Jelly's Last Jam - Broadway Creative Team

Susan Birkenhead is an American lyricist. Birkenhead made her Broadway debut as one of a team of songwriters contributing to Working (1978), for which she received her first Tony Award nomination. Her second was earned for Jelly's Last Jam (1992), which won her the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics and a Grammy Award nomination. Additional Broadway credits include Triumph of Love (Drama Desk nomination) and additional lyrics for the Cole Porter tunes in the 1998 revival of High Society. Birkenhead's Off-Broadway and regional theatre credits include What About Luv?, a musical adaptation of the Murray Schisgal play Luv, for which she ... read more Theatre directing credits include The Iceman Cometh, Shuffle Along, or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed (NY Drama Critics' Circle Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Musical); Lucky Guy; The Normal Heart (Drama Desk); Jelly's Last Jam (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award); Angels in America: Millennium Approaches (Tony Award and Drama Desk) and Perestroika (Drama Desk); Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk (Tony and Drama League Award); Topdog/Underdog (Obie Award); Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (Drama Desk); Elaine Stritch at Liberty (Tony for Special Theatrical Event); The Tempest; Caroline, or ... read more Herb Alpert is an American trumpeter who led Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass in the 1960s. During the same decade, he co-founded A&M Records with Jerry Moss. His career as a musician includes recording five No. 1 albums and 28 albums on the Billboard magazine album chart, fourteen platinum albums, fifteen gold albums, and nine Grammy Awards. He has sold 72 million records worldwide.[1] Alpert is the only musician to hit No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop chart as both a vocalist ("This Guy's in Love with You", 1968) and an instrumentalist ("Rise", 1979). Broadway: Billy Elliot, Legally Blonde, Lestat, The Glass Menagerie, Bombay Dreams, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Real Thing, The Scarlet Pimpernel (versions 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0), Victor/Victoria, The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public and Jelly’s Last Jam. Encores! at City Center: A Connecticut Yankee, Bloomer Girl, Hair. In a celebrated career spanning almost 40 years, Jules Fisher has lit over 200 Broadway and off-Broadway shows, as well as film, ballet, opera, television, and rock-and-roll concert tours. He has received 18 Tony nominations and won 8 Tony awards for Lighting Design, a record in this category. His most recent project, "Assassins", (2004 Tony award) also won him the Drama Desk and Outer Critic's Circle awards. His previous Tony awards were for "Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk," 1996; "Jelly's Last Jam," 1992; "The Will Rogers Follies," 1991; "Grand Hotel," 1990; "Dancin'," 1978; "Ulysses in Nighttown," 1973; ... read more Gregory Hines was a jazz tap dancer, singer, actor, musician and choreographer as well as an avid improviser of tap steps, tap sounds, and tap rhythms alike. His improvisation was like that of a drummer, doing a solo and coming up with rhythms. He also improvised the phrasing of a number of tap steps, mainly based on sound produced. Hines made his Broadway debut with his brother in The Girl in Pink Tights in 1954. He earned Tony Award nominations for Eubie! (1979), Comin' Uptown (1980), and Sophisticated Ladies (1981), and won the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Jelly's ... read more Broadway: Bernhardt/Hamlet; Come From Away; August Wilson’s Jitney; Amazing Grace; Lucky Guy; The Scottsboro Boys; Finian’s Rainbow; Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; King Hedley II; One Mo’ Time; The Wild Party; Marie Christine; Footloose; The Tempest; Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; Angels in America: Millennium Approaches & Perestroika; Chronicle of a Death Foretold; and Jelly’s Last Jam. Off-Broadway: The Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage, Soho Rep, Lincoln Center Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Manhattan Theatre Club, and the Roundabout Theatre, among others. Regional: Berkeley Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Steppenwolf, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, the ... read more Producer, married to Gregory Hines Lion is best known for her role in producing Hairspray. Originally, Lion worked in politics, but after spending three years at the University of Iowa's Playwrights Workshop where her former husband, Ted Nemeth, was a graduate student, Lion's focus turned from education to her earlier interest in theater. Lion's cousin, MacArthur Award recipient and director/choreographer Martha Clarke, introduced Lion to Lyn Austin from whom she learned the ropes with Austin's not-for-profit company, Music-Theater Group/Lenox Arts Center. The first musical Lion produced on Broadway was Jelly's Last Jam, based on Jelly Roll Morton and the origins of jazz. Other notable Broadway credits include Angels in ... read more Winner of three Tony Awards and London’s Olivier Award, producer Hal Luftig has worked on and Off-Broadway for the past 25 years. Broadway: Evita, Catch Me If You Can, Come Fly Away, West Side Story, All My Sons, Legally Blonde, The Times They Are A-Changin’, Whoopi, Movin’ Out, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Annie Get Your Gun, High Society, The Diary of Anne Frank, Play On!, The King and I, Moon Over Buffalo, Angels in America, Jelly’s Last Jam, Death and the Maiden, The Secret Garden. Hal has an M.F.A. from Columbia University/ Recent Broadway: Lennon, Sweeney Todd, The Producers, Beauty & the Beast, Hairspray, Movin’ Out, Sweet Charity, Good Vibrations, Dracula, Caroline or Change, Little Shop…, Thoroughly Modern Millie, 42nd St, Urinetown, Nine, La Boheme, Big River, Boys From Syracuse, Look of Love, Urban Cowboy, Never Gonna Dance, Thou Shalt Not, By Jeeves, Follies, Oklahoma!, Jekyll and Hyde, Rocky Horror Show, Seussical, The Music Man, Fosse, Swing!, Parade, Footloose, Kat and the Kings, Civil War, Triumph of Love. Studio Musician (bass): Michael Jackson, Madonna, Portishead, Eric Clapton, BB King, Sinatra, Carly Simon, Celine Dion, Smashing Pumpkins, Pete Seeger, NY Philharmonic. Credits include: Memphis, Xanadu; Chita Rivera, The Dancer's Life; Marie Christine; Scarlet Pimpernel; Triumph of Love; Victor/Victoria; The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public; Jelly's Last Jam; Me And My Girl; Singin' in the Rain; The Three Musketeers; Zorba; Marilyn; An American Fable; 42nd Street ('80 & 2001); Angel; and Shenandoah. Wagner was born in San Francisco, the son of Phyllis Edna Catherine (née Smith-Spurgeon) and Jens Otto Wagner. His mother was from New Zealand and his father was from Denmark. He attended art school and started his career in theatres in that city with designs for Don Pasquale, Amahl and the Night Visitors, Tea and Sympathy, and Waiting for Godot, among others. In 1958, he relocated to New York City, where he worked on numerous off-Broadway productions before making his Broadway debut as an assistant designer for the Hugh Wheeler play Big Fish, Little Fish in 1961. His first solo ... read more