JOHN KANDER & FRED EBB
(Music; Book/Lyrics)
Broadway: Flora, the Red Menace; Cabaret (Tony Award); The Happy Time; Zorba; 70, Girls, 70; Chicago; The Act; Woman of the Year (Tony Award, Best Score); The Rink; Kiss of the Spider Woman (Tony Award, Best Score); Steel Pier; and Curtains. Their collaboration also transferred itself to movies and television as they wrote original material for the Academy Awards; “Liza With a Z” (Emmy Award); HBO’s “Liza Minnelli’s Stepping Out” (Emmy Award); Funny Lady (Oscar nominated for “How Lucky Can You Get”); Lucky Lady; New York, New York; Stepping Out; and Chicago (Oscar nominated for Best Song). In the mid ’80s the song “New York, New York” became the official anthem of New York City. Life goes on.
BOB FOSSE
(Book)
First director in history to win Oscar, Tony and Emmy awards in one year (1973) for the film Cabaret, the musical Pippin and the TV special “Liza With a Z.” He won the first of eight Tonys as choreographer for The Pajama Game followed by directing and choreographing Redhead, Little Me, Sweet Charity (stage and film), Chicago, Dancin’. Other choreography: Damn Yankees, New Girl in Town, How to Succeed..., Big Deal. Film: My Sister Eileen, The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees. Director: Lenny (Oscar nom.), All That Jazz (Oscar nom.), Star 80.
WALTER BOBBIE
(Director Original New York Prodution)
Recently directed Christopher Durang’s The Marriage of Bette and Boo at the Roundabout, David Ives’s New Jerusalem at Classic Stage, and No No Nannette at City Center’s Encores. His international hit CHICAGO won him the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award and has become the longest-running revival in Broadway history. Other Broadway credits include High Fidelity, Sweet Charity, Twentieth Century, Footloose and A Grand Night for Singing, Mr. Bobbie has also directed for the New York Shakespeare Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Sundance, the O’Neill Center, and Goodspeed Opera House. His production of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas has become a holiday favorite in the US and England. Mr. Bobbie served as Artistic Director of City Center's Encores and continues as an Artistic Associate. He is on the Executive Board of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.
ANN REINKING
(Choreographer Original New York Production)
1997 Tony Award, Best Choreography for Chicago, as well as Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Astaire and NY Drama Critics awards. Other credits include director, co-choreographer for Fosse (1998 Tony Award for Best Musical); Tony nominations for her leading performances in Dancin’ and Goodtime Charlie; recipient of Theatre World, Clarence Derwent and Outer Critics Circle awards for her work as Maggie in Over Here! Film credits: Movie, Movie; All That Jazz; Annie; Micki and Maude. Recent choreography: Suite Kander for Missouri State Ballet, Ritmo & Ruido for Ballet Hispanico, Legends for Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, The Threepenny Opera for Williamstown Theatre Festival, Nilsson/Schmillson for Seattle’s Spectrum Dance Theatre, “Bye Bye Birdie” for ABC-TV, national tour of the revival of Applause. Ms. Reinking is founder and artistic director of the Broadway Theatre Project. She is the recipient of the Drama League Award for Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre 1999, Musical Hall of Fame Award 1999, Dance Library of Israel Award 1998, Distinguished Artist Award 1998, School of American Ballet Artis
JOHN LEE BEATTY
(Scenic Designer)
B’way: A Delicate Balance, The Heiress, The Sisters Rosensweig, The Most Happy Fella, Burn This, Penn & Teller, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Tally’s Folly, Fifth of July, Crimes of the Heart, Baby and Anna Christie, among many others. Off-B’way: Sylvia; The Cryptogram; The Destiny of Me; The Substance of Fire; The Road to Mecca; Song of Singapore; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; A Life in the Theatre; 20 seasons at MTC and Circle Rep. Major regional theatres, film, opera and TV. Recipient of Tony, Obie, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards. Graduate: Brown and Yale.
