Linda Woolverton

BOOKWRITER

Linda Woolverton launched her career as a writer with two young adult novels before she began writing Saturday morning animated television shows. That eventually led her to writing her first animated feature, Disney’s Beauty And The Beast. Upon its release in 1991, the film won the Golden Globe for the Best Comedy/Musical and became the first animated film to be nominated by for a Best Picture Academy Award.

Woolverton then wrote the screenplay for The Lion King animated feature for which she shares screenplay credit. She then rewrote the script for Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey as well as contributing to the animated feature Mulan.

She went on to adapt the script of Beauty and the Beast for the Broadway stage and received the Tony Award nomination for Best Book of a Musical in 1994. Woolverton was also awarded the Laurence Oliver Award for Beauty and the Beast for Best New Musical in the UK. Beauty and the Beast ran in New York between 1994 and 2007, becoming the sixth longest running show in Broadway history.

Woolverton also wrote the Book for Elton John and Tim Rice’s Musical Aida which ran for five years at the Palace Theatre.

In 2008, Linda received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Writers Guild of America-Animation Writers Caucus for her longtime work in the field of animation.

Woolverton’s script for Alice In Wonderland directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, was released in March of 2010. The film grossed over one billion dollars worldwide and she became the first female screenwriter with a sole credit on a billion-dollar film.

Woolverton went on to write the screenplay for Disney’s Maleficent starring Angelina Jolie. The film was released in May of 2014 and became a worldwide success. Woolverton wrote the sequel to Alice in Wonderland: “Through the Looking Glass” and shares a credit on the Maleficent sequel: “Mistress of All Evil”. She also wrote the screenplay for an animated musical fantasy for Skydance Media.

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Alan Menken

COMPOSER

Alan Menken’s music, songs and scores have become an integral part of the fabric of our lives since his first works were produced nearly 40 years ago.

His stage musicals include God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, Atina: Evil Queen of the Galaxy, Real Life Funnies, Little Shop of Horrors, Kicks, The Dream on Royal Street, Beauty and The Beast, A Christmas Carol, Weird Romance, King David, The Little Mermaid, Sister Act, Leap of Faith, Newsies, Aladdin, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz , A Bronx Tale and Hercules.

Song and score credits for film musicals include The Little Mermaid, Beauty and The Beast (Animated), Newsies, Aladdin (Animated), Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, The Shaggy Dog, Home on the Range, Enchanted, Tangled, Mirror Mirror and Beauty and the Beast (Live Action), Howard and Aladdin (Live Action).

Individual songs for film include Rocky V – “The Measure of a Man”, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – “My Christmas Tree”, Life With Mikey – “Cold Enough to Snow”, Noel – “Winter Light”, Captain America: First Avenger – “Star Spangled Man” and Sausage Party – “The Great Beyond”.

Television credits include writing songs for Sesame Street, the ABC mini-series Lincoln, a musical episode of The Neighbors, the ABC series Galavant and the Disney Channel’s Tangled: The Series.

His chart-topping songs have included “Beauty and the Beast”, “A Whole New World”, “Colors of the Wind” and “Go the Distance”.

Winner of the 2012 Tony and Drama Desk awards for his score for Newsies, he has won more Academy Awards than any other living individual, including eight Oscars® with 4 for Best Score and 4 for Best Song; 11 Grammy® Awards (including Song of the Year for “A Whole New World”); 7 Golden Globes; a Daytime Emmy® Award; London’s Evening Standard Award; the Olivier Award; 3 Outer Critics Circle Awards and the 2 Drama Desk Awards.

Other notable achievements include induction as a Member (2008) in the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame followed by receiving the lifetime achievement acknowledgement of the Johnny Mercer Award (2017); Billboard’s number one single (“A Whole New World”) and number one album (Pocahontas).

Recent live concert appearances include Hollywood Bowl, Segerstrom Center, Royal Albert Hall, Budokan, Osaka-jo Hall, Maihama Amphitheatre, Tuacahn and Chicago Auditorium.

