Richard H. Blake (born May 17, 1975 as Richard Harrison Thomas [1] ) is an American actor and singer best known for his work in musical theatre.
Blake made his Broadway debut in Teddy & Alice , starring Len Cariou at the Minskoff Theatre in 1987. [2] The following year he appeared as Boy McDuff in Macbeth , starring Christopher Plummer and Glenda Jackson, on Broadway at the Mark Hellinger Theatre. [3]
Blake then starred as the title character in the 1989 Broadway musical Prince of Central Park , becoming (at 14) the youngest Broadway performer to have his name above the title of the show. [4] However, the show closed after only 4 performances. [5]
In 1990, he appeared on Star Search , beating future Tony-winner Sutton Foster. [6]
Back on Broadway, he took over the role of Roger Davis in Rent and originated the role of Gus in the 1999 musical Saturday Night Fever ; he also joined the national tour as Tony Manero. [7] He also took over the role Link Larkin in the Broadway production of Hairspray .
Blake originated the role of Glen Guglia in the 2006 Broadway version of The Wedding Singer at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. He then starred in the Legally Blonde musical at the Palace Theatre, originating the role of Warner Huntington III alongside Laura Bell Bundy and Christian Borle. He can be heard on both The Wedding Singer and Legally Blonde cast recordings.
Blake had a lengthy run as Fiyero on the First National tour of Wicked after replacing Cliffton Hall on November 18, 2008. He toured North America with the show until February 13, 2011. He then replaced Kyle Dean Massey as Fiyero on Broadway beginning March 29, 2011. [8] He exited the Broadway company on July 29, 2012, and was replaced by Massey. [9] Blake subsequently joined his third production of Wicked, this time in Asia, replacing David Harris as Fiyero beginning August 7 in Seoul, South Korea.
After leaving Wicked, Blake joined the Broadway cast of Matilda the Musical in the roles of the Escapologist, Sergei, and the Party Entertainer. [10] He then took over the role of Tommy DeVito in the Broadway production of Jersey Boys beginning January 9, 2014. [11]
Blake starred as Lorenzo in the musical adaptation of A Bronx Tale on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre. The musical opened officially on December 1, 2016 and closed on August 5, 2018. [12]
Hunter Foster is an American musical theatre actor, singer, librettist, playwright and director.
George Hearn is an American actor and singer, primarily in Broadway musical theatre.
Sutton Lenore Foster is an American actress, singer and dancer. She