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![Glee - Burning Up [HQ iTunes Bonus Track]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110426100412im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/GcPkGKOaE5I/0.jpg "Glee - Burning Up [HQ iTunes Bonus Track]")
| Caption | Groff outside the Delacorte Theater, August 19, 2009 |
|---|---|
| Name | Jonathan Groff |
| Birth date | March 26, 1985 |
| Birth place | Lancaster, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Occupation | Singer-songwriter, actor |
| Yearsactive | 2006–present |
Groff told Broadway.com during the National Equality March in Washington, D.C., that he is "gay and proud". Groff guest starred in the back nine episodes of the first season of Glee along with Spring Awakening co-star Lea Michele. He introduced Michele to Glee creator Ryan Murphy prior to the show's start.
He played the recurring role of Henry Mackler on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live. His storyline about a school shooting on the long-running soap opera was nixed due to the Virginia Tech shooting in April 2007, and he is no longer on the show.
Before performing on the Broadway stage, Jonathan was a performer at The Ephrata Performing Arts Center in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. There he portrayed such characters as Edgar in and Ugly in Honk!.
Groff played as Claude in the Shakespeare in the Park production of Hair, which ran July 22 through August 31 and as Michael Lang in Ang Lee's film, Taking Woodstock.
Groff has appeared in the Off-Broadway production of Prayer for My Enemy by Craig Lucas (Prelude to a Kiss, Light in the Piazza) about the consequences the Iraq war has had on an American family.
In August 2009, Groff performed The Bacchae as Dionysus as a part of the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park.
He was guest starring on Glee as Jesse St. James, the male lead of rival glee club, Vocal Adrenaline for eight of the back nine episodes. He also serves as a love interest for his former Spring Awakening co-star Lea Michele's character, Rachel Berry. Newsweek critic Ramin Satoodeh stated that Groff was unconvincing in the role of the straight Jesse ("he seems more like your average theater queen, a better romantic match for Kurt than Rachel"). Groff's performance was defended by Glee creator Ryan Murphy and guest star Kristin Chenoweth, both of whom described Satoodeh's essay as homophobic; it was also condemned by GLAAD president Jarrett Barrios.
In August 2010 he made his West End debut in Deathtrap, at the Noel Coward Theatre in a production directed by Matthew Warchus.
Category:1985 births Category:American stage actors Category:American television actors Category:American musical theatre actors Category:American film actors Category:American soap opera actors Category:American singers Category:Gay actors Category:LGBT musicians from the United States Category:Living people Category:People from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
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| Name | Lea Michele |
|---|---|
| Caption | Michele at the Time 100 Gala in Manhattan, May 4, 2010. |
| Birth name | Lea Michele Sarfati |
| Birth date | August 29, 1986 |
| Birth place | The Bronx, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress, Singer, Dancer |
| Years active | 1995–present |
She played the role of Wendla in Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik's musical version of Spring Awakening, starring in early workshops to Off-Broadway and finally originating the role in the Broadway production at the age of 20. Around the same time that the show was set to go to Broadway, she was offered the role of Eponine in the Broadway revival of Les Misérables. She chose to remain with Spring Awakening, which debuted on Broadway in December 2006. Michele was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for her performance in Spring Awakening in the category of Outstanding Actress in a Musical.
On May 18, 2008, Michele left Spring Awakening with co-star Jonathan Groff. She performed in a reading of Sheik and Sater's new musical, Nero, in July 2008 at Vassar College. On August 8 through 10, 2008, Michele portrayed Eponine in the Hollywood Bowl's Les Misérables concert.
Michele is on the original Broadway cast recordings of Ragtime and Spring Awakening, as well as the 2003 Broadway revival cast recording of Fiddler on the Roof.
Michele stars in the Fox television series Glee, where she plays the star singer of a high school glee club, Rachel Berry. The pilot debuted on May 19, 2009. She has won a Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding ensemble performance and the 2009 Satellite Award for best actress. She also received nominations for an Emmy Award, two nominations for an Golden Globe Award, and Teen Choice Award for her performance in the role. Her cover of The All-American Rejects' "Gives You Hell" reached number one on the Irish charts and the top 40 on the US Billboard 200. Michele is featured lead singer in 14 of the top 20 selling glee songs as of 2010.
Michele was included in Time magazine's 2010 list of the 100 Most Influential People In the World. FHM named her #7 on 2010 Sexiest Women List, which was the highest ranking for a new entry on the list that year. AfterEllen.com named her #16 in Hot 100 of 2010, stating that "Lea Michele is just a perfect storm of hotness". Michele was named to Victoria’s Secret Sexy List 2010 as having the "Sexiest Smile". Michele was named to People Magazine's Best Dressed List of 2010 as "The Newbie". She was voted "2010 Most Stylish Star" by E! Online. E! Online also named Michele to its Top 10 celebrities of 2010 list at #7.