His Emmy® win elevated him to EGOT status, as the 16th person ever to receive an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award. In 2001 he received the distinction of being named a Disney Legend. Awarded two doctorates in Fine Arts from New York University and the North Carolina School of the Arts. In 2010 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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Howard Ashman

LYRICIST

Best known as the pivotal creative mind behind The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast (which is dedicated to “Our friend, Howard Ashman, who gave a Mermaid her voice and a Beast his soul…”)

Ashman’s first love was theatre. He was a founder of Off Off-Broadway’s renowned WPA Theatre, where he conceived, wrote and directed the classic musical Little Shop of Horrors as well as God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (both music by Alan Menken). A new cast recording of Rosewater Is available from Sh-K-Boom records. In 1986, Ashman wrote and directed the Broadway musical Smile (music by Marvin Hamlisch). Lamented as a lost treasure of the 1980’s theatre scene, Smile remains popular on high school and college campuses.

Ashman’s family is thrilled that Ashman and Menken’s original songs for Aladdin, some of which were cut in the making of the film — as well as portions of Ashman’s original film treatment — have been reinstated in the theatrical production.

A documentary about Ashman’s life titled HOWARD has received great acclaim for its sensitive portrayal of the man and the artist.

Howard Ashman died in 1991 from complications of AIDS. For more information, please visit howardashman.com.

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Tim Rice

LYRICIST

Tim Rice has worked in music, theatre and films since 1965 when he met Andrew Lloyd Webber, a fellow struggling songwriter. Rather than pursue Tim’s ambitions to write rock or pop songs they turned their attention to Andrew’s obsession – musical theatre. Their first collaboration was based on the life of Dr. Thomas Barnardo, the Victorian philanthropist, The Likes Of Us. Their next three works together were much more successful – Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita.

Tim has since worked with other distinguished popular composers such as Elton John (The Lion King, Aida), Alan Menken (Aladdin, King David, Beauty and the Beast), Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson (Chess), and Stuart Brayson (From Here To Eternity). He has also written songs with Freddie Mercury, Ennio Morricone, John Barry, Rick Wakeman and Gary Barlow, among many others.

He has recently written and presented 50 weekly podcast chats (entitled Get Onto My Cloud) which are mercifully short (25 mins max) reminiscing about his years in music, theatre and film–playing hits and flops, out-takes and number ones. In 2021 he and Peter Hobbs wrote Gee Seven for the Truro Cathedral Choir to coincide with the G7 economic summit invasion of Cornwall.

Tim founded his own cricket team in 1973, which has now played over 700 matches, and was President of MCC, founded in 1789, in 2002. He was appointed President of the London Library in 2017 in succession to Sir Tom Stoppard. He is a Trustee of Sunderland FC’s Foundation of Light and a Life Vice-President of the schools/cricket charity Chance to Shine. He crops up here and there in all branches of the media drawing on his extensive knowledge of the history of popular music since Elvis was a lad.

He has won several awards, mainly for the wrong thing or for simply turning up.

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Matt West

DIRECTOR & CHOREOGRAPHER

Matt West’s Broadway credits include: Lestat (Palace Theatre) Music by Sir Elton John, Lyrics by Bernie Taupin. Beauty And The Beast (Los Angeles Drama-Logue Award, Olivier, Drama Desk and Outer Critics’ Circle Award nominations). Elaborate Lives (Alliance Theatre) Music by Sir Elton John, Lyrics by Sir Tim Rice.

Off-Broadway credits: Disenchanted, Mimi Le Duck, starring Eartha Kitt.

International credits: Little Shop of Horrors (Buenos Aires), The Wanderer (Tokyo’s Parko Theatre).

Touring credits: Trolls Live! (Director/Choreographer, Cirque du Soleil).

Home Video: The Little Mermaid, Cinderella and Peter Pan (VSDA), The Nutcracker (The Disney Channel).

Disney Live Entertainment: World of Color, Dream Up, Jubilation, Fantasmic!

As an Actor, Matt created the role of Bobby in the film A Chorus Line directed by Sir Richard Attenborough.

Future projects: The Broadway bound wrestling musical Wow!

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Stanley A. Meyer

SCENIC DESIGNER

North American Premieres: From Here to Eternity, FLMTF & Ogunquit Playhouse; Saturday Night Fever, FLMTF; Aida, Alliance Theatre.

Regional: Warhol Capote, A.R.T.; Treasure Island, A New Musical, Arkansas Repertory Theatre; The Three Musketeers, Syracuse Stage; Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Ogunquit Playhouse.

Rock Tours: The Steve Miller Band, Alice Cooper, Cyndi Lauper; Peter Pan’s Neverland Lagoon Spectacular, Universal Studios Japan; Verbolten!, Busch Gardens Williamsburg Roller Coaster; Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus, US Tour; Barbie Live!, Southeast Asia Tour; Trolls Live!, US Tour; Disney Live! & Disney on Ice, International Tours.

