Cast & Creative

Michael Mayer (Director) Theatre credits include: the hit revival of Little Shop of Horrors starring Jonathan Groff at the Westside Theatre; Adam Driver and Keri Russell in Burn This, Head Over Heels (featuring the songs of The Go-Go’s), Neil Patrick Harris in Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Tony Award, best musical revival, also National Tour), Spring Awakening (Tony Award/Best Musical and Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Director; also London, National Tour, Vienna, Tokyo, and Seoul productions); Green Day’s American Idiot (also co-author, Drama Desk Award for Best Director; also US, UK and Asia tours); Thoroughly Modern Millie (Tony Award/Best Musical also London and National Tour), Side Man (Tony Award/Best Play also London and Kennedy Center Productions), A View from the Bridge (Tony Award/Best Revival), Michael Moore’s The Terms of My Surrender, Everyday Rapture, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, and Triumph of Love; off-Broadway credits include Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 21 Chump Street (BAM), Chess (Kennedy Center), Love, Love, Love (Roundabout), Brooklynite (Also co-author, Vineyard), Whorl Inside A Loop (with Dick Scanlan, Second Stage), 10 Million Miles (Atlantic): Angels in America. London: a record-breaking West End run of Funny Girl and UK tour. Tokyo: As You Like It (Toho Theatre).

Film: A Home at the End of the World (Excellence in filmmaking, National Board of Review, GLAAD nomination), Flicka, The Seagull. He was featured in the documentary Broadway Idiot.

Television credits include: “SMASH” (Pilot, producing director: Season One), two seasons of “Alpha House” (Amazon), Executive Producer on 27 Dresses and for the HBO film WIG.

He made his Metropolitan Opera debut with a celebrated new production of Rigoletto, followed by world premiere co-production (with the English National Opera) of Nico Muhly’s Marnie, and a new production of La Traviata, which broke box office records.

Additional Awards and fellowships: the inaugural Daryl Roth Creative Spirit, Drama League, Jefferson, Ovation, Alan Schneider, and Carbonell awards; Fox Foundation Fellowship, Two Drama League Fellowships, TCG/NEA Directing Fellowship. He serves on the Boards of New York Stage and Film and the Arthur Miller Foundation.

Recent work includes Swept Away at Berkeley Rep and Single All the Way for Netflix.

Ellenore Scott (Choreography) is a New York–based choreographer and content creator. Scott most recently choreographed the viral Ratatouille: The Musical with Seaview Productions and the Off-Broadway Revival of Little Shop of Horrors at the Westside Theater. Upcoming projects include the Off-Broadway premiere of Fairycakes where she will serve as choreographer and associate director. Scott also served as the associate choreographer for Head Over Heels and King Kong on Broadway, and she was the assistant choreographer for the Broadway revivals of Cats and Falsettos. She choreographed Kate Hamill’s Off-Broadway’s production of Pride and Prejudice at Cherry Lane Theatre and Jeremy O. Harris’ Black Exhibition at The Bushwick Starr. Scott is the Artistic Director of ELSCO Dance, a New York City contemporary dance company. As a performer she was a finalist and an All-Star on the hit television show “So You Think You Can Dance.” She performed on numerous television shows (Glee, Smash, The Ellen Show, The Blacklist, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel to name a few) and danced with Janet Jackson. Instagram: @ellenorescott

Ayodele Casel (Tap Choreography), “a tap dancer and choreographer of extraordinary depth” (The New York Times) and one of The New York Times’ “Biggest Breakout Stars of 2019”, most recently premiered “Chasing Magic” a dance film encapsulating the wonder of collaboration and artistry. Ayodele premiered her one-woman show “While I Have The Floor” at the Spoleto Arts Festival to rave reviews. A frequent New York City Center collaborator, she served as choreographer for Carole King and Maurice Sendak’s musical “Really Rosie” for its Encores! Off Center under the direction of Leigh Silverman, a soloist for Jeanine Tesori’s “Jamboree”, a soloist at Fall For Dance, and was the inaugural artist for their “On The Move” series. Ayodele was also a 2019-2020 fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and Artist in Residence at Harvard University. Born in The Bronx and raised in Puerto Rico, Ayodele began her professional training at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her origins in theater and love for storytelling and tap dance have significantly contributed to the narrative nature of her work, which is rooted in the expression of identity, culture, language, and communication. Ayodele is Artist in Residence at Little Island, a new outdoor performance park on the Hudson and is on the Artist Council for NY Pops Up!, a New York State lead initiative to jumpstart live performances in NYC. Ayodele is also a featured tap dancer honoring the art form of tap on a 2021 US Postal Service Forever Stamp. https://www.ayodelecasel.com/

Jule Styne (Music) Born December 31st, 1905, London. Died September 20th, 1994, New York City.

