Hairspray The Musical – Australia – Lyric Theatre, Star City, Sydney – Ticket on sale now

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Mark O'Donnell's plays include That's It, Folks!, Fables for Friends, and The Nice and the Nasty (all produced at Playwrights Horizons), and Strangers on Earth and Vertigo Park (both produced by Zena Group Theatre). He wrote the book and lyrics for the musical Tots in Tinseltown. Mr. O'Donnell collaborated with Bill Irwin on an adaptation of Moliere's Scapin, and he co-authored a translation of Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear, both for the Roundabout. For Manhattan Theater Club he translated Jean Claude Carriere's La Terrasse. He has published two collections of comic stories Elementary Education and Vertigo Park and Other Tall Tales (both Knopf) as well as two recent novels Getting Over Homer and Let Nothing You Dismay (both now in Vintage paperback). His humor, cartoons, and poetry have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic Spy, The New Republic, and Esquire, among many others. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lecomte du Nuoy Prize, and the George S. Kaufman Award.

Thomas Meehan won the 2003 Tony Award for co-writing the book for Hairspray after having won the 2001 Tony Award for co-writing the book of The Producers. He received his first Tony Award in 1977 for writing the book of Annie, which was his first Broadway show, and he has since written books for the musicals I Remember Mam; Ain't Broadway Grand; Annie Warbucks and the American version of Bombay Dreams. His most recent works are the Broadway musical Young Frankenstein, for which he co-wrote the book with Mel Brooks, and the Broadway-bound Cry-Baby, co-written with Mark O'Donnell.

In addition, he is a long-time contributor of humour pieces, including Yma Dream, to The New Yorker; an Emmy Award-winning writer of television comedy; and a collaborator on a number of screenplays, including Mel Brooks' Spaceballs; To Be or Not to Be and the film version of The Producers. He is also the co-author of the libretto of 1984, an opera composed by Lorin Maazel, based on George Orwell's classic novel, which had its world premiere in the spring of 2005 at London's Royal Opera House and will be performed next year at La Scala, in Milan. Mr Meehan is a member of the Council of the Dramatists Guild.

Thomas Meehan won the 2003 Tony Award for co-writing the book for Hairspray after having won the 2001 Tony Award for co-writing the book of The Producers. He received his first Tony Award in 1977 for writing the book of Annie, which was his first Broadway show, and he has since written books for the musicals I Remember Mam; Ain't Broadway Grand; Annie Warbucks and the American version of Bombay Dreams. His most recent works are the Broadway musical Young Frankenstein, for which he co-wrote the book with Mel Brooks, and the Broadway-bound Cry-Baby, co-written with Mark O'Donnell.

In addition, he is a long-time contributor of humour pieces, including Yma Dream, to The New Yorker; an Emmy Award-winning writer of television comedy; and a collaborator on a number of screenplays, including Mel Brooks' Spaceballs; To Be or Not to Be and the film version of The Producers. He is also the co-author of the libretto of 1984, an opera composed by Lorin Maazel, based on George Orwell's classic novel, which had its world premiere in the spring of 2005 at London's Royal Opera House and will be performed next year at La Scala, in Milan. Mr Meehan is a member of the Council of the Dramatists Guild.

Marc Shaiman received both a Tony and a Grammy Award for the score to the smash hit Broadway Musical Hairspray, which recently broke box office records in its feature film release. He has toiled on more that fifty films, including When Harry Met Sally; Beaches; City Slickers; The Addams Family; A Few Good Men; Sister Act; Sleepless in Seattle; The First Wives Club; Patch Adams; The American President; In & Out; George of the Jungle; South Park and Rob Reiner's soon to be released The Bucket List. He has been nominated five times for an Oscar and lost every time.

He started his career as vocal arranger for Bette Midler, eventually becoming her musical director and producer. Their collaboration on her Emmy Award-winning performance for Johnny Carson's final Tonight Show will always remain a dream. He auditioned but was not chosen to play himself on her sitcom.

Marc was an Emmy Nominee for writing on Saturday Night Live (The Sweeney Sisters), and is an actual Emmy Award winner for co-writing Billy Crystal's Oscar Medleys. He was nominated for two Grammy Awards for his arrangements for Harry Connick, Jr. and he has worked with many other artists including Peter Allen; Eric Clapton; Lauryn Hill; Nathan Lane; Patti LuPone; Martin Short and Barbra Streisand.

