Cast & Creative

John Logan (Book) received the Tony award for his play Red. He wrote the book for the musicals Moulin Rouge, The Last Ship, Superhero and Swept Away. As a screenwriter, John has been nominated for the Oscar three times and has received Golden Globe, BAFTA, WGA, Edgar, and PEN Center awards. His film work includes Skyfall, Gladiator, The Aviator, Spectre, Hugo, Rango, Alien: Covenant, Genius, They/Them, Coriolanus, Sweeney Todd, The Last Samurai, Any Given Sunday, and RKO 281. He created the television series “Penny Dreadful” for Showtime. His movie Michael, about the life of Michael Jackson, will premiere next year.

The Avett Brothers (Music and Lyrics), three-time Grammy Award nominees, made mainstream waves with their critically acclaimed 2009 major label debut, I and Love and You. In 2012, The Carpenter hit #4 on the Billboard 200, followed by Magpie and the Dandelion in 2013, which debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200. The 2017 documentary May It Last: A Portrait of The Avett Brothers (co-directed by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio) chronicles the process of writing 2016’s True Sadness, which debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top Albums, #1 on Rock Albums, #3 on the Billboard 200, and scored two Grammy nominations. The film was released theatrically and on HBO to rave reviews and is available on DVD/BluRay/VOD. In 2019, the band released their tenth studio album Closer Than Together featuring the single “High Steppin’” which reached #1 on the Americana Radio Singles Chart. The Third Gleam came out amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Americana/Folk Albums, #1 Rock Albums, #1 Vinyl Albums, and the single “Victory” hit #1 on the Americana Radio Singles Chart. This year saw the release of The Avett Brothers, an album that is as much untitled as it is self-titled: a collection of songs that revealed themselves naturally over time. The Avett Brothers have been inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame and recently earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Association. Catch them on tour in a city near you!

Broadway: Swept Away (Berkeley Rep, Arena Stage, Longacre) (Helen Hayes Award Nomination), Hadestown (Chita Rivera Award, Tony, Drama Desk, Lortel nominations). Metropolitan Opera: Grounded. David’s original work as artistic director of Advanced Beginner Group has been presented in New York at PS 122, New York Live Arts, The Kitchen, Symphony Space, Abrons Arts Center, The Chocolate Factory and The Whitney. ABG has also performed at the Walker Art Center, Jacob’s Pillow, MASS MoCA, and MCA Chicago, among others. Recent projects include The Welkin (Atlantic Theater Co.), directing Geoff Sobelle in The Object Lesson (New York Theatre Workshop, BAM) and choreography for Underground Railroad Game (Ars Nova), An Octoroon (Soho Rep), and The Antipodes (Signature Theatre). Film: I Am Legend, various Hal Hartley films, A Marriage Story, and White Noise (Noah Baumbach). David is the recipient of three NY Dance & Performance Bessie Awards, including Best Production in 2015 for I Understand Everything Better. He is currently a professor of theatre at Sarah Lawrence College.

Michael Mayer (Direction) Recent work includes the national tour of A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical which he directed on Broadway, the national tour of his hit Broadway revival of Funny Girl as well as the long-running off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors playing at the Westside Theatre.

He directed the world premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s opera Grounded at the Washington National Opera which will open the Metropolitan Opera season this fall. He’s directed over 20 Broadway shows including Spring Awakening, American Idiot, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, A View From the Bridge, Side Man, Burn This, Head Over Heels, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, as well as many shows in off-Broadway, regional, and international theaters. Film and TV credits include Single All the Way, The Seagull, Flicka, A Home at the End of the World, and Smash (Pilot and Season One). Metropolitan Opera productions: the upcoming Aida, Rigoletto, La Traviata, and Marnie. He’s the recipient of Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, Jefferson, and Carbonell awards. He serves on the Boards of SDC (Stage Directors and Choreographers Society) and the Arthur Miller Foundation.

Broadway: Hadestown, Good Night Oscar, How I Learned To Drive, What The Constitution Means To Me, Latin History For Morons. Recent work: Cats: The Jellicle Ball (PAC), Galileo: A Rock Musical (Berkeley Rep),  Swept Away (Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep), Song of Rome (Spoletto), Is It Thursday Yet (PAC), and Jill Sobule’s F*ck 7th Grade (Wild Project). Rachel is honored to be the recipient of Princess Grace and Lilly Awards; UCLAs Distinguished Alumni Award, OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence, Jeff Award and Tony Nomination for Good Night Oscar, and a Tony Award for her design of Hadestown.

Susan Hilferty (Costume Designer) has designed costumes and scenery for over 400 productions across the globe. Broadway credits include Wicked (Tony, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama Desk Awards), Parade, Funny Girl, Present Laughter, Spring Awakening, Lestat, Into the Woods, and August Wilson’s Radio Golf. Her many directorial collaborations include Athol Fugard (over 40 productions), Joe Mantello, Yaël Farber, James Lapine, Michael Mayer, Richard Nelson, Tony Kushner, JoAnne Akalaitis, Arin Arbus, Des McAnuff, Rebecca Taichman, and the late Garland Wright. Hilferty has also designed for opera (Rigoletto, Traviata, and the upcoming Aida for the Metropolitan Opera); dance (Love Stories for Alvin Ailey), and live events (Taylor Swift’s Speak Now world tour and Ringling Bros. Circus). Hilferty’s many honors include the USITT Lifetime Achievement Award, the Irene Sharaff Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Alley Theater Award for Lifetime Achievement, an Obie for Sustained Excellence in Design, the Lilly Award, the Ruth Morley Design Award, and many more. Hilferty also received a 2023 Tony Award nomination for Best Costume Design of a Musical for Parade. Hilferty is on the Graduate Design faculty at NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, having served as Chair for 25 years. www.susanhilferty.com

