Beaches - Broadway Creative Team

David Austin, composer, lyricist, playwright, and orchestrator, is the recipient of The Stephen Sondheim Artist Citation. Mr. Austin's songs have been performed and recorded by Tony winners Kelli O’Hara, and Sutton Foster, Primetime Emmy winner Megan Mullally, Saturday Night Live alumni, Ana Gasteyer TV/film/Broadway's, Cheyenne Jackson, Caroline in the City's, Malcolm Gets, and Broadway’s finest, including Tony nominees Caitlin Kinnunen (‘The Prom’), and Nancy Opel (‘Urinetown’). He has written the book, music, and lyrics to 26 original musicals, including ‘Writing Arthur Danby’, ‘The Innocence’, ‘Every Little Vow’, and ‘Mr. Scrooge’s Christmas Carol’. His adaptation of ‘The Little Prince’ garnered his ... read more Ken Billington is a highly acclaimed lighting designer with over 50 years of experience in the theatre industry. Born in 1944 in Long Island, New York, Billington attended Hofstra University where he studied theatre and lighting design. After graduating, he began his career as a lighting designer in the Off-Broadway scene in the 1960s, eventually making his way to Broadway. Billington has designed the lighting for over 100 Broadway productions, including the original productions of Sweeney Todd, Chicago, and The Drowsy Chaperone. He has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design 21 times, winning three times for his ... read more Collaborations with Lonny Price include Sunset Boulevard and the upcoming Carousel for the English National Opera in London, Sweeney Todd, Candide, and Company at Avery Fisher Hall with the New York Philharmonic, and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill (film for HBO with Audra McDonald). Other projects include Souvenir (Broadway), West Side Story (Carnegie Hall 125th Anniversary), The Pirates of Penzance (starring Deborah Voigt), Abundance (Hartford Stage), The Other Place (Alley), Guys and Dolls (Goodspeed, CT Critics Circle nomination), The Heidi Chronicles (Trinity Rep), Seussical (TheatreworksUSA, Lucille Lortel nomination) and ten seasons with the Chautauqua Theatre Company. Faculty member: ... read more Broadway: Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill (Associate Director), 110 in the Shade (Assistant Director). London: Sunset Boulevard (Associate Director). Film/TV credits include: Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened (Co-Producer); SINATRA: Voice for a Century (Producer and Co-Director); Sweeney Todd (Co-Producer and Associate Director, Emmy Award). Education: University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Member: SDC. Iris Rainer Dart is a best-selling novelist of nine novels, notably Beaches, which was made into a film starring Bette Midler. She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where her father was a social worker at the Irene Kaufman Settlement in the Hill District. Iris appeared as a child on the stage of the Curtaineers, the first inter-racial theater group at the Settlement house. She went on to attend classes at the Pittsburgh Playhouse from the time she was six, and was a child actress at both the Pittsburgh Playhouse and The White Barn Theater. Iris received her degree in theater ... read more Broadway: Amelie; Sunday in the Park With George; Allegiance; Gigi; Fun Home; On the Town; First Date; Follies (Tony Award & Drama Desk Nominations); and Million Dollar Quartet. Other: A Legendary Romance; Poster Boy (Williamstown); Beaches (Drury Lane); Brooklynite (Vineyard); Little Dancer and First You Dream (Kennedy Center); Zorro (Moscow; Atlanta); Hinterm Horizont (Berlin); Sweeney Todd and Man of La Mancha (Portland Opera); and She Loves Me (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). Audio Consultant for the revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Education: Yale University. Broadway: The Visit, The Real Thing, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Motown, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Peter and the Starcatcher, All About Me, and Next to Normal. Off-Broadway: Himself & Nora, Invisible Thread, Perfect Arrangement, The Tempest, Pretty Filthy, and Father Comes Home from the Wars. TV/Film: Mozart in the Jungle, Gotham, Inside Amy Schumer, God’s Pocket, Six by Sondheim, 30 Rock, Lola Versus, and Angelica. His early career was spent performing in Off-Broadway productions, including Class Enemy in 1979, for which he won a Theater World Award for outstanding stage debut. His first major Broadway credit was the ill-fated Stephen Sondheim/Hal Prince/George Furth musical Merrily We Roll Along (1981), which underwent constant changes during an unusually long preview period and closed after only sixteen performances. His next show, the Athol Fugard play "Master Harold"...and the Boys - in which he portrayed a South African student opposite Danny Glover and Zakes Mokae as the family servants - ran for eight months. Possibly his most significant Off-Broadway stage credit ... read more Broadway: Aladdin (also Dance Captain), Rock of Ages (Dance Captain). Other favorite NYC credits: Into the Woods (Lucinda, Delacorte Theatre), Radio City Rockette. First National Tours: Spamalot, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. TV: "Boardwalk Empire," "The Get Down," "Mozart in the Jungle." Film: The Last Five Years. R+A. www.jenniferrias.com. Charlie Rosen is a Tony Award–winning and Grammy-nominated composer and orchestrator whose music has been heard on stages and screens around the world. Recent Broadway credits include Some Like It Hot (Orchestrations); Be More Chill (Music Sup./Orchestrations); Moulin Rouge! (Orchestrations, Tony Award); Prince of Broadway (Orchestrations); American Psycho (Assoc. MD/Keys); The Visit (Guitar/Zither); Honeymoon in Vegas (Orchestrations); Cyrano de Bergerac (Composer); One Man, Two Guv’nors (Music Director, Bass); 13 The Musical (Guitars, Bass, Keys), Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Assoc. MD, Bass, addl. Orch.). Mike Stoller is one-half of the legendary songwriting team of Leiber & Stoller. Together with Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller has been writing songs for almost sixty years. Not content to be confined to one musical style, they have created enduring classics in a variety of genres including Rhythm & Blues, Pop, Country, Jazz, Cabaret, and - perhaps most notably - Rock & Roll. If Elvis Presley was the king of Rock & Roll, then Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were certainly two of the most important powers behind that throne. It's impossible to think of Elvis without thinking of "Hound ... read more