Arizona Onstage Productions is a non-profit theater company in Tucson, Arizona. The company was founded by former touring actor Kevin Johnson and is mainly known for producing unusual, thought-provoking and often controversial musicals. Although the small company lacks the resources or theater space of comparatively gigantic companies such as Arizona Theatre Company and the University of Arizona theater department, it has drawn great amounts of praise from local theater critics for its intelligent and irreverent productions. In 2004, the company won three MAC Awards (the local awards for theater in Tucson) for its production of Stephen Sondheim's musical Assassins , specifically best musical, best actor, and best director. In 2005, the company received two nominations for best musical (one for Joel Payley's Ruthless! The Musical , and one for William Finn and James Lapine's A New Brain ), two nominations for Best Actress and one for Best Actor.
In 2006, Arizona Onstage Productions collaborated with the BASIS Charter School (where Johnson teaches theatre arts) to produce the first original work for the company, the children's opera Brundibar: Hear My Voice , a new version of Hans Krasa's classic children's opera Brundibar. This new version kept Krasa's original text and music, but added new material (written by one of Johnson's students) which tells the story of the piece's production in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Brundibar: Hear My Voice played April first and second at the Temple of Music and Art in Tucson. New material was scored for performances in late 2006-early 2007.
William Finn's Elegies—Looking Up in mid-November 2006 won the MAC award for best musical. Later shows for the company include Paul Bonin-Rodriguez's one man show Talk of the Town in January 2007 and its follow-up The Bible Belt... and Other Accessories in January 2008. The musicals The Full Monty (February 2007), Bark: The Musical (July 2007) and Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George (June 2008) are among their recent successes.
In January 2010, they will present a production of The Great American Trailer Park Musical, featuring what is believed to be the first-ever use of scratch and sniff cards in a theatrical production.
Into the Woods is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by James Lapine.
Company is a musical comedy with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by George Furth. The original 1970 production was nominated for a record-setting 14 Tony Awards, winning six. Company lacks a linear plot, depicting instead a story occurring in the mind of the central character, a concept musical composed of short vignettes, presented in no particular chronological order, linked by a 35th birthday.
William Alan Finn is an American composer and lyricist. He is best known for his musicals, which include Falsettos, for which he won the 1992 Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Book, A New Brain (1998), and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2005).
Brundibár is a children's opera by Jewish Czech composer Hans Krása with a libretto by Adolf Hoffmeister, made most famous by performances by the children of Theresienstadt concentration camp (Terezín) in occupied Czechoslovakia. The name comes from a Czech colloquialism for a bumblebee.
James Elliot Lapine is an American stage director, playwright, screenwriter, and librettist. He has won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical three times, for Into the Woods, Falsettos, and Passion. He has frequently collaborated with Stephen Sondheim and William Finn.
Judy Kuhn is an American actress and singer, known for her work in musical theatre. A four-time Tony Award nominee, she has released four studio albums and sang the title role in the 1995 film Pocahontas, including her rendition of the song "Colors of the Wind", which won its composers the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Hugh Wheeler. It is based on the 1973 play of the same name by Christopher Bond.
Michael Cerveris is an American actor, singer, and guitarist. He has performed in many stage musicals and plays, including several Stephen Sondheim musicals: Assassins, Sweeney Todd, Road Show, and Passion. In 2004, Cerveris won the Tony Award as Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Assassins as John Wilkes Booth. In 2015, he won his second Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical for Fun Home as Bruce Bechdel.
Hans Krása was a Czech composer, murdered during the Holocaust at Auschwitz. He helped to organize cultural life in Theresienstadt concentration camp.
Craig Lucas is an American playwright, screenwriter, theatre director, musical actor, and film director.
Euan Douglas George Morton is a Scottish actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Boy George in the musical Taboo, receiving nominations for the Laurence Olivier Award and Tony Award for his performance. He is currently playing the role of King George in the musical Hamilton on Broadway and has been doing so since July 2017.
John Doyle is a Scottish stage director of musicals and plays, as well as operas. He served as artistic director at several regional theatres in the United Kingdom, where he staged more than 200 professional productions during his career spanning over 40 years.
Raúl Eduardo Esparza is an American stage, screen, and voice actor. Considered one of Broadway's leading men since the 2000s, he is best known for his Tony Award-nominated starring role in the 2006 Broadway revival of Company and for his television role as New York Assistant District Attorney (ADA) Rafael Barba in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, where he had a recurring role in Season 14 and was promoted to a series regular in Seasons 15 to 19.
Merrily We Roll Along is a 1981 American musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by George Furth. It is based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.
Lonny Price is an American director, actor, and writer, primarily in theatre. He is perhaps best known for his creation of the role of Charley Kringas in the Broadway musical Merrily We Roll Along and for his New York directing work including Sunset Boulevard, Sweeney Todd, Company, and Sondheim! The Birthday Concert.
Lewis Cleale is an American theatre actor and singer. He is originally from Houlton, Maine.
Norm Lewis is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in Europe, on Broadway, in film, television, recordings and regional theatre. Productions that he has been involved in include Dessa Rose, Miss Saigon, The Wild Party, and several others.
Paul Gemignani is an American musical director with a career on Broadway and West End theatre spanning over forty years.
Warren Carlyle is a British director and choreographer who was born in Norwich, Norfolk, England. He received Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Choreography and Outstanding Director of a Musical for the 2009 revival of Finian's Rainbow.
Jay Armstrong Johnson is an American actor, singer, and dancer, known for his portrayal of Will Olsen in the ABC television series Quantico and starring roles on Broadway in musicals, including On the Town and The Phantom of the Opera.
