Hannah Elless | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Education | Western Michigan University (BFA) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 2012–present |
Hannah Elless is an American actress, singer, and painter. She is best known for her role as Margo Crawford in the Broadway production of Bright Star written by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. She made her television debut on HBO's The Deuce .
Elless grew up in Southwest Michigan. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Western Michigan University. [1]
Elless made her Broadway debut in the 2012 revival of Stephen Schwartz's Godspell . [2] Her other Broadway credits include Jack Thorne's A Christmas Carol and originating the role of Margo Crawford in Steve Martin and Edie Brickell's Bright Star . [3] [4] Deadline called Elless' performance in Bright Star "radiant." [5] The New York Times described Elless' portrayal of Margo as "genially wry." [6]
Her most recent project has her starring as Mary Follett in Lynn Ahrens' and Stephen Flaherty's new musical, Knoxville, based on both the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, A Death in the Family, by James Agee, and the Pulitzer Prize winning play, All the Way Home , by Tad Mosel. [7] [8]
| Year | Title | Role | Venue | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Knoxville | Mary Follett | Asolo Repertory Theatre | World premiere | [9] |
| 2019-2020 | A Christmas Carol | Jess | Lyceum Theatre | Broadway | [10] |
| 2019 | Benny & Joon | Joon | Paper Mill Playhouse | Regional, Original | [11] |
| 2018 | The Other Josh Cohen | Drummer/All the People | Westside Theatre | Off-Broadway | [12] |
| 2018 | Summer and Smoke | Nellie Ewell | Classic Stage Company | Off-Broadway | [13] |
| 2017 | Come Back, Little Sheba | Marie Buckholder | Transport Group | Off-Broadway | [14] |
| 2017 | Picnic | Millie Owens | Transport Group | Off-Broadway | [15] |
| 2016 | Bright Star | Margo Crawford | James Earl Jones Theatre | Broadway | [16] |
| 2013 | Somewhere in Time | Elise McKenna | Portland Center Stage | World premiere | [17] |
| 2012 | Godspell | "Bless the Lord" | Circle in the Square Theatre | Broadway | [18] |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Fortune | Presley | Series Pilot |
| 2022 | She's Fine | Caroline | Short Film |
| 2021 | Broadway & Salt | Lead | Short Film |
| 2020 | The Over/Under | Christine | Feature Film |
| 2018 | The Sonnet Project | Sonnet #153 | TV Series |
| 2018 | Nora Ephron Goes to Prison | Ally | Short Film |
| 2017 | The Deuce | Angie | HBO |
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Craig Noel Award | Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical, Female | Hannah Elless | Nominated | [19] |
Stephen Flaherty is an American composer of musical theatre and film. He works most often in collaboration with the lyricist/book writer Lynn Ahrens. They are best known for writing the Broadway musicals Ragtime, which was nominated for thirteen Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards, and won the Tony for Best Original Score; Once on This Island, which won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, the Olivier Award for London's Best Musical, and was nominated for a Grammy Award and eight Tony Awards; and Seussical, which was nominated for the Grammy Award. Flaherty was also nominated for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for his songs and song score for the animated film musical Anastasia.
Lynn Ahrens is an American writer and lyricist for the musical theatre, television and film. She has collaborated with Stephen Flaherty for many years. She won the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for the Broadway musical Ragtime. Together with Flaherty, she has written many musicals, including Lucky Stiff, My Favorite Year, Ragtime, Seussical, A Man of No Importance, Dessa Rose, The Glorious Ones, Rocky, Little Dancer and, recently on Broadway, Anastasia and Once on This Island.
Edie Arlisa Brickell is an American singer-songwriter widely known for 1988's Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, the debut album by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, which went to No. 4 on the Billboard albums chart. She is married to singer-songwriter Paul Simon.
Once on This Island is a coming-of-age one-act stage musical with a book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty. It is based on the 1985 novel My Love, My Love; or, The Peasant Girl by Rosa Guy, a Caribbean-set retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Little Mermaid. It concerns a peasant girl in the French Antilles who falls in love with a rich boy and makes a deal with the gods to save his life.
