A Complicated Woman Cast & Creative Team

NORA BRIGID MONAHAN (J) (they/them) is a playwright and performer best known for writing and starring in the award-winning solo comedy DIVA, which was later expanded into the cult hit musical DIVA: LIVE FROM HELL with a score by Alexander Sage Oyen. Nora is thrilled to be collaborating with this extraordinary cast and creative team and to be working again with Jonathan Brielle, after having assistant directed the off-Broadway production of his musical Himself & Nora at the Minetta Lane Theatre in 2016. Many thanks to Jonathan, Ianne, and Jeff for this role. Love to Evan, Mena, and Quin.

L MORGAN LEE (Nina Mae) L Morgan Lee received a history-making Tony Award® nomination for her standout debut in Broadway’s A Strange Loop. The performance also garnered her an Obie Award and Lortel and Drama League nominations. She was seen in London playing the titular role in a musical adaptation of The Danish Girl (in development). Studio credits include: Sugar Maple Series (Osiris Media), Joe Iconis’ album (Ghostlight Records), Her Sound, vol. 3, Rainbow Lullaby Album (Broadway Records), Soft Butter (Boylan/Kauffman and Teris), and the Grammy-nominated Broadway Cast Recording of A Strange Loop (Sh-K-Boom Records). Mark O’Donnell Prize recipient. For more: lmorganlee.com

KLEA BLACKHURST (Myrtle) Klea Blackhurst has performed in legendary halls from The Royal Albert to Carnegie, The London Palladium to Jazz at Lincoln Center and with symphony orchestras from Atlanta to Philly, Ravinia to Tanglewood. Most recently she appeared as Emma Goldman in Ragtime: The Symphonic Concert with the Boston Pops conducted by Keith Lockhart. Theater credits New York – A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Bingo, Radio Gals, Oil City Symphony; regionally she is proud to have starred in Goodspeed’s Hello, Dolly! in 2013. Klea is a distinguished Alumna of the University of Utah. She is a proud member of Mendez Boxing Harlem where she is known as The Belter.

CHRISTIAN BRAILSFORD (Oscar) Broadway National Tour: Pretty Woman (David Morse, Happy Man u/s, Alfredo u/s). Off-Broadway: Oratorio for Living Things, Cleopatra, Francois & the Rebels, Songs of a Serpent. International: Scar in Hong Kong Disney’s The Lion King. Regional: Bonnie & Clyde – Pioneer Theatre Company (Preacher/Sheriff) In the Heights – WPPAC, The Gateway (Benny), Summer: The Donna Summer Show – The Gateway (Andrew Gaines). Christian is proud to be making his Goodspeed debut with this beautiful group of human beings! He thanks his family and friends for their unwavering love and support.

DASHIELL GREGORY (Carl) is happy to be making his Goodspeed debut! Stage credits: Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical (Off-Broadway), Into The Woods. TV credits: The Mega-Brands That Built America (History Channel), Lethally Blonde (Investigation Discovery). Thanks to his agents at Boals, Winnett & Associates, to his family, friends, and Kelly. IG: @dashiellgregory

DANNY RUTIGLIANO (Lee Shubert) At Goodspeed; Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn (Opera House) and The Fabulous Lipitones (Norma Terris). Broadway: I Need That (standby for Danny Devito) Beetlejuice, Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn (also PBS Great Performances) Billy Elliot, Born Yesterday, The Lion King (original B’way and L.A. casts, Ovation Award), ...Whorehouse Goes Public. National tours: Elf, How to Succeed..., and Cirque du Soleil’s Banana Shpeel.  City Centre’s ENCORES! series; title role in Fiorello!, Bells are Ringing, Kismet, The New Moon, One Touch of Venus. TV/FILM: Blue Bloods, Elementary, My Big Fat Greek Life, all the Law & Order shows, Goodfellas, Dumbo II, 13, The Producers and more. Many Off-Broadway shows, extensive regional theater, numerous commercials and voiceovers. Favorite role: Husband to Jacqueline Monroe. Proud member of Actors’ Equity for nearly forty-five years. 

