New Musical Revue L.A. NOW AND THEN Set for Caminito Theatre, 5/13-22

By: May. 05, 2016
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Conceived and Directed by Grammy nominated Producer, Director, Writer, and Composer Bruce Kimmel, L.A. NOW AND THEN, is a new musical revue about the city that was and the city that is. Proudly presented by Kimmel's alma mater, The Los Angeles City College Theatre Academy and Kritzerland Entertainment, the production will be presented May 13 - 22, 2016 at the Caminito Theatre on the campus of Los Angeles City College (LACC). This diverse and unique new work will not only feature a 6-piece band under the Musical Direction of Richard Allen with Choreography by Cheryl Baxter-Ratliff and Orchestrations by Lanny Meyers, but also features collaborations with music, lyrics, sketches and monologues between Kimmel and critically acclaimed writers Michele Brourman, Grant Geissman, Paul Gordon,

Karen Gottlieb, Shelly Markham, Adryan Russ, Wayne Moore, and Two-Time Academy Award Winner Richard M. Sherman, Doug Haverty, Bruce Vilanch, and David Wechter.

Broadway/Southland Guest Artists April Audia, Dennis Kyle and Robert Yacko lead a company composed of LACC Academy students.

Scenic Design is by Tesshi Nakagawa. Lighting Desgin: Jim Moody. Sound Design: Alex Mackyol. Projection and Sound Supervisor: Vern Yonemura. Costumes are by Natalie Shahinyan. Graphics are by Art & Soul Design.

THE GUEST ARTISTS:

APRIL AUDIA - Originally from New York, April moved to Los Angeles and got a conservatory education at LACC Theatre Academy. She has performed all throughout the Los Angeles area as well as regionally in Theatre productions of Dancing at Lughnasa, Moon Over Buffalo, Side Man, A Piece of My Heart, Beehive, The Rose Tattoo, Godspell, Gypsy, Grease, the New York bound production of Pain, and about eighty more shows. Her TV work includes recurring roles on the Nickelodeon show "Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn", "See Dad Run", several episodes of Disney's sketch comedy show, "So Random" and "Wizards of Waverly Place". Other shows include "Accidentally on Purpose", "Bold and the Beautiful", "The Young and the Restless", "Melrose Place", "Andy Richter Controls the Universe" and many voice overs including a song she and her husband composer Michael Haddad collaborated on for the Lifetime movie, "A Teachers Obsession". Additional work includes her first film "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", her first starring role in an 80's cult classic horror film, "Night Ripper" and the soon to be released "Fighting Chance" as well as The Lifetime Movie "Seduced" with Elizabeth Rohm. She has a National commercial running for "Head & Shoulders" with Odell Beckham Jr. and joined the web world starring in the series "The Playhouse Soap Opera" and "Long Island...South Shore".

DENNIS KYLE Regional: Beauty and the Beast (Lumiere), Bonnie and Clyde (Ted Hinton) MTG, Les Miserables (Jean Valjean), Seussical (Cat In the Hat), Annie (Rooster) - Theatre Aspen, Dracula (Johnathan Harker), Cats (Rum Tum Tugger), White Christmas (Phil Davis) and the West Coast Regional Premieres of Backwards In High Heels and Make Song and the original works Sequins the Showchoir Musical (Anthony Barrie), Invincible Breed (Chaos)- Spellbound Pictures, Blood and Fire (Carlton Price) -The York Theatre. He has been featured in many benefits for S.T.A.G.E. & the Actors Fund and has performed regularly with Bruce Kimmels Kritzerland Cabaret series and can guested in his web series Outside the Box. Dennis is a lead soloist in Disney in Concert - Magical Music from the Movies performing with philharmonic and pops orchestras around the globe and will be lending his voice to an all new animated series on Adult Swim beginning this fall. RECORDINGS: Simply Sandy Bainum, The Perfect Year on Kritzerland Records and recently The Walt Disney Legacy Collection reissues of Mary Poppins and Sleeping Beauty for Walt Disney Records.

ROBERT YACKO has worked extensively in theater in New York, Los Angeles and across the country. He recently appeared in The Addams Family with Rachel York, and worked on The Price at the Mark Taper Forum. He was seen in Parade at the Taper, in Ragtime, and in Tickled Pink with Rita Rudner at Laguna Playhouse. Robert starred in the L.A. Premieres of Chess and Sunday In The Park With George, and has shared the stage with Carol Burnett in Company, Leslie Uggams in Into The Woods, Cathy Rigby in Sylvia, Theodore Bikel and Lainie Kazan in Fiddler On The Roof, and he danced with Cyd Charisse in Cactus Flower. His Broadway debut was in Fiddler On The Roof with Herschel Bernardi. Robert has also appeared in many of Bruce Kimmel's Kritzerland Cabaret Shows at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal. Screen credits include Golden Girls, Get A Life and General Hospital.

