IVAN MENCHELL (Book) Broadway credits include Bonnie & Clyde (book), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (additional material), and The Cemetery Club. Off-Broadway/Tours include Smiling Through (book), The Prince & The Pauper (book), The Surprise Party. For the screen, Mr. Menchell wrote an adaptation of his play, The Cemetery Club, starring Ellen Burstyn, Diane Ladd, and Olympia Dukakis; is co-writer of Samuel Goldwyn’s Napoleon; and served as a writer on Universal’s animated feature, Curious George. An Emmy nominated television writer, he created the critically acclaimed Showtime series, Bedtime and has served as Writer/Co-Executive Producer on Disney Channel’s Phil of The Future and JONAS, starring the Jonas Brothers. He was also a writer/producer on the long-running CBS comedy The Nanny, and the FOX dramatic series Time of Your Life, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt. Ivan is the recipient of a Fulbright fellowship for his playwriting and a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

DON BLACK (Lyrics) started out as a standup comedian and blames himself entirely for the death of Variety. He made his West End debut as a theatre lyricist with composer John Barry on the musical Billy, starring Michael Crawford at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London. Don received two Broadway Tony Awards for best book and lyrics of a musical for his work on Sunset Boulevard. This marked his third theatrical collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber. They first joined forces to write the song cycle Tell Me On A Sunday, which was developed to form the basis of the stage show Song and Dance. They were reunited for Aspects of Love. Don has also added songs to Andrew’s stage shows Starlight Express and Whistle Down The Wind. He also wrote lyrics for the Andrew Lloyd Webber produced musical Bombay Dreams. In a career that has won him many glittering prizes (an Oscar for his song “Born Free,” five Academy Award nominations, two Tony Awards plus three Tony nominations, Five Ivor Novello Awards, a Golden Globe and many platinum, gold and silver discs) he has worked with some of the world’s leading composers: Jule Styne, Henry Mancini, Quincy Jones, Elmer Bernstein, Marvin Hamlisch, Charles Aznavour, etc. Don has written over a hundred songs for motion picture including The Italian Job, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, True Grit, Dances With Wolves, Out of Africa and a quintet of James Bond theme songs – Thunderball, Diamonds Are Forever, The Man With The Golden Gun, Surrender from Tomorrow Never Dies and The World is Not Enough. Among his many popular songs are Michael Jackson’s Ben and Lulu’s “To Sir With Love,” both U.S. number one hits. He is currently working on a musical to be produced in Shanghai and is also re-working the musical of Bar Mitzvah Boy, a musical he wrote with Jule Styne. He has just completed a musical version of The Count of Monte Cristo with French composer Michel Legrand which is scheduled to open in London later this year. Don was awarded an OBE in the Queens Birthday Honours list and has just been awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Arts by the City of London University. However, he says it is being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame that has outshone any previous accolade.

FRANK WILDHORN (Music) In 1999, multi-Grammy, Tony, and Emmy Award nominated composer/producer Frank Wildhorn became the first American composer in 22 years to have three shows running simultaneously on Broadway with Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Civil War. Also for Broadway: Bonnie & Clyde, Dracula, Victor/Victoria, Wonderland, and the revival of Jekyll & Hyde. West End: Bonnie & Clyde & Death Note the Musical in Concert. International: Carmen, Camille Claudel, Casanova, Cyrano, Death Note, Fist of the North Star, Mata Hari, Mitsuko, Never Say Goodbye, No Longer Human, Rudolf, Tears of Heaven, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Man Who Laughs, Your Lie in April and Xcalibur. Upcoming: Song of Bernadette and Reunion. He Produced Harlem Song at the famed Apollo Theatre. The Korea Times recently proclaimed Wildhorn as “Korea’s most popular musical composer”. In November 2022, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra World Premiered Wildhorn’s full length “Danube Symphony” at the famed Musikverein. Europe’s Musical Zentrale noted, “With his “Donau Symphonie” he (Wildhorn) manages to completely reinvent himself and to overcome the (already artificial) separation between light and serious music.” Conducted by Koen Schoots, the performance also featured suites from the Wildhorn musicals Jekyll and Hyde and Dracula. The “Danube Symphony” was released on CD and streaming services in December 2021 through HitSquad Records. Frank served as music director for the Goodwill Games in New York City (1998). He wrote the song “Gold”, the opening number for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Among the artists who have recorded and performed Frank’s works: Whitney Houston (#1 international hit “Where Do Broken Hearts Go?”), Natalie Cole, Kenny Rogers, Sammy Davis, Jr., Liza Minnelli, Julie Andrews, Hootie & the Blowfish, The Moody Blues, Johnny Mathis, Linda Eder, Freddie Jackson, Trisha Yearwood, Stacy Lattisaw, Molly Hatchet, Blues Traveler, Trace Adkins, Patti LaBelle, Jeffrey Osborne, BeBe Winans, Amy Grant, Anthony Warlow, to name a few. He received the prestigious Charles Dickens Award from USC, where there is a scholarship under his name and is an Associate Artist at the Alley Theatre in Houston.

GERRY MCINTYRE (Director/Choreographer) is acclaimed for his choreography in the Berkshire Theatre Group’s Godspell. Associate Artistic Director of the York Theatre in NYC. Director: Hallelujah Baby at The York; Kinky Boots at The Hangar Theatre; Once on this Island at Martin Beck Theatre, Virginia Stage, Pioneer Theatre, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, La Mirada Theatre (Robby Award, Best Director; Ovation nom., Best Choreography and Best Musical). Choreographer: Ain’t Misbehavin’, Anything Can Happen in the Theatre. Side by Side, Tommy, and My Fair Lady at the Berkshire Theatre Festival; Laura Comstock’s Bag-Punching Dog, The Color Purple at Broadway Sacramento, and The Wiz. Performer: OBC of Once on This Island, Anything Goes with Patti LuPone, and one of three Americans cast in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with Donny Osmond. At PTC, Gerry has appeared onstage in A Christmas Carol; Sweet Charity; Christmas in Connecticut; and One Man, Two Guvnors. He has also directed/choreographed the PTC mountings of Ain’t Misbehavin’, Once on This Island, and Putting It Together.

TOM GRIFFIN (Musical Director/Conductor) is a nationally recognized musical director and conductor. Recent productions: Once On This Island, Oliver!, It Happened One Christmas, Peter & The Starcatcher, Elf – The Musical and A Christmas Carol: The Musical at Pioneer Theatre Company; Ragtime, 13 – The Musical, the West Coast and Los Angeles premieres of The Last Five Years, Sweet Charity, Sweeney Todd, and The Music Man; the West Coast premiere of Spitfire Grill; Annie, West Side Story, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Bye Bye Birdie; the national tour of My Fair Lady for Theatre of The Stars; and Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s productions of Disney’s Mary Poppins, A Christmas Carol: The Musical, Peter Pan and A Christmas Memory. Awards: Broadway revival of You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown (Los Angeles premiere), Garland Award Best Musical Direction; and Side Show (Los Angeles premiere), Los Angeles Drama Critics Award Best Musical Direction. Tom was the musical conductor of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast on two National Tours.