Stephanie Janette Block is an American actress and singer, best known for her work on the Broadway stage.
Grey Gardens is a musical with book by Doug Wright, music by Scott Frankel, and lyrics by Michael Korie, produced in 2006 and based on the 1975 documentary of the same title about the lives of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale by Albert and David Maysles. The Beales were Jacqueline Kennedy's aunt and cousin, respectively. Set at Grey Gardens, the Bouviers' mansion in East Hampton, New York, the musical tracks the progression of the two women's lives from their original status as rich and socially polished aristocrats to their eventual largely isolated existence in a home overrun by cats and cited for repeated health code violations. However, its more central purpose is to untangle the complicated dynamics of their dysfunctional mother/daughter relationship.
LaChanze Sapp-Gooding, known professionally as LaChanze, is an American actress, singer, and dancer. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical in 2006 for her role as Celie Harris Johnson in The Color Purple. In 2023, LaChanze received two more Tony Awards, this time as a producer. She served as co-producer on Kimberly Akimbo, which won the Tony for Best New Musical and Topdog/Underdog, which won for Best Revival of a Play.
Andy Karl is an American actor and singer. He is best known for performing in musical theatre specifically musicals adapted from successful movies. He has received several accolades including a Laurence Olivier Award and a Drama Desk Award as well as nominations for three Tony Awards. He is also known for playing Sgt. Mike Dodds on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit from 2015 to 2016.
Frank Joseph Galati was an American director, writer, and actor. He was a member of Steppenwolf Theatre Company and an associate director at Goodman Theatre. He taught at Northwestern University for many years.
Jason D. Danieley is an American actor, singer, concert performer and recording artist. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and was married to fellow performer Marin Mazzie.
Dee Hoty is an American actress known for her work in musical theatre. Over the course of her career, she has appeared in numerous Broadway productions and earned three Tony Award nominations for Best Actress in a Musical, for The Will Rogers Follies (1991), The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public (1994), and Footloose (1999).
Carmen Cusack is an American musical theater actress and singer. She is known for playing Elphaba in the Chicago, North American Tour, and Melbourne productions of the musical Wicked and for originating the roles of Alice Murphy and Clare Boothe Luce in the Broadway musicals Bright Star and Flying Over Sunset, respectively.
Michael Mulheren is an American actor from Middletown, New Jersey. He is known for his roles in Law & Order, Rescue Me, and Royal Pains.
Love Has Come for You is a 2013 bluegrass music CD featuring a collaboration of 13 original songs composed by Steve Martin (music) and Edie Brickell. The album cover art is a painting entitled "After Dinner Drinks" (2008) by Martin Mull; the original work is in Steve Martin's personal art collection.
Lindsay Michelle Mendez is an American actress and singer, best known for her work in American musical theatre. She won the 2018 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance as Carrie Pipperidge in a Broadway revival of Carousel. Her other credits on Broadway include Elphaba in Wicked, Godspell, and Jan in Grease.
Bright Star is a musical written and composed by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. It is set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina in 1945–46 with flashbacks to 1923. The musical is inspired by their Grammy-winning collaboration on the 2013 bluegrass album Love Has Come for You and, in turn, the folk tale of the Iron Mountain Baby.
Anastasia is a musical play with music and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, and a book by Terrence McNally. Based on the 20th Century Fox Animation 1997 film of the same name, the musical adapts the legend of the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, who was rumored to have escaped and survived the execution of the Russian Imperial family. Many years later, an amnesiac young woman named Anya hopes to find some trace of her past by siding with two con men, who wish to take advantage of her resemblance to Anastasia.
Emily Padgett is an American actress, singer, and dancer.
Paul Alexander Nolan is a Canadian actor and singer, who has appeared in several musical theatre productions across Canada and the United States.
Knoxville is a stage musical with a book by Frank Galati, music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. The musical is based on the novel A Death in the Family written by James Agee, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction upon its release in 1957.