Awards: The League of American Theatres and Producers, National Broadway Award; LA Dramalogue Awards – The Merry Wives of Windsor, Two Gentlemen of Verona, King Lear, Grove Shakespeare Festival, Southern California. 18 Awards for his designs for The Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena, California. Listed in the Library of Congress for illustrating the book 101 Things I Hate About Your House.

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Ann Hould-Ward

COSTUME DESIGNER

West End/London: The Prince of Egypt; Imagine This; Beauty and the Beast (Olivier nomination); Notes from the Field by Anna Deveare Smith Royal Court); Dear World (Directed by Gillian Lynne).

Berlin: Schuh Des Manitu.

European tour: Ben Hur Live.

New York/Broadway: The Color Purple; The Visit; The People in the Picture; A Free Man of Color (Drama Desk nomination); A Catered Affair (Drama Desk nomination); Company; Dance of the Vampires; Beauty and the Beast (Tony Award®; American Theatre Wing’s Design Award; Ovation Award); Into the Woods (Tony® &Drama Desk nominations; Outer Critics Circle nomination; L.A.Drama Critics Circle Award); Falsettos; Sunday in the Park with George (Tony® & Drama Desk Nominations); Harrigan ‘N’ Heart; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; St. Joan; Three Men on a Horse; Timon of Athens; In the Summer House; Little Me; The Moliere Comedies.

Off-Broadway: over 50 off-Broadway credits including Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish (CSC): Passion (revival). Public: Hamlet; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; House Arrest; Russian Transport; The Blue Flower; Wings; In the Grand Manner; Let Me Down Easy; Road Show; Surviving Grace; Lobster Alice; Cymbeline.

Regional: over 100 credits in USA regional theatres including the Guthrie Theatre, the Old Globe, LaJolla Playhouse and Arena Stage.

Opera: Peter Grimes (Metropolitan Opera); West Side Story (Salzburg Festival); MAHAGONNY (Los Angeles Opera); The Most Happy Fella (NYC Opera).

Circus: Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus (2001 & 2003).

Film: Strike!; Six by Sondheim.

Ballet: Othello (Norwegian National Ballet); Bronze Horseman (Lar Lubovitch – Mikhailovsky Ballet); Othello; Artemis; Meadow (ABT); Reminicin’; Saddle Up; Morning Star (Alvin Ailey–San Francisco Ballet); Graciela Daniele (Ballet Hispanico).

Awards: US Representative for the International DesignQuadrennial in Prague; Recipient of F.I.T.’s Patricia Zipprodt Award.

Serving board member of BIANCA: semiconductor component manufacturing distributor.

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Natasha Katz

LIGHTING DESIGNER

Natasha Katz is thrilled to be returning to Beauty and the Beast with the original creative team! She has designed for theatre, opera, dance, concerts and permanent lighting installations around the world.

Recent West End credits include: An American in Paris, School of Rock, The Glass Menagerie (Olivier nomination 2017), Aladdin, Motown, Skylight, Sister Act, and Once. She is a six-time Tony Award winner and was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame last year.

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Michael Kosarin

MUSIC SUPERVISOR AND ARRANGEMENTS

Michael was music director, conductor, and arranger of the Broadway production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast in 1994, and has collaborated as such with composer Alan Menken ever since. He’s worked steadily on Broadway since 1982, on the original productions of such shows as Nine; Grand Hotel; Secret Garden; King David; Mayor; A Chorus Line; Triumph of Love; Little Shop of Horrors; The Little Mermaid; Leap of Faith; Sister Act; Newsies and Aladdin, as well as on The Hunchback of Notre Dame and the recent stage adaptation of Hercules. His vast motion picture work includes Pocahontas; Hercules; Enchanted; Tangled; Ralph Breaks the Internet and the live-films of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin; and he is currently at work on Enchanted’s sequel (Disenchanted), as well as Skydance Animation’s Spellbound.

An Emmy-award-winning television music producer and arranger, he worked for both seasons on the musical series Galavant, and has also composed songs and scores for children’s shows Sesame Street, the BBC’s Third and Bird, and The Wonder Pets, among others.

In the recording world, Michael is a three-time Grammy-nominated recording artist and producer, where his work ranges from dozens of theatre albums and motion picture soundtracks to concert recordings of the legendary Barbara Cook. He also maintains an active concert career ranging from cabaret to symphony orchestras and pop concerts, and has conducted Disney films live to picture in venues ranging from the Hollywood Bowl to Tokyo’s Budokan.

