Neil Berg

Neil is the composer/co-lyricist, along with Pulitzer Prize/TONY-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan, of the award-winning new musical The 12, currently playing its pre-Broadway tryout to much acclaim at the Goodspeed Opera House, directed by TONY award winning Director John Doyle, and produced for Broadway by Cody Lassen and Joe Grano. The 12 previously ran at The Denver Center to unanimous rave reviews and won the 2015 HENRY Award for best new play or musical.

Neil is currently in development as the composer of My Cousin Vinny, a new musical based on the iconic movie, with book/lyrics by original screenwriter Dale Launer.

Neil has two new commissioned musicals opening 2024, The Sabbath Girl at the Penguin Repertory Theatre (directed by Joe Brancato), and How My Grandparents Met at The NJ Rep Theater, both written with playwright/book writer/co-lyricist Cary Gitter.

Neil is the composer for the musical version of Grumpy Old Men: The Musical, based on the Warner Brothers movie classic starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, which had its official US Premiere at The Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine to rave reviews, and La Mirada Theater in LA. starring Cathy Rigby. Other actors include TONY Award winner George Hearn, Marilu Henner, and Carole Kane. It is currently being produced/licensed at many regional and community theaters across the United States. Licensing rights are with TRW (Theatrical Rights Worldwide).

Neil Berg is also the composer/lyricist of the hit Off-Broadway musical The Prince and the Pauper, which ran for two years at the Lambs Theater in New York City. The New York Times raved The Prince and the Pauper "[soars] on wings of theatrical fun." The original cast CD is released internationally on Jay Records, sheet music published by Hal Leonard, and licensing by Samuel French Inc. Songs from this show are also featured with many other classic songs in the official Off-Broadway songbook, published by Hal Leonard.

Neil's holiday musical Tim and Scrooge, with book and lyrics by Nick Meglin (former editor of Mad Magazine), garnered rave reviews December 2015 at the Westchester Broadway Theater in NY. Tim and Scrooge explores what happens ten years after A Christmas Carol and was voted "one of the best musicals" of the inaugural NYMF festival in NYC and garnered a glowing review in the The New York Times after it opened at The Queens Theater in the Park, starring TONY nominee Bobby Steggert. It was also presented as a special reading at the Criterion Theater in the London's West End.

Neil's musical The Man Who Would Be King, written with DJ Salisbury, has been developed with dramaturgical guidance by Moises Kaufman of the Tetonic Theater Project, and the fully orchestrated CD recording, featuring Mandy Gonzalez (Hamilton), Brian d'Arcy James, and Marc Kudisch can be purchased at www.neilberg.com.

It had a developmental reading/workshop at The Village Theater in Issaquah, WA, directed by Tony Award winner Brian Yorkey (Next To Normal, If/Then). This followed a staged reading at the Rubicon Theater in CA.

Neil is also currently working with writer Jonathan Feldman (screenwriter of Swing Kids movie) and Emmy/Oscar-winning producer Mark Gordon (Grey's Anatomy, Saving Private Ryan) on a new contemporary musical called Never Grimm, based on a modern mashup of Mother Goose/Grimm�s fairytales.

Neil also composed the musical Heidi, book by Julia Jordan and commissioned by Douglas Love and the Walden Family Theater. Heidi ran for over eighty performances in its regional premiere in Denver.

His musical Hexed in the City, with book by Tom Mills, played Off-Broadway at the Zipper Theater, produced by The Sonnet Repertory Theater.

Other commissioned works include Percy Penguin for the Penguin Repertory Theater (Joe Brancato, Artistic Director), Threads for the Helen Hayes Theater in Nyack, NY, and False Profits at The Theater Off-Park in NYC.

As a film composer, Neil recently scored, and was the musical supervisor for the 2013 released film "Once upon a Time in Brooklyn," starring Armand Assante, Ice-T, William DeMeo, and Cathy Moriarity. It is released theatrically by Grindstone, the independent division of Lions Gate. Neil was also the composer/music supervisor on the feature film "Searching for Bobby D," featuring Carmen Electra, Sandra Bernhard, and Mario Cantone.

