Pittsburgh Public Theater

	I Was Here, Brian Stokes Mitchell
	Opposite You, Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley

The Glorious Ones tells the story of a roving troupe of actors as they chase their dream of theatrical immortality from the streets of 17th century Italy all the way to the present day. Join them on their adventures and experience soaring melodies, thrilling staging and a night of laughter. Don't miss the musical fireworks in this world premiere event from the Tony Award-winning team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime, Once on This Island)!

Ted's Take: "Lynn Ahrens. Stephen Flaherty. Graciela Daniele. They are three of the most talented and successful theater artists in the world and they chose our own Public Theater as the birthplace of their show. I find that thrilling. The Glorious Ones is about actors -- their art, egos, passions and adventures. It takes place in 17th century Italy. But honestly, have actors changed all that much in 400 years?"
Read More of Ted's Take 

This production is supported in part by a generous award from
the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Age Appropriateness: Mature high school students and older 

Run Time: Approximately one hour and 45 minutes.

About the Creators

LYNN AHRENS and STEPHEN FLAHERTY have been writing musicals together since 1983. Broadway: Ragtime (Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards, two Grammy nominations); Once on This Island (London's Olivier Award for Best Musical, two Tony nominations); Seussical (Grammy nomination, Drama Desk nomination); My Favorite Year; Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life. Off-Broadway: A Man of No Importance (Outer Critics Circle Award, Best Musical, two Drama Desk nominations), Dessa Rose (Outer Critics and Drama Desk nominations), Lucky Stiff (Helen Hayes Award). Film: Anastasia (two Academy Award nominations, two Golden Globe nominations). Concert: With Voices Raised (Boston Pops).

Individually, Flaherty wrote the score for Loving Repeating: A Musical of Gertrude Stein (Chicago's Jefferson Award for Best New Musical of last season), incidental music for Neil Simon's Proposals on Broadway and Ragtime Symphonic Suite (Hollywood Bowl.) Ahrens wrote lyrics and co-book for A Christmas Carol (produced annually at Madison Square Garden for ten years.) Her work in television includes the screenplay adaptation of A Christmas Carol (Hallmark Entertainment Special), Schoolhouse Rock and many others. (Emmy Award, four Emmy nominations.) "The Ahrens and Flaherty Songbook," a print anthology of their theater and film songs, is available through Warner Chappell Music.

Ahrens and Flaherty co-chair the Dramatists Guild Fellows Program for emerging writers and are members of the Dramatists Guild Council. Mr. Flaherty is a native of Pittsburgh. Ms. Ahrens is here for the first time.

About the Cast

NATALIE VENETIA BELCON (Columbina) Broadway: Avenue Q, Rent, Off Broadway: The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, And the World Goes ‘Round. Regional: Twelfth Night, Two Gentlemen of Verona. Film: Woo, Grace of My Heart, Sugar Hill. TV: Johnny & The Sprites;" recurring roles, "The Education of Max Bickford," "Beverly Hills 90210," "Roc;" guest star roles, "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," "Martin," "The Cosby Show;" and the lead role in "Play On" for PBS' "Great Performances. Graduate of Carnegie Mellon University.

JOHN KASSIR (Dottore) was recently seen in the Off Broadway and Los Angeles productions of Reefer Madness, The Musical (winner Ovation and Garland awards). He also starred in the Emmy winning, Reefer Madness, The MOVIE Musical. John originated the role of Kenny, a struggling stand-up comic, in the Off Broadway hit, Three Guys Naked From the Waist Down (Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle Award Nominations). Life imitated art in 1985, when after years in NYC performing professional theater and street performing in front of the Metropolitan Museum, John Kassir shot from obscurity, becoming the Star Search Stand-up Comedy Champ, beating Rosie O'Donnell and Sinbad, winning over $100,000! Many know John as The Cryptkeeper ("Tales from the Crypt"), or from his hundreds of voices: Meeko, the Racoon (Pocahontas), Buster Bunny ("Tiny Toon Adventures") and Santa's Little Helper ("The Simpsons"), to name a few. Others know John from his many character roles in film and television, including: Zagreb, The Bulgarian Kicker (HBO's "1st and 10"); The Atom (CBS's "The Justice League"); Gar ("Star Trek: Voyager") and Shemp (The Three Stooges, produced by Mel Gibson). Mr. Kassir lives in LA with his wife, (actress and Pittsburgh native), Julie Benz, and dogs, Duncan and Gracie.