THE COMPANY:

Sarah Barnett, Paola Fregoso, Alexis Jackson, Bedjou Jean, Prisca Kim, Michael MacRae, Kole Martin, Shawna Merkley, Lamont Oakley, Kasper Svendsen, Elle Willgues. Jenny Bacon - Understudy.

THE CREATIVE TEAM:

BRUCE KIMMEL (Director/Writer) - wrote, directed and starred in the cult movie hit, The First Nudie Musical (available on a Special Edition Blu-ray). He also co-created (with David Wechter) the story for the hit film, The Faculty, directed by Robert Rodriguez. As an actor, Mr. Kimmel guest-starred on most of the long-running television shows of the 1970s. Mr. Kimmel is a legendary Grammy-nominated producer of theatre music on CD, having produced over 180 albums. He has produced solo albums for Petula Clark, Helen Reddy, Jason Graae, Liz Callaway, Christiane Noll, Rebecca Luker, Brent Barrett, Sally Mayes, Judy Kaye, Judy Kuhn, and many others. In addition to the albums he has personally produced, Kimmel has also released over four hundred classic cast albums and soundtracks, including his acclaimed remix of the original cast albums of Follies; Promises, Promises and Sugar. His label, Kritzerland, issues a new CD every two weeks. For nearly five years he has been producing and hosting a series of live entertainment tributes based on albums he's produced. The series takes place at Sterling's Upstairs at The Federal in North Hollywood and features top regional singers and special guest stars. He is also the creator, writer, and director of the popular web series, Outside the Box. Most recently he directed a critically acclaimed production of Li'l Abner; and took a sampling of his Kritzerland shows to New York. He also directed the hit Los Angeles musical revival of Inside Out, and One Starry Night: From Broadway to Hollywood, a benefit for ALS at the Pasadena Playhouse which starred Renee Zellweger, Petula Clark, Melissa Manchester, and Ed Asner, among others.

RICHARD ALLEN (Musical Director) is a Los Angeles based composer, arranger, and performer. Richard studied music at the prestigious and often criticized California Institute of the Arts and received his Masters of Arts in music. Richard became musical director for several companies including a small yet up and coming group called The Walt Disney Company. For the past few summers Richard could have been found at Abbey Road Studios conducting The London Symphony and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestras in a massive undertaking of biblical proportion. Richard has been orchestrating and conducting for world famous composer Richard M. Sherman, who wrote a few hit songs and a couple that are being performed in tonight's show. Today Richard is excited to be leading a small band of his dearest friends (and a few guys he met this afternoon at Starbucks) for this wonderful show. You may recognize Richard as part of a magic duo "The No Show" which performs semi-annually at The Magic Castle in Hollywood. It involves a parrot and several magic props...'nuff said.

CHERYL BAXTER-RATLIFF (Choreography) has been in the entertainment business for over 35 years working in theater, commercials, film and television. She started her career as an assistant choreographer to Gene Kelly and Kenny Ortega in Coppola's film, One From the Heart and went on to assist Meryl Streep in Death Becomes Her. She has worked on over 20 films includingXanadu, Tap, Grease 2, Pennies From Heaven, 500 Days of Summer, The Wild Wild West and The Muppet Movie. She has danced beside such legends as Gregory Hines, Sammy Davis Jr. The Nicholas Brothers and Donald O'Connor. Television credits includeGlee, 2 Broke Girls, the Academy and Golden Globe Awards, How I Met Your Mother, Community and Mike and Molly to name a few. Cheryl has performed in the Los Angeles and First National companies of Cats and 42nd Street and was in the Broadway telecast of Sophisticated Ladies. She has worked extensively for Universal Studios, Disney and Sesame Street Live and has choreographed theater productions all over the world including Bruce Kimmel's show, What If.

LANNY MEYERS(Orchestrations) is a composer,orchestrator,principal arrangerandmusical director. He has composed the balletThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow(Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and Oklahoma City Ballet), The Hunt of the Unique-Horn (Long Beach Ballet Co.), film scores for the 1992 Sundance Award winning documentary Beirut: The Last Home Movie, New Line Cinema's The First Time (1983), and many award-winning animated films for Buzzco Assoc. He arranged and orchestrated The Berenstein Bears TV series, and, (with Rupert Holmes), the cable TV series Remember WENN (1996). He also composed and orchestrated The Mendocino Music Festival Overture (2004), and created the score for the Psychosomatic Wellness CD by Dr. Candace Pert. During his carrer, he received six Prime Time Emmy nominations; and won two for Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction (Night of 100 Stars / 1982); and the 40th Annual Tony Awards (1985). Between 1982 and 1996, he also received 6 Daytime Emmy Award nominations for Music Achievement, Scoring, Composition, and Direction; winning 5 (The Edge of Night, the ABC Afterschool Specials "The Unforgiveable Secret", and "Sometimes I Don't Love My Mother";

and the Guiding Light).