Marc just recently completed Martin Short's Fame Becomes Me on Broadway and is co-writing Catch Me If You Can with Terrence McNally and Scott Wittman for next season.

Scott Wittman received the Tony and Grammy Award for his work on Hairspray, now a record-breaking feature film. On Broadway, in concert, for film and television and in many a boite, Scott Wittman has conceived, written and/or directed and collaborated with the following (are you sitting?): Kristin Chenoweth; Jayne County; Christine Ebersole; Dame Edna; Allison Janney; Madeline Kahn; Nathan Lane; Ute Lemper; Patti LuPone; Mike Myers; Bette Midler; Sarah Jessica Parker; Elaine Stritch; Rufus Wainwright and Raquel Welch.

At the London Donmar Warehouse, Scott conceived and directed Patti LuPone's Matters of the Heart, and on Broadway he recently conceived and directed Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me. Scott is currently co-writing Catch Me If You Can with Terrence McNally and Marc Shaiman to open on Broadway next season.

Marc Shaiman received both a Tony and a Grammy Award for the score to the smash hit Broadway Musical Hairspray, which recently broke box office records in its feature film release. He has toiled on more that fifty films, including When Harry Met Sally; Beaches; City Slickers; The Addams Family; A Few Good Men; Sister Act; Sleepless in Seattle; The First Wives Club; Patch Adams; The American President; In & Out; George of the Jungle; South Park and Rob Reiner's soon to be released The Bucket List. He has been nominated five times for an Oscar and lost every time.

He started his career as vocal arranger for Bette Midler, eventually becoming her musical director and producer. Their collaboration on her Emmy Award-winning performance for Johnny Carson's final Tonight Show will always remain a dream. He auditioned but was not chosen to play himself on her sitcom.

Marc was an Emmy Nominee for writing on Saturday Night Live (The Sweeney Sisters), and is an actual Emmy Award winner for co-writing Billy Crystal's Oscar Medleys. He was nominated for two Grammy Awards for his arrangements for Harry Connick, Jr. and he has worked with many other artists including Peter Allen; Eric Clapton; Lauryn Hill; Nathan Lane; Patti LuPone; Martin Short and Barbra Streisand.

Marc just recently completed Martin Short's Fame Becomes Me on Broadway and is co-writing Catch Me If You Can with Terrence McNally and Scott Wittman for next season.

Harold Wheeler holds the distinction of being the first African-American to conduct the annual Academy Awards and a Broadway musical, Promises, Promises. Other Broadway credits include: The Wiz (Original Production); A Chorus Line; Lena Horne - The Lady and Her Music; Two Gentlemen of Verona; Dreamgirls and Never Gonna Dance. He received Tony Nominations for: Little Me, Swing!; The Life; The Full Monty; Hairspray and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and won a Drama Desk Award for his work on Hairspray. He composed the score for the film Love! Valor! Compassion! and acted as co-Musical Director for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Currently, he is the Musical Director for the ABC series Dancing with the Stars. He is married to actress and singer Hattie Winston.

John Waters is one of the founders of the US independent film movement, transformed American cinema with his radical sensibility that gave us Pink Flamingos; the screen gimmick Odorama; the immortal Divine; the phenomenon of midnight movies; and Baltimore, Maryland, as a film capital.

As America's trash auteur, author, social critic, debonair lover of the lurid and provocateur, he has rejoiced in shocking and charming audiences throughout the world. Mr. Waters is the writer-director of the films Cecil B. Demented (2000); Pecker (1998); Serial Mom (1994); Cry Baby (1990); Hairspray (1988); Polyester (1981); Desperate Living (1977); Female Trouble (1974); Pink Flamingos (1972); Multiple Maniacs (1970) and Mondo Trasho (1969). He is the author of six books: Hairspray; Female Trouble and Mutiple Manics; Shock Value; Trash Trio; Crackpot; Director's Cut and Art: A Sex Book that he co-authored with Bruce Hainley. He is a consultant on the recent Hairspray movie-musical as well as the upcoming theatre musical adaptation of his hit film Cry Baby.

Honoured in 2003's Queen's birthday list with an OAM for services to the entertainment industry, David Atkins is one of Australia's most awarded and highly recognised Producers and Director/Choreographers.

