Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and (usually uncredited) director in musical theater for nearly 40 years. He won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Many of his songs are standard repertoire for vocalists and jazz musicians. He co-wrote 850 songs.
He is best known for his collaborations with composer Richard Rodgers, as the duo Rodgers and Hammerstein, whose musicals include Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music. Described by Stephen Sondheim as an "experimental playwright", Hammerstein helped bring the American musical to new ... read more
James is a professional freelance director and qualified lecturer on both musical theatre and acting programmes. James has won awards for his teaching practice and directed multiple award-winning monologues for young actors entering the UK Skills competitions. He is now Co-Artistic Director of Assembled Junk Productions Ltd.
James was born in Leicester before attending and graduating from UCLan in 2004 with a BA (Hons) in English and Theatre studies. He then developed his training with East 15 in theatre direction and with acclaimed directors including Alex Clifton (Artistic Director of ChesterPerforms and Head of Acting at R.A.D.A.) and Olivier award-winning ... read more
Robert Russell Bennett orchestrated more than 300 Broadway musical scores including Show Boat; No, No, Nanette; Of Thee I Sing; Face the Music; Oklahoma!; Carmen Jones; Finian's Rainbow; Kiss Me, Kate; South Pacific; The King and I; My Fair Lady; and Camelot. His arrangements for the 1955 film version of Oklahoma! earned him an Academy Award. He also orchestrated and arranged Richard Rodgers' TV documentary score for "Victory at Sea." A classically trained composer, Bennett's prolific output of original compositions includes symphonies, sonatas, a ballet, a concerto and an opera. ... read more
Jay Binder has cast over 70 Broadway productions, including the Tony Award winning productions of The Lion King, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, Dames At Sea, Nice Work If You Can Get It, Gypsy, The King and I, Lost in Yonkers and Jerome Robbins’ Broadway. In addition, he was fortunate enough to cast every Neil Simon play from 1990 through 2009. Mr. Binder was one of the founders and continues to be a driving force behind the highly-acclaimed Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert series at City Center in New York City. His work casting this series led ... read more
Bruce has orchestrated nearly 100 musicals and operas the world over including War Paint, The Light in the Piazza (co-orchestrator; Tony Award), 9 to 5, Grey Gardens, Urinetown, The Wild Party (Broadway), Assassins (London), Floyd Collins and Giant. Awards: Tony Award (plus two nominations), Obie, Drama Desk (plus eight nominations). ... read more
Broadway: War Paint, Groundhog Day, Fool for Love, Act One, Venus in Fur, God of Carnage, Long Day's Journey Into Night (with Redgrave and Hoffman), Exit the King, numerous others. Off-Broadway: Public, LCT3, Signature, Playwrights Horizons, others. Regional/international: Goodman, Westport, Two River Theater, Williamstown, others. Royal National, Royal Shakespeare Company. Film/TV: numerous. Faculty: Juilliard. ... read more
Winner of three Tony Awards and London’s Olivier Award, producer Hal Luftig has worked on and Off-Broadway for the past 25 years. Broadway: Evita, Catch Me If You Can, Come Fly Away, West Side Story, All My Sons, Legally Blonde, The Times They Are A-Changin’, Whoopi, Movin’ Out, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Annie Get Your Gun, High Society, The Diary of Anne Frank, Play On!, The King and I, Moon Over Buffalo, Angels in America, Jelly’s Last Jam, Death and the Maiden, The Secret Garden. Hal has an M.F.A. from Columbia University/ ... read more
Broadway: Lysistrata Jones (associate producer as well as sound design); …Drood (Drama Desk Award); First Date (associate producer); Pal Joey; The Ritz; Laugh Whore; Man of La Mancha; Sweet Smell of Success; Copenhagen; Kiss Me, Kate; Footloose; The Lion King (Drama Desk Award); The Sound of Music; A Christmas Carol (MSG); Steel Pier; Forum; The King and I; Moon Over Buffalo; Smokey Joe’s Cafe; Guys and Dolls; Five Guys Named Moe; She Loves Me; The Red Shoes; Anything Goes. London: Kiss Me, Kate; The Lion King; Smokey Joe’s Cafe; and Anything Goes. National and international: The Lion King, Les Miserables, ... read more
Recent Broadway: Lennon, Sweeney Todd, The Producers, Beauty & the Beast, Hairspray, Movin’ Out, Sweet Charity, Good Vibrations, Dracula, Caroline or Change, Little Shop…, Thoroughly Modern Millie, 42nd St, Urinetown, Nine, La Boheme, Big River, Boys From Syracuse, Look of Love, Urban Cowboy, Never Gonna Dance, Thou Shalt Not, By Jeeves, Follies, Oklahoma!, Jekyll and Hyde, Rocky Horror Show, Seussical, The Music Man, Fosse, Swing!, Parade, Footloose, Kat and the Kings, Civil War, Triumph of Love. Studio Musician (bass): Michael Jackson, Madonna, Portishead, Eric Clapton, BB King, Sinatra, Carly Simon, Celine Dion, Smashing Pumpkins, Pete Seeger, NY Philharmonic. ... read more
Credits: Once, The Book of Mormon, The Addams Family (Broadway and National Tour), Sister Act, 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, Rebecca Zuber, Steven Dalton, Eugenio Saenz Flores, Isaac Katzanek & Melissa Mazdra. ... read more
JEROME ROBBINS (born 11 October 1918 in New York City) was the younger of two children of Harry Rabinowitz, who emigrated to America from Poland in 1904, and his wife Lena Rips. Rabinowitz was at first a shopkeeper with a delicatessen on the Upper East Side of Manhattan; in the 1920’s he moved the family to Jersey City and then to Weehawken, New Jersey, where he and a brother-in-law established the Comfort Corset Company. Young Jerome, who showed an early aptitude for music, dancing, and theatrics, attended schools in Weehawken and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1935. Intending ... read more
Born and educated in Sydney, Australia Brian studied architecture before venturing into theatre design. He was invited to London to design Jesus Christ Superstar at the Palace Theatre then designed the original productions of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the cult movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show before returning to Sydney as Associate Director of the Sydney Theatre Company. For Broadway he designed The King and I (Tony Award) and Dame Edna Back With A Vengeance. He designed the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games closing Ceremony, designs the Sydney New Years Eve Bridge Effect and was awarded an Order Of ... read more