AREWÀ BASIT* (Diamond) [she/they] is a Brooklyn based, artist, story-teller and co-founder of Legacy, a production company focused on providing resources to artists systematically excluded from—and exploited by—media and the arts. Arewà performed their original music at Copenhagen Winter Pride, TLDEF 20th Anniversary Celebration, The LGBTQ Center’s Juneteenth Block Party, and headlined TRANSMISSION, NYC’s first all trans music festival. Recently, Arewà performed as the closing act for First Saturdays at the Brooklyn Musuem. Theatre credits include Cellz: Packages O’ The Things We Deliver, National Black Theatre; Tribe: Hair, European Tour 2018 and Mzzz Erykah: A Map to Know Where, Soho Rep. IG: @basit_ 

ZACHARY A. MYERS (Muhlaysia) [she/her] Zachary is honored to join the Goodspeed family this spring! She joined the Broadway Company of A Strange Loop where she understudied the roles of Thought One & Thought Two. Some of her other notable credits include: Head Over Heels, Dylan Mulvaney’s 365 Days of Girlhood Live, Rent, & Emojiland. “Much Love to Jhonika & Stacy who are my biggest supporters!” and a special thank you to Clear Talent Group. “Trans rights are human rights!” IG: @zacharyamyers

SIENA RAFTER (ensemble) [they/he] is a nonbinary theater artist born and raised in New York City. They are so excited to be making their Goodspeed debut! Off-Broadway/Lincoln Center: Runaways, Deep Blue Sea, The Division, T, American SongBook Series. The Public Theater: Twelfth Night, Runaways, For the Love of Vinyl, From Hair to Hamilton…Gala ’17. TV: HBO’s Crashing. Thank you to this incredible team and to all my families for your endless love and support.

BRYAN MUNAR (Ensemble) Bryan is thrilled to continue his journey with this important show in its world premiere! Select NY/Off-Bway: Pump Up The Volume (workshop w/ Andrew Barth Feldman & Hailey Kilgore). Select Regional: His Story (World Premiere dir. by Jeff Calhoun), TheatreWorks SV, Berkeley Rep, SF Playhouse. Stream his debut single on all streaming platforms and stay tuned for more music! Thanks to his friends, fam, and his team at The Mine. Much love and gratitude. @bkmunar

IANNE FIELDS STEWART (Book) [they/she] is a multi-hyphenate creative working at the intersection of art, activism, and pleasure. Their work spans across many fields including: theatre, film, dance, creative writing, arts administration, and social justice. She is dedicated to creating art, facilitating spaces, and influencing organizational practices that allow Black queer and trans people to radically luxuriate in our own joy. To put it simply, she wants to make their people feel good. The 2022 toast honoree of The League of Professional Theatre Women, NY Audiences have most recently seen Ianne performing at Lincoln Center with Sydnie L. Mosley Dances. Ianne has worked consistently in productions at NYC venues such as: Joe’s Pub, Dixon Place, La Mama, and many more. Ianne was personally requested by Sara Ramirez (And Just Like That) to play their love interest in an interracial polyamorous couple in the 3-time Emmy-Nominated web series The Feels. Other Film/TV Credits include: Dash & Lily (Roberta), The Bold Type (Chloe Blair), and Pose (Pretty Bartender). Media credits include: The New York Times, BBC News, Vogue.com, Out Magazine, Forbes.com, NBC, MSNBC, The New York Public Library, Buzzfeed LGBT, Playbill.com, Broadway.com, GLAAD, and Inside Edition.

JONATHAN BRIELLE (Music & Lyric/Orchestrations) His first Broadway credit was writing music and lyrics for Foxfire starring theater legends Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy (who won the Tony) and Keith Carradine. Subsequently, he became Composer in Residence of the prestigious Circle Repertory Company in New York, providing scores for some of New York’s top playwrights. His recent credits include his slightly autobiographical show, A Monkey and Me, Stories I Never Told My Mother (book, music, lyrics), Axelrod Performing Arts Center, in which he starred with Tovah Feldshuh and Veanne Cox; Himself and Nora (book, music, lyrics), Minetta Lane Theater; James Joyce Center Dublin, March 2024; Nightmare Alley (book, music, lyrics), Geffen Playhouse; and A Monkey and Me (book, music, lyrics), Eugene O’Neill Cabaret Conference. His Las Vegas shows include Enter The Night (Stardust) and MADhattan (New York, New York). For television, he is the music director and composer for Wonderama on the Tribune network and is the founder of Vala Musicals, a streaming platform for new shows and forever-free musical theater education. Jonathan also serves as the Executive Vice President of the Johnny Mercer Foundation and Writer/Producer in residence of the JMF Writers Grove at Goodspeed Musicals.