Neil was also the recipient of the 1995 Bistro Award for Best Musical for his show Asylum in the Night, a revue of Neil's theater music. Neil had an evening dedicated to his music at Joe's Pub, produced by BrodwayWorld.com, and returned to Feinstein's for a two-week engagement in July 2011 after a sold-out performance in 2010. Neil studied musical composition with Robert Printz, Sue Peters, and is a product of The BMI Musical Writer's Workshop, mentored by Maury Yeston and Skip Kennon.

As a producer, Neil is the creator and co-producer, along with his producing partner Adam Friedson, of Neil Berg's 100 Years of Broadway and 50 Years of Rock & Roll, which continues to be one of the top Broadway touring concerts in the United States, playing over 100 shows a year for the past sixteen years. You can find a current schedule at www.neilberg.com.

Neil was also one of the lead producers and driving force of the award-winning 2013 Off-Broadway revival of Maltby and Shire's Closer Than Ever at The York Theater. Neil's guidance brought the show first to Queens Theater in the Park and The Bristol Riverside Theater with original stars Lynn Wintersteller and Sally Mayes, before recasting the show when it came into NYC, with Christiane Noll, Jenn Colella, George Dvorsky, Sal Viviano, and Rita Harvey. Reviews were some of the strongest in the 2012-2013 NYC theater season and led to winning the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Musical Revival.

As owner of Leftfield Productions, Inc., an entertainment Company based in Nyack, NY, Neil has produced over a thousand Broadway concerts worldwide with such legends as Michael Crawford, Bernadette Peters, Ben Vereen, Audra McDonald, Betty Buckley, Rita Moreno, Donna McKechnie, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Jeremy Jordan, Norm Lewis, Liz Callaway, Alice Ripley, Stephanie Block, Capathia Jenkins and many others.

Neil created A Night of Broadway Stars, a concert series which features many of Broadway's top stars, and which tours across the country performing in various cities to raise awareness and money for Covenant House, an organization which shelters and feeds homeless teens. Over the past 20 years, Neil has helped raise over $40 million.

Neil co-created and produces an annual concert called GOODSTOCK, which uses both local and national talent to raise money for People to People, an organization that feeds the homeless and hungry in Rockland County, New York.

Neil also produced a concert version of the Broadway musical The Secret Garden, in association with its composer Lucy Simon. He has also produced concert versions of The Mystery of Edwin Drood (NYC), Chess (John Houseman Theater), and Jesus Christ Superstar.

Neil was the producing artistic director of The Broadway Series at the world-famous China Club in NYC. Over the past 25 years, Neil has been the musical director/entertainment coordinator for such great organizations as Covenant House and The Leukemia Society of America. He has produced countless corporate events across the world for Goldman Sachs, UBS/Paine Webber, Deloitte Touche, John Hancock, Marriott Corporation, IBM, The United Hospice Organization, The American Red Cross, and many others.

In May of 2012, Neil was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for his artistry and dedication to community service. Neil was also honored with the Distinguished Citizen's Award, along with Academy Award-winning actress Ellen Burstyn, by The Rockland Family Shelter, for his efforts on behalf of abused women. Neil was honored in 2001 as The American Red Cross Man of the Year and was honored again in 2003 by The United Hospice Foundation. In 2008, Neil was awarded Artist of the Year by the Arts Council of Rockland County.

Neil also toured the U.S. with the rock band Joe D'Urso & Stone Caravan and played on their past ten CDs as well as performed with them on the 100 Year Anniversary Open Road Tour for Harley Davidson. Neil was heard on radios around the country with his jingle for Shock Coffee.

Neil is the co-founder of the SJR Theater Workshop, a theater camp for students in Montvale, NJ, which instructs over 200 young actors/singers a year.

Neil is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild, and can be reached at NeilBerg.com.

Neil is married to actress Rita Harvey and dedicates everything to her and their son, Lucas David Berg.