David Chase

ELF The Musical (Non-Equity)

 

[US Tour, 2024]

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Dance Arranger

Back to the Future: The Musical

 

[US Tour, 2024]

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Dance Arrangements

I Can Get It For You Wholesale

 

[Off-Broadway, 2023]

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Score Arranger and Adapter

Back to the Future: The Musical

 

[Broadway, 2023]

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Dance Arrangements

1776

 

[Broadway, 2022]

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Music Supervisor

The Music Man

 

[Broadway, 2022] [Replacement]

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Vocal and Dance Arrangements[Replacement]

Tootsie (Non-Equity)

 

[US Tour, 2021] [Replacement]

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Dance Arrangements[Replacement]

Back to the Future The Musical

 

[West End, 2021]

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Dance Arrangements

Tootsie

 

[Broadway, 2019]

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Dance Arrangements

Kiss Me, Kate

 

[Broadway, 2019]

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Dance Arrangments

Hello, Dolly!

 

[US Tour, 2018]

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Dance Arrangements

Tootsie

 

[Chicago, 2018]

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Dance Arrangements

The Sting

 

[Milburn, NJ (Regional), 2018]

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Dance Arrangements

Anastasia

 

[Broadway, 2017]

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Dance Arrangements

Finding Neverland

 

[US Tour, 2016]

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Music Supervisor & Dance and Incidental Music

My Paris

 

[Chester, CT (Regional), 2016]

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Music Supervisor and Orchestrator

Finding Neverland

 

[Broadway, 2015]

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Music Supervision/Dance and Incidental Music Arrangements

Peter Pan Live!

 

[Motion Picture, 2014]

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Music Director

The Sound of Music Live!

 

[Motion Picture, 2013]

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Music Director

Evita

 

[US Tour, 2013]

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Dance Music Arranger

Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella

 

[Broadway, 2013]

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Music Adaptor

Musical Supervisor

Music Arranger

Lyricist

Anything Goes

 

[US Tour, 2012]

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Dance Arranger

Nice Work If You Can Get It

 

[Broadway, 2012]

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Music Supervisor

Evita

 

[Broadway, 2012]

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Dance Arranger

Anything Goes

 

[Broadway, 2011]

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Dance Music Arranger

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

 

[Broadway, 2011]

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Music Arranger

Musical Director

Elf - The Musical

 

[Broadway, 2010]

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Dance Music Arranger

Promises, Promises

 

[Broadway, 2010]

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Dance Music Arranger

Bye Bye Birdie

 

[Broadway, 2009]

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Dance Music Arranger

Vocal Music Arranger

Musical Supervisor

Billy Elliot

 

[Broadway, 2008]

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Musical Director

Conductor

Dance Music Arranger

Cry-Baby

 

[Broadway, 2008]

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Dance Music Arranger

The Little Mermaid

 

[Broadway, 2008]

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Dance Music Arranger

Curtains

 

[Broadway, 2007]

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Dance Music Arranger

The Wedding Singer

 

[Broadway, 2006]

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Incidental & Dance Music Arranger

The Pajama Game

 

[Broadway, 2006]

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Dance/Vocal Music Arranger

Musical Supervisor

Thoroughly Modern Millie

 

[Broadway, 2002]

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Dance Music Arranger

David Chase is a highly accomplished American musician with a four-decade career spanning film, television, theatre, concerts, and recording. (He is not the same David Chase who created The Sopranos, although they share the same name.)

Whether working as an Arranger, Conductor, Composer, Orchestrator, or Music Director, David is passionately dedicated to shaping music and performance in a way that takes the audience on a journey—marrying the emotional, visual, and aural experience into a complete storytelling whole. 

With 40+ Original Broadway productions to his credit, David Chase’s work combines historical knowledge, a directorial understanding of character, and a thorough attention to detail to shape the musical score and the performances. 

Notable Broadway productions include the original Side Show, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Billy Elliot, and Nice Work If You Can Get It (for which he received a Grammy nomination), as well as acclaimed revivals of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The Music Man, and The Pajama Game. He is particularly proud of his work writing the dance music for Thoroughly Modern Millie,  and in major revivals of Hello, Dolly!, Kiss Me, Kate, and  Anything Goes (for which he received an Olivier nomination when it played London’s West End). 

David was at the forefront of the return of LIVE television musicals with The Sound of Music Live! and Peter Pan Live!, earning Emmy nominations for Music Direction for both projects. Other recent TV work includes Schmigadoon! (Music Director and Arranger), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Arranger/Orchestrator) and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Arranger/Orchestrator). David appeared onscreen as the bandleader and announcer for ‘The Gordon Ford Show’ in Season 5 of Maisel.

Recent film work includes conducting (The Last Showgirl); arranging and orchestrating (The Bride!, Todd Solondz’s Love Child, Joker: Folie à Deux); and supervising the film score recording (Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest).

Boston Pops audiences know Mr. Chase for creating their highly celebrated version of “The 12 Days of Christmas.” David’s rendition has been hailed as the most successful Pops commission of the 21st century, and The New York Times has dubbed it “monstrously inventive”. 