With the scores of such Broadway classics as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Peter Pan, Bells Are Ringing, Gypsy and Funny Girl to his credit, composer Jule Styne ranks as one of the undisputed architects of the American musical theater. Born in London’s East End, Styne’s family moved to the United States in 1912.

Young Julius showed such a talent for the piano that he had performed with the Chicago, St. Louis, and Detroit symphonies by age 10.

He developed his feel for popular music working with the jazz bands of 1920s Chicago, and as a vocal coach to such 1930s Hollywood stars as Shirley Temple and Alice Faye.

Teaming with lyricist Sammy Cahn in the 1940s, he created a string of hit parade leaders including the Oscar-winning “Three Coins in the Fountain.” In addition to Sammy Cahn, Styne’s collaborators include Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Stephen Sondheim, Bob Merrill, Leo Robin and E.Y. Harburg, and their combined efforts have produced such showstoppers as “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” “The Party’s Over,” “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!,” “People,” and “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.”

Jule Styne was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972, the Theater Hall of Fame in 1981, and became a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1990. On his 25th anniversary in show business, the following tribute was read into the Congressional Record: “The lives of Americans throughout our land, as well as the lives of people throughout the corners of the world, have been enriched by the artistry and genius of Jule Styne.”

Margaret Ann Bissett Brown began her career as a model and actress. She was married to composer Jule Styne, and together, they composed “What Do Happy People Do?” Upon Margaret’s death, Funny Girl producers announced, “Margaret was a brilliant storyteller who represented her husband Jule Styne’s genius legacy with creativity and imagination … Her spirit will be imbued in our Broadway production of Funny Girl.”

Bob Merrill (Lyrics) was an American screenwriter, Broadway composer, lyricist. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Bob could not read or write a note of music.

He would plunk out his cheerful melodies on a toy xylophone bought at a five and dime store. When ideas for songs struck him, he would write the words down on napkins or odd scraps of paper.

Bob turned out to be one of the most influential and prolific songwriters of the 1950s with hits on the U.S. and U.K. Singles Charts such as “How Much Is That Doggie In The Window,” “Mambo Italiano” and “Honeycomb.”

Merrill then transitioned to writing lyrics for beloved television musicals including “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol” (1962), “The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood” (1965) and “The Animated Adventures of Tom Sawyer” (music and lyrics, 1998). Merrill also wrote five songs for the 1962 film The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm.

Longing to write more profound songs, he turned to the musical theatre. By the late fifties, he had written music and lyrics for Broadway’s New Girl in Town, Take Me Along, Carnival, and Henry, Sweet Henry.

In the early 1960’s Merrill formed an enduring partnership with composer Jule Styne, which would lead to his greatest artistic success, Funny Girl (1964). Hit songs such as “People” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade” were made famous by Barbra Streisand, who starred in the original production of Funny Girl in 1964. He would partner with Styne again on Sugar (1972) and The Red Shoes (1993). Other stage musicals include Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1966), Prettybelle (1971) and The Prince of Grand Street (1978).

In the late 1970’s, Merrill returned to Hollywood where he wrote several screenplays including Mahogany starring Diana Ross, W.C . Fields And Me starring Rod Steiger and Chu Chu And The Philly Flash starring Carol Burnett.

Bob Merrill passed away in 1998, leaving behind a legacy of timeless songs that spoke to both his whimsy and his gentle poetry.

