Cast & Creative

Stage musicals: God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater; Little Shop of Horrors; Beauty and The Beast; A Christmas Carol; The Little Mermaid; Sister Act; Leap of Faith; Newsies; Aladdin; The Hunchback of Notre Dame; The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and A Bronx Tale. Film work: The Little Mermaid, Beauty and The Beast (animated), Newsies, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Enchanted, Tangled, Sausage Party, Beauty and the Beast (live version). Television credits: “Sesame Street,” “Lincoln,” “The Neighbors,” “Galavant,” “Tangled.” Awards: 2012 Tony®, Drama Desk, 8 Oscars®, 11 Grammy® Awards, 7 Golden Globes®, London’s Evening Standard, the Olivier and Outer Critics Circle. Other: Songwriters Hall of Fame, Billboard’s #1 single and album, Disney Legend, star on Hollywood Walk of Fame. Doctorates from NYU and the North Carolina School of the Arts.

Best known as the pivotal creative mind behind The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast (which is dedicated to “Our friend, Howard Ashman, who gave a Mermaid her voice and a Beast his soul…”), Ashman’s first love was theatre. He was a founder of Off Off-Broadway’s renowned WPA Theatre, where he conceived, wrote and directed the classic musical Little Shop of Horrors as well as God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (both music by Alan Menken). A new cast recording of Rosewater will be available soon from Sh-K-Boom records. In 1986, Ashman wrote and directed the Broadway musical Smile (music by Marvin Hamlisch). Lamented as a lost treasure of the 1980’s theatre scene, Smile remains popular on high school and college campuses throughout the country. Ashman’s family is thrilled that Ashman and Menken’s original songs for Aladdin, some of which were cut in the making of the film — as well as portions of Ashman’s original film treatment — have been reinstated in the theatrical production. Howard Ashman died in 1991 from complications of AIDS. For more information, please visit howardashman.com.

Tim Rice has been writing lyrics for musical theatre and related enterprises for nearly 50 years. Credits include Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita with Andrew Lloyd Webber; Aladdin, King David and Beauty and the Beast with Alan Menken; Chess with Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson; and The Lion King and Aida with Elton John. He has won numerous awards along the way, usually for the wrong things or for simply turning up. His latest musical opened in London in 2013, based on James Jones’s novel From Here to Eternity, with music by Stuart Brayson. He is currently working on a show about Machiavelli and wrote three new songs with Alan Menken for the 2017 live action film of Beauty and the Beast. www.timrice.co.uk

Chad Beguelin is a six-time Tony Award® nominee. His Broadway works include The Prom (Tony Award nomination for Best Book and Best Original Score, Drama Desk Award Nomination for Best Book and Outstanding Lyrics), Disney’s Aladdin (Tony Award nomination for Best Book and Best Original Score, Drama Desk Award Nomination for Best Book and Outstanding Lyrics), and The Wedding Singer (Tony Award nomination for Best Book and Best Original Score, Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Lyrics). He also wrote the lyrics for the Broadway musical Elf, which broke several box office records at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. Chad co-wrote the screenplay for The Prom currently available on Netflix and staring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and James Corden. He is the recipient of the Edward Kleban Award for Outstanding Lyric Writing, the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Awards, the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Musical Theater Award and the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award. Chad is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Dramatic Writing Program. Much love to his husband Tom.

Represented on Broadway as director/choreographer of The Prom (2019 Tony^® nominations for Best Direction), Mean Girls (2018 Tony nominations for Best Direction and Choreography), Disney’s Aladdin (2014 Tony, Drama Desk & Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for Best Choreography), and co-director and choreographer of The Book of Mormon (2011 Tony, Drama Desk & Outer Critics Circle Awards for co-director and nominations in the same categories for choreography); Olivier award winner for Best Choreography. Represented on the West End as director and choreographer of Dreamgirls, The Book of Mormon and Aladdin. Other Broadway credits as director/choreographer: Tuck Everlasting; Something Rotten! (2015 Tony nomination for Best Direction); Elf: The Musical; The Drowsy Chaperone (2006 Tony, Drama Desk & Outer Critics Circle nominations); Monty Python’s Spamalot directed by Mike Nichols (2005 Tony, Drama Desk & Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Choreography). Additional New York credits: for City Center Encores! – the highly acclaimed productions of Most Happy Fella and Anyone Can Whistle and Follies (direction/choreography).