THE COLLABORATORS (Music and Lyrics)

MICHELE BROURMAN is an award-winning singer/songwriter whose songs have been recorded by Michael Feinstein, Margaret Whiting, Dame Cleo Laine, Olivia Newton-John, and more. She's written and produced the songs for 18 animated features for Universal Studios, including the beloved "Land Before Time" series, writing for artists like Reba McIntyre, Michael York, Donny Osmond, Corbin Bleu and a host of others. Her work has been featured in television and film and performed by countless cabaret artists, garnering numerous awards and critical

acclaim. Her work for the theater includes the dance and incidental music for the original Broadway production of "Working", the score for the musical "Dangerous Beauty" produced at the Pasadena Playhouse, and the score for the off-Broadway show "I Married Wyatt Earp".

KAREN GOTTLIEB - Simply put, Karen is a lyricist, playwright, novelist, entrepreneur, tutor, wife, and mother.

GRANT GEISSMAN is a popular Guitarist/composer and Contemporary Jazz recording artist, with fourteen highly regarded solo albums. Grant's latest project, Cool Man Cool, features "cool music I like to play, cool people I like to play with," including special guests Chick Corea, Chuck Mangione, Tom Scott, Jerry Hahn, Russell Ferrante, Patrice Rushen, Mike Finnigan, and Van Dyke Parks! His previous project, Say That!, marked his return to "real" (not Smooth) jazz, and contains thirteen original Grant Geissman compositions that play like a righteous melding of 1960s Wes Montgomery, Horace Silver, and Jimmy Smith. Jazz critic Bill Milkowski wrote that "Say That! is an iron fist upside the mushy head of smooth jazz, and Grant Geissman's defiant declaration of independence."Geissman co- writes the underscore (with Dennis C. Brown) for the hit CBS-TV sitcom Two and a Half Men, and he also co-wrote the theme ("Men, men, men, men, manly men!"), for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2004. As a studio guitarist he has recorded with such artists as Quincy Jones, Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello, Chuck Mangione (playing the now-legendary guitar solo on Chuck's 1978 hit "Feels So Good"), Van Dyke Parks, BrianWilson, Inara George, Joanna Newsom, Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, Paula Abdul, Ringo Starr, Keiko Matsui, David Benoit, Placido Domingo, Luis Miguel, and Julio Iglesias. He has also played on the scores for such TV shows as Two and a Half Men, Monk (playing the Django Reinhardt-style acoustic guitar solo on the theme), Mad Men, and Dawson's Creek. He has played on the scores to films like Because I Said So (starring Diane Keaton and Mandy Moore), Austin Powers/The Spy Who Shagged Me, The Majestic, and Anaconda. Five of Geissman's solo releases reached the top 10 on the national airplay charts, with two of them, Flying Colors and Time Will Tell, rising to the #1 position on the Gavin, Mac, and Radio & Records Charts.

PAUL GORDON was nominated for a 2001 Tony Award for composing the music and lyrics to the musical Jane Eyre. He won the 2015 Jeff Award for Best New Work for his book, music and lyrics for Sense and Sensibility which had its world premiere at Chicago Shakespeare Theater and will open at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego this summer. He is also the recipient of the 2009 Ovation Award for his music and lyrics to Daddy Long Legs (productions all over the world and currently at the Davenport Theatre Off-Broadway) and the 2007 Bay Area Critics Circle Award for his book to the musical, Emma, developed by TheatreWorks and later staged at The Old Globe Theatre. Emma's return engagement to TheatreWorks in 2015 broke every box office record in the theaters 45 year history. Analog and Vinyl which Paul wrote book, music and lyrics, premiered at The Weston Playhouse in 2014. Being Earnest, written with Jay Gruska, premiered at TheatreWorks in 2013. His other shows include: Little Miss Scrooge, Death: The Musical, The Front, and The Sportswriter. paulgordonmusic.com

SHELLY MARKHAM As a composer, Shelly has enjoyed long and successful collaborations with a wide variety of lyricists, including Judith Viorst, Amanda McBroom, Lee Adams, Carol Hall and Adryan Russ. He and Adryan collaborated on a song called Late In Life for his own CD (Things I've Learned Along The Way) That song became the title song of acclaimed jazz singer Sue Raney's newest CD which was released this past spring. Shelly wrote three songs for the hit Off-Broadway show Naked Boys Singing with Mark Winkler and also collaborated with Winkler and Marie Cain on a musical revue Too Old For The Chorus about the wonders and terrors of aging. As a musical director and arranger, Shelly has worked with a most diverse roster of performers, including Andrea Marcovicci, Lainie Kazan, Michael Feinstein, Nell Carter, Gogi Grant and Carol Lawrence. He has also had the pleasure of serving as musical director for many of Bruce Kimmel's greatly entertaining Kritzerland evenings at Sterling's Upstairs at The Federal.