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John Shivers

SOUND DESIGNER

John Shiver’s credits include: Pretty Woman, Beauty and the Beast 25 (Shanghai), Cirque du Soleil’s Paramour, Kinky Boots (2013 Tony Award recipient), Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway, Bonnie & Clyde, Sister Act, 9 to 5, The Little Mermaid, Tarzan and Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays.

International credits: Spirit of Life, The Secret, Tarzan, Das Wunder Von Bern, The Lion King (Shanghai and Singapore)

Regional credits: Becoming Nancy, 42nd St., Rock of Ages, The Heart of Rock and Roll, Moonshine, Harmony, The Nutty Professor, Tales of the City, Emma, Robin and the 7 Hoods.

Other credits: Savion Glover, Burt Bacharach, Gregory Hines and engineering at Electric Lady Studios.

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Rob Roth

PRODUCTION CONCEPTION

Rob Roth was nominated for a Tony Award® as Best Director for his Broadway debut, Beauty and the Beast. Rob went on to direct the show all over the world, where it has won many awards, including the Olivier Award for Best Musical in London. Rob went on to direct the world premiere of Elaborate Lives: The Legend of Aida, collaborating with Sir Elton John and Sir Tim Rice. Rob directed the Broadway musical Lestat, based on the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles with a score by Elton John and Bernie Taupin.

Rob frequently directs rock concerts, and has worked with such artists as KISS, Alice Cooper, Dresden Dolls, Cyndi Lauper, and guitar legend Steve Miller. Rob’s concert productions have played at the most prestigious venues around the world, including Madison Square Garden, Radio City Musical Hall, Royal Albert Hall and the LA Forum.

Rob’s first play as an author, WARHOLCAPOTE, debuted at American Repertory Theatre, and will be published in hardcover by Simon & Schuster. Rob is an avid collector of rock and roll graphics, and his collection is the subject of the coffee table book The Art of Classic Rock.

Rob and his husband Patrick live in New York City with their labrador retriever Tag.

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Danny Troob

ORCHESTRATOR

Danny’s career as a musician includes composing, orchestrating and conducting. Some early credits include Pacific Overtures, The Baker’s Wife (both shows’ dance music), Big River (music supervision, Drama Desk Award winner).

Danny orchestrated the animated features Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Pocahontas – where he also conducted the score – and wrote and conducted the scores to Disney’s The Little Mermaid 2 and Lady and The Tramp 2.

On Broadway, he orchestrated the award-winning revivals of How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying and The Pajama Game. He received a second Drama Desk Award for Cinderella in 2011. He orchestrated Dr. Zhivago in Australia in 2014, and more recently Disney’s Hercules and Jeanine Tesori’s Soft Power.

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Darrel Maloney

VIDEO AND PROJECTION DESIGNER

Darrel Maloney is an award winning video and projection designer who has designed for theatre, broadcast, concerts, opera, museums, exhibitions and film.

Broadway credits include The Cher Show, American Idiot, On Your Feet, Allegiance, The Parisian Woman, A Night with Janis Joplin, Everyday Rapture, and The Illusionists.

Off-Broadway credits include Found (Atlantic Theater, Drama Desk Nomination), Checkers (Vineyard Theater, Drama Desk Nomination), Tappin’ Thru Life (Drama Desk Nomination), The Babylon Line (Lincoln Center Theater), Joan of Arc: Into The Fire (Public Theater), Pretty Filthy (Civilans), Kung Fu, Golden Child (Signature Theatre), The Village Bike, The Submission (MTC), Kansas City Choir Boy (Prototype, A.R.T., Kirk Douglas Theater) and Karen O’s Stop the Virgens (St Anne’s Warehouse, Sydney Opera).

Select other designs include: WARHOLCAPOTE (A.R.T.), Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus, Surf (Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas), Sadko (Vlaamse Opera, Ghent) and The Summer King (Pittsburg Opera).

He has designed for many Regional theatres including The Old Globe, Ahmanson/CTG, Minnesota Opera, La Jolla Playhouse, Kansas City Rep, 5th Avenue Theater.

Darrel’s design & production company “d13” has also provided the performance and virtual set content for The Tony Awards for the past several years as well as the titles sequence and post-production for the filmed version of Allegiance on Broadway.

