The team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, the longest running creative partnership in theatre history, began writing and performing their own satirical comic material in a group called The Revuers, which included the late Judy Holliday. They went on to collaborate with Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins on what was the first show for all of them, On The Town. Also with Mr. Bernstein they did the score for Wonderful Town. With Jule Styne they wrote the book and/or lyrics for Bells Are Ringing, Hallelujah, Baby, Do Re Mi, Subways Are For Sleeping, Peter Pan, and others, wrote the book for Applause, and book and lyrics for On The Twentieth Century and A Doll's Life. Four of these, Applause, Hallelujah, Baby, Wonderful Town, and On The Twentieth Century, won them five Tony Awards, and A Doll's Life, a Tony nomination. Their many film musicals include Singin' in the Rain, which has been internationally acclaimed as one of the best films of all time, also The Band Wagon, On The Town, Bells Are Ringing, It's Always Fair Weather, Good News, and The Barkleys of Broadway. Two of these, The Band Wagon and It's Always Fair Weather, received Academy Award Nominations, and those two plus On The Town won the Screen Writer's Award.
Charles Strouse's first Broadway musical, Bye Bye Birdie, won him a Tony Award and the London Critics Best Foreign Musical Award. In 1970, Applause achieved the same honors and his smash hit, Annie, also won a Tony for Best Score as well as two Grammy Awards. Some of his other musicals include All American, Golden Boy (starring Sammy Davis Jr.), It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s Superman, I and Albert and Dance a Little Closer. Charlie & Algernon won a 1981 Tony nomination for Best Score, as did Rags 1987 and Nick and Nora in 1993. He wrote both the music and lyrics for off-Broadway's Mayor, and teamed again with Martin Charnin to create Annie Warbucks, the sequel to Annie. His film scores include Bonnie & Clyde, The Night They Raided Minsky's and All Dogs Go To Heaven. "Those Were The Days," the theme song for TV's All in the Family is a Strouse song, with lyrics by his most frequent collaborator, Lee Adams. "Born Too Late," a 1958 pop song written with Fred Tobias, was a top-10 Billboard chart hit and is still being heard on all the oldies stations. Mr. Strouse is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he has taught master classes in musical theatre. Through the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop in New York, which he created and directed since its inception fifteen years ago, countless young composers, writers and performers have found a forum for their work. Future projects: a musical of Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy with lyrics by Lee Adams; an adaptation of the Paddy Chayevsky film Marty, to star Jason Alexander with words by Lee Adams, book by Aaron Sorkin; a new stage version of the film The Night They Raided Minsky’s; a brand new musical, Once in Palm Beach, with words and music by Mr. Strouse and an original book by him and Barbara Siman. Also in progress is North and South, collaboration with Richard Maltby, Jr., adapted from the novel and TV mini-series by John Jakes.
won his first Tony Award for his first Broadway musical, Bye Bye Birdie, in 1960. Written with Charles Strouse (music) and Michael Stewart (book), Birdie has gone on to become the most-performed musical for school and amateur theatre groups. Adams and Strouse went on to collaborate on six other Broadway shows, including Golden Boy, starring Sammy Davis, and Applause, starring Lauren Bacall, which earned Adams his second Tony. Adams' lyrics for "Those Were the Days," the theme song of TV's “All in the Family,” have been heard more often than any other television theme. He also wrote the lyrics for the much-acclaimed film, The Night They Raided Minsky’s. Among his output of songs, a number have become standards: "Put On a Happy Face"; "Kids"; "A Lot Of Livin' To Do"; "Applause"; "Once Upon A Time"; "I Want To Be With You." His most recent award was an Emmy for "Let's Settle Down", for the TV version of Birdie. Adams has taught seminars on American musical theatre at Tale, Columbia, and NYU. He is proud to be a Life Member of the Dramatists Guild Council, and to have been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
has had a long career writing, directing and producing television comedy. With partner Peter Casey he wrote and produced The Jeffersons (six years) and Cheers (four years). In 1989 they added a third partner, the late David Angell. The first series they created, Wings, ran for eight seasons on NBC. Their second, Frasier, ran for eleven years, winning more Emmy awards than any show in television history. Their third will not be mentioned here. David has won many and various awards for his work including nine Emmys (eighteen nominations), a Golden Globe, the People’s Choice (twice), the Directors Guild Award, the Television Critic’s Award (three times), the British Comedy Award, the Humanitas Prize (twice), and the prestigious Peabody Award. Recently he has been devoting more time to the theater, directing critically acclaimed revivals of Light Up the Sky, Do I Hear A Waltz? and 110 in the Shade at the Pasadena Playhouse, the world premiere of How I Fell In Love at the Williamstown Theater Festival and Assassins, A New Brain, Company and On the Twentieth Century for REPRISE! Still writing too, he recently authored the highly successful concert adaptation of Can-Can starring Patti LuPone for Encores!