WAYNE MOORE wrote both the music and lyrics for "There's No Place Like Hollywood" (Stella Adler Theater, Hollywood), "Freeway Dreams" (The Gardenia), "Much Moore" (Erica's Los Angeles), "Coffin Capers" (Knott's Berry Farm), "Sinners" (independent film) and "Queens Of Drag" (documentary). Wayne wrote the music for "I Know I

Came In Here For Something" (Taconic Theatre Company and Las Vegas). "Be Well" (a film starring Milton Berle), the HBO cartoon "Frog & Toad Are Friends", the Emmy-nominated PBS Frontline special "Down For The Count" and the Emmy-winning "Whatever Happened To Childhood" (KCOP). He has written specialty material for Debbie Reynolds, Michael Greer, Liz Torres, Rose Marie, Holly Woodlawn and others and provided specialty lyrics for the national tour of "I Love Lucy: Live On Stage"

ADRYAN RUSS - writes for theater, film, television and recordings. Her off-Broadway, award-winning musical Inside Out, co-written with Doug Haverty, played The Cherry Lane in New York, Europe, and theaters across the U.S., and had a revival, directed by Bruce Kimmel in Los Angeles in 2015 (New York soundtrack CD available on Kritzerland Records). Love Again, a new musical, co-written with Haverty, directed by Kay Cole, was also produced in 2015. Her CD "Everyone Has A Story" (LMLMusic.com) showcases her earlier songs, and "Changing My Tune," songs co- written with Joel Evans, features jazz-based new standards. Emerging artist Laura sings her song "Fire In Me," co- written with Norman Henry Mamey, currently generating lots of views on YouTube. Legendary songstress Sue Raney recorded her song "Late In Life," co-written with Shelly Markham. Adryan is a member of ASCAP, The Dramatists Guild and serves on the board of The Society of Composers & Lyricists.

RICHARD M. SHERMAN - is a

songwriter who specialized in musical films with his late brother Robert B. Sherman.

Some of the Sherman Brothers' best known songs were incorporated into live action and animation musical films including: Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Slipper and the Rose, and Charlotte's Web. Their most well-known work is the Disneyland theme park song "It's a Small World (After All)". According to Time magazine, "It's a Small World" is the most performed song of all time. With 9 Grammy nominations (winning one for Mary Poppins and one for Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too), 5 Golden Globe nominations, and 9 Oscar nominations... the brothers scored twice at the 1965 Academy Awards for Best Original Song (Chim, Chim, Cher-ee), and Best Substantially Original Score)... both for Mary Poppins. But perhaps their most treasured acknowledgement came when awarded the National Medal of Arts on November 17, 2008 at the White House by President George W. Bush. The award is the highest honor the United States Government bestows on artists. Richard Sherman remains actively involved in music and, since 2013, has been working with Disney on the stage musical version of The Jungle Book.

THE COLLABORATORS: (Sketches and Monologues)

DOUG HAVERTY (Monologues) has had his award-winning plays and musicals produced around the world. Could I Have This Dance? was named "Best New Play" by American Theatre Critics Association. His works been presented at Cherry Lane, Charlotte Rep., Laguna Playhouse, Phoenix Theatre, Florida Studio, Theatre West, The Colony, Theatre 40, The Lyric, Group Rep, Long Island Stage, Theatre in the Square, Lobero, just to name a few. Published plays: In My Mind's Eye, Inside Out, Could I Have This Dance?, Flavia & The Dream Maker (A musical). Last year his musicals with Adryan Russ were presented in Los Angeles: Inside Out (20th Anniversary of Off Broadway production directed by Bruce Kimmel) and Love Again (World Premiere directed by Kay Cole).

BRUCE VILANCH has had experiences with uber drivers that can only be depicted properly in imax 3-d. Otherwise, he was a Hollywood Square for six years to the left of Whoopi, if that's possible, Baltimore housewife Edna Turnblad in Hairspray for two years on Broadway and the road, and has won six Emmys for committing television, notably twenty-three Oscar shows.

DAVID WECHTER has lived in L.A. his whole life, so he knows whereof he writes. His career has encompassed directing and writing feature films (including co-writing the original story for The Faculty with Bruce Kimmel), writing for the theatre (The Brain From Planet X, also with Kimmel), and writing, directing and producing scripted and unscripted TV. A Writers Guild Award winner and Emmy nominee, he is currently Executive Producer of How to Build...Everything for Discovery's Science Channel.



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