SYNOPSIS
Marrying the most thrilling aspects of stage and screen, the recent resurgence of networks broadcasting live musicals has invigorated prime time “appointment viewing” or “event television.” Join us for an evening of lively discourse that will examine this vibrant storytelling hybrid from the actor's perspective. Topics of discussion include: casting, technique, the rehearsal process, speedy maneuvering between multiple sets and sound stages, lightning fast wardrobe changes, the genre’s special format and creative team models, the challenges associated with commercial breaks, encountering surprises like unpredictable weather, and viewership engagement via social media.
Moderated by Richard Ridge, BroadwayWorld.com.
PANELISTS
Rob Ashford
Rob Ashford is a Tony Award, Olivier Award, Emmy Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award winning director/choreographer.
Theatre credits on Broadway include Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Evita (Tony Award Nomination), How To Succeed (Tony Award Nominations for Direction and Choreography), Promises, Promises (Tony Award Nomination), Thoroughly Modern Millie (Tony Award Best Choreography) Shrek, John Water's Cry Baby (Tony Award Nomination, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Fred Astaire Awards), Curtains (Tony Award Nomination) and Wedding Singer (Tony Award Nomination).
Other credits include The Entertainer (Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company), Romeo and Juliet (Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company), The Winter’s Tale (Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company, Olivier Nomination Best Director), Harlequinade (Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company), Macbeth (Park Avenue Armory, New York and Manchester International Festival), the Olivier Award winning productions of Anna Christie, A Streetcar Named Desire (Olivier Nomination for Best Revival) and Parade (All Donmar Warehouse, Olivier Nominations for Director and Choreography), Directed and Choreographed Peter Pan Live! and The Sound of Music Live! (NBC. DGA Award Nominations for both), Directed The Barber of Seville and Carousel (Lyric Opera Chicago).
He choreographed and staged the 2015 Academy Awards with Neil Patrick Harris, the 2014 Academy Awards with Ellen DeGeneres, and the 2013 Academy Awards with Seth MacFarlane. For the Academy Awards 2009 won the Emmy Award for Best Choreography for his work on Baz Luhrmann's production number featuring Hugh Jackman and Beyoncé. He has also choreographed the opening number for Neil Patrick Harris for 4 years and James Corden last year for The Tony Awards, and staged tributes at the Kennedy Center Honors for Barbra Streisand, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jerry Herman, Barbara Cook, Tom Hanks, Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep.
Films include choreography for Beyond the Sea, Disney’s Cinderella, A Million Ways to Die in the West and Ted 2.
Rob is an Artistic Associate for The Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company and is a Trustee of The Joyce Theatre in New York City.
Christiane Noll
Christiane Noll starred on Broadway in the Kennedy Center Revival of Ragtime, receiving Tony and Drama Desk award nominations and winning a Helen Hayes award for her portrayal of Mother. Broadway and National Tour appearances include Chaplin (Drama Desk Nomination), Urinetown (Ovation Award), The Mambo Kings (Broadway Try-Out), It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues, Jekyll & Hyde, Grease, Miss Saigon, and South Pacific (Australia/Thailand).
She is a frequent guest soloist with symphony orchestras around the world, including National Symphony and Marvin Hamlisch, Cincinnati Pops and Eric Kunzel, Jerusalem Symphony and Don Pippin, Philadelphia Pops and Peter Nero, Boston Pops and Keith Lockhart, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra with Jeff Tyzik, as well as international appearances with Sinfonica Brasileira in Rio, China Philharmonic with concert pianist, Lang Lang and orchestras in Hong Kong, Czech Republic and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She made her Carnegie Hall debut with Skitch Henderson, in his last pops performance with The New York Pops and more recently sang with Steven Reineke for Stephen Sondheim's 80th Birthday Celebration at Carnegie Hall. She made her Hollywood Bowl debut singing with Julie Andrews and her opera debut with Placido Domingo in The Merry Widow as well as City Center Encores! The New Moon, The Student Prince, Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado.
