As Artistic Director
Selected Directing Work
Additional credits include: Lips Together, Teeth Apart (Northstar Theatre, VT); Lenin’s Omelet (New York Performance Works); Eye of the Beholder (Zipper Theatre); Dilettantes & Debutantes (Miranda Theatre, NYC); Something About Baseball (Theatre Off Park).
… then many of one-act festivals at The Players Theatre and SoHo Rep, as well as scores of workshops and staged readings, including: The Oliver Experiment (musical, Ripley Grier Studio); Sex In Mommyville (Peter J. Sharp, Playwrights Horizons); Arrivals and Departures (Rattlestick); John Steinbeck’s The Moon is Down (Kaufman Theatre); The Cook’s Tour (Perry Street Theatre); According To Hoyle (Perry Street Theatre); and The Devil’s Disciple (Irish Rep).
As Assistant Director
After three years of directing under the auspices of the liminal stage, I was incredibly fortunate to be hired to assist “one of England's most audacious new directors,” Sean Mathias. His production of Indiscretions, was transferring to Broadway from The National Theatre in London and would play at The Barrymore on 47th Street.
This began a three-year period of my assisting some marvelous directors. Quite simply, it put me in the room. I saw how things worked at the highest level. And it afforded me the opportunity to work with some of the best actors, designers and producers in the theatre at that time… many of whom I would work with again over the next twenty five years.
One of the shows not listed below was, at the time, called Queen: The Musical. It was a bio-musical about the band Queen, to be produced by Tribeca Theatricals, an offshoot of Tribeca Films. It was to be directed by Christopher Renshaw, with a book by Craig Lucas, Musical Direction by Paul Gemignani and music, of course, by the supergroup, Queen.
I’ll always remember well that afternoon when we presented the show to Robert DeNiro and Brad Epsteinin DeNiro’s office at Tribeca Films. And while Tribeca ultimately did not produce this version of the show (it was totally rewritten by Ben Elton and set in a galaxy far, far away), the show ultimately became We Will Rock You and opened several years later in 2002 at the Dominion Theatre in London. It would run for over 12 years!
I would work with Chris and Paul later that year on High Society, at A.C.T. in its pre-Broadway tryout, so all was not lost. It was a great start to a near year-long working relationship with Renshaw… and I would go on to work with the incomparable, Paul Gemignani, several times.