is a veteran performer of 16 Broadway shows and first national tours including A Chorus Line, Dancin, Pippin, West Side Story, Brigadoon, The Music Man, Guys and Dolls, Damn Yankees, Cats, Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, Marilyn: An American Fable, The American Dance Machine and The Radio City Christmas and Easter Spectaculars. He has assisted or worked with Jerome Robbins, Agnes de Mille, Michael Kidd, Bob Fosse, Donald Saddler, Jerry Zaks, Trevor Nunn, Gillian Lynn, Tony Stevens, Chris Chadman and Kenny Ortega and Rob Marshall to name a few. Mark's choreographic work has been seen at Pittsburgh CLO, Sacramento Music Circus, La Mirada Theater in CA, Musical Theater West, Theatre League, Casa Manana and Bass Hall in TX, Music Theater of Wichita, Blowing Rock Stage Company, North Shore Music Theater, the York Theater Company in NYC and Theater by the Sea in RI. Mark has appeared in many music videos for Jim Steinman and Bonnie Tyler as the principle dancer and most recognized as ‘bright eyes’ in “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Mark also has served as Associate Director/Choreographer for the Radio City Christmas show starring the Rockettes and is the Choreographer for Yuletide Celebration staring the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Mark is currently a consultant choreographer for Walt Disney Entertainment hiring talent for Tokyo Disney resorts and the Disney Cruise Lines. He is also a guest teacher and choreographer for New York University, UCLA, University of Michigan and UC Irvine.
succeeds the late great Peter Matz as musical director for REPRISE! having been his associate for fourteen shows. Now commencing his third season, he has helmed Pippin, Brigadoon, Company (receiving both Ovation and LA Drama Critics Circle nominations) Kismet, Babes in Arms, She Loves Me (garnering a LA Drama Critics Circle Nomination), On the Twentieth Century, Anything Goes (the last three nearly sweeping the Ovation Awards of 2003 category of musical director with a nomination for each!) and Follies. He also works in a pre-production capacity at the Hollywood Bowl playing rehearsals for the musicals The Music Man, My Fair Lady, Mame and this coming summer, Camelot. Jerry has been the associate conductor for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Merlin and The Tap Dance Kid (all on Broadway), Les Miserables (L.A. premiere company) and conducted the National Tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Song and Dance (starring Melissa Manchester). Gerald is also thrilled to have accompanied Marilyn Horne and Florence Henderson in benefit recitals for P.A.C.E. (Pacific Alliance for Conservation and the Environment) and the Music Academy of the West (the latter also joined by Carol Burnett). Other musical direction credits: Two on the Aisle, the music of Harry Wareen and Marvin Hamlisch (for S.T.A.G.E.-2005), The Perfect Year (for S.T.A.G.E.-2004), honoring the music of Sir Andrew and Something Wonderful (for the Actor's Fund-2002), honoring the music of Richard Rodgers, (all star studded benefits directed by David Galligan); the club acts for Jason Graae (on a Fynsworth Alley CD) Donna McKechnie and John Barrowman; two benefits featuring the original casts of A Chorus Line and Dreamgirls -- a Michael Bennett tribute for LA Shanti and for A Hollywood Salute to Broadway, one of the first AIDS Benefits held in Los Angeles (directed by Jeff Calhoun and held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion); and Gilligan’s Island, The Musical (produced by Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of the TV series.) As a songwriter/composer, his songs have been heard in ASCAP Rising Songwriter Showcases on both coasts, in Cabaret Conventions at New York’s Town Hall and at the Hollywood Roosevelt’s Cinegrill. He has had music and songs (in collaboration with Lindy Robbins) performed around the country in the ‘93-’98 editions of the Ringling Brothers’ Circus Red Unit. He has also contributed music to the new musicals Heartbeats (in collaboration with Amanda McBroom and Bill Castellino), directed by the ubiquitous Mr. Gallligan, the long running The Gay 90’s – Looking Back and Moving On and the riotous Vampire Virgins from Venus (written with Gary MacAuley). This last spring, Gerald’s song Mary (written in collaboration with Faye Greenberg)--a paean to The Mary Tyler Moore Show was performed on the TV Land Awards show by Eric McCormack-- in the presence of the original cast of the landmark sitcom. In a teaching capacity, Jerry has worked alongside Nancy Dussault, Karen Morrow and Mel Shapiro on a student-featured workshop as part of UCLA’s Ray Bolger theater program.