Bob Crowley is an associate of the National Theatre. He has designed more than 50 productions in London including Mary Poppins (London – Evening Standard Award; Broadway – Tony®, Drama Desk Awards). Other Broadway credits include An American in Paris (Tony Award), The Glass Menagerie, The Audience, Skylight, Carousel (Tony Award), The Capeman, Sweet Smell of Success, Aida (Tony Award), Tarzan® (also directed), The Year of Magical Thinking, The Coast of Utopia (Tony Award), The History Boys (Tony Award) and Once (Tony Award). He received The Royal Designer for Industry Award and the Robert L.B. Tobin Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatrical Design.

Broadway: Tuck Everlasting (2016 Tony® nomination); Something Rotten! (2015 Tony nomination); Aladdin (New York, London, Japan, Hamburg, Sydney, North American tour); Kinky Boots (2013 Tony nomination, 2016 Oliver Award); Follies (2012 Tony, Drama Desk, Henry Hewes Awards); Elf; Legally Blonde (2007 Tony nomination); The Drowsy Chaperone (2006 Tony, Drama Desk Awards, Olivier nomination); Dirty Rotten Scoundrels; Flower Drum Song (2002 Tony nomination); Side Show; Bye Bye Birdie. New York: The Wizard of Oz, The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Pageant (NY and London — Olivier nomination). Regional: Mame, Allegro (Helen Hayes Award). TDF Young Master Award.

Natasha Katz has designed extensively for theatre, opera, dance, concerts and permanent lighting installations around the world. She is a seven-time Tony Award® winner whose recent Broadway credits include: Hello, Dolly! (starring Bette Midler); Cats; Long Day’s Journey Into Night; School of Rock; An American in Paris; Skylight; The Glass Menagerie; Once; Follies; The Coast of Utopia: Salvage and Aida. Recent dance designs include: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Winter’s Tale and Tryst for The Royal Ballet.

Broadway: In Transit, Aladdin, Jekyll and Hyde, A Christmas Story the Musical, Scandalous, Newsies, Memphis, The Threepenny Opera, Barefoot in the Park, Steel Magnolias. New York and regional companies: The Old Globe, The 5th Avenue Theater, McCarter Theater, Seattle Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, LA CTG, ACT Seattle, Guthrie Theater, KC Rep, Dallas Theater Center, Playwrights Horizons, The New Group, NYSF Public Theater, CSC, Signature Theater NYC, SoHo Rep, Vineyard Theater, The Civilians, Mabou Mines. ken-travis.squarespace.com

Michael Kosarin was music director of the Broadway production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast in 1994, and has collaborated as composer Alan Menken’s music director and arranger since. He’s worked steadily on Broadway since 1982, on the original productions of Nine, Grand Hotel, Secret Garden, King David, Mayor, A Chorus Line, Triumph of Love, Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid, Leap of Faith, Sister Act, Newsies and Aladdin, and arranged the legendary theatrical version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. His vast motion picture work includes Pocahontas, Hercules, Enchanted, Tangled, Captain America, the 2017 live-action film of Beauty and the Beast, Ralph Breaks the Internet and the 2019 live-action Aladdin. An Emmy®-award-winning television music producer and arranger, he worked for two seasons on the musical series “Galavant,” and has composed for children’s shows such as “Sesame Street.” In the recording world, Kosarin is a three-time Grammy®-nominated recording artist and producer. He also maintains an active concert career ranging from cabaret to symphony orchestras, and has conducted films such as The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast live to picture all over the world, including at the Hollywood Bowl in front of 17,000 people.

