8th Annual Festival of New Musicals

Stephen Cole is an award-winning writer whose 25 year career in the theatre had taken him and his musicals from New York City to London to the Middle East and Australia. His off-Broadway musical AFTER THE FAIR (music by Matthew Ward; winner of 5 Dallas Theatre Awards for it’s world premiere) was nominated for the Outer Critic’s Circle Award for Best Musical and was subsequently produced in London to great acclaim. The original cast CD featuring Tony winner Michele Pawk won several awards. A 20th Anniversary concert was presented to great acclaim. THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (music by Claibe Richardson) won the prestigious Edward Kleban Award for Stephen and was produced in San Francisco where it was nominated for several Bay Area Theatre Awards. The musical has subsequently been produced in NYC as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2006 and was produced at Lyric Stage in Dallas with a full orchestra. The award winning concept CD features Ron Raines and Dorothy Loudon and was the recipient of a German music critics Award. SATURDAY NIGHT AT GROSSINGER’S (music by Claibe Richardson) has had successful runs in Dallas (Starring Gavin MacLeod), LA and Florida. Broadway legend Chita Rivera toured in his show CASPER (music by Matthew Ward) This past fall CASPER was reborn as CASPER-THE FRIENDLY MUSICAL and played to rave reviews at Cincinnati Children’s Theatre. Hal Linden and Dee Hoty starred in the world premiere of his musical adaptation of DODSWORTH (music by Jeffrey Saver). Stephen has been represented off Broadway with the hilarious PIANO BAR at the Triad. In 2005 Stephen and composer David Krane were commissioned to write the first American musical to premiere in the Middle East and the result was ASPIRE, which was produced in Qatar. Their amazing and hilarious cross-cultural experiences resulted in yet another musical about the creation of the show entitled THE ROAD TO QATAR! which was produced to rave reviews at the Lyric Stage, had a successful run Off-Broadway, has been recorded by Jay Records and played at the Edinburgh International Festival garnering a Best Musical nomination. It is licensed by Josef Weinberger in London. Krane and Cole also wrote a short movie musical entitled THE WHEEL GOES ROUND that was accepted and shown at five International Film Festivals including The Big Apple Film Festival in NYC. Saver and Cole’s new musical TIME AFTER TIME had its world premiere in Feb. 2010 at the Pittsburgh Playhouse under the direction of Gabriel Barre. Other produced shows include MERLIN’S APPRENTICE and ROCK ODYSSEY, which had 10 seasons of productions at the Adrienne Arscht Center Miami. With David Evans, Stephen has written MERMAN’S APPRENTICE, which was a smash hit at Birdland in NYC and has a cast album on Jay Records, as well as playing in Autumn of 2019 to rave reviews in Sonoma and winning the SF Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Score. Stephen has five published books (one under option as a feature film), including THAT BOOK ABOUT THAT GIRL and I COULD HAVE SUNG ALL NIGHT, the Marni Nixon story (currently in development as a feature film), NOEL COWARD and Charles Strouse’s memoir PUT ON A HAPPY FACE. Stephen has penned ten award winning short stories and several articles published and translated under the banner of the Vienna Jewish Museum, where has also lectured. His first novel is, MARY, ETHEL…AND MIKEY WHO?, a time travel/showbiz/coming of age that takes a nerdy 30 year old threw Ethel Merman’s closet back in time and forward again. Stephen has just completed a new novel entitled 2020 and is working on a memoir of his incredible experience in the Middle East, THE ROAD TO QATAR!

Stephen has created and executive produced a new awards winning web-series entitled CONEY ISLAND SURPRISE starring Anita Gillette.

Stephen has written continuity, narration, and special material for fifteen different Drama League Shows including all star tributes to Kander and Ebb, Liza Minnelli, Chita Rivera, , Liz Smith, Peter Stone, Angela Lansbury, Patti LuPone, Kristin Chenoweth, Audra McDonald and Neil Patrick Harris. Some of the stars Stephen has written material for include Marlo Thomas, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters, Donna Murphy, Christine Baranski, Hal Linden, Chita Rivera, Gavin MacLeod, Dee Hoty, Christine Ebersole, Keith Carradine, JoAnne Worley, Lauren Bacall, Matthew Broderick, Michael Rupert, Joel Grey and many others. Stephen is the recipient of a Gilman-Gonzales Falla Commendation for musical theatre.