In the choral world, David is recognized as a prolific arranger and composer, often in collaboration with Judith Clurman. Their choral song cycle, Washington Women, has been featured on an NPR Tiny Desk concert, and his arrangement of “The First Noel” has been performed all over the world.

Mr. Chase also has longstanding associations with such storied institutions as The Kennedy Center, Radio City Music Hall, and Lyric Opera of Chicago.

David’s formal music training consisted of five years of piano lessons as a child. However, much to the chagrin of his classically minded teachers, he was much more interested in experimenting with playing his assigned pieces differently from the printed music, an early sign of where his life was headed.

At Carter G. Woodson High School in Fairfax, Virginia (formerly WT Woodson), David's theatrical interests began to emerge under the guidance of drama teacher Joan Bedinger. He performed onstage, designed sets and posters, and with Ms. Bedinger’s encouragement, began to arrange and orchestrate.

Chase attended Harvard University, where he majored in Biology with an eye toward becoming a doctor like his father. He nonetheless continued to perform onstage, notably in the Harvard Hasty Pudding Show, for which he also wrote music and occasionally lyrics.  (Fellow Pudding performers include Breaking Bad’s Dean Norris and NPR’s Peter Sagal.) He also sang in the Harvard University Choir under the baton of John Ferris, whose passionate approach to shaping music as an emotional journey made a huge impression on him.

It was at his 1986 graduation ceremony that David heard a piece of advice from Harvard University President, Derek Bok: “Make the arts your first avocation”.  Instead of following this well-intentioned but narrow-minded piece of advice, David decided instead to make the arts his first and only vocation.

For four years after graduation, David remained in Boston, singing with the University Choir and playing and arranging for Forbidden Broadway (where he developed the skill of playing the piano as if it were an orchestra). He also provided arrangements for Harvard a cappella groups such as The Krokodiloes, The Din and Tonics, and the Radcliffe Pitches. 

In 1990, David moved to New York City, where he was hired as rehearsal pianist for the Radio City Rockettes, beginning a long association with the Music Hall. His first and only Broadway subbing experiences (as a pianist) were for Jerry Zaks’ Guys and Dolls and the Gershwin extravaganza, Crazy For You. It was at the Shubert Theater during Crazy For You that he began his most important lifetime collaboration with original cast member Paula Leggett. They were married in December 1992. 

It was during this time that he met the brilliant Arranger and Music Director James Raitt, of Forever Plaid and Pageant fame. David had been working closely with James for several years when, in 1993, James asked David to be his Associate Music Director for a new revival of Damn Yankees at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego.  James, stricken like so many brilliant young men of his generation with AIDS, knew that his health was failing, and literally passed his baton to David to carry on his legacy. (James also hired Doug Besterman to make his Broadway debut as an orchestrator with Damn Yankees, thus starting a long and fruitful collaboration between David and Doug).

By the time the show came to New York in 1994, James’s illness had progressed to the point that he was only able to conduct the final dress rehearsal and two previews. He died six weeks later. David took over as Music Director, beginning a 20+ year Broadway conducting career. To this day, when David conducts, he only uses James’ baton. You can see David Chase and Doug Besterman in a feature on James Raitt and the AIDS crisis that was produced by 60 Minutes. 

Today, Mr. Chase’s 40+ Broadway productions as Music Director/Supervisor and Arranger include Damn Yankees, the original Side Show, Little Me with Martin Short, Susan Stroman’s production of The Music Man, Flower Drum Song, The Pajama Game with Harry Connick and Kelli O’Hara, Bye Bye, Birdie, Billy Elliot: The Musical, How to Succeed… (starring Daniel Radcliffe and orchestrated by Doug Besterman), Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Finding Neverland, 1776, and Nice Work If You Can Get It, for which he received a Grammy nomination as a producer of the cast album.

As Dance Music Arranger, he has collaborated with a multitude of acclaimed choreographers, including Kathleen Marshall (the 1999 Kiss Me, Kate, The Pajama Game, Nice Work If You Can Get It, the 2001 Follies, Seussical: The Musical, and Anything Goes), Rob Ashford (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Frozen, Evita, How to Succeed…, Promises, Promises, Cry-Baby, Curtains, and The Wedding Singer), Rob Marshall (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum), Casey Nicholaw (Elf, Tuck Everlasting), Robert Longbottom (Side Show, Flower Drum Song, Bye, Bye Birdie, The Scarlet Pimpernel), Warren Carlisle (Hello, Dolly!, the 2019 Kiss Me, Kate, and The Music Man with Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster), Chris Bailey (Back to the Future), Peggy Hickey (Anastasia), Peter Darling (Billy Elliot: The Musical), Josh Rhodes (Cinderella) and Stephen Mear (The Little Mermaid). Productions for which David has written dance music have been nominated for 18 “Best Choreography” Tony Awards and won five.