In 2010, Michele joined the cast of the animated film Dorothy of Oz, voicing the lead role of Dorothy Gale. That same year, she also joined the ensemble cast of Garry Marshall's romantic comedy New Year's Eve.
Readings/Workshops Burt Bacharach and Steven Satar collaboration (November 2009) Nero as Octavia (July 2008) Samson and Delilah as Delilah King as Anisette Spring Awakening as Wendla – Roundabout Theatre Company (2000 and June 2001)
Concerts/Events
Other projects
Film and television
Category:1986 births Category:Actors from New York City Category:American musical theatre actors Category:American female singers Category:American television actors Category:American vegans Category:American voice actors Category:American people of Jewish descent Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:LGBT rights activists from the United States Category:American actors of Italian descent Category:American people of Spanish descent Category:Living people Category:Musicians from New York City Category:People from Bergen County, New Jersey Category:People from the Bronx Category:Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:Animal rights advocates
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| Name | Sutton Foster |
|---|---|
| Caption | Foster at the opening night of A Life in the Theatre |
| Birthdate | March 18, 1975 |
| Birthplace | Statesboro, Georgia, USA |
| Occupation | Actress, Singer, Dancer, Artist |
| Yearsactive | 1990 - present |
| Website | http://suttonfoster.com/ |
Foster's first Broadway role was Sandy Dumbrowski in Grease in 1996. She then appeared in The Scarlet Pimpernel and as Star to Be in Annie in 1997. Foster's next Broadway role was Eponine in Les Misérables in 2000.
Foster's opportunity was reminiscent of 42nd Street when, during rehearsals of the pre-Broadway run of Thoroughly Modern Millie at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, she replaced leading lady Erin Dilly. Any apprehension about having an unknown playing the lead in a nearly $10 million Broadway production was proven unfounded when she opened at the Marquis Theatre to many positive reviews. The New York Daily News reviewer wrote that "newcomer Sutton Foster, who has the pert look, the silver voice and the dazzling legwork to make an extraordinarily winning Millie." Clive Barnes, reviewing for the New York Post wrote "Newcomer Sutton Foster's own star turn as Millie is perfectly charming, but as a star she doesn't twinkle, glitter or light up Broadway like a Christmas tree defying a July noon. But she has a good voice and is cutely agreeable." The Newsday reviewer wrote: "She has a smile that may remind you of Mary Tyler Moore, the gawky comic precision of the young Carol Burnett, the lyricism of a romantic heroine and a smallish but vibrant voice as accurate as it is expressive. As [Millie], another of New York's prototypical small- town girls with big-city dreams, [Sutton Foster] appears unfazed by the burden of a character created onscreen by Julie Andrews. The newcomer takes the big stage with an uninhibited what-the- heck comfort level and the discipline to go with her instincts." Time Magazine wrote: "she's [Sutton Foster] got the full package: girlish gawkiness and Broadway brass, the legs and the lungs. Foster is a big reason the show is just about the cutest thing to hit Broadway since Annie's dimples, with perkily retro songs by Jeanine Tesori and clever staging by director Michael Mayer..." Foster went on to win the 2002 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical for her performance.
In 2005, Foster starred as Jo March opposite Maureen McGovern as Marmee in the musical adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott classic Little Women, for which she was nominated for her second Tony Award.
She returned to the Marquis Theatre in May 2006 in The Drowsy Chaperone, a spoof of 1920s musicals. She played the role of Janet van de Graaff, a famous Broadway starlet who opts to forgo a stage career in favor of married life. Her performance earned her a third Tony nomination.
In 2007, Foster appeared on television in Johnny and the Sprites, a children's musical puppet show, and in a three-episode story arc on the HBO series Flight of the Conchords.
Foster starred in Mel Brooks' musical adaptation of his film Young Frankenstein as the German yodeling fraulein Inga from October 2007 to July 2008.
She created the role of Princess Fiona in Shrek the Musical, which opened on Broadway December 14, 2008. For this role Foster won her second Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical and was nominated for her fourth Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical. She played her final performance on January 3, 2010 when the show closed on Broadway.
Foster participated in a reading of a work-in-progress new musical, Bonnie and Clyde: A Folktale, in June 2009. Her brother Hunter is writing the music for this musical.
Wish, Foster's debut solo album, was released on the Ghostlight Records label in February 2009. The songs range from jazz to pop to cabaret to Broadway. In 2010 and 2011, Foster is promoting the album with concert performances in Boston, New York, Chicago, the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Orange County, California, and Washington, D.C..