David Atkins has starred in, produced, directed, choreographed and created over twenty Musicals in Australia, Asia, Great Britain, America and Canada. David has also performed in, produced, directed and choreographed for Film, Television and Arena. He is the recipient of 9 'Mo' Awards (Australian Tony Award equivalent), four for outstanding achievement in Musical Theatre and two as Australian Show Business Ambassador of the year.

He is the first and only Australian to win an MTV award for choreography (for an Elton John music video) and his production of Hot Shoe Shuffle won the prestigious Olivier Award and was the first Australian Musical on London's West End. David has won Green Room Awards, two Aria awards, Variety Heart Awards and an Advance Australia Award for his contribution to the performing arts.

David was the Executive Producer of the Opening, Closing and Victory Ceremonies for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games Vancouver and was Executive Producer for the recent Opening Ceremony of the Outdoor Event for Expo 2010, Shanghai, China. His Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games Ceremony won three Emmy Awards and won the Best Export category at the Australian Event Awards that same year. David was also the Producer and Artistic Director of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 15th Asian Games which was staged in Doha, Qatar in December 2006. Juan Antonio Samaranch, the President of the International Olympic Committee, presented David with a Gold Olympic Pin for his work as Artistic Director and Producer of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies. Last year David was proud to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australian Event Awards.

Jason Coleman has been a fixture of the Australian Dance scene for more than twenty years.

Jason's engagement as Choreographer for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games was a career highlight - watched by over 3.8 billion people across the globe. Following this success, Jason was chosen to choreograph the highly acclaimed handover ceremony for the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

Jason subsequently acted as Director of Choreography for the Opening and Closing of the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar. This was one of the largest and most expensive shows made anywhere on earth. As well as choreographing himself, he was also responsible for directing an international team of choreographers for this event.

Jason's musical theatre credits include Chicago, A Chorus Line, Saturday Night Fever, Little Shop of Horrors, Dancin' Man, Dancin' Dynamite, Sweet Charity, Fame, Hair and many more. His TV and music credits are numerous having worked with Tina Arena, John Farnham, Chaka Khan, The Bee Gees and Chrissy Amphlet amongst others.

Jason has worked as a choreographer, dance consultant and in a motion capture performance role in the animated film Happy Feet. In 2008 Jason joined the hit TV series So You Think You Can Dance Australia as judge and opened 'Ministry of Dance' - the largest Dance School in the Southern Hemisphere, located in Melbourne.

Well known theatrical and event designer Eamon D'Arcy again teams up with David Atkins. He has been associated with David over the past 20 years designing for shows such as Hot Shoe Shuffle, Man from Snowy River, Hair, Saturday Night Fever, Singin' in the Rain and on both the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and the recently completed Winter Olympics in Vancouver. His event design work includes Lead Designer for the 2007 APEC forum in Sydney.

Janet started her costume design career in Musical Theatre then progressed to Film, Television, and large scale live Events. She's styled rock stars and celebrities at the ARIA's, Film stars and even Presidents. (APEC Australia 2007).

Her involvement in theatre costuming has taken her around the globe working on 42nd Street, Grease, Little Shop of Horrors, Dynamite, Hot Shoe Shuffle, Chicago, Oliver, Dirty Dancing, We Will Rock You, Spamalot and High School Musical.

Janet's designed costumes for Sweet Charity, Man From Snowy River, Burn the Floor (Broadway production) Santa's Kingdom, Full Monty, Saturday Night Fever (Green Room Design Award 2007) and recently Fame. Her most challenging experiences have been the 2000 Paralympic Games Ceromonies in Sydney; 2002 Commonwealth Games, Manchester; and as Designer/Supervisor for the 2007 Asian Games Opening and Closing ceremonies in Qatar.

Most recently her highly acclaimed work on So You Think You Can Dance has allowed her to regularly work with Jason Coleman, and having her mentor, David Atkins as Director completes the "dream team" for this new production of Hairspray.

Trudy Dalgleish studied technical production at NIDA and has won numerous awards including the 2000 Helpmann Award for White Devil, 2002 'Entech' Award and the John Truscott Design Award for Excellence and for Best Lighting Design for Eureka at the Green Room Awards.