JEFF CALHOUN (Director/Choreographer) Broadway: Disney’s Newsies (Tony Award Nomination for Best Director), Bonnie & Clyde, Jekyll & Hyde, Grey Gardens, Deaf West’s Big River (Tony Award Nomination for Best Revival of a Musical), Brooklyn, Annie Get Your Gun, Grease (Tony Award Nomination for Best Choreography), Tommy Tune Tonite, and The Will Rogers Follies. Tours, Off-Broadway, and International: Between The Lines (Drama Desk Nomination), Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 (US National Tour, London, and Australia) and Disney’s High School Musical 1 & 2. Mr. Calhoun is an Associate Artist at The Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C. He also serves on the Latin American Board of Directors for Covenant House and recently directed A Night of Covenant House Stars (2020 and 2021) on AmazonPrime. Currently, Jeff is working on an original musical for Deaf West entitled Elephant Shoes. Twitter and Instagram: @thejeffcalhoun

SAM SALMOND (Additional Lyrics) is a Jonathan Larson Award- winning composer, lyricist, and book writer. Among the many projects in development, Sam has written music and lyrics for an adaptation of Eighty-Sixed, the novel written by humorist and AIDS activist, David Feinberg. It had a developmental reading at Second Stage Theatre and a workshop with Playwright’s Horizons and Musical Theatre Factory. His musical Mother, Me and the Monsters (a Boston Globe Critic’s Pick) was produced at Barrington Stage. His children’s show, The Dot, is currently on a Multi-Year national tour with Theatreworks USA. He wrote book and lyrics for Cage Match, which premiered at Prospect Theater Company. He’s the creator of Uncool: the Party, an immersive night of rock 'n roll, games, stories and dancing, which was workshopped at CAP21 and the Musical Theatre Factory. Sam is currently working on an original musical, The Homefront, about female factory workers who were fired at the end of WWII. He’s writing the score to Creature, a modern queer adaptation of the Frankenstein myth. He's also currently under commission to write an original musical for Penn State's Musical Theater BFA program. Sam’s work has been featured at Lincoln Center, Ars Nova, Symphony Space, Joe's Pub, 54 Below, The Town Hall and venues all around the country. He has been a resident writer at Goodspeed Opera House, the Johny Mercer Colony, The Village Theater, Fresh Ground Pepper and more. He is a 2017 Dramatists Guild Fellow, a 2018 SPACE on Ryder Farm resident, and an alumnus of NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.

DEBRA BARSHA (Music Director) Broadway: associate conductor of Jersey Boys and Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. Pianist for Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. Barsha won the Jonathan Larson Award for composing the score to Radiant Baby, (co-written with Stuart Ross), produced at the Public Theater, directed by George C. Wolfe. Her musical A Taste of Things to Come (co-written with Hollye Levin) was produced at The York Theatre, published by Concord Theatricals. Her two one-acts, Every Other Thursday and Our Very Best People, (co-written with Sheilah Rae) were adapted from Edna Ferber’s short stories (publisher: Smith & Krauss). Barsha served as music director for the Steven Sater/Serj Tankian world premiere Prometheus Bound (A.R.T. - dir. Diane Paulus) and conducted Karen O’s opera Stop the Virgens! at St. Ann’s Warehouse and the Sydney Opera House. Upcoming: Bedlam’s Music City, where Barsha will be originating a role as well as music supervising.

TOBIN OST (Scenic Designer) Broadway credits include Disney’s Newsies (Tony nomination for Best Set Design of a Musical), Disaster! (set design), Jekyll & Hyde (set and costume design), Bonnie & Clyde (set and costume design), The Philanthropist (costume design) and Brooklyn – the Musical (costume design). Notable Off-Broadway credits include Maurice Hines is Tappin’ Thru Life, Nightingale, Grace, The Overwhelming, Zanna–Don’t!, Almost Heaven and Fighting Words. Besides Goodspeed Musicals, Tobin has worked extensively with other major regional theaters, including La Jolla Playhouse, the Mark Taper Forum, Arena Stage, Huntington Theatre Company, Ford’s Theatre, Two River Theater Company, The Old Globe, Kansas City Rep, Yale Rep, Hartford Stage, and Alliance Theatre among others. Tobin is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and is serving as an Assistant Professor of Theatre Design at Hamilton College.