Foster taught a Spring Semester class at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Undergraduate Department of Drama, beginning in January 2010, culminating in a cabaret performance at Joe's Pub in May. She is now on the faculty of NYU's New Studio on Broadway. She also taught a week long master class session at Ball State University (Muncie, IN) in January 2010.
She also guest starred on an episode of Law & Order SVU, which aired on March 3, 2010.
Foster made her Off-Broadway debut in Paul Weitz's new comedy, Trust which began previews July 23, 2010 with an official opening August 12, running through September 12, 2010 at Second Stage Theatre. The play also starred Zach Braff, Bobby Cannavale, and Ari Graynor.
She has been confirmed to play Reno Sweeny in the upcoming Broadway revival of Anything Goes, which will begin performances on March 10, 2011 at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre and will officially open on April 7, 2011.
Foster and Seth Rudetsky participated in the one night only Actors Fund benefit concert of They're Playing Our Song on August 30, 2010 at the Gerald W. Lynch Theatre. The full cast includes Efé, Kaitlyn Davidson, Alex Ellis, Maynard, Matt Loehr, and Jesse Nager, and is directed by Denis Jones.
Foster performed at the 33rd Annual Kennedy Center Honors in a tribute to Jerry Herman.
;Filmography
;Discography
Category:1975 births Category:Living people Category:American female singers Category:American musical theatre actors Category:American stage actors Category:Carnegie Mellon University alumni Category:People from Troy, Michigan Category:Tony Award winners Category:People from Bulloch County, Georgia Category:Actors from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Actors from Michigan Category:New York University faculty
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The musical documents its own creation by two Broadway fans, who want to enter the New York Musical Theatre Festival and struggle to complete the show in three and a half weeks, and their two actress friends. The actors are also the writers and characters of the musical.
Blackwell's character, "Susan," is a quirky performer by night and corporate drone by day—what Blackwell calls a "distillation" of her true personality.
Blackwell became involved in the musical's development early on, through her longstanding friendships with the show's writer, Hunter Bell, and composer, Jeff Bowen (who also star in the show, as "Hunter" and "Jeff"). Blackwell had worked with the two men as part of her previous Off-Off-Broadway performing duo, the New Wondertwins.
At the time Bowen and Bell began work on [title of show], Blackwell had decided to abandon performing for a stable, corporate office job.
"I feel really grateful to my friends for rescuing me," she has said of her role in [title of show]. "They airlifted me out of very corporate ascension and plopped me down into this whole other experience."
One Village Voice reviewer wrote of the duo in 1999: "Their wordless finale, orchestrated to a space-age bachelor-pad soundtrack, is a tour de force of fascination and horror: never have soy milk and deviled eggs been used to such loathsome effect."
In addition to [title of show]'s Off-Broadway and Broadway runs, Blackwell's more recent credits include the Off-Broadway shows Speech and Debate, Anon, Working Title, Vilna's Got a Golem and The Heidi Chronicles (as Peter Patrone).
Blackwell's television appearances The Sopranos, Third Watch, All My Children, and several episodes of Law & Order.
Her film credits include P.S. I Love You, Margot at the Wedding, Bun Bun, Changing Lanes and Night Int. Trailer for the feature film Ten Minutes Older.
She is married to musician Steve White.
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Ashford began working as a choreographer when Rob Marshall sent Ashford to re-stage Kiss of the Spider Woman in Buenos Aires. He next served as Associate Choreographer to Kathleen Marshall on the 1999 revival of Kiss Me, Kate.
Ashford’s first Broadway show as choreographer was Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002), for which he won the 2002 Tony Award for Best Choreography. For City Center’s Encores!, Ashford has choreographed: Tenderloin (2000), Bloomer Girl (2001), A Connecticut Yankee (2001), and Pardon My English (2004). Other New York Credits include The Boys from Syracuse at The Roundabout Theatre.
In London, Ashford's choreography credits include: Thoroughly Modern Millie (Olivier Award Nomination), Guys and Dolls starring Ewan McGregor and Jane Krakowski (Olivier Nomination), and Evita (Olivier Nomination). He made his directorial debut with Parade, in a production that included additional songs by Tony winner Jason Robert Brown. Ashford received Olivier Nominations both for Direction and Choreography. Other London choreography credits include: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Once in a Lifetime, both at the Royal National Theatre, and a new production of Candide at the English National Opera (with subsequent productions at La Scala, Milan and La Chatelet Theatre, Paris).