In addition to transfers of many of his Broadway productions, recent London productions have included writing dance music for Disney’s Hercules and the 25th Anniversary production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Mr. Chase also provided dance music arrangements for the West End revivals of Dreamgirls, the Donmar Warehouse Guys and Dolls (2005), and Evita (both in 2006 and 2025). He was nominated for a 2022 Olivier Award for his music arrangements for Anything Goes.  

Outside of Broadway and the West End, additional productions include Follies and A Little Night Music in Tangier with Rob Ashford, I Can Get It For You Wholesale at Classic Stage Company, and The Bedwetter (Atlantic Theatre and Arena Stage). 

David has worked three times at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts: twice with Diane Paulus (Finding Neverland and 1776 in their pre-Broadway tryouts), and once as an undergrad when he played Maximilian in Candide in 1985. (In the same production, playwright Jonathan Tolins played Voltaire). 

He has served as Music Director for several Lyric Opera of Chicago productions (Carousel, The King and I, and My Fair Lady) as well as special events (The New Classics: Songs from the New Golden Age of Musical Theater and Celebrating 100 Years of Bernstein).

He arranges regularly for The Kennedy Center Honors, including honorees Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, Jerry Herman, Shirley MacLaine, and the much-celebrated tribute to Barbara Cook. 

In addition to his early years as a rehearsal pianist, he returned to Radio City Music Hall as Music Director for the 1996-2000 seasons, and continues to serve there as an Arranger.  

When LIVE television musicals returned to the small screen (for the first time in five decades), David set the standard for the way the music was treated, thereby garnering Emmy Award® nominations for Music Direction of both The Sound of Music Live! and Peter Pan Live!. (He was also the Arranger, and, with Doug Besterman and Frank Wolf, Music Producer.) 

He was Music Director and Co-Arranger (with Doug Besterman) for both seasons of Apple TV’s Schmigadoon! (which included the 2022 Emmy Award® winning song “Corn Puddin’”).  He served as Dance Arranger for The Music Man (2003 TV Movie) with Matthew Broderick.

TV series work includes being Arranger and Orchestrator for three seasons of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (including “Antidepressants Are So Not a Big Deal” which won the 2019 Emmy Awards® for Best Song and Choreography); three seasons of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (including “Your Personal Trash Man Can” which was honored with a 2023 Emmy Award® nomination for Best Song), and the Palladino’s next project about the contemporary ballet world, Étoile. David made his professional acting debut on Season 5 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel as the bandleader and announcer for ‘The Gordon Ford Show’. 

Other TV: HBO’s miniseries Love and Death (Choral Arranger and Conductor),  MGM+’s American Classic (Music Consultant and Arranger), plus arranging and orchestrating songs for single episodes in a wide variety of TV programs including The Gilded Age, And Just Like That…, American Horror Story, We Were the Lucky Ones, Future Man, Goliath (“Painkiller” by Adam Schlesinger), and Halston. 

David Chase has conducted numerous film scores, including The Last Showgirl, The Kitchen, and A Quiet Place Part II. He is the Score Supervisor for Spike Lee’s 2025 feature film, Highest 2 Lowest. His arrangements and orchestrations can be heard in Joker: Folie à Deux (“To Love Somebody”), the Bobby Darin biopic Beyond the Sea, Todd Solondz’s Love Child, and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! 

The state of Virginia commissioned David to compose a fanfare for Virginia’s 250th Anniversary. For flautist and fellow Woodson High School grad  Janet Axelrod, David composed the humorous tour-de-force, “Jump Scher(z)”. For three years, he was the Director and Lyricist for the annual gala of The World Science Festival. 

Chase has done multiple arrangements for the Boston Pops and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, including their signature holiday hits, “The 12 Days of Christmas” and “Home for the Holidays”, as well as a Boston-specific version of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”.  His lyrics (most of them parodies) have been featured by the Pops over the years, including a version of “The Wellerman Song” sung by the Dropkick Murphys for a Mother’s Day special, and a celebration of Keith Lockhart’s 30th Anniversary to the tune of Sondheim’s “I’m Still Here”.  He was Arranger and Music Director for several telecasts of Evening at the Pops, as well as for a staged concert of On the Town (helmed by frequent collaborator Kathleen Marshall).

His choral work for Judith Clurman and Essential Voices USA includes the original song cycles Washington Women (which was featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts) and Appalachian Stories (with fiddle player Tessa Lark). His arrangements of “The First Noel”, “Eight Days of Light”, and many others have been performed at Carnegie Hall and throughout the country by numerous choirs and orchestras. His choral works are published by Hal Leonard.

David is dedicated to sharing his knowledge about the history and practice of music in the theatre. He’s taught masterclasses for NYU, Berklee, Harvard, CCM, Elon, Jacob's Pillow, ASMAC, and many more.

He is proud to both celebrate and carry on the tradition of the great Dance Music Arrangers of the American Musical Theatre, particularly Trude Rittman, Genevieve Pitôt, and Peter Howard, without whom the Broadway musical could not exist. 

David lives in New York City with his wife, actress and Drama Desk Award nominee, Paula Leggett Chase, and their two sons, Kyler and Dashiell. 

Learn more at DavidChaseMusic.com.