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A Grand Night For Singing Cast & Creative Team

A Grand Night For Singing Cast & Creative Team


JASMINE FORSBERG is thrilled to be making her Goodspeed debut! Off-Broadway: Broadway Bounty Hunter (Joe Iconis). Regional: Love in Hate Nation (World Premiere, Two River Theater), Wild Fire (World Premiere, Denver Center for the Performing Arts). Other: The Lucky Boy (Premiere, Kristen Childs). Film: One December Night (Hallmark). BFA Penn State ’21. In 2018, she co-wrote Results Will Vary*. Love and thanks to her family, friends, mentors, and A3 for their unwavering support. Follow along @Jasmine_Forsberg and www.JasmineForsberg.com
DARIUS HARPER A New Hampshire native, Darius could not be more thrilled to make his Goodspeed debut in scenic New England. Darius would attend the American Musical and Dramatic Academy NY (04/05) before a 3 year journey with the Disney Company (Tokyo, Cruiselines). Credits include: The Merry Go Round Playhouse (Grease), The Fulton (Kinky Boots), Ogunquit Playhouse & The Gateway (Priscilla QOTD) to name a few. He originated both the Book of Mormon and Kinky Boots 1st National Tours, most recently he originated and starred as the Emcee/Vocalist in Cirque Du Soleil’s VOLTA. Thank you to nana, my wonderful HAA Family, and to this wonderful cast and crew for welcoming me with open arms! Shove with love guys.
OMAR LOPEZ-CEPERO is honored to be making his Goodspeed debut and to join this incredible cast. He was most recently seen as Emilio Estefan in On Your Feet! opposite his wife, Arianna Rosario, as Gloria (The Muny, KC Starlight). Upcoming: The Broadway-bound World Premiere of The Notebook (Chicago Shakes). Broadway: On Your Feet! (OBC), American Idiot (OBC). Off-Broadway: The Unsinkable Molly Brown (Vincenzo, Transport Group), The Capeman (Public Theater Delacorte). Regional/tour credits: Paint Your Wagon (Armando, The Muny), The Flamingo Kid (Alejandro, Hartford Stage), Guys and Dolls (Sky Masterson, TUTS), Evita as Che (National Tour, Fulton Theatre) and as Peron (Bay Street Theater). TV credits: Blue Bloods (CBS), The Detour (TBS), Vegas(CBS). Endless love to Arianna. www.omarlopezcepero.com @omarlopezcepero
MAMIE PARRIS last appeared at Goodspeed as Rosabella in The Most Happy Fella. On Broadway: the recent revival of Cats (as Grizabella, singing the iconic “Memory”), School of Rock, On The 20th Century, Ragtime, The Drowsy Chaperone, and 110 in the Shade. On Tour: Wicked (Elphaba), 9 To 5 (Judy). Regionally: Paper Mill Playhouse, Arena Stage, The Old Globe. Film & TV: A Standup Guy, State of Affairs, The Blacklist. Visit www.mamieparris.com for upcoming concert dates and other goings-on! Thanks to the marvelous Rob Ruggiero. Love to my wonderful husband, Johnathan. I can’t imagine spending a year in lockdown with anyone else and not being guilty of homicide. Welcome back to live theatre!
DIANE PHELAN Broadway/National/International: School of Rock (Wintergarden), West Side Story (Maria, Paris Chatelet), The King and I (Lincoln Center + tours/ Tuptim). Off-Bway: Here Lies Love (Public), Bernarda Alba (LCT). Other favorites: Julie Jordan in Carousel (NAAP), Mabel in Pirates of Penzance (CT Rep), Laurie in Oklahoma! (Berkshire Theatre Group), Cinderella in Cinderella (Papermill). Film: Sherri in Marry Harry on Amazon Prime Video. Diane recently played Sibella in A Gentlemen’s Guide To Love and Murder, a benefit for StopAAPIHate (Broadway on Demand), for which she was also an Executive Producer raising over $25,000. Founder of #RacismIsAVirus. @dianicaphelan.