Premieres: Kid Victory, The Witches of Eastwick, Frankenstein, Ace (Helen Hayes nom), Call the Children Home, Littleby Little, and Lizzie Bordon. Film/Television: Sound of Music Live! NBC, The King & I (Singing Anna – Warner Brothers Animated Feature). Favorites: Closer Than Ever revival, Little Shop of Horrors, Mack & Mabel (Conn. Critics Circle Award), The Baker's Wife, Into the Woods, and Carousel. She has made appearances with Town Hall’s Broadway By the Year, Lincoln Center American Songbook Series, at Feinstein's, Joe’s Pub, 54 Below and Birdland. Solo Recordings: A Broadway Love Story, Live at the West Bank Café, The Ira Gershwin Album, My Personal Property and Gifts: Live at 54 Below. ChristianeNoll.com.
Noah Robbins
At only 25 Noah Robbins is already an accomplished theatre actor. At 19, he made his Broadway debut as Eugene Jerome, the teenage narrator of Neil Simon'sBrighton Beach Memoirs. The role garnered him a nomination for the Outer Critics Circle Award. Other broadway credits include Tom Stoppard's Arcadiain 2011. Off-Broadway, Robbins starred in Athol Fugard’s “Master Harold”…and the boys at the Signature Theatre, Simon Stephens's Punk Rock at MCC Theatre, as the title character in Nathan Englander’s The Twenty-Seventh Man at the Public Theater, in Hamish Linklater'sThe Vandalat the Flea Theater, and in Jonathan Tolins's Secrets of the Tradeat Primary Stages.
Noah has four independent films set to premiere in 2016: Robert Siegel’s CRUISE, James Schamus’s INDIGNATION, teen comedy THE OUTSKIRTS,and AARDVARK opposite Zachary Quinto. He can also be seen as Eugene in Fox’s broadcast of GREASE: LIVE. Other recent television credits include guest roles on: THE GOOD WIFE, ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK, GOTHAM, THE SLAP, and as Lizzy Caplan's son on MASTERS OF SEX.
He starred in the short film Aftermath and won the Best Actor award at the L.A. Comedy Festival for Newsworthy, both directed by his brother Jeremy. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Columbia University, where he majored in Philosophy.
Shanice Scales-Williams
Shanice Scales-Williams was selected out of thousands of applicants nationwide who auditioned to portray the iconic role of Dorothy in NBC’s production of The Wiz Live! With five years of musical training that also includes extensive dance and piano, Williams has co-starred in several local productions, including West Side Story, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, 42nd Street, Seussical and Pippin. Last year, Williams was nominated for best leading actress in a musical at the Paper Mill Playhouse’s annual Rising Star Awards.
Judine Somerville
Judine Somerville just appeared in NBC’s Hairspray Live! as part of the singing trio The Dynamites, reprising her role from the Tony Award winning musical Hairspray. Other Broadway credits include: On the Town, The Life, Crazy for You, andLate Night Comic. National Tours: Barry Manilow’s Copacabana and Jekyll and Hyde.
While performing in Hairspray, Judine was the recipient of the prestigious Gypsy Robe, awarded to the ensemble member who has performed in the most Broadway Musicals. She is honored to be a part of an amazing group of “Gypsies” who have received this honor: Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera, Donna Mckechnie, Adrian Bailey, Dana Moore and Joanne Hunter just to name a few.
Special events include: Former Rockette at Radio City Music Hall. Performing on the Red Carpet at the Grammy Awards, Anthem Singer at Madison Square Garden, F. Lammot Belin Arts Scholarship - First Dancer to ever win the award in its 45-year history. Presenter at Canyon Ranch.
Television appearances include: Tony Awards, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, MTV’S…Made, Today Show, The View, Judge Hatchett, Good Morning America, CBS Early Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Nite with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, VH1 Awards.
Judine is currently teaching Theatre Dance at the Ailey School in New York City. She was the assistant choreographer to Otis Sallid on the Fox Searchlight movie musical, Black Nativity, starring Forest Whitaker, Angela Basset, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, and Jacob Lattimore. http://www.justjudine.co/
