was a world renowned musician throughout his entire adult life. He was Music Director of the New York Philharmonic and conducted the world’s major orchestras. His books and the televised Young People’s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic established him as a leading educator. His compositions include Jeremiah, The Age of Anxiety, Kaddish, Serenade, Five Anniversaries, Mass, Chichester Psalms, Slaval, Songfest, Divertimento for Orchestra, Missa Brevis, Arias and Barcarcolles, Concerto for Orchestra and A Quiet Place. Bernstein composed for the Broadway musical stage, including On the Town, Wonderful Town, Candide, and the immensely popular West Side Story. In addition to the West Side Story collaboration, Mr. Bernstein worked with choreographer Jerome Robbins on three major ballets, Fancy Free, Facsimile, and Dybbuk. Mr. Bernstein was the recipient of many honors including eleven Emmy Awards, the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors.
met in 1938 as screenwriters and soon were collaborating on projects for the stage. Their first big success came in 1940 with My Sister Eileen, the comedy on which Wonderful Town is based. The inspiration for My Sister Eileen came from a series of stories by Ruth McKenney, published in The New Yorker during the thirties. In 1941 Fields and Chodorov hit the jackpot again with Junior Miss, and in the wake of Wonderful Town in 1953, their Anniversary Waltz was a hit the following year. Fields and Chodorov also co-authored the movies Louisiana Purchase and Happy Anniversary, as well as The Ponder Heart (form Eudora Welty’s novella), and The Tunnel of Love with Tom Ewell.
from a family long associated with theatre, wrote revue sketches and screen stories before teaming up with Jerome Chodorov. In addition to their many joint success, Fields had a solo hit with The Doughgirls in 1943, and also co-authored The French Touch and I Gotta Get Out. He also collaborated with Anita Loos on the 1949 musical hit Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
worked at the old Morning World and at Columbia Picutres as a publicity man before turning to screenwriting. On top of a series of stage and film successes with Joseph Fields, Mr. Chodorov wrote Three Bags Full, directed by the late Gower Champion, and I Had A Ball starring Buddy Hackett. He has also directed and rewritten several Broadway plays, including The Gazebo, The Desk Set and Make a Million. His Community of Two starred Claudette Colbert, as did A Talent For Murder (written with Norman Panama). Mr. Chodorov has done revisions of The Great Waltz and The Student Prince as well as Dumas and Son, an original musical with score by Wright and Forrest, of Kismet fame. He is now working with Wright and Forrest on Uncle Daniel, a musicalization of The Ponder Heart (which he wrote with Joseph Fields). A new musical play based on Anastasia is also underway. Mr. Chodorov is happy to note that a London revival of Wonderful Town received ecstatic reviews last season.
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, and were reunited with Mr. Bernstein to write 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 won a Tony nomination. Their many film musicals include Singin' in the Rain, 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. Singin' in the Rain was recently voted one of the best American films ever made and, by a vote of international film critics conducted by the prestigious magazine Sight and Sound, it was chosen as Number Three of the ten best films of all time. As performers, they appeared in On the Town and later did an evening at the Golden Theatre, A Party With Betty Comden and Adolph Green, comprised of material of their own shows and movies, and from their act, The Revuers. In 1977, they did a new version of A Party to unanimous acclaim at the Morosco Theatre, and toured with it. A Party received an Obie Award when it was first performed. They are both members of the Council of the Dramtists’ Guild, have been elected to the Theatre Hall of Fame and the Songwriters’ hall of Fame, and have received the Major of New York’s Certificate of Excellence.
An actor and director, Don was seen onstage recently in Give ‘em an Inch and Song of Martina and at the Mark Taper Forum in Scenes From An Execution. He was in the original New York company of Cloud 9 and went on to direct the piece for the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, the Cricket Theatre in Minneapolis and LA Stage Company, which earned him the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Direction. He was in the Broadway and International tour of My One and Only and Stepping Out which he also directed and starred in at Pasadena Playhouse earning Dramalogue Awards for Direction and Performance. Also at Pasadena, he directed The Big Day and Born Yesterday starring Rebecca DeMornay. He has guest starred in numerous shows for television, most recently Sunset Beach, Ellen and Seinfeld. Recent film appearances have been in Fearless, A Walk In The Clouds, Ed Wood and Boogie Nights. His direction of Tony Abatemarco’s one-man show Four Fathers earned seven Dramalogue Awards. He has also directed Sandy Duncan in I Do, I Do and Lucie Arnaz in the premiere of Joyce Carol Oates’ play, The Woman Who Laughed. Television directing credits include episodes of Harry and the Hendersons and Growing Pains. He has been a guest artist with Houston Grand Opera where he also served as Director of Dramatic Studies.