is a graduate of the UCLA School of Fine Arts; he also attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. Early in his career he was an apprentice to multi-award winning production designer Robert W. Zentis. Evan is now an award-winning designer as well and is constantly juggling multiple productions throughout Los Angeles. His projects have ranged from the beautiful (Kismet for REPRISE! at UCLA's Frued Playhouse) to the urban (Ephraim's Song at the Hamilton Music Academy) to the astounding (fofo: Hasta La Muerte at Hollywood Forever Cemetery's Day of the Dead). Evan recently designed Der Fledermaus at the Luckman Theatre along with Floyd Collins at West Coast Ensemble and Questa at the Court Theater. He dedicates this work to Bob and to his first mentor in set design ‘little’ Jimmy Arsenault.
began his career in New York City at Michael-Jon Costumes as an in-house design assistant working on 20 Broadway productions including 42nd Street, Barnum, Amadeus, West Side Waltz and Peter Pan. His designs for off Broadway include Deep Freeze, A Memory of Two Mondays, The Great Ghost, Should Have Been A Love Play and Stray Dogs. In addition he has designed costumes for numerous music videos and recording artists with RCA Records. In Los Angeles, his talent with specialty costume manufacturing helped to create some of the most unusual and technically complicated costumes to appear in movie houses. He has nearly two dozen films to his credit including Batman & Robin, Batman Forever, Batman Returns, Dracula, The Shadow, Demolition Man and Hocus Pocus. Recent design projects include the Sci-Fi Television series Crusade, the TNT film James Dean: An Invented Life, for which he received an Emmy Award nomination and a feature film Sorry Haters. His recent stage credits include: Present Laughter (LA Drama Critics Circle Nomination), Light Up The Sky (Backstage Drama Critics Garland Award), Do I Hear A Waltz, As Bees In Honey Drown and 110 In The Shade for the Pasadena Playhouse, Follies, On The Twentieth Century and Company for REPRISE!
has created designs for twenty-three REPRISE! productions including Kismet, Sweeney Todd, Mack & Mabel and Hair. He designed the acclaimed production of Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks at the Belasco Theatre on Broadway, the Geffen Playhouse and the Coconut Grove Playhouse. He has designed over eighty productions for South Coast Repertory Theatre and shows for the Mark Taper Forum, Laguna Playhouse, International City Theatre, Opera Santa Barbara, South Bay CLO, Fullerton CLO, Sacramento Music Theatre, Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C., and the current national tour of Peter Pan featuring Cathy Rigby. His lighting can be seen at theme parks in six different countries including Universal Studios Hollywood, Japan and Orlando; Warner Bros. Movie World Australia, Germany and Spain; Knott's Berry Farm and Disneyland. His architectural lighting can be seen at Hard Rock Hotels and Casinos, Santa Monica Place, South Coast Plaza Mall, Orange County Performing Arts Center, the Los Angeles Music Center and many other retail centers, restaurants, churches, residences and libraries. Mr. Ruzika also serves as the head of the Graduate Lighting Design Program at U.C. Irvine.
has designed over 80 theatrical shows, including Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks on Broadway, the current national tour of Jesus Christ Superstar; which has angered elderly patrons in more than 30 cities and been seen by more than half a million audience members across North America, the recent large scale production of The Ten Commandments starring Val Kilmer at the Kodak Theatre, Measure for Measure, Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Cinderella at the Ahmanson, The Talking Cure, Like Jazz, Big River, Flower Drum Song and First Picture Show at the Taper, and all of the past seven seasons of REPRISE! Other design work includes Six Dance Lessons In Six Weeks and A'int Nothin' But the Blues at the Geffen, Play On, Only A Kingdom and Blame it on the Movies at the Pasadena Playhouse, Masada at the Shubert Theatre in LA, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Singing in the Rain for Denver's Arvada Center for the Arts, Forever Plaid, and Blues in the Night, at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, The King and I, South Pacific, and Into the Woods, for the Long Beach Civic Light Opera. On Broadway he assisted long time design partner Jon Gottlieb on 2001s If You Ever Leave Me I'm Coming With You. For television Mr. Allen assisted Emmy award winning sound designer Bruce Burns in the sound system design's for the 33rd Academy of Country Music Awards, the 56th and 59th Golden Globe Awards and 14th Soap Opera Awards. As a mixer he served as Production Sound Engineer for Thoroughly Modern Millie at La Jolla Playhouse before its move to Broadway and was the head soundman for the national tour of Titanic. In 1997 he engineered the gala production Saturday Night at the Summit attended by Bill Clinton and the leaders of the G-7 countries. He won the 2003 NAACP award for Sound Design for Jesus Christ Superstar, the 2001 Ovation Award for Sound Design for Flower Drum Song, and the 1999 LA Drama Critics Circle Award for the sound design of Cinderella, as well as five LA Dramalogue Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design, and two Ovation Award nominations for Best Sound Design.