DAVID PATRICK KELLY (Pantalone) Broadway: Festen, Twelfth Night, Uncle Vanya, The Government Inspector, Working, The Suicide, Is There Life After High School?, Knockout. Off Broadway: Orphan of Zhao, Ghosts, Marlowe, Lobster Alice, Anadarko, Pearls For Pigs, Arturo Ui, Henry VI, The Mind King, Genesis, Film Is Evil/Radio Is Good, The Cure. OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence. Regional Theater: Enrico IV (ART), Woyzeck, Tooth of Crime, Tartuffe, Seascape (Hartford Stage), Iphigenia (Huntington), The Tempest (ACT), Simone Machard, Romeo and Juliet (La Jolla). Connecticut Critics Circle Award for the title role in Tartuffe and Best Actor by Boston Magazine for the title role in Pirandello's Enrico IV and Seascape. Film: Flags of Our Fathers, The Warriors, 48 Hours, Last Man Standing, Commando, Hammett, Crooklyn, Wild At Heart, The Crow, Flirting With Disaster, K-PAX, Songcatcher, Personal Velocity, Justice. TV: "Twin Peaks."

JENNY POWERS (Isabella Andreini) is honored to be originating the role of Isabella Andreini. Her theatrical credits include: Meg in Little Women (Broadway); Diana Devereaux in NY City Center Encores' Of Thee I Sing; Young Phyllis in Encores' Follies; Alice B. Toklas in Galati and Flaherty's Loving Repeating: A Musical of Gertrude Stein (About Face Theatre/MCA); Sondheim's Bounce (Kennedy Center, Goodman); Dangerous Beauty (NY Stage and Film Festival); A Little Night Music (Chicago Shakespeare); A Long Gay Book (Chicago's Barber Theatre); Everything's Ducky (Northlight); Oliver (Muny); 1776 (Marriot Lincolnshire). TV: "Law and Order: CI," "Six Degrees," "All My Children." Film: Chris Rock's I Think I Love My Wife. Original Cast Recordings of Bounce, Little Women, Masada, and Loving Repeating. Jenny will also be starring as Rizzo in the Broadway revival of Grease this summer.

PAUL SCHOEFFLER (Flaminio Scala) A native of Canada, Paul has been seen on Broadway in Sweet Charity (Vidal) Beauty and the Beast (Lumiere), Peter Pan (Hook - also filmed for A&E), Cyrano (Le Bret), Victor/Victoria and Nine. Other NY credits include Encores!, concerts at Town Hall and numerous Off Broadway productions including Wintertime at Second Stage opposite Marsha Mason, No Way to Treat a Lady and The Fantasticks. National Tours include Les Miserables (Javert), Promises, Promises (Sheldrake) and Peter Pan. He has appeared in leading roles in regional theatres across the country and overseas, had numerous TV appearances and extensive voice over work for NBC, CBS, ESPN and the Oxygen Network, including the upcoming PBS series "Nate The Great." Graduate of Carnegie Mellon University.

JULYANA SOELISTYO (Armanda Ragusa) originated the title role of Golden Child by David Henry Hwang. Directed by James Lapine, it played at The New York Public Theatre, Kennedy Center, Singapore Rep, ACT, and on Broadway where she received a Tony nomination and the Clarence Derwent Award. She collaborated with Peter Sellars on a project focusing on the plights of refugees, playing Macaria and her grandmother Alcmene in The Children Of Herakles by Euripedes in Cambridge, Bottrop, Paris and the Teatro Valle in Rome. Other credits include Imogen in Cymbeline and Marina in Pericles at BAM directed by Bartlett Sher, Alice in Wonderland and Naomi's Road at the Seattle Children's Theatre, and Sister Fetus in Bringing Out The Dead directed by Martin Scorsese. Julyana lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Tim and their baby Clio.

