John Miller (born 1945) is an American bassist and musical coordinator known for his work on Broadway. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1968.
A professional bass player, he moved to New York City in the mid-1970s and was eventually hired as the musical director for the Broadway musical I Love My Wife . He also had an acting role in the show for which he won a Drama Desk Award. [1] In the mid-'70s he played bass and arranged for Leonard Cohen, arranging his single “Do I Have to Dance All Night”. [2]
Although Miller won an acting award, he has had very few acting roles since, instead choosing to work as a musical contractor and later musical coordinator on stage, and in films and television. As a musical coordinator, he not only finds and hires musicians, but also musical directors, orchestrators, and copyists for productions. He also provides the same service to film companies when they hire out of New York City. [3]
Over the past 30 years, Miller has been the musical coordinator for more than 75 Broadway shows including Young Frankenstein , Les Misérables , Jersey Boys , Sweeney Todd , Caroline, or Change , Little Shop of Horrors , Big River , Thoroughly Modern Millie , The Producers , The Who's Tommy , Little Women and Barnum . [4]
He has also worked as the musical coordinator for films, including The Producers , Mulan and Marvin's Room . [5]
In 2008, he released a solo album, Stage Door Johnny: John Miller Takes On Broadway on the P.S. Classics label. It showcases Miller's vocals, guitar, and bass playing on a wide range of material from the Broadway catalog, with unique arrangements and an all-star cast of musicians.
In 2014, Miller had a recurring acting role as the drug-dealing tympanist Dee Dee in the Amazon Original comedy series Mozart in the Jungle .
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is considered an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era, known for directing subversive and satirical films with overlapping dialogue and ensemble casts. Over his career he received several awards including an Academy Honorary Award, two British Academy Film Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for seven competitive Academy Awards.
Thomas Edward Hulce is an American actor and theatre producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Academy Award-winning film Amadeus (1984), as well as the roles of Larry "Pinto" Kroger in Animal House (1978), Larry Buckman in Parenthood (1989), and Quasimodo in Disney's animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). Hulce's awards include an Emmy Award for The Heidi Chronicles, a 2007 Tony Award for Best Musical as a lead producer for Spring Awakening, an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for Amadeus, and four Golden Globe nominations.
Hal Linden is an American stage and screen actor, television director and musician.
Anne Baxter was an American actress, star of Hollywood films, Broadway productions, and television series. She won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, and was nominated for an Emmy.
Joshua Lockwood Logan III was an American theatre and film director, playwright and screenwriter, and actor. He shared a Pulitzer Prize for co-writing the musical South Pacific and was involved in writing other musicals.
William December Williams Jr. is an American actor, novelist and painter. He has appeared in over 100 films and television roles over six decades. He is best known for portraying Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars franchise and has also appeared in critically acclaimed and popular titles such as Mahogany (1975), Scott Joplin (1977), and Nighthawks (1981), as Harvey Dent in Batman (1989) and The Lego Batman Movie (2017), The Last Angry Man (1959), Carter's Army, The Out-of-Towners (1969), The Final Comedown and Lady Sings the Blues, Hit! (1973), Fear City and Terror in the Aisles, Alien Intruder (1993) and The Visit (2000).
Gordon Hill Jenkins was an American arranger, composer, and pianist who was influential in popular music in the 1940s and 1950s. Jenkins worked with The Andrews Sisters, Johnny Cash, The Weavers, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Harry Nilsson, Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald.
Patrick Ray Leonard is an American songwriter, keyboardist, film composer, and music producer, best known for his longtime collaboration with Madonna. His work with Madonna includes her albums True Blue (1986), Who's That Girl (1987), Like a Prayer (1989), I'm Breathless (1990) and Ray of Light (1998). He scored Madonna's 2008 documentary I Am Because We Are, played keyboards with her at Live Aid (1985), and was musical director and keyboardist on The Virgin Tour (1985) and the Who's That Girl World Tour (1987).
James Mitchell was an American actor and dancer. Although he is best known to television audiences as Palmer Cortlandt on the soap opera All My Children (1979–2010), theatre and dance historians remember him as one of Agnes de Mille's leading dancers. Mitchell's skill at combining dance and acting was considered something of a novelty; in 1959, the critic Olga Maynard singled him out as "an important example of the new dancer-actor-singer in American ballet", pointing to his interpretive abilities and "masculine" technique.
Death of a Ladies' Man is the fifth studio album by Leonard Cohen, produced and co-written by Phil Spector. The album was in some ways a departure from Cohen's typical minimalist style by using Spector's Wall of Sound recording method, which included ornate arrangements and multiple tracks of instrument overdubs. The album was originally released in the US by Warner Bros., and on CD and the rest of the world by Cohen's long-time label, Columbia Records.
Recent Songs is the sixth studio album by Leonard Cohen, released in 1979. Produced by Cohen alongside Henry Lewy, it was a return to his normal acoustic folk music sound after the Phil Spector-driven experimentation of Death of a Ladies' Man, but now with many jazz and Oriental influences.
John Beal was an American actor.
Cameron Mitchell was an American stage, film, and television actor for 55 years. Mitchell began his career on Broadway before entering films in the 1950s, appearing in several major features. Later in his career, he became known for his roles in numerous exploitation films in the 1970s and 1980s.
Dee Dee Bridgewater is an American jazz singer and actress. She is a three-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, as well as a Tony Award-winning stage actress. For 23 years, she was the host of National Public Radio's syndicated radio show JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater. She is a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization.
Hattie Winston is an American film, television and Broadway actress. She is known for her roles as Margaret Wyborn on Becker, Lucy Carmichael in Rugrats, The Rugrats Movie, and the spin off series All Grown Up! and as a cast member of the PBS children's series The Electric Company.
John Simon is an American music producer, composer, writer and performer. Recognized as one of the top record producers in the United States during the late 1960s and the 1970s, Simon produced numerous classic albums that continue to sell more than 50 years later, including the Band’s Music from Big Pink, The Band, and The Last Waltz, Cheap Thrills by Big Brother & the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin, Songs of Leonard Cohen by Leonard Cohen, and Child Is Father to the Man by Blood, Sweat & Tears.
I Love My Wife is a musical with a book and lyrics by Michael Stewart and music by Cy Coleman, based on a play by Luis Rego.
Leonard Joel Baker was an American actor of stage, film, and television, best known for his Golden-Globe-nominated performance in the 1976 Paul Mazursky film Next Stop, Greenwich Village and his 1977 Tony Award-winning performance in the stage play I Love My Wife.
Ken Bichel is an American actor, composer, conductor, pianist, and synthesizer musician.
John Lissauer is an American composer, producer, and performer. At the age of 19, he arranged the first recordings of Al Jarreau. Lissauer went on to produce and arrange a pair of Leonard Cohen albums, including the song "Hallelujah" which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2019. He has been a composer or music producer for record albums, films, and radio and TV commercials. Lissauer received a Clio "Campaign of the Decade" award for his work for Polaroid.