Makeup design for Tuck Everlasting; Something Rotten!; The Rocky Horror Show and makeup design consultant for Present Laughter and Sister Act. She has worked as a makeup artist on Broadway for more than 20 years, including Spider-Man, Mary Poppins, The Lion King, Into the Woods, Bells Are Ringing, The Wild Party, Tango Argentino, Little Me, The Wizard of Oz, The King and I and Kiss of the Spider Woman, and has worked with the esteemed Eartha Kitt and Diahann Carroll.

Danny’s five-decade career includes composing, orchestrating, and conducting. Early credits: Pacific Overtures, The Baker’s Wife (dance music) and Big River (music supervision – Drama Desk winner). He orchestrated the animated features Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, as well as Newsies the film and the Broadway show. In 2012 he orchestrated Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, for which he won his second Drama Desk Award. China, Russia, France, Italy, Germany, Holland and the UK round out his world travels.

Glen Kelly is honored to have worked with such icons as Mike Nichols, Stephen Sondheim, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen and Trey Parker. He won the New York Drama Desk Award for his score to The Nance. He was music supervisor and arranger for The Producers, Young Frankenstein, Death of a Salesman and Bullets Over Broadway. He arranged music for Something Rotten!; A Christmas Story; The Book of Mormon; The Scottsboro Boys; The Drowsy Chaperone; Spamalot and Beauty and the Beast; among others.

Ground­hog Day; Bandstand; Paramour; Allegiance; Aladdin; Matilda; Side Show; Bullets Over Broadway; A Night With Janis Joplin; Cinderella; Scandalous; Chaplin; Ghost; How to Succeed; Promises, Promises; Bye Bye Birdie; Grease; Times They Are Matilda, Billy Elliot, Miss Saigon, Les Misérables, Radio City Music Hall. For Robin and Taylor. A-Changin’; Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Conductor/percussionist: Groundhog Day, Matilda, Billy Elliot, Miss Saigon, Les Misérables, Radio City Music Hall. For Robin and Taylor.

NY/London: Present Laughter; Dreamgirls; Paramour; Tuck Everlasting; School of Rock; Something Rotten!; Aladdin; Kinky Boots; The Book of Mormon; Trip of Love; First Date; Elf; Dogfight; The Best Man; Look Back In Anger, The Drowsy Chaperone; Pig Farm; Trailer Park Musical; Altar Boyz; Show Boat at Carnegie Hall, Encores! Most Happy Fella; No, No, Nanette; Follies and Mamma Mia!. West Coast: Robin & the 7 Hoods, Peep Show, Minsky’s, Vanities. Television: “The Slap,” “30 Rock,” “Saturday Night Live.”

The New York Times calls him the “celebrated invisible man, designer and creative brain behind many of the great stage magicians.” His illusions have been featured by Doug Henning, Siegfried and Roy, David Copperfield, Ricky Jay and many others. He created the special illusions for Beauty and the Beast, Into the Woods, The Phantom of the Opera and Mary Poppins. He’s also the author of books on the history of magic.

Has worked on over 50 Broadway productions; recent highlights include Macbeth, Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe, Clyde’s, Beetlejuice, & Hadestown. Jeremy has worked with the Disney Theatrical Group creating effects for Frozen, Aladdin, Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Tarzan. In London’s West End, Jeremy designed Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Let the Right One In. Jeremy’s work has been featured in prominent performing and visual arts institutions across the United States and the globe. In 2018, Jeremy was an Emmy Award honoree for his work on NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live. Jeremy serves as head designer for J&M Special Effects in Brooklyn. www.jmfx.net

J. Allen Suddeth has worked professionally for the past thirty years out of the New York area. Broadway: Newsies, Jekyll & Hyde, Gem of the Ocean, Saturday Night Fever, Angels in America Parts One and Two, Loot, Saint Joan, A Small Family Business and Hide and Seek. He is ranked as one of sixteen recognized Fight Masters in the United States by The Society of American Fight Directors.

Broadway: On A Clear Day, A Little Night Music, Broadway Bound, Spamalot, Contact, Thou Shalt Not, Steel Pier, Victor/Victoria, Showboat, Crazy For You, Cats and Wind in the Willows. Films and TV: A Chorus Line, Center Stage, PBS’s Great Performances of Crazy For You and Contact.

