’ Equity Association member since 1997.
Broadway: A Little Night Music, Blithe Spirit, Deuce, Fosse, Chicago, Seussical, Company, Smokey Joe's Cafe, Guys and Dolls. National tours: Chicago, Guys and Dolls, Jerome Robbins' Broadway. Encores! Series: On the Town; Damn Yankees; Juno; Bye, Bye Birdie; Can-Can; Fiorello.
Nina Essman, Nancy Nagel Gibbs and Marcia Goldberg’s Broadway, Off-Broadway and national tour management credits include Wicked; Next to Normal; Traces; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; Man of La Mancha; The Graduate; Striking 12; The Vagina Monologues; Bat Boy; and I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change.
Original Broadway/New York productions: Nine (1982), Grand Hotel, Mayor, Secret Garden, King David, Triumph of Love, Beauty and the Beast, Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid. International: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Berlin), A Chorus Line (First international tour), all productions of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast worldwide, Sister Act (all worldwide). Out-of-town/in production: Leap of Faith, Aladdin, Newsies. Film/TV: Tangled, Enchanted, Home on the Range, Pocahontas, "A Christmas Carol" (Emmy Award, Outstanding Music Direction), "The Music Man" (Emmy nomination), "Once Upon a Mattress," The Manchurian Candidate, Shaggy Dog, composer "Wonder Pets," numerous others. Concert/recording: Barbara Cook, Carly Simon, Jane Krakowski, Kerry Butler, et al.
Broadway: How to Succeed, Elf, Young Frankenstein, Tarzan, Dracula, Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002 Tony/Drama Desk), The Producers (2001 Tony/Drama Desk), Seussical, The Music Man, Fosse (1999 Tony), Big, Damn Yankees, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. International: Guys and Dolls, Der Schuh Des Manitu. Regional: Limelight, Minsky's. Film/Television: Nine, The Producers, Mulan, Anastasia, "Lincoln," "Cinderella," "Annie," "Geppetto," "South Pacific," Superstar and "Scrubs." With Susan Stroman, ballets Frankie and Johnny... and Rose, Take Five - More Or Less, But Not For Me and Double Feature.
Mark Hummel currently conducts Disney's Newsies. Earlier this season, Hummel wrote arrangements for Hugh Jackman Back on Broadway. For 16 years, Mark was Music Director and arranger for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. A 3-time Emmy Award nominee, Hummel creates music with Bernadette Peters, Chita Rivera, Tommy Tune, Liza Minnelli, Donna Murphy, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Rufus Wainwright.
Recent Broadway: Jersey Boys, La Cage, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Elf, Catch Me if You Can, Baby It’s You!, Rock of Ages. Musician (bass): Michael Jackson, Madonna, Eric Clapton, Frank Sinatra, B.B. King, P. Diddy, Leonard Cohen, Pete Seeger, New York Philharmonic. His album Stage Door Johnny: John Miller Takes on Broadway is available on PS Classics Records. www.johnmillerbass.com
Whoopi Goldberg is one of an elite group of artists who have won Academy, Grammy, Emmy and Tony Awards. She got her start on stage and was last seen on Broadway in Xanadu. She earned a Tony nomination for her return to the Lyceum Theatre commemorating the 20th anniversary of her original one-woman show. She starred in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and produced and starred in the revival of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. She won the Tony for producing Thoroughly Modern Millie, and produced the hit West End production of Sister Act (she also appeared as Mother Superior in the show for a special limited engagement last year), and the provocative new rock musical, White Noise. She has appeared in over 50 films and is the moderator of ABC’s "The View." In addition to her successful film and television career, she is also a best-selling author.
Formed in 1998 by Joop van den Ende, Stage Entertainment is one of the world’s largest theatre producers and owners. With bases across Europe, and the unique New World Stages complex in New York, the group produces some of biggest titles in musical theatre, both with high profile partners and as originally developed work from within the group. The company employs more than 4000 people worldwide and over 10 million people visit a Stage Entertainment production or performance space each year. Recent successes include the London and Hamburg productions of Sister Act; the multi-award-winning Hairspray in the West End; Ich war noch niemals in New York (Udo Jürgens songbook); the German Reunification musical Hinterm Horizont; Petticoat, Petticoat; Mamma Mia!; The Lion King; Tarzan; Beauty and the Beast; Dirty Dancing; Les Misérables; Wicked; We Will Rock You. Further productions of Sister Act are also scheduled for Austria, Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, South Korea, Brazil and a UK tour.
The Shubert Organization is responsible for the ownership and/or operation of 21 theatres in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, DC and continues its involvement in the presentation of distinguished theatrical productions. The Shubert Organization’s activities include the revitalization of the American theatre, participation in civic and community affairs, the introduction of phone and credit card ticket sales and a computerized ticketing system.