JEREMY WEBB (Francesco Andreini) is thrilled to return to Pittsburgh, where he appeared as Mordred in Camelot at Pittsburgh CLO. New York credits include Rob Ackerman's Tabletop (Drama Desk Award), Paula Vogel's The Baltimore Waltz at the Signature Theatre, Anna Ziegler's BFF at DR2, Summer '69 and Three O'Clock in Brooklyn. Workshops include Bill Finn's The Royal Family of Broadway, George Stiles' Tom Jones (NYMF), Escape From Pterodactyl Island (AMAS), Monica! The Musical (MTC) and Dance of the Vampires. Also The Old Globe, Shakespeare Theatre, Long Wharf, McCarter, New York Stage & Film, Westport Playhouse, Hangar Theatre, Rep St. Louis, Cape Playhouse, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Walnut Street Theatre and Maine State Music Theatre. Film: Love Walked In. Television: "Law & Order" (guest star), "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (twice), "Law and Order: SVU" and "Guiding Light" (recurring). He is a graduate of The North Carolina School of the Arts and a proud member of Actors Equity Association.

About the Creative Team

GRACIELA DANIELE (Director/Choreographer) has directed on Broadway, at Lincoln Center, the Public Theater, and at regional theaters. She has earned ten Tony Award nominations and six Drama Desk nominations. Her Broadway Director/Choreographic credits include Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life, Annie Get Your Gun, Marie Christine, Once On This Island, Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Dangerous Game. She has Musical Staged/Choreographed such shows as The Pirate Queen, Ragtime (Astaire, Ovation [LA], NAACP and Callaway Award), The Goodbye Girl, Zorba with Anthony Quinn, The Rink starring Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. She choreographed the New York Shakespeare Festival production of The Pirates of Penzance on Broadway, Los Angeles and London, the motion picture of Pirates, and three Woody Allen films including Mighty Aphrodite, for which she won the 1996 Fosse Award, and Everyone Say I Love You, for which she won the 1997 Fosse Award. At Lincoln Center Theater, where she is resident director, Ms. Daniele directed and choreographed Bill Finn's A New Brain and Elegies, A Song Cycle, Michael John LaChuisa's Bernarda Alba, and Ms. Ahrens and Mr. Flaherty's Dessa Rose. She is the recipient of the 1998 Mr. Abbott Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Director/Choreographer. She was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 2006.

TOM MURRAY (Music Director) New York: The Last Five Years; London: Pacific Overtures (Donmar - 2003 Olivier Award), The Last Five Years (Menier Chocolate Factory - UK premiere); National tour: Parade (directed by Hal Prince); Chicago and Regional: Loving Repeating (world premiere) by Frank Galati and Stephen Flaherty, Saturday Night (Stephen Sondheim - US premiere), The Last Five Years (world premiere), My Fair Lady (McCarter Theatre), Winesburg, Ohio (Arden Theatre, Philadelphia), Putting It Together (Court Theatre, Chicago), A Little Night Music and Pacific Overtures (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre), Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Passion, Sunday In The Park With George, and Anyone Can Whistle (Ravinia Festival - directed by Lonny Price). Recipient of four Joseph Jefferson Awards (Chicago) and one Barrymore Award (Philadelphia) for music-direction. Upcoming: Parade (Donmar, London - UK premiere); Honeymoon in Las Vegas (Jason Robert Brown).

MICHAEL STAROBIN (Orchestrator) Adrift in Macao, Bernarda Alba, 25th Annual Spelling Bee, Assassins (Tony, Drama Desk), Tom Sawyer, A New Brain, A Christmas Carol (MSG), Hello Again, Guys & Dolls, My Favorite Year, Falsettoland, March of the Falsettos, In Trousers, Sunday in the Park with George, (Drama Desk), Once On This Island, Closer Than Ever, Legs Diamond, Romance Romance, Carrie, Birds of Paradise, Rags, Three Guys Naked, Von Richtofen, and the Disney films Home on the Range, Hunchback of Notre Dame and Life with Mikey.