WILLIAM IVEY LONG
(Costume Designer)
His other Broadway show is Hairspray (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle awards) NY, 1st nat’l tour. Other credits: The Producers (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics awards); The Boy From Oz; Little Shop of Horrors; Contact NY (Hewes Award); Thou Shalt Not; 45 Seconds From Broadway; Big; The Music Man; Annie Get Your Gun; The Man Who Came to Dinner; Swing; The Mystery of Irma Vep; Steel Pier; 1776; Smokey Joe’s Cafe; Crazy for You NY (Tony, Outer Critics awards); Guys and Dolls (Drama Desk Award); MSG’s annual A Christmas Carol; Six Degrees of Separation; Assassins (Obie Award); Lend Me a Tenor (Drama Desk, Outer Critics awards); Nine(Tony, Drama Desk, Maharam awards); Robert Wilson’s Hamletmachine; Bernstein’s A Quiet Place and Trouble in Tahiti; Vienna State Opera, LaScala, Houston Grand Opera and the Kennedy Center; The Lost Colony; Mick Jagger for the Rolling Stones’ “Steel Wheels” tour; Siegfried and Roy; Paul Taylor; Twyla Tharp; Peter Martins; David Parsons; Susan Stroman.
KEN BILLINGTON
(Lighting Designer)
Ken has more than 80 Broadway and 50 Off-Broadway productions to his credit. He has been honored with six Tony nominations and received 1997 Tony Award and Drama Desk awards for Chicago. Tony nominations: End of the World (1984), Foxfire (1982), Sweeney Todd (1979), Working (1978), and The Visit (1973). Other projects: supervising the North American productions of Riverdance, 23 seasons lighting Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas Spectacular, the Olympic figure skating spectacular Stars on Ice and Disneyland’s extravaganza Fantasmic!
RALPH BURNS
(Orchestrator)
Ralph was Woody Herman's arranger, Bob Fosse's film composer (Oscars for Cabaret and All That Jazz) and Broadway's leading orchestrator. Broadway credits include Funny Girl, Chicago, Sweet Charity, Dancin', Little Me, Pippin and Fosse (Tony Award), among others. Ralph died in 2001, leaving Thoroughly Modern Millie as his final work.
DAVID THOMPSON
(Script Adaptation)
Projects include the libretto for Steel Pier (1997 Tony Award nom.), co-conceiving And the World Goes ’Round (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle awards), new librettos for the Off-Broadway and London revivals of Flora, the Red Menace; and 70, Girls, 70. Co-created PBS Great Performances “Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall” and wrote the documentary Razzle Dazzle.
PETER HOWARD
(Dance Music Arranger)
Composing, conducting, arranging or pianist credits include My Fair Lady, The Sound Of Music, Carnival, Hello, Dolly!, 1776, Chicago, Annie, Barnum, Baby, My One and Only, Crazy For You and Swingin' on a Star. Film: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Zelig, 1776, Mame, Annie, and Stepping Out. He performs his one-man show throughout the United States.
BARRY AND FRAN WEISSLER
(Producers)
Barry and Fran Weissler have had a producing career that spans 40 years. They are the recipients of five Tony Awards: Othello, their Broadway debut, starring James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer, Fiddler on the Roof with Topol, Gypsy with Tyne Daly, Annie Get Your Gun with Bernadette Peters and Reba McEntire, and the worldwide hit, Chicago, which also won the Olivier Award for its London production. Chicago, the longest running musical revival on both Broadway and the West End, has featured countless stars including Melaine Griffith, Brooke Shields, Bebe Neuwith, Anne Reinking, Joel Grey, David Hasselhoff, Chita Rivera, Denise van Outen, Duncan James, Lynda Carter, Ashlee Simpson, Kelly Osbourne and Usher. The shows global success has reached over 23 countries and been translated into 11 languages performing from Arkansas to Dubai.
Other notable Broadway credits include Cabaret with Joel Grey, Macbeth with Christopher Plummer, Medea with Zoe Caldwell, Your Arms Too Short to Box With God with Patti LaBelle and Al Green, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Kathleen Turner, Zorba with Anthony Quinn, My One & Only with Tommy Tune, Falsettos, My Fair Lady with Richard Chamberlin, Grease with Rosie O’Donnell and Megan Mullally, Seussical, Wonderful Town with Donna Murphy and Brooke Shields, and Sweet Charity with Christina Applegate. Most recently, they produced the West End premiere of Neil Labute’s Fat Pig at the Trafalgar Studios in London.
City Center’s Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert.
City Center, a not-for-profit theater founded in 1943 as Manhattan’s first performing arts center, is home to many of America’s leading dance companies, education programs and popular engagements. The award-winning series Encores! was created in 1994 to revisit rarely heard scores, of which Chicago is one.