Isobel Lennart (Book) (1915-1971) was born Isobel Fredrika Hochdorf on May 8, 1915, in Brooklyn. Her father was a dentist working out of their home on Crescent Street. Her mother, Victoria Lennart Livingston, died when Isobel was five years old. Afflicted by polio as a girl and in leg braces, Isobel became an avid reader, especially of movie magazines. She dreamed of escaping Brooklyn and becoming a film director. After attending Smith College and NYU, she moved to Los Angeles in 1937 and worked as a script girl for MGM. As a screenwriter, her first movie for MGM, The Affairs of Martha, opened in 1942, followed by A Stranger in Town, and her personal favorite, Lost Angel.  Some 25 more scripts were made into popular movies over the next 30 years, among them, Two for the Seesaw, Inn of the Sixth Happiness, the Oscar-nominated Love Me or Leave Me, and The Sundowners. She married actor-playwright John Harding in 1946, and had two children, Joshua (1947-1971) and Sarah (1951-). Despite her trials and tribulations with the House Un-American Activities Committee, she was never prevented from working. In 1964 she wrote the book for the Broadway musical Funny Girl and in 1968 wrote the screen adaptation, winning the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Screenplay. Ms. Lennart received many accolades and three Academy Award nominations during her career, but the 1966 Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement bestowed by the Writers Guild of America was her most treasured. It is given to that member of the Guild who has advanced the literature of the motion picture through the years, and who has made outstanding contributions to the profession of the screenwriter. She died mid-career in a car accident in January 1971. In 2016, Funny Girl was deemed “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress, and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Today, a documentary on the life of Ms. Lennart highlighting her most iconic work and featuring its first Broadway revival is in production with support from the Jewish Film Institute.

Harvey Fierstein (Revised Book) is the author of Torch Song Trilogy, La Cage Aux Folles, (both Tony Award winners) Kinky Boots, Newsies, Casa Valentina (all Tony Award Nominated), A Catered Affair (Drama League Outstanding Musical), Safe Sex, Legs Diamond, and last season’s Bella Bella. His television scripts include “Hairspray Live!” and “The Wiz Live!” as well as the HBO drama “Tidy Endings.” He’s written opinion pieces for The NY Times, Huffington Post, Hartford Courant and PBS’ In The Life. Theater goers know his Tony Award-winning performances in Hairspray and Torch Song Trilogy as well as star turns in Fiddler on the Roof, La Cage Aux Folles, Gently Down The Stream, and Bella Bella. His film roles include Mrs. Doubtfire, Independence Day and Mulan. On TV he’s been on “Sesame Street,” “Cheers” (Emmy nomination), “BoJack Horseman,” “The Good Wife” and “Hairspray Live!” Inducted into The Theater Hall of Fame and The Brooklyn Walk of Fame, Mr. Fierstein has a star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame. This spring Knopf will release his memoir, I Was Better Last Night.

DAVID ZINN (Scenic Designer). Broadway: scenery and costumes for Choir Boy, Boys in the Band, SpongeBob SquarePants, Amélie, Fun Home, The Last Ship; scenery for Kimberly Akimbo, Funny Girl, Diana, The Minutes, Torch Song, The Humans; costumes for Almost Famous, A Doll’s House Part 2, Airline Highway, Xanadu. Also: Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theater, New York Theater Workshop, Second Stage, ACT, Berkeley Rep, The Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, National Theatre (UK), Young Vic (UK), Theater Basel, Berlin Staatsoper. Tony, Obie, Drama Desk, Hewes awards.