DANIEL OSTLING (Scenic Designer) has designed numerous productions for director Mary Zimmerman, including Metamorphoses (Broadway) for which he was nominated for a Tony Award, Pericles at Shakespeare Theatre/D.C. and the most recent The Argonautica at Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago, where he is an ensemble member. Recent designs include Durango (Longwharf Theatre/Public Theatre), The Pain & The Itch (Steppenwolf /Playwrights' Horizons), Lookingglass Alice (Lookingglass, McCarter Theatre), A Little Night Music (Chicago Shakespeare), Pacific Overtures (Donmar Warehouse/ London, Chicago Shakespeare), two new operas' Rage d'Amours (Tanglewood Opera) and Ainadamar (Tanglewood Opera, Disney Concert Hall/ LA), Trojan Women (Goodman), Philip Glass's opera Galileo Galilei (Goodman, Barbican / London), and Purple Heart (Steppenwolf). Mr. Ostling is an Associate Professor of theatrical design at Northwestern University, where he received his MFA.

MARA BLUMENFELD (Costume Designer) work includes numerous productions for The Goodman, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre Company, where she is an ensemble member. A frequent collaborator with Mary Zimmerman, she has designed Metamorphoses, The Secret in the Wings, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, The Odyssey, Pericles, among many others, as well as Philip Glass' operas Akhnaten and Galileo Galilei. Ms. Blumenfeld was a recipient of the 1997-1999 NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Designers and is a recipient of Chicago's Jeff Award for Costume Design. In 2003, she was honored with a Laurence Olivier nomination for her design of Pacific Overtures at London's Donmar Warehouse. Regional credits include Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Rep, Mark Taper Forum, Milwaukee Rep., Huntington Theatre, Geva Theatre and McCarter Theatre. Upcoming projects include Frank Galati's Oedipus Complex and the opera Lucia di Lammermoor (dir. Mary Zimmermann) for the Metropolitan Opera.

STEPHEN STRAWBRIDGE (Lighting Designer) has designed on and Off Broadway and at most leading regional theater and opera companies across the US. He has designed major premiers in Bergen, Copenhagen, Hong Kong, The Hague, Munich, Naples and Sao Paulo. Recent work: Beethoven In Camera for the Schauspielhaus, Vienna, A Dream Play for the Stockholm City Theatre, Viva la Vida with Mercedes Ruehl, Bernarda Alba, directed by Graciella Daniele for Lincoln Center and Souls of Naples starring John Turturro. Nominations and/or awards: American Theatre Wing, Bay Area Critics Circle, Dallas Theater Critics Forum, Helen Hayes and Lucille Lortel. He is co-chair of the Design Department at Yale School of Drama and Resident Lighting Designer at Yale Repertory Theatre.

ZACH MOORE (Sound Designer) most recently designed the sound for Life X 3, Cabaret, the revival of The Chief, the world premiere of The Secret Letters of Jackie and Marilyn, and Oedipus the King here at Pittsburgh Public Theater. He has designed over 35 productions at Pittsburgh Public, including the world premieres of The Chief and Paper Doll, the American premieres of The Bird Sanctuary and RolePlay (also original music), as well as Gem of the Ocean, I Am My Own Wife, The Tempest, Broadway, Anna in the Tropics, Mary Stuart, The Mikado, Dirty Blonde, The Piano Lesson, Man of LaMancha, Fully Committed, Medea, Tea, Wit and You Can't Take it With You. Other designs include Completely Hollywood (abridged) for the Reduced Shakespeare Company, The Bird Sanctuary (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Falsettos (The Huntington), Blue/Orange (TheaterWorks Hartford), Paper Doll (Long Wharf Theatre), Fully Committed (Dallas Theater Center, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, and McCoy/Rigby Productions in LA), and Games of Steel for Attack Theater. Up next: The Gin Game.

News About the Show

• June 4, 2007: GLORIOUS ONES, a Musical Page Out of Theatre History, Will Get Lincoln Center Run
  Playbill Online
• May 4, 2007: Talkin' Broadway.com Review of The Glorious Ones
  Talkin' Broadway.com
• April 30, 2007: Stage Review: The Glorious Ones
  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
• April 28, 2007: New Musical 'The Glorious Ones' Fulfills Promise of its Name
  Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
• April 27, 2007: The Glorious Ones: Inside Scoop
  Beaver County Times
• April 26, 2007: Pittsburgh-born Composer Brings Musical's World Premiere Home
  The Associated Press
• April 22, 2007: Flaherty and Ahrens present their latest musical collaboration
  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
• April 22, 2007: A "Glorious" Premiere
  Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
• March 26, 2007: Spring Swing
  Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
• March 5, 2007: The Glorious Ones (pdf)