Lighting credits include: Sweeney Todd, Manon, HMS Pinafore, Trial by Jury, Pirates of Penzance, A Little Night Music, My Fair Lady, Orlando (Opera Australia); Eurobeat (UK); Sid's Dancing Masquerade, Inuk 2 (SDC); Bubble (Legs on the Wall); Little Women, Pippin (Kookaburra); Kaiden (Sydney Festival); King and I (Broadway Asia); Eureka - The Musical, Gallipoli, God of Carnage, White Devil, The Way of the World (STC); The Man From Snowy River, Singing in the Rain, Shout, The Boy from Oz, Man of La Mancha, Wizard of Oz, Annie, Grease, The Sound of Music, Cabaret, The New Rocky Horror Show, Steel City, Beauty and the Beast, Dein Perry's film Bootmen, Associate Lighting Designer The Producers.

2010 engagements include A Little Night Music for Opera Australia, Chooky Dancer's Ngurrumilmarrmeriyu (Wrong Skin) at Adelaide Festival and in Melbourne and Sydney; and Fame.

Michael's sound designs include: FAME The Musical; West Side Story; Priscilla - Queen of the Desert currently playing the West End, London; Breast Wishes; High School Musical; Little Women; Mum's The Word 2; Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (China/Asia); Rocky Horror Show; We Will Rock You (Asia/New Zealand); Company; Pippin; The King and I (China/Asia); The Boy From Oz with Hugh Jackman (2007 Helpmann Award - Best Sound Design nomination); The Woman In Black (2007 Helpmann Award - Best Sound Design winner); Dusty - The Original Pop Diva (2006 Helpmann Award - Best Sound Design); Grease - The Arena Spectacular; Saturday Night Fever (Australia/New Zealand/Asia - 2005 Green Room Award - Best Technical Design nomination); Dirty Dancing (2005 Green Room Award - Best Technical Design winner) and The Full Monty. Sound Co-Designs include Singin' In The Rain (2001 Helpmann nomination) and The Boy From Oz with Todd McKenney (2000 Helpmann nomination).

Max Lambert is one of Australia's most talented composers, arrangers, musicians and musical directors. His composing credits include work for the Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland Theatre Companies, the Sydney Dance Company and The Australian Ballet.

Max has recorded albums with Kate Ceberano, Wendy Matthews, Grace Knight, Vince Jones, Judi Connelli, Renee Geyer, Paul Kelly, Iva Davies and Icehouse. Max was the pianist on the ABC's Playschool from 1991 to 2000.

Max has been involved in films such as George Miller's Happy Feet, Jane Campion's Sweetie and Gillian Armstrong's The Last Days of Chez Nous. Notable musical theatre credits have included David Atkins' critically acclaimed production of Hot Shoe Shuffle and Musical Supervision on the ARIA award winning The Boy From Oz. In the realm of dance, Max co-composed and performed in Berlin for the Sydney Dance Company and co-wrote Tivoli for The Australian Ballet.

Max's Musical Directorship credits include the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of The XXVII Olympiad, the Commonwealth Games held in Manchester in 2002 and the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar in 2006. Max has also overseen the 2007, 2008 and 2009 New Year's Eve Celebrations in Sydney and the Australia Plays Broadway concerts in New York in 2008 and 2009. Max is currently Musical Supervisor on the musicals Hairspray and Fame and the Director of Music for the Opening Ceremony of World Expo in Shanghai.

Born in New Zealand, Stephen moved to Melbourne to study at the Conservatorium of Music, graduating with a Bachelor of Music, majoring in Piano and Composition.

His first professional position was in the Australian premiere production of The Phantom of the Opera as a trainee repetiteur.

Stephen played keyboards on Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and was the pianist for Sondheim's Follies in concert for the Melbourne International Festival.

He has been Assistant Musical Director for Into the Woods (S.T.C.), South Pacific, Cats, The Secret Garden, My Fair Lady, Sunset Boulevard, Sweeney Todd (Q.T.C.), The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber with Sarah Brightman and Anthony Warlow, and The Sound of Music with Lisa McCune.

As Musical Director Stephen's credits include Grease, West Side Story, the 10th Anniversary Production of Les Miserables, Mamma Mia!, Kiss Me Kate for The Production Company, Fiddler on the Roof with Topol, and Billy Elliot for which he won a Helpmann award. Most recently, Stephen was the Music Supervisor for the 10th Anniversary Australian tour of Mamma Mia! and the Korean production of Billy Elliot.