Choreography credits include: European productions of Disney’s The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. Associate choreographer: The Book of Mormon. Director/choreographer: Olympic Medals Ceremonies (2002 and 2010 Winter Games); The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, including first international production in Mexico City. Thanks to Mike and Cooper for their love and support.

Selected Broadway: Dear Evan Hansen; Bandstand; Indecent; Prince of Broadway; Sunset Boulevard; Miss Saigon; A Bronx Tale; Cats; Falsettos; Disaster!; School of Rock; It Shoulda Been You; Gigi; Bullets Over Broadway; Les Misérables; The Heiress; How to Succeed…; Billy Elliot; Shrek; Young Frankenstein; Mary Poppins; Spamalot; Spelling Bee; The Producers; Mamma Mia!; Jersey Boys; The Phantom of the Opera. Off-Broadway: The Band’s Visit; Here Lies Love; Love, Loss, and What I Wore.

More than 65 Broadway productions and tours. Recent: Hamilton, Fiddler on the Roof, Sylvia, The Realistic Joneses, Of Mice and Men, Mothers and Sons, All the Way, The Bridges of Madison County. HTA is a member of Neil A. Mazzella’s HUDSON family, which includes Hudson Scenic Studio and Hudson Sound & Light. Geoff has worked on more than 60 US and international touring productions. His work for HTA includes A Night with Janis Joplin, Porgy and Bess tour, Newsies Broadway and tour, and Aladdin (Broadway, Tokyo, Hamburg, London, Australia, North American tour).

Original Broadway associate for Aladdin and led the teams re-creating the design in Japan, Germany, London, Australia, Mexico and two US tours. He has been the associate for 23 Broadway shows/ tours and recently designed Mr. Saturday Night starring Billy Crystal.

Clifford has been part of the Disney Theatrical family since 1999. Disney credits include the Broadway and multiple international productions of Frozen, Aladdin, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Elton John and Tim Rice’s AIDA, Tarzan®, The Little Mermaid, and Peter and the Starcatcher. Additional Broadway credits include Grease! (1994); Chicago (1996); Big The Musical; Guys and Dolls (1992); Lend Me a Tenor (1990); Assassins (1991) and Moose Murders (1983).

Jason Trubitt is proud to be a production supervisor with Disney Theatrical, having supervised ten productions of Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast in eight countries.  Prior to supervising, Jason was a stage manager on Aladdin; Sister Act; Mary Poppins; Wicked; Never Gonna Dance; and Mamma Mia!  He has also stage managed at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington Opera at the Kennedy Center, and Goodspeed Opera House.  Love to Marlene, Herbie, and Ryan.

Happy to be returning to Agrabah! Some other credits include: King Kong: Alive on Broadway, Finding Neverland, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Mary Poppins, Wicked, Peepshow, The Pirate Queen, The Lion King, Ragtime, Show Boat, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Cats, The Good Body, The Vagina Monologues, Spirit and Barbra Streisand’s Timeless concert.

Productions include Cinderella; Memphis; The Little Mermaid; The Country Girl; Rock ’n’ Roll; The Producers; A Christmas Carol; Jesus Christ Superstar; Marie Christine; Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk; Racing Demon; The Heiress; Abe Lincoln in Illinois; My Favorite Year. For Brigid.

Original Broadway: If/Then, Memphis, A Catered Affair, Cymbeline. Off-Broadway: NYCC Encores! The Public Theater, Rent, Angels in America. Regional favorites: Without You, The Old Globe, Dallas Theater Center. For Drum and friends, lead on.

Broadway: Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, The Merchant of Venice, National Tour: La Cage aux Folles. Off-Broadway credits include The Public, Roundabout, MTC, MCC & Playwrights Horizons.

Bernadette Schoenborn is very excited to join the National tour of Disney’sAladdin! Broadway credits: Aladdin, The Lion Kingand The Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Thanks to family, friends and Milo for their love and support!

Broadway: King Kong, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Cyrano de Bergerac, Wicked, Fosse, Les Miserables, Sly Fox, La Cage aux Folles. National Tours: Jersey Boys, Chicago, Wicked.