KATHRYN BOSWELL (Standby for Jasmine, Mamie & Diane) is thrilled to be making her Goodspeed debut! Most recently, Kathryn played Cynthia in the national tour of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Broadway: Anastasia, Gigi. Select TV/Film: Bluebloods (CBS), Tales of the City (Netflix), High Maintenance (HBO), The Hating Game (BCDF Pictures). Regional: Aida (Amneris, PCLO), Follies (Young Phyllis, Repertory Theatre St. Louis), Les Misérables (Cosette, Music Theater Wichita), First Daughter Suite (Susan Ford, Sundance Institute), Gigi (Kennedy Center). Proud CCM Bearcat. Much gratitude to everyone here at Goodspeed, Rob, and Paul Hardt. All my love to Matt and the fam. @kathryn_boswell
KEVIN SCHUERING (Standby for Mauricio & Jesse) is excited to be a part of this amazing team and company’s efforts to help reimagine these classic R&H tunes. His hopes are we continue to explore and expand the different lenses in which we tell these stories. National Tour: The King and I (Lincoln Center Theatre), NY/Off-Bway: On This Side Of The World, Wearing Black (NMYF), Carousel (NAAP), Lost in Shanghai (Pan-Asian). Regional: Remembering Tomorrow (Zeider's Theater) Miss Saigon (Ogunquit Playhouse), Disney's Aladdin (Chicago Shakespeare), Disney's When You Wish (Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma). Thank you to Lanie, Rob, Paul and the team. Love to Smalls, the three amigos, and the fam. For More: www.kevinschuering.com, IG: @daschuerthing
ROB RUGGIERO (Director) is thrilled to be returning to Goodspeed for his twelfth season, after directing past productions of Oliver!RagsLa Cage aux Folles, Fiddler on the Roof, The Most Happy Fella, Carousel,  Show Boat, Annie Get Your Gun, Camelot, Big River, and 1776. Rob has won multiple Connecticut Critic’s Circle Awards for Best Direction, including a highly-celebrated production of Next to Normal at TheaterWorks Hartford, where he is the Producing Artistic Director. His Broadway credits include High (starring Kathleen Turner) and Looped (starring Valerie Harper in a Tony-nominated performance). Off-Broadway, he conceived and directed the original musical revue entitled Make Me a Song: The Music of William Finn. The production received nominations for both the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award. Rob has earned national recognition for his work on both plays and musicals. Regionally, he has directed a number of critically-acclaimed musicals including Evita, Gypsy (with Tony-winner Beth Leavel for The Muny’s 100th season) Follies; Oklahoma!; Hello, Dolly!; South Pacific; The King & I; and Sunday in the Park with George; among others. In addition, he conceived and directed the highly-successful Ella (Kevin Kline and Joseph Jefferson Awards) at TheaterWorks. His work has been seen at many major regional theaters around the country, including Actor’s Theater of Louisville, Arizona Theatre Company, Barrington Stage Company, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cleveland Playhouse, Guthrie Theater, Hartford Stage, Northlight Theater, Pittsburgh Public Theater, and The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, among others. He is so happy to be returning to live theater here at Goodspeed.