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David H. Lawrence

HAIR & MAKE-UP DESIGNER

David is happy to be working on this monumental new production of Disney’s Beauty and The Beast. Working with all of the members of the original creative team from the first Broadway production has been a great honour. David’s work has been seen all over the world thanks to Beauty and The Beast.

On Broadway David has designed many shows including: Baby Its You, Company (Revival), Anything Goes, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, She Loves Me, Guys and Dolls (CLAIROL award for Outstanding Hair Design on Broadway), Tommy, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The King and I, Moliere Comedies, Night of The Iguana, On The Waterfront, Wait Until Dark, On The Town, Grease, Death of a Salesman (NY/LA and Showtime), Bells are Ringing, 42nd Street (NY, Germany, US Tour), The Full Monty (NY and Tour), Maurice Hines’ Guys and Dolls (Tour), The Crucible, Some Like it Hot starring Tony Curtis (Tour), Dance of the Vampires, All Shook Up (NY and Tour), and Souvenir.

Off-Broadway his work has been seen in: Mimi Le Duck (New World Stages), Indian Blood (Primary Stages), The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Dinah Was, Twelfth Night, and A Dybbuk (NYSF), Jeffrey, and Picasso at the Lapin Agile (NYC and Tour).

Other credits include Chicago (2nd Tour) and Elaborate Lives: The Legend of Aida (Alliance Theater), Bounce (Goodman Theatre and Kennedy Center).

David also designed the hair for two seasons of Saturday Night Live (Emmy Nomination), and the films; What Ever Happened to Baby Jane (ABC), The James Brady Story (HBO).

He was the winner of the 1994 outstanding achievement award from Theatre Crafts International for work on Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. He was happy to be have been asked to work on the Shanghai Disney’s production of Beauty and The Beast as well.

In honour of the late, great Paul Huntley. Without his mentorship, I would not be here.

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Jim Steinmeyer

ILLUSION DESIGNER

Jim Steinmeyer was called by The New York Times the “celebrated ‘invisible man’— inventor, designer, and creative brain behind many of the great stage magicians.”

His illusions have been featured by Doug Henning, Siegfried and Roy, David Copperfield, Ricky Jay, and many others.

He created the special illusions for Beauty and the Beast, Into the Woods, Mary Poppins, Aladdin, and many other shows. He is also the author of books on the history and art of magic.

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David Chase

DANCE MUSIC ARRANGEMENTS

David has been Music Director, Music Supervisor and/or Dance Arranger for nearly 40 Broadway productions over the last 27 years. He has two Emmy Award® nominations for Music Direction for NBC’s live telecasts of The Sound of Music and Peter Pan, and a GRAMMY® nomination for co-producing the Broadway cast album of Nice Work if You Can Get It.

UK-specific productions include arrangements and dance music for Michael Grandage and Rob Ashford’s Guys and Dolls at the Piccadilly and Evita at the Adelphi, and Damsel in Distress at the Chichester Festival, as well as the current West End productions of Frozen, Anything Goes and Back to the Future.

Beyond the theatre, David has written multiple arrangements and orchestrations for the Boston Pops and Tanglewood Festival Chorus (including their signature “Twelve Days of Christmas”), the BBC Concert Orchestra (“Desert Island Hits”), the Kennedy Center Honors, Essential Voices USA , and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. 

Television includes conducting, arranging and orchestrating for various shows including The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Schmigadoon. 

Other conducting includes numerous film scores as well as productions of Carousel, The King and I and My Fair Lady at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

His choral arrangements are published by Hal Leonard, including a collection of folk songs called Appalachian Stories and, debuting this summer, a song-cycle entitled Washington Women, celebrating the inspiring speeches and writings of women of all political stripes who have made a positive impact on American history. 

David lives in New York City with his wife (and Drama Desk nominee) Paula Leggett Chase and their two sons. 

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Christoph Buskies

ELECTRONIC MUSIC PROGRAMMING

Christoph’s revolutionary music system KeyComp has been successfully implemented worldwide in The Lion King, Frozen, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Sister Act and Beauty and the Beast.

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Rick Sordelet

FIGHT DIRECTOR

Rick has served as the USA’s most prolific fight director for over 28 years. He and his son, Christian, created Sordelet Inc., an action-based movement company providing stunt coordination, fight direction, weapons rental and intimacy consulting for film, television, opera, ballet and theatre.