Susan Hilferty (Costume Designer) has designed over 300 productions across the globe. Recent designs include Hamlet (St. Anne’s Warehouse and Gate Theatre, Dublin), Blood Wedding (Young Vic, London), Boesman and Lena (Signature Theatre), A Bright Room Called Day, (Public Theatre), Love, Love, Love (Roundabout Theatre; Lucille Lortel Award), Buried Child and The Spoils (New Group, NY and West End), Turn Me Loose (Arena Stage), and Richard Nelson’s What Happened?:The Michaels Abroad (Loewe Theatre). Her many Broadway designs include Wicked (Tony, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama Desk awards and Olivier nomination), Present Laughter (Tony nomination), Hands on a Hardbody, Spring Awakening (Tony nomination), Lestat (Tony nomination), Annie (2013 Revival), Into the Woods (Tony and Drama Desk nominations; Hewes Award), and Frank Wildhorn’s Wonderland. Her designs for opera include Rigoletto and La Traviata for the Metropolitan Opera and Manon at LA Opera and Berlin Staatsoper. Hilferty has designed over a hundred off-Broadway including Richard Nelson’s Apple Family Plays and August Wilson’s Radio Golf and Jitney. She works with such well-known directors as Athol Fugard (the South African writer with whom she works as set and costume designer and often as co-director on over 45 productions since 1980), Yaël Farber, JoAnne Akalaitis, Laurie Anderson, Arin Arbus, Christopher Ashley, Walter Bobbie, Anne Bogart, Gregory Boyd, Jonathan Butterell, Oskar Eustis, Robert Falls, Frank Galati, Garry Hynes, David Jones, Selina Cartmell, Moisés Kaufman, Tony Kushner, Mark Lamos, James Lapine, Michael Longhurst, Richard Nelson, Des McAnuff, Marion McClinton, James MacDonald, Emily Mann, Joe Mantello, Michael Mayer, Neil Pepe, Bart Sher, Rebecca Taichman, Robert Woodruff, Doug Wright, and the late Garland Wright. Hilferty also designs for Film, Dance (Alvin Ailey), the Circus (Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey) and Concerts (Taylor Swift SPEAK NOW World Tour). Hilferty’s many awards include the USITT Lifetime Achievement Award, Irene Sharaff Award for Lifetime Achievement, an OBIE for Sustained Excellence in Design, the Lilly Award and the Ruth Morley Design Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women. In addition, she Chairs the Department of Design for Stage and Film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. susanhilferty.com

Kevin Adams (Lighting Designer) Kevin Adams has received four Tony Awards for his work on Broadway, which includes The Cher Show, Head Over Heels, SpongeBob The Musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, American Idiot, Next to Normal, Passing Strange, The 39 Steps, Spring Awakening, Hair, Take Me Out, and solo shows by Michael Moore, Eve Ensler, and John Leguizamo. Off-Broadway credits include the original productions of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and The Scottsboro Boys, revivals of Carrie and Rent, and new work by Edward Albee, Tony Kushner, Neil Simon, Terrence McNally, Richard Greenberg, Anna Deavere Smith, Eric Bogosian, and Christopher Durang. Other work includes numerous productions at The Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, the Hollywood Bowl, Las Vegas, London’s West End, Disney Hall, and Sandra Bernhard’s 1990 feature film Without You I’m Nothing. Kevin has received the Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Award, Lucille Lortel Awards, Hewes Design Awards, Knights of Illumination Award, and an Obie for Sustained Excellence.

BRIAN RONAN (Co-Sound Designer) has designed the sound for over 40 Broadway shows. Some recent designs include Some Like It Hot; Mrs. Doubtfire; Tootsie; Mean Girls; Springsteen on Broadway; The Prom; The Last Ship; If/Then; Beautiful; The Book of Mormon; Anything Goes; American Idiot; Promises, Promises; Next to Normal; Curtains; Spring Awakening; Cabaret. His regional and Off-Broadway credits are extensive. Brian is the recipient of the Obie, Lucille Lortel, two Drama Desks, London’s Olivier and two Tony awards.

Chris Walker (Orchestrations) Chris orchestrated the highly acclaimed London production of Funny Girl which premiered at The Menier Chocolate Factory before transferring to The Savoy Theatre in the West End. Over the years, he has been associated with numerous productions across the UK and USA, West End and Broadway, as a Musical Director, Orchestrator and Dance Arranger. As well as being a prolific composer, he has also produced numerous cast recordings and his film work includes orchestrations for Shirley Valentine, Impromptu and Olympus Has Fallen. Theater shows include: Godspell, Oliver!, Side by Side by Sondheim, My Fair Lady, Tomfoolery, Me and My Girl (London and Broadway), Cabaret, Follies, The Secret Garden, Ragtime, Acorn Antiques, Sweet Charity, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (London and Broadway), Lend Me A Tenor, Anything Goes, The Producers, Barnum and the first ever stage adaptation of Irving Berlin’s Top Hat. Chris has worked extensively for the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre providing orchestrations for their productions of Into The Woods, Ragtime and The Sound of Music. Having orchestrated Victoria Wood’s musical That Day We Sang for The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, he was invited to enhance the score for the BBC2 Christmas drama adaptation starring Imelda Staunton and Michael Ball. His frequent collaborations with Olivier Award-winning performer Maria Friedman include her London productions of High Society at the Old Vic and Stepping Out at the Vaudeville Theatre. When Covid-19 struck the London theater scene, Chris was conducting the UK Premier of Sleepless, The Musical based on the movie, “Sleepless In Seattle”. He is currently writing the music for a new show, Power Play, and orchestrating a production using music by Cole Porter which is due to open later in the year. He is very much looking forward to being in New York again and creating new orchestrations for Funny Girl.

