NIGEL WEST
Associate Director
Nigel joined the Bristol Old Vic company at the Theatre Royal where he stayed for three years working on 29 productions ranging from Richard II to the musical Judy which he also worked on when it transferred to London’s Strand Theatre in 1986.
After a season on the Theatre Of Comedy production of Rookery Nook at London's Shaftesbury Theatre he joined the Olivier award winning musical Me and My Girl at the Adelphi Theatre and became Associate Director in March 1988, going on to direct the first sell out British national tour. He has also acted as Artistic Consultant on several foreign productions, and has directed the show in Stockholm (in Swedish), Canada, Australia and New Zealand, receiving best director nominations for the Canadian and Australian productions.
Nigel then became Associate director of the Tony® and Olivier award winning Crazy For You at the Prince Edward Theatre, London and directed the UK tour and Australian Production of the show. He also acted as artistic supervisor for the South African production.
The musical Closer Than Ever for Bergen Film, Stage and Television, Holland. A sell out season of She Loves Me for the Drayton Festival Theatre, Canada.
He was UK Associate Director of the Olivier award winning Disney's Beauty and the Beast at London's' Dominion Theatre and resident Director of the Tony® and Olivier Award winning musical revival of Kander and Ebb's Chicago at the Adelphi Theatre, which he also directed in Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Dusseldorf.
His own recent productions include a national tour of Stephen King's Misery starring Sandra Maitland and Leslie Grantham; Just For Joe a one woman show starring Brenda Cochrane at the Edinburgh festival and subsequent Scottish Tour; various pantomimes at Glasgow Kings theatre, Birmingham Hippodrome and Coventry; Dennis Potters Blue Remembered Hills for the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry.
Most recently he directed a US tour of The Producers for Susan Stroman including a season at Harrah’s Casino, Atlantic City; Chicago at the Cambridge Theatre, London; The Wizard Of Oz for the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton; the first German speaking production of The Producers reopening the newly renovated Ronacher Theatre in Vienna Austria; and a United States National tour of his production of The Wizard Of Oz including a season at Madison Square Gardens, New York.
GARY CHRYST
Choreographer
Gary Chryst has staged the Chicago choreography on every continent except Antarctica. He staged Michel Fokine's Petrouchka for the National Ballet of Canada and American Ballet Theatre, performing as the Charlatan in the latter production at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.
In 2008, he co-choreographed a new production of West Side Story in Brazil. Other choreographic credits include a new American production of South Pacific, Nijinsky in Japan and numerous MTV videos.
Mr. Chryst's Broadway performing credits include Guys and Dolls, Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ and A Chorus Line. He appeared on international tours of A Chorus Line and West Side Story. He had a notable career as a classical dancer with the Joffrey Ballet and Nederlans Dans Theatre 3. He returned to the Joffrey in October 2006 as one of the Ugly Stepsisters in the Company premiere of Frederick Ashton's Cinderella. He performed as a guest with the companies of Twyla Tharp, David Parsons, Lar Lubovitch, Eliot Feld, Jose Limon, and Nureyev and Friends
among others.
ROB BOWMAN
Supervising Music Director
Rob is happy to be returning to Chicago where he served as Music Director for the Broadway production for over four years and conducted the first United States National Tour for a year and a half. He was the Music Supervisor for the London cast album of Chicago.
He is also the Music Director/Pianist/Arranger for Elaine Stritch. He served as her Music Director/Conductor for the Tony Award® winning Elaine Stritch At Liberty on Broadway, New York’s Public Theater, The Old Vic and the Shaw Theatre in London and in many cities throughout the United States and Canada. He was the Associate Producer for the Grammy® nominated Elaine Stritch at Liberty cast album and was featured in the Emmy® Award winning HBO documentary Elaine Stritch At Liberty. He collaborated and performed with Miss Stritch on both of her club acts at the Café Carlyle in New York City, both shows receiving rave reviews and sold-out performances.
He is the composer for Hot Mikado, written in 1986 and still performed throughout the world. His musical score for A Christmas Carol was performed every yuletide season from 1986 to 2003 at the Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC. He has conducted numerous shows on and off Broadway, national tours and regional theaters throughout the country.
ROB FISHER
Worldwide Musical Director
Rob Fisher is a recognized authority on American music of all kinds
and has conducted many major US orchestras including those in
Philadelphia, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Atlanta,
Baltimore, and Washington, DC. Recently, Mr. Fisher made his
New York Philharmonic debut, conducting My Fair Lady. In addition,
he has worked regularly in New York with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s
and The New York Pops. In 2001, he conducted Stephen Sondheim’s
Sweeney Todd with Patti LuPone, George Hearn, and the San Francisco
Symphony, broadcast on PBS and
available on DVD.
Mr. Fisher’s specialty is classic musical theater. He was music director and conductor of the Tony Award-winning Encores! series at New York’s City Center from its inception in 1994 through 2005. The series has spawned many recordings for which he has served as the conductor and associate producer, including the Broadway hits Chicago, Wonderful Town, and the more recent Apple Tree, all of which began at the Encores! series. Mr. Fisher was instrumental in their successful transfers and remains supervising music director of companies of Chicago around the world. He conducted the Grammy- winning Chicago cast recording and the recently released Wonderful Town recording. In the summer of 2008 he supervised the 40th anniversary of Hair in Central Park.