Kevin Adams (Lighting Design) has received 4 Tony Awards for his work on Broadway, which includes Funny Girl, A Beautiful Noise, The Cher Show, Spongebob SquarePants the Musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, American Idiot, Next to Normal, The 39 Steps, Spring Awakening, Hair, Passing Strange, Everyday Rapture, Take Me Out (original prod), A Class Act and Head Over Heels. Off-Broadway includes the original 1998 production of Hedwig, The Scottsboro Boys, Carrie, The Donkey Show, many others. He has designed solo shows for Eric Bogosian, John Leguizamo, Anna Deveare Smith, Eve Ensler, Sandra Bernhard, Michael Moore, Audra McDonald, Kate Mulgrew, Kevin Bacon, Cloris Leachman and Miss Faye Dunaway. Metropolitan Opera: Grounded, Aida, Rigoletto, L’Amour de Loin, Marnie, La Traviata.

John Shivers (Sound Design) credits include: The Heart of Rock and Roll, Shucked (2023 Tony and Drama Desk Award nominee), Beauty and the Beast, Pretty Woman, Gettin’ The Band Back Together, Cirque du Soleil’s Paramour, Kinky Boots (2013 Tony Award recipient), Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway, Leap of Faith, Bonnie and Clyde, Sister Act, 9 to 5, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Little Mermaid, Tarzan, Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays. International: Wicked, Tarzan, The Lion King, Regional: The Muny (2015-present), Galileo, Swept Away, Trading Places, The Wanderer, Becoming Nancy, 42nd St., First Wives Club, Nutty Professor, Tales of the City, Emma, Ace. Associate: Mary Poppins, Hairspray, The Producers, The Lion King, Titanic, Big, How to Succeed… , The Who’s Tommy, Buddy Holly Story, Other credits include: Dionne Warwick, Burt Bacharach, Gregory Hines and engineering at Electric Lady Studios.

Brian Usifer (Music Supervisor/Musical Arrangements and Orchestrations)’s Broadway credits include The Heart of Rock and Roll (Music Supervision/Arrangements/Orchestrations), A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical (Arrangements, Orchestrations), Disney’s Frozen (Music Director, Additional Arrangements), Kinky Boots (Music Director, Additional Arrangements, Associate Music Supervisor – Tour, London, and Toronto), and The Book of Mormon (Associate Music Supervisor). Regional credits include Chess at The Kennedy Center, Swept Away at Berkeley Rep, The Heart of Rock & Roll at The Old Globe, Afterwords at Seattle 5th Avenue, and Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money at the Atlantic. Other highlights include An Evening with Kristen & Bobby Lopez at Lincoln Center, NBC’s Annie Live! (Additional Orchestrations), and The Wiz Live! (Additional Orchestrations). Brian can be heard as a pianist on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” on Amazon. www.brianusifer.com Instagram: @brianusifer

Chris Miller (Music Arrangements & Orchestrations) Composer ofTuck Everlasting (Broadway), The Burnt Part Boys (Playwrights Horizons/Vineyard, Lortel nominee for Best Musical), Fugitive Songs (Drama Desk nominee for Outstanding Revue), and Dreamland, for the EdTA and Concord Theatricals, cast albums available everywhere. He contributed songs to PBS’s The Electric Company, Sesame Street, and Elmo’s World, and scripts for two Barnum & Bailey Circuses. In progress: book, music & lyrics for Ravello (Signature Theatre’s American Musical Voices Project), andThe Goats, a commission for Barbara Whitman/Grove Entertainment;Prairie Songs and April Twilights, for soprano and orchestra setting the poetry of Willa Cather; with Nathan Tysen, Revival, based on a story by Willa Cather, for Playwrights Horizons/TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, and Blown Sideways Through Life (book by Claudia Shear), among other things. Instagram/Twitter: @@ckevinmiller

WILL VAN DYKE (Music Director) is an award-winning songwriter, music supervisor, orchestrator and arranger working in theatre, television and film. Will’s film and NY theatre credits include Theater Camp, Little Shop of Horrors, Pretty Woman, The Heart of Rock and Roll, Kinky Boots, Rent, The Addams Family and Wicked. Will writes musicals with Jeff Talbott and has a band. @WVDmusic

MATTHEW LEINER (Production StageManager). Broadway: Dear Evan Hansen, Harry Potter…Cursed Child, West Side Story, King Kong, School of Rock, Finding Neverland, If/Then, Wicked, Fiddler on the Roof, The Phantom of the Opera and Hollywood Arms. Tour: The Phantom of the Opera, Sister Act, Mary Poppins, Wicked, Jersey Boys. Love to Claudia and Archer.

ALICE M. POLLITT (Stage Manager). Broadway: Ain’t No Mo’, A Strange Loop, West Side Story, King Kong, A Bronx Tale, American Psycho, Noises Off, Aladdin. First national tour: Finding Neverland. Regional: Disney Theatrical Group, The Public Theater, New York City Center Gala. Love to John.

ALEXANDER ALLEN (Assistant Stage Manager) is a graduate from Indiana University, from which he received his BA in theatre. Broadway: A Beautiful Noise, Slave Play, Macbeth. Off-Broadway: The Enigmatist, Our Labyrinth, Deep Blue Sea. Thankful for his supportive family!

BRIAN LYNN (Assistant Stage Manager). Broadway: Grey House, SIX, A Beautiful Noise, Life of Pi, Funny Girl. Off-Broadway: N/A. National tours: Wicked, Tina—The Tina Turner Musical. Ineffable gratitude to his friends, family, mentors and the entire Swept Away team.