Beauty and the Beast was Rick’s first Broadway show. He is thrilled to be working with members of the original team who brought you this excellent production two decades ago. He has been the Fight Director for most of Disney’s shows in the USA and worldwide including The Lion King, Aida, Tarzan and The Little Mermaid. These shows add to over 80 shows on Broadway, most recently Take Me Out and Tina – the Tina Turner Musical. In Autumn 2021 Rick and Christian will be working on Paradise Square, opening in Chicago then on Broadway in 2022. They are the resident Fight Directors for the Santa Fe Opera where they staged the fights for As You Like It and Eugene Onegin.

Rick and Christian are also stunt coordinators for television and film, including 12 years with Guiding Light, four years with One Life to Live, both seasons of Kevin Can Wait and The Crew. Their most recent film is Ben is Back starring Julia Roberts, and in 2021 they will stunt coordinate the film One True Loves starring Simu Liu, Phillippa Soo and Luke Bracey, and directed by Andy Fickman.

Rick taught at Yale School of Drama for 22 years and as well as NYU, Rutgers University, Kean University, Montclair State and The William Esper Studio. From Fight Direction and teaching, Rick developed into a writer, selling several screenplays and a television series. He is also a produced playwright.

He and his partner, David Blixt run an E-Publishing Company called SordeletINK. His play MIIGWICH the thank you play was recently featured on Marshall Jones’ Stream On viewing platform, seen worldwide.

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Lorenzo Pisoni

PHYSICAL MOVEMENT COORDINATOR

West End: Mary Poppins.

Broadway: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Gary; Beetlejuice; Disney’s Frozen; Noises Off.

Off Broadway: Mac Beth; All the Fine Boys; Harlequin Studies.

Other select performing credits: Pickle Family Circus; Cirque Du Soleil. As an actor, Lorenzo’s work on and off-Broadway has been recognized with Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Obie and Outer Critics Circle Awards.

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Sam Scalamoni

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

Sam has been the Associate Director of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast for the past 20 years on Broadway and worldwide. He is the director of the critically acclaimed US national tours of Elf the Musical which has had 13 companies across seven years playing The Theatre at Madison Square Garden and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Sam developed and directed The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Musical which tours the US, and the world premiere national tour of the new musical Noël with book by best-selling author of the Artemis Fowl book series, Eoin Colfer. He is currently developing a new musical, A Thousand Faces, based on the life of film legend Lon Chaney, the musical Unbelievable, about American baseball legend Jackie Mitchell, and a stage adaptation of the MGM musical Summer Stock.

Sam directed Les Misérables at Cortland Repertory Theatre, winning the SALT Award for Best Director of a Musical along with Best Musical of the Year. He also won the Broadway World Award for Best Director of a Play for his direction of Agatha Christie’s An Unexpected Guest also at CRT.

Other national tours directed; Nickelodeon’s Storytime Live! Which broke box office records at Radio City Music Hall and The Gazillion Bubble Show.

Sam’s direction of original works include the two original incarnations of Alan Menken’s Broadway musical Leap of Faith in workshop, the original developmental workshop of Mulan Jr. for Disney Theatrical Productions, a workshop presentation of Sense and Sensibility at Playwrights Horizons, workshops of the musical At the Back of the North Wind at the National Arts Club and The Village Theatre, a workshop of The New Picasso at New World Stages, Treaty 321! at the Lucille Lortel, and Fidelity Futurestage at New World Stages for Richard Frankel Productions.

He is a founding member and currently serves as the Artistic Director of Skyline Theatre Company, a professional non-profit theatre company in New Jersey.

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Chandon Jones

ASSOCIATE CHOREOGRAPHER

Chandon is based in Washington, D.C. and received her BFA in Music Theatre from Elon University in North Carolina. Chandon has worked on Disney’s Beauty and the Beast around the world with companies including the North American tour (USA and Canada), Shanghai, China and the most recent International tour.

As a performer, Chandon appeared in the North American tours of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and Elf the Musical, Singin’ in the Rain at The Gateway Playhouse and High School Musical 2 at The North Carolina Theatre.

Most recently, Chandon worked as the associate choreographer on Vanity Fair (Shakespeare Theatre Company) and Elf the Musical (USA Tour). Chandon’s additional choreographic work includes Theatreworks USA’s Off Broadway production of Bunnicula! (associate choreographer), Skyline Theatre Company’s productions of Cabaret, Funny Girl and Dreamgirls (choreographer), Cornell University’s 150th Charter Day Celebration kicking off with a “Big Red Birthday Bash”(choreographer/director) and Tisch University’s 50th Anniversary Gala at The Jazz at Lincoln Center in NYC (co-choreographer).

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