VANESSA SCAMMELL
Australian Musical Director
In 1992 Vanessa graduated from the Melbourne Conservatorium with a Bachelor of Music - Honours in Piano Performance and a Bachelor of Music Education. Vanessa continued her studies at the Sydney Conservatorium completing a Graduate Diploma of Music – Opera Repetiteur.
Vanessa’s Music Director/Conductor credits include: The Impresario – Mozart/ Hin und Zuruck – Hindemith Sydney Conservatorium, The Phantom Of The Opera Australian Tour (2007-2008)The Really Useful Group, Damn Yankees The Production Company, The Helpmann Awards® 2008 Live Performance Australia, The Phantom Of The Opera (Asian Tour) The Really Useful Group (Shanghai, Seoul, Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore), Fiddler on the Roof Fiddler on the Roof Australia Pty Ltd, Titanic Seabiscuit Productions, South Pacific (Adelaide and Sydney seasons) Seabiscuit Productions, Cats The World Tour (Beijing, Taipei, Athens) and the South Korean Tour of Cats The Really Useful Group/Seoul and Co., Into the Woods IMG/Equity Fights Aids.
Musical Supervision credits include: Cats (South Africa)
Vanessa was the joint winner of the Brian Stacey Award for emerging Australian conductors in 2008 and is currently studying her Masters of Music in Conducting at the Sydney Conservatorium.
KAREN JOHNSON MORTIMER
Resident Director
Karen Johnson Mortimer’s career spans 36 years, beginning at the age of 15 in a professional production of Anything Goes. Since then she has continued to be involved in all facets of the industry as a performer, choreographer, director, producer, artistic director and resident director. Throughout the past 20 years she has regularly been engaged as a personal creative consultant to various industry stars in both theatre and television.
As a performer, Karen played Cassie in the original Australian production of A Chorus Line and has appeared in many productions for J.C.Williamson and Sydney Theatre Company including Company, Conquest of Carmen Miranda, Dames at Sea, Kiss me Kate, No No Nanette, Irene as well as GFO productions
Cabaret and Footloose.
Karen’s choreographic credits include: Grease-The Mega Musical (GFO), Stones in His Pockets (STC), Leader of The Pack- The Ellie Greenwich Musical (Star City), Irish Dance Spectacular Anzac Military Tattoo (Acer Arena), Opening Ceremonies for numerous Bledisloe Cups (Telstra Stadium Sydney & ANZ Stadium Brisbane), Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Opening Ceremony (Qld), Opening Ceremony-Fina World Swimming Championships (Melb 2008), 2007 Helpmann Awards®, Tin Symphony (Opening Ceremony - 2000 Sydney Olympics), Gold Medallists Gymnastic Gala - 2000 Sydney Olympics (NBC-USA), Kelly’s Republic (Sydney Festival), Oscars Turn To Sing, WonderWoman (Reg Livermore), Sacred Cow (Reg Livermore), Norman Gunston Show (ABC TV), Farnham & Byrne (ABC TV).
Karen was Resident Director for Grease-The Arena Spectacular in 2005 and one of the Artistic Directors for the recent World Youth Day Festival Performances throughout Sydney.
She currently maintains her position as one of the Artistic Directors for CaSPA (Sydney Catholic Schools Performing Arts).
CAROLINE KASPAR
Dance Captain
Caroline made her professional musical theatre debut in 1985 when cast in the original Australian production of La Cage Aux Folles, directed by the legendary Arthur Laurents in which she performed as swing and understudied and performed the role of "Anne".
Other musicals followed including: Me and My Girl - Original Australian Cast directed by Mike Ockrent; My Fair Lady for the Victorian State Opera as Dance Captain; Hot Shoe Shuffle where she was Dance Captain, backing vocalist and understudied and performed the lead role of "April"; Sweet Charity – in which she played the roles of "Ursula", "Suzanne" and Dance Captain.
Caroline received a Mo Award nomination for the role of "Anytime Annie" which she created in the Original Australian Cast of 42nd Street, a role which she subsequently recreated in Great Britain for the English National Tour. Caroline played the role of "Annie" and was also Dance Captain in the Original Australian production of Chicago - The Musical where she had the honour of working alongside Broadway legends Anne Reinking and Walter Bobbie. More recently you may have seen her with Wayne Scott Kermond in his show Candy Man in which she was an original cast member and co-choreographer.
Billy Elliot - The Musical is a project that Caroline is incredibly proud and honoured to have been a part of, performing a multitude of characters in her role as Understudy/Swing, but also having the honour of being Ballet Girl Dance Captain.
In feature film she whirled by in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge, but you will no doubt recognize her from the multitude of characters she performed in the animated feature Happy Feet.
As a choreographer, Caroline’s work has been seen around the world from Australian television commercials to the musical revue Sixty Sixty for the Schmidt’s Tivoli Theatre in Germany. She has assisted leading Australian choreographers, most notabley William Forsythe on the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games Closing Ceremony and was assistant director to David Atkins for the national tour of Hot Shoe Shuffle.