Michael Rafter (Music Supervisor) has served as music director/arranger for Sutton Foster: New York Pops, Live From Lincoln Center, and over 100 concerts world-wide. He has been the music director/conductor and/or supervisor for Broadway: Violet, Everyday Rapture, Sweet Charity, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Swing!, The Sound of Music, The King and I, The Most Happy Fella, Gypsy. He was the associate music supervisor for Jersey Boys. For Film and TV: CODA, Annette, Marriage Story, Music and Lyrics, Did You Hear About the Morgans?, Gypsy starring Bette Midler (Emmy for Music Direction). He is an Associate Professor of Musical Theatre at Ball State University. Michael will next be the music director/supervisor for the upcoming Broadway revival of Funny Girl in 2022. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the proud father of Siena Rafter (Brown ’20).

JIM CARNAHAN, CSA (Casting) has cast over 150 Broadway shows. His work on Broadway this season includes Merrily We Roll Along; Shark is Broken; Appropriate; Doubt; New York, New York; A Beautiful Noise; Funny Girl; Harry Potter; Moulin Rouge!; as well as off-Broadway’s Little Shop of Horrors. Film: Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid.

Alan Williams (Dance, Vocal and Incidental Music Arrangements) is an Arranger, Musical Director, Supervisor and Orchestrator. He studied piano and conducting at Chetham’s School of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Recent credits include: Hairspray (London Coliseum), The Boy in the Dress (Royal Shakespeare Company), Evita (Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park), The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Southwark Playhouse), Big Fish (The Other Palace), Disney’s Aladdin (Prince Edward Theatre), Funny Girl (Menier Chocolate Factory, Savoy Theatre, UK Tour & Cinema broadcast), A Damsel in Distress (Chichester Festival Theatre), Assassins (Menier Chocolate Factory), Urinetown (St James Theatre & Apollo Theatre), The Commitments (Palace Theatre & UK Tour), A Chorus Line (London Palladium), Shrek (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, two UK tours & Australia), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee & Passion (Donmar Warehouse), Monty Python’s Spamalot (Palace Theatre), Eric’s (Liverpool Everyman) and Little Shop of Horrors (West Yorkshire Playhouse). Recording credits include producing the original cast album of The Boy in the Dress, Matt Croke – Only Dreaming, conducting the 2016 recording of Funny Girl and playing on the Original Cast Album of Sister Act. His orchestration and arrangement of Overture of Overtures was a YouTube sensation in 2020, and will be performed at the Kennedy Center Washington 50th anniversary concert.

David Dabbon (Additional Arrangements) is an Emmy nominated composer for his song “Eat Shit, Bob!” which aired on HBO’s award-winning “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.” On Broadway, he composed new music and wrote dance arrangements for the celebrated revival of Bob Fosse’s Dancin’. He also provided additional orchestrations for the Broadway bio-musical Sondheim on Sondheim (Grammy nomination). He has an ongoing collaboration with six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald, regularly providing orchestrations for her concerts and albums. His work can be heard on both Audra McDonald New York Philharmonic: Sing Happy and Audra McDonald: Go Back Home. His film work includes: Six By Sondheim (Arranger) and All God’s Creatures (Composer). Education: Carnegie Mellon University and The Hartt School. www.daviddabbon.com.

CARMEL DEAN (Additional Arrangements). Composer: Renascence (Off-Broadway); Well-Behaved Women (Joe’s Pub and Australia). Upcoming: Maiden Voyage (commission). Broadway musical director, supervisor and/or arranger: The Notebook; If/Then; American Idiot; Hands on a Hardbody; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Other collaborations: Green Day; Phish; The Trey Anastasio Band, Chita Rivera.

Kimberlee Wertz (Music Coordinator). Red was awarded the 2007 Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre. Broadway credits include over 100 shows. Kim: Tony Awards, Kennedy Center Honors, Oscars. Together this season: The Lehman Trilogy, The Music Man, Funny Girl!