With 15 productions currently running worldwide, a Disney musical is being performed professionally somewhere on the planet virtually every hour of the day. Their Broadway productions - King David; Beauty and the Beast; The Lion King; Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida; Mary Poppins, a co-production by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh; Tarzan and The Little Mermaid – have won a combined 12 Tony Awards.
The Board of Directors oversees the production and running of some 50 concurrent shows as well as the exploitation of 25 venues across Europe and in New York. Dr. Henk Kivits joined the company in 2007, succeeding Joop van den Ende as CEO of the group. Erwin van Lambaart is managing director of the Dutch branch of the company and within the Board he is Chief Content Officer. Caspar Gerwe has been on Stage Entertainment’s Board of Directors since 1998. Siebe van Elsloo joined Stage Entertainment in 2009 as CFO of the group. The Board reports to the Supervisory Board presided by Joop van den Ende.
Joop van den Ende (1942), is a renowned international theatre and television producer and President of Stage Entertainment. Since the early 1960s he has produced over a 100 plays and comedies from the international repertoire, followed by a wide range of international musicals across Europe. He set his first steps on Broadway through a joint venture with the Dodgers resulting in Tony Award-winning musicals like Titanic, 42nd Street, Into the Woods and Urinetown. He now returns to Broadway with Sister Act, a coproduction with Whoopi Goldberg. As television producer he was successful with talk shows, variety shows and series. In 1994, Van den Ende and John de Mol founded Endemol, the largest independent international television production company. In 2000, he left Endemol and founded Stage Entertainment, the largest independent theatre company in Europe with offices in Amsterdam, Hamburg, Berlin, Stuttgart, Moscow, Milan, Rome, Madrid, Paris, London and New York. It boasts a portfolio of 25 theatres, produces musicals – roughly 50 shows running every day – and creates new musical titles, such as Sister Act. In 2001, Joop and his wife Janine van den Ende founded the VandenEnde Foundation, the largest private art foundation in the Netherlands, with the aim to create chances for talented young artists, cultural entrepreneurs and cultural education.
Bill entered the music business as a director for the Sanctuary Group in 1984. He later joined the board of Lord Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group and from 1997 to 2005 was CEO. Bill played a major part in RUG’s expansion and during his time there the company produced over 70 shows in London, on Broadway and around the world including Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph..., Sunset Boulevard and Bombay Dreams. In 2001 he acquired, on behalf of RUG, Stoll Moss Theatres. As CEO of Stage Entertainment UK & US Bill's producer credits include Hairspray, Disney's High School Musical and Sister Act at the London Palladium.
Rebecca started her theatrical career at Pola Jones in 1996, where she worked on many West End musicals and UK tours, including Return to the Forbidden Planet, Tommy, Chicago, West Side Story, Spend Spend Spend and Fosse. She then general managed Our House for Tiger Aspect and the original production of Billy Elliot for Working Title (both winning Olivier Awards for Best Musical). In 2008 she joined Stage Entertainment, where her credits include both Hairspray and Sister Act in the West End.
Tom is Whoopi Goldberg's producing partner and Head of Development. Together they are currently at various stages of production and development on projects across many entertainment mediums. Leonardis was a Tony-nominated producer of Whoopi… The 20th Anniversary; he also co-produced the Tony Award-winning hit Broadway musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. Goldberg and Leonardis are currently producing the musical White Noise.
Educated at Essen University, Ulrike worked on Disney’s musical Hunchback of Notre Dame in Berlin. She subsequently managed the New Productions Department for Vereinigte Buehnen Wien, after which she became director of the newly established Creative Development department at Stage Entertainment. Eight new musicals were originated under her supervision. In 2009 she founded, together with shareholder Joop van den Ende, the creative company Cook a Dream.
Pasadena Playhouse, under the leadership of Artistic Director Sheldon Epps and Executive Director Stephen Eich, has been in existence since 1917. Broadway productions that originated there include: Sister Act, Baby It's You!, Looped and Mail. In 1937, The Pasadena Playhouse was designated the State Theatre of California for bringing national and international renown to the state as a center for dramatic art. The Playhouse continues to thrill Southern California audiences of all ages.
Atlanta’s Tony Award recipient, the Alliance Theatre, Susan V. Booth, Artistic Director, fosters the creation of World Premiere musicals and plays including The Color Purple, Aida, In the Red and Brown Water, Come Fly Away, Bring It On, and Sister Act. New work from its National Graduate Playwriting Competition has been produced in New York, Chicago, London, San Francisco and beyond. Proud to set the highest artistic and educational standards, creating the powerful experience of shared theatre for diverse people.