Film credits include staging the musical numbers for the Bobby Darin biopic Beyond the Sea starring Kevin Spacey. For television, Ashford has choreographed tributes to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Barbra Streisand for The Kennedy Center Honors. He collaborated with filmmaker Baz Luhrmann on a production number featuring Hugh Jackman and Beyonce Knowles for The 81st Annual Academy Awards(Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography).
Current projects include directing A Streetcar Named Desire at the Donmar Warehouse starring Academy Award Winner Rachel Weisz, and directing and choreographing Parade for The Mark Taper Forum (LA). He is the director and choreographer of the first major Broadway revival of Promises, Promises starring Sean Hayes and Kristen Chenoweth, which started in previews in March 2010.
He currently co-directs the US national tour of Shrek the Musical with Jason Moore, which began in July 2010. He will also co-direct the upcoming West End production of the show, which begins in May 2011.
Future productions include: a musical version of the film Finding Neverland;, a musical version of the film Leap of Faith in September 2010 in Los Angeles, and a Broadway revival of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, set to begin previews in February 2011 and starring Daniel Radcliffe all of which he will direct and choreograph.
Ashford is on the executive committee for The Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Board of Trustees for The Joyce Theatre, and an Associate Director at The Donmar Warehouse.
;London
Category:1959 births Category:Living people Category:American choreographers Category:American dancers Category:People from Orlando, Florida Category:Tony Award winners
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| Name | Matthew Morrison |
|---|---|
| Caption | Morrison at Gaslamp, San Diego, 2010 |
| Birthname | Matthew James Morrison |
| Birth date | |
| Birth place | Fort Ord, California, |
| - style | "font-size:smaller;" |
| Colspan | "10" style="font-size:8pt"| "—" denotes releases that did not chart |
| Name | Morrison, Matthew |
| Short description | Actor |
| Date of birth | October 30, 1978 |
| Place of birth | Fort Ord, California, U.S. |
| Place of death | }} |
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Laura Benanti |
|---|---|
| Birth date | July 15, 1979 |
| Birth place | New York City, New York, USA |
| Yearsactive | 1998–present |
| Occupation | Actress, vocalist |
| Spouse | Steven Pasquale (2007-present) |
Benanti remembers being "very serious" and "a bit of an ugly duckling" as a child, and was intensely interested in musical theatre, which distanced her from other children. (In 2008, Benanti told The New York Times that she drew on this loneliness in her portrayal of the neglected Louise in .) She graduated from Kinnelon High School in 1997.
In 1999, Benanti appeared in the Broadway revue Swing!, for which she received a Tony nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical. In 2000, she co-starred with Donna Murphy in the critically acclaimed City Center Encores! concert production of the Leonard Bernstein-Betty Comden-Adolph Green musical "Wonderful Town." In 2002, Benanti played Cinderella (a role she had played as a teenager) in the Broadway revival of Into the Woods, and received both a Tony nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical and a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical. During a mid-performance pratfall in Into the Woods, Benanti fractured her neck, herniating two discs directly onto her spinal cord and cutting off spinal fluid, a condition that sometimes leads to paralysis. Benanti was eventually replaced in the show by Erin Dilly. Eight months after her initial injury, Benanti was rediagnosed and received surgery that could have damaged her voice but was successful, though as of 2005 she still experienced neck pain and myelopathy. In July 2007, Benanti played in a three-week limited run of the musical at the New York City Center as Louise, alongside Patti LuPone as Rose and Boyd Gaines as Herbie. In March 2008, the production transferred to Broadway, where it ran until January 2009 and received widespread critical acclaim. Benanti's performance as Louise was praised, with The New York Times's Ben Brantley declaring it "the performance of her career", and she won several awards, including a Tony for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical, and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical.
Benanti appeared in The Public Theater's world premiere production of Christopher Durang's play Why Torture Is Wrong, And the People Who Love Them, from April 6, 2009 to April 26.
Next for Benanti was the Lincoln Center Theater production of Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) beginning October 22, 2009, opening November 19, 2009 at the Lyceum Theatre.
Benanti has also appeared in the World AIDS Day concerts of Pippin and Children of Eden. These concerts were co-founded by her best friend, Jamie McGonnigal and former Miss America Kate Shindle.
Benanti reunited with former Gypsy co-star, Patti Lupone, in the new musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown with previews beginning October 8, 2010 and an official opening set for November 4, 2010.
Category:1979 births Category:Living people Category:Actors from New Jersey Category:American female singers Category:American musical theatre actors Category:American sopranos Category:American stage actors Category:American television actors Category:Drama Desk Award winners Category:New York University alumni Category:People from Morris County, New Jersey Category:Tony Award winners
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