Jack Herrick

Artistic Director: The Red Clay Ramblers
Music and Lyrics: Guthrie Theater, Playmakers Repertory Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Folger Theater: Pericles; Repertory Theater of St. Louis: Georama,The Merry Wives of Windsor, Texas, Bah! Humbug!; Folger Theatre: Hamlet; Kennedy Center: Fool Moon; Ford’s Theatre: Kudzu; Broadway: Richard Rodgers Theatre, Ambassador Theatre, Brooks Atkinson Theatre: Fool Moon. Off-Broadway: Promenade Theatre: A Lie of the Mind; Playwrights Horizons: Wilder; John Houseman Theatre: Lonestar Love; Lincoln Center: Big Apple Circus. International: Theater Company of Wales, Altoner Theater of Hamburg: A Child’s Christmas in Wales. Awards: Tony Award (Fool Moon), Kevin Kline Award (Bah! Humbug!), Lucille Lortel nomination (Lonestar Love), Drama Desk nomination (A Lie of the Mind, Fool Moon), Helen Hayes nomination (Hamlet).

In 1960, Tom Jones and composer Harvey Schmidt wrote THE FANTASTICKS, which ran for forty-two years Off-Broadway (and is now approaching its tenth year in revival) followed by the musicals 110 IN THE SHADE, I DO! I DO! , CELEBRATION, COLETTE COLLAGE and others. After the retirement of Mr. Schmidt in 2004, Mr. Jones has been working with composer Joseph Thalken on a musical version of HAROLD & MAUDE, which is expecting a London opening next year, and with composer Jacques Offenbach (abetted by Nancy Ford) on a musical version of the Anatol plays of Schnitzler called THE GAME OF LOVE. Working on LA TEMPESTA with the talented young composer Andrew Gerle represents the realization of a life long dream.

Daniel’s original music for theater includes scores for more than 40 NYC and regional productions with HERE Arts Center, BAX, New Dramatists, the York Theater, Shakespeare & Co., Orlando Shakespeare Festival, Imagination Stage, Manhattan Ensemble Theater, La MaMa, Dance Theater Workshop, Juilliard, and Fordham University Lincoln Center. His opera The Singing (librettist Lenora Champagne) won the Richard Rodgers Award in 1999. His full-length work includes Laughing Pictures – A Hollywood Odyssey (a rock/R&B musical, librettist Matthew Maguire) and Martian Chronicles. Artist residencies include the Hermitage Artist Retreat, and 2 years as a HARP Artist in Residence at HERE Arts Center NYC. Levy has received support from the Richard Rodgers Foundation, Loewe Foundation, Henson Foundation, The Hermitage, Jerome Foundation, New Dramatists, Goethe Institute, Vanden Heuvel Foundation, and Meet the Composer. Education: Bachelor’s in Music Composition Miami University & Master’s NYU/Tisch in Musical Theater Writing. Membership: ASCAP and The Dramatists Guild.

ED LINDERMAN….has worked On and Off-Broadway as: Composer/Author (Something’s Afoot; Broadway Jukebox); Performer (Fiddler On The Roof; The NY Shakespeare Festival’s Two Gentlemen of Verona); and Musical Director (Godspell; Scrambled Feet; Upstairs at the Downstairs; Ionescopade) to mention just a few of his shows. He began his career at Chicago’s Second City, as a Musical Director for the main company, and original cast member of their Midwest Touring Co. He has taught at Penn State, AMDA. Shenandoah, and Northwestern Universities. In addition to THE ZIMMER GIRLS, he has written music for FRAGRANT HARBOUR (book & lyrics by Dean Barrett-presented by NAMT in 1996), and A GIRL SINGER (book & lyrics by Robert Brittan, work-shopped at Musical Theater Works). Mr. Linderman is a member of The Dramatists Guild, Actors Equity, and is an alum of the Lehman Engel / BMI Musical Theater Workshop.