PHUONG NGUYEN (loosely pronounced fu-ONG win) (Costume Designer) is a costume designer with backgrounds in East Asian studies and Vietnamese history. Their work dissects different aspects of her and other marginalized groups' heritage and identities, and tells stories absent from the "victors'" history books. Recent theatre credits include The Good John Proctor (Bedlam), Once Upon a Korean Time (Ma-Yi), Mr. Oatmeal (Fresh Fruit Festival), Queen (NAATCO & Long Wharf Theatre). Film: Grandma Nai by Chheangkea Leng, Crystal Mountain by Louise Zhang. Dance: Return, My Mirrored Sister by Antonius Bui. They hold an MFA in Costume Design from Yale School of Drama. Phuongtlnguyen.com.

ROB DENTON (Lighting Designer) is thrilled to be returning to Goodspeed Musicals. His previous designs at Goodspeed were Thoroughly Modern Millie and Will Rogers Follies. Rob’s recent designs include Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors (Off-Broadway), The Jerusalem Syndrome (Off-Broadway), Chess and Little Shop of Horrors (The Muny), The Wizard of Oz (Capital Repertory Theatre), Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), The Marvelous Wonderettes (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Jersey Boys and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Maltz Jupiter Theatre). Some of Rob’s upcoming designs include: Baskerville (Alabama Shakespeare Festival); Dreamgirls, In the Heights and Anything Goes (The Muny); Disney’s Frozen (Maltz Jupiter Theatre). IG @rdentexdesign

TOMMY KURZMAN (Hair & Wig Designer) Goodspeed: The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Broadway credits include: Uncle Vanya, I Need That, Gutenberg: The Musical!, The Cottage, Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Pictures From Home, The Collaboration, Macbeth, Mrs. Doubtfire, All My Sons, True West, Saint Joan, My Fair Lady, Little Foxes and Bright Star. Off-Broadway credits include: Little Shop of Horrors, Titanique, MCC, Atlantic, The New Group, The Public, MTC, and NWS. Regional credits include Arena Stage. The Huntington, The MUNY, Geva Theatre, Cape Playhouse and Signature, VA. Instagram: @tommykurzmanwigs

NATHAN DAME (Co-Orchestrator) is a composer and writer for stage and screen. His musical based on Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, co-written with Rob Baumgartner, has been developed at Goodspeed Musicals and Bucks County Playhouse. He co-orchestrated the recent national tour of the new musical An Officer and a Gentleman. Some credits as Music Director include: Off-Broadway: Pretty Filthy (The Civilians, score by Michael Friedman, Original Cast Recording); Mr. Burns (associate music director, score by Michael Friedman, Playwrights Horizons); and regionally, Be More Chill (Two River Theater, Original Cast Recording). His work has also been developed at The New Group, Arts Letters & Numbers, Barrow Street Theater, Good Company Theater, The Studios of Key West, among others.

JAY HILTON (Sound Designer) is pleased to continue his long association with Goodspeed Musicals.  Jay has designed countless productions at both The Goodspeed and The Terris Theatre. In addition to being Goodspeed’s Resident Sound Designer, Jay serves as their Audio Supervisor and also spends some of his time recording, mixing and mastering musical theatre content for streaming platforms. He and his wife, Goodspeed Artistic Director Donna Lynn Hilton, make their home (and garden) in Hadlyme, Connecticut with Cookie and Macy.

PAUL HARDT (Casting Director)

DEVIN DAY (Production Stage Manager) [she/they] Broadway: Grey House, 1776, Hillary & Clinton, 1984, The Humans, The Audience, Skylight, Disgraced, & I’ll Eat You Last. Other New York productions include Like They Do In The Movies (PAC NYC) & The Humans (Roundabout Theatre Company). National Tours: The Humans & 1776.

ABIGAIL ZACCARI (Assistant Stage Manager) [she/her] Broadway Credits include Paradise Square. Off-Broadway Credits include A Sign of the Times, ¡Americano!. Regional Credits include Here You Come Again at Goodspeed Opera House; The Nutty Professor at Ogunquit Playhouse; Chicago at The Muny. Thank you to Willy, Mom, Dad, and Chris for everything. abigailzaccari.com