is a multi-award winning producer-director-choreographer, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Birmingham, Michigan. He graduated from New York City’s Juilliard School of Music and recently received an honorary Doctorate from Sierra University in recognition of his lifelong commitment to the betterment of humanity. Lamb Chop on Broadway was Kevin’s 6th appearance as director/choreographer on Broadway. Kevin’s name was first associated with television as the choreographer for The Garry Moore Show, The Dean Martin Show and The Bell Telephone Hour. Since then he has worked on over 500 television series, specials and stage productions for artists that include Barry Manilow, Sandy Duncan, Marilyn McCoo, Suzanne Somers, Melissa Manchester, Tammy Wynette, Robert Guillaume, Grace Jones, George Burns, Bill Cosby, Rich Little, Michael Landon, Herb Alpert, Doris Day, Bea Arthur, Carol Burnett, Julie Andrews, Bob Hope, Pee Wee Herman and many others. During his years with Solid Gold, Kevin created the Solid Gold Dancers. Kevin’s vast credits in television have led to much distinguished recognition from his peers. He received an Emmy Award for work on The Barry Manilow Television Special and in 1988 received an American Video Award. He was also given Tony Award consideration for choreographing Hallelujah, Baby! and Happy Time.
was orchestrator/conductor on Broadway for Noel Coward’s Sail Away and Richard Rodgers’ No Strings; he created orchestrations for Jule Styne’s Halellujah, Baby and more recently Tommy Tune’s Grand Hotel; on records Matz has arranged, conducted and produced albums for Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett, Dionne Warwick, Melissa Manchester, Kiri te Kanawa, Nancy LaMott, Barbra Streisand and most recently he arranged Barbara Cook’s recording of songs with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein. On TV, Peter was arranger/conductor for Carol Burnett’s long-running series, and composed scores for more than 50 TV movies, as well as many feature films (Sidney Lumet’s Bye Bye Braverman is still his favorite). Peter and his wife, actress/singer/psychotherapist, Marilynn Lovell are active fundraisers for APLA, Shanti Foundation, Aid for AIDS and other local AIDS organizations, as well as the GMHC in New York.
has designed scenery and lighting for the theatre in New York and regionally before moving to Los Angeles and expanding into television and film. Despite his now busy career in Hollywood, he continues to design for the live theatre when possible. His most recent credits include the London production of Our Town, with Alan Alda, and the Tokyo production of Slab Boys. His production design work in television can currently be seen on Home Improvement, Soul Man, The Jamie Foxx Show, and Over The Top. His work has also been seen in the film Mother Mother and the American Playhouse production of Mrs. Cage. His past screen design credits include Tom, Alf, Mr. Belvedere and Carol & Co—for which he received an Emmy nomination. His leisure time is spent composing and controlling the fleas on his four west highland white terriers.
is pleased to be a part of this REPRISE! season. Stage Credits include the Chicago, Baltimore and current New York productions of Clue—the Musical, starring Denny Dillon; the Powerhouse Theatre’s Ondine and the Broadway Encores! production of Fiorello! starring Adam Arkin, Faith Prince and Jerry Zaks. Film credits include the PBS miniseries: They Came For Good, Jason Wulfsohn’s Luck Is No Lady and The War’s Over starring Timothy Bottoms. Prior to his career in theatre and film, Mr. Zyla’s name was on an international fashion label, carried at leading stores and featured in all national press. In addition to designing for numerous celebrities, Mr. Zyla was selected to design the wardrobe of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton for her trip to the Far East.
Mr. Gilliam’s designs have been seen on Broadway in Stand-Up Tragedy and Off-Broadway in Zooman and the Sign for Second Stage, The View From Here, The Gift of the Magi for the Lambs Theatre and Blame it on the Movies. His designs have also been seen at The Old Globe Theatre, The Mark Taper Forum, The Denver Center, Pasadena Playhouse, New Mexico Repertory, Arizona Theatre Company, Shakespeare Festival/LA and Grove Shakespeare Festival. He received the 1994 Ovation Award for Best Lighting Design for a smaller theatre, a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award nomination, numerous Dramalogue Awards and two Robby Awards.
is currently the Mark Taper Forum’s resident sound designer. He has been heard on and Off Broadway, as well as at most regional theatres throughout the country. He designed the sound for the Taper production of Angels in America, Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, and The Waiting Room. Other recent credits include The Seagull at the Matrix, Women Warrior at the Doolittle, Light Sensitive at Actors Alley and South Pacific at Long Beach CLO. John has received 6 LADCC Awards, and was recently presented with the Distinguished Artist Award from the Los Angeles Music Center Club 100. He served for 5 years as the resident sound designer at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. For Disney Imagineering, he created original sound effects and design for 2 attractions at Walt Disney World in Florida.
has designed over 60 theatrical shows, including the hit production of Forbidden Hollywood at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles, Forever Plaid, Blues in the Night and Sweet & Hot at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, The King and I, South Pacific, Company, and Into the Woods for the Long Beach Civic Light Opera, as well as numerous local and regional shows. He just finished two national touring productions, Man of La Mancha with Robert Goulet and Ain’t Misbehavin' starring the Pointer Sisters, and the gala production Saturday Night at the Summit attended by Bill Clinton and the leaders of the G-7 countries, which featured performances by Michael Bolton, Amy Grant, Crystal Gayle, Chuck Berry, Kool and the Gang, and Ronnie Spector.