LAINIE SAKAKURA (Choreographer) 2015 Joe A. Callaway Award for Outstanding Choreography, 2002 Joseph Jefferson Award Best Choreography. Dance Reconstruction Fosse, 1999 Tony Award Best MusicalBroadway performing career 23 years, all original castsNYC- based writer, director, choreographer. 2020 Goodspeed Musicals Johnny Mercer Writers Grove. Most recently directed 5th Ave Theatre's NYC reading of Corner of Bitter and Sweet, book by Sakakura, music & lyrics by Paul Fujimoto; choreographed Once at Pioneer Theatre; wrote/co-conceived BCEFA Red Bucket Follies 60th Anniversary of Flower Drum Song Celebrating Asian Americans on Broadway. Co-founder/Co-chair Rockettes of Color AlumnaeLSakakura.com

ADAM SOUZA (Music Director) Broadway credits include Wicked, Kinky Boots. National Tours: Wicked (2nd National, Original MD/Conductor), Kinky Boots (Original MD/Conductor), Spamalot (1st National as MD/Conductor), The Midtown Men, and Les Misérables. Adam also served as Associate Music Supervisor for the international mountings of Wicked in São Paolo, Brazil (in Portuguese) and Mexico City (in Spanish). His regional credits include Next to Normal (Hartford TheaterWorks), North Shore Music Theatre, and over 15 productions with Goodspeed, including Because of Winn DixieThe Great American Mousical with Julie Andrews, Snapshots by Stephen Schwartz, Roar of the Greasepaint..., George M!BrigadoonVery Good EddieRagsGreat Expectations, and The Road to Hollywood. Adam serves as Associate Artistic Director and Music Supervisor for Destination Broadway (destinationbroadway.org) and has served on faculty for the Boston Conservatory at Berklee as an Associate Professor of Musical Theatre, of which he is also an alumn.
BRIAN PRATHER (Scenic Designer) is happy to return to Goodspeed having previously designed A Wonderful Life and The Fabulous Lipitones. Recent Off-Broadway designs include: Caesar and Cleopatra (GTG), Daniels’s Husband (Primary Stages), Widower’s Houses (TACT/Gingold), A Christmas Carol (St. Clement’s), Becoming Dr. Ruth (Westside), Freud’s Last Session (New World Stages), and The Burnt Part Boys (Playwrights Horizons). International: Chung-mu Art Hall (South Korea). Regional: Alley Theatre, Asolo Rep, TheaterWorks Hartford, Barrington Stage Co., Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Capitol Rep., among many others. Jeff Award winner (Chicago), Emmy nomination (New England) for “The Kate” on Public Television, twice Berkshire Theatre Critics Assoc. Awards winner, Resident Designer at TheaterWorks Hartford, Associate Artist at Barrington Stage Co. and member of USA Local 829. See Brian’s work at brianprather.com.

ALEJO VIETTI (Costume Designer) An Argentine native, he immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1990s. He has designed for Broadway and Off-Broadway, as well as for Roundabout Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Radio City Rockettes, NYC Center Encores!, Atlantic Theatre Company, NYC Opera, Primary Stages, The Irish Rep, MCC, and Ensemble Studio Theatre, among other New York companies. He has also extensively designed for Regional Theatres across the U.S., commercial projects, operas, ballets and for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He is an Olivier and Drama Desk nominee and the recipient of the 2010 TDF Irene Sharaff Young Master Award. At Goodspeed: Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn, Oliver!, Fiddler on the Roof, Carousel, Annie Get Your Gun, Camelot, Big River, 1776, and Meet John Doe.

ALAN C. EDWARDS’ (Lighting Design) work Off-Broadway includes the world premiere of Harry Clarke at The Vineyard, for which he received a Lucille Lortel Award; the world premiere of Kill Move Paradise at the National Black Theatre, which received a Drama Desk nomination;, and Anna Deavere Smith’s Fires in the Mirror at the Signature Theatre, which also received a Lucille Lortel nomination. Regionally, he’s had the pleasure of designing three plays by Dominique Morisseau: Pipeline, Skeleton Crew (Actors Theatre of Louisville), and Detroit ’67 (Chautauqua Theatre Co.); Twisted Melodies, a new musical about Donny Hathaway at Center Stage Baltimore; and the new musical Lights Out: Nat King Cole at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, as well as its world premiere production at People’s Light & Theatre Co. in Malvern, PA in 2017. Additional credits include The Hot Wing King by Katori Hall at Signature Theatre; American Moor (Red Bull); Native Son (The Acting Company); Bluebird Memories featuring rap-artist Common (Audible Theatre); productions of Dutchman, Antigone, and Macbeth for the Classical Theatre of Harlem; and a special collaboration between CTH and The Apollo Theatre in New York, the new musical The First Noel by Lelund Durond Thompson and Jason Michael Webb. On Broadway he was the associate to Jennifer Tipton on The Testament of Mary. He is a graduate of Yale School of Drama, where in 2016 he became a member of the lighting faculty.

JAY HILTON (Sound Design) is pleased to continue his long association with Goodspeed Musicals and is so happy to be back in this beautiful theatre after nearly two years of pandemic shutdown. He is also happy to once again be working with director and friend Rob Ruggiero. Other Goodspeed productions with Mr. Ruggiero include 1776, Show Boat, Carousel, Fiddler on the Roof, La Cage aux Folles, Rags and Oliver!. Jay has designed countless other productions at both The Goodspeed and The Terris Theatre in Chester and recently created sound design and mixed Goodspeed’s successful re-entry programming Goodspeed by the River. His work has also been heard on Broadway, National Tours, and at Regional Theatres from coast to coast. In addition to being Goodspeed’s Resident Sound Designer, Jay serves as their Audio Supervisor and has spent much of his time during the pandemic recording, mixing and mastering musical theatre content for streaming platforms including Goodspeed’s 2020 Gala Shakin’ the Blues Away. He and his wife, Goodspeed Artistic Director Donna Lynn Hilton, make their home (and garden) in Hadlyme, Connecticut with Cookie and Macy.