Jill Santoriello is an American musician, composer, lyricist, and author. She is a self-taught musician whose award-winning first musical A Tale of Two Cities was an Outer Critics Circle Award nominee for Outstanding New Musical in 2009. Her newest musical "It Happened In Key West", co-written with Jason Huza and Jeremiah James, released its Live London Cast Recording on June 17, 2022 [1] following its world premiere at London's Charing Cross Theatre starring Wade McCollum beginning July 4, 2018. [2] The recording is available on all digital platforms including Apple Music, Amazon, and Spotify. [3] Santoriello wrote the book, music and lyrics for "Key West" with Jason Huza co-writing the book and contributing additional lyrics, and Jeremiah James conceiving and co-writing the book. Also in 2022, nine songs from "It Happened in Key West" were featured at Broadway on the Bowery at Duane Park on March 7, 2022. [4] Previously several songs were premiered at the Good To Go Festival and at Broadway Au Carre in Paris. [5] [6]
Santoriello was born in Summit, New Jersey and grew up in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, [7] and graduated from Governor Livingston High School in 1983. [8]
On September 18, 2008, Santoriello's Broadway musical adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities officially opened at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in New York, from previews on August 19. [9] The musical's producers announced on November 4 that the show would be closing on November 16, but closed earlier than expected on November 9.
In addition to the 2009 Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for Outstanding New Musical, "Tale" also received an additional Outer Critics Circle nomination for Best Actor and 3 Drama Desk Award nominations. The world premiere production at the Asolo Theatre was nominated for 12 Sarasota Theater Awards and won 10, including "Best Musical".
In 2009, Santoriello adapted the musical for the concert stage and co-produced a television filming of the concert at the Theatre Royal in Brighton, England. This television program was broadcast on public television, WGBH-Boston in December 2009 and a DVD of the show is available on Amazon. Santoriello also co-produced an accompanying studio recording of the score for simultaneous release with the television show.
She also contributed to the music and lyrics to the musical version of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander . Music by Kevin Walsh and lyrics by Mike Gibb. [10]
Among her new projects are a musical version of the 1913 Eleanor H. Porter novel Pollyanna . [11]
Santoriello is a Carr Van Anda honors graduate of the Ohio University School of Journalism. She is also an alumna of the BMI and ASCAP Musical Theater Workshops.
Harvey Forbes Fierstein is an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter, known for his distinctive gravelly voice. He gained notice for his theater work in Torch Song Trilogy, winning both the Tony Award for Best Play and Best Actor in a Play. He went on to win the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for La Cage aux Folles, then Best Actor in a Musical for playing Edna Turnblad in Hairspray, a role he reprised for the Hairspray Live! television special.
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.
Andrew Lippa is an American composer, lyricist, book writer, performer, and producer. He is a resident artist at the Ars Nova Theater in New York City.
Richard Eldridge Maltby Jr. is an American theatre director and producer, lyricist, and screenwriter. He conceived and directed the only two musical revues to win the Tony Award for Best Musical: Ain't Misbehavin' and Fosse.
Gary William Friedman is an American musical theatre, symphonic, film and television composer. His career began in the 1960s in New York City as a saxophonist in an improvisational ensemble and as a composer for experimental theater. Friedman's 1970 musical, The Me Nobody Knows opened Off-Broadway and won the Obie Award for Best Music of a Musical before moving to Broadway and earning five Tony Award nominations. Friedman has also composed scores for numerous American films and television series such as PBS's children's television series, The Electric Company. His orchestral and operatic compositions have been commissioned by festivals and venues including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Matthew Sklar is an American composer for musical theatre, television, and film. His works have appeared on Broadway, the West End, and theatres worldwide. Sklar has written primarily with lyricist Chad Beguelin, having written music for their Broadway shows The Prom, Elf the Musical, and The Wedding Singer. The Prom and The Wedding Singer earned him nominations for the Tony Award for Best Original Score.
Robert Martin is a television and musical theatre actor and writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
David Thompson is an American writer, playwright, and producer. His notable theater productions include Chicago, The Scottsboro Boys, The Prince of Broadway, and New York, New York.
Michael Patrick Walker is a composer, lyricist, writer, and musician.
Laurence Crawford "Larry" O'Keefe is an American composer for Broadway musicals, film and television. He won the 2001 Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Musical as composer for Bat Boy: The Musical.
Alex Timbers is an American writer and director best known for his work on stage and television. He has received numerous accolades including two Tony Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a Drama Desk Award, as well as nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Grammy Award. Timbers received the Drama League Founder's Award for Excellence in Directing and the Jerome Robbins Award for Directing.
Stafford Arima is a Canadian-born theatre director. Arima studied at York University in Toronto, where he was the recipient of the Dean's Prize for Excellence in Creative Work. He is a member of the SDC and CAEA. In April 2017, he became the artistic director of Theatre Calgary.
A Tale of Two Cities is a musical with book, music and lyrics by Jill Santoriello based on the 1859 novel of the same name by Charles Dickens.
Natalie Toro is an American singer and actress for theatre, television, and film.
Richard Pilbrow was a British stage lighting designer, author, theatre design consultant, and theatrical producer, film producer and television producer. He was the first British lighting designer to light a Broadway musical on the Broadway stage with the musical Zorba.
Thomas Robert Kitt is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator, and musician. For his score for the musical Next to Normal, he shared the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Brian Yorkey. He has also won two Tony Awards and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Next to Normal, as well as Tony and Outer Critics Circle nominations for If/Then and SpongeBob SquarePants. He has been nominated for eight Drama Desk Awards, winning one, and he won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for Jagged Little Pill in 2021.
Desperate Measures is an American musical comedy with music by David Friedman and book and lyrics by Peter Kellogg. The show won acclaim with Drama Desk Awards for Best Music and Best Lyrics, and Outer Critics Circle and Off-Broadway Alliance Awards for Best Musical from its run at the York Theatre in New York City in 2017.
Nathan Tysen is a Grammy-nominated American songwriter whose musicals have appeared on Broadway and the West End. Musicals with composer Chris Miller include Tuck Everlasting, The Burnt Part Boys, Fugitive Songs, Revival,Dreamland, and The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. He also collaborated with songwriter Daniel Messé of the band Hem on lyrics for the Broadway musical Amélie starring Phillipa Soo, and the reworked Olivier-nominated original London cast production starring Audrey Brisson. Television work includes songs for Sesame Street, Elmo's World, and the Electric Company. He also wrote lyrics for the digital murder mystery A Killer Party.
Brad Alexander is an American composer for television and musical theater. He was Lead Composer for the 2019-2020 animated series Clifford The Big Red Dog (Scholastic/PBSKids/Amazon) and wrote the music for See Rock City & Other Destinations, which won the 2011 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical, the Richard Rodgers Award and the BMI Foundation's Jerry Bock Award. He wrote the music for TheatreWorksUSA’s Dog Man: The Musical, which premiered Off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theater and toured the US and Canada from 2019-2020. He also wrote the music and orchestrations for Click, Clack, Moo, which premiered Off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theater and received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Lyrics and Lucille Lortel Award nominations for Outstanding Choreographer, Outstanding Lyrics and Outstanding Musical. His songs have been featured on Sony Records, Select Records, Showtime’s The L Word, VH1's “Celebreality” campaign, Sirius XM Radio and web series Submissions Only. He is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, National Alliance for Musical Theatre, Dramatists Guild of America and member Emeritus of The BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. He is married to actress and writer Jill Abramovitz.
Jeremiah James is an American singer, producer, and stage actor who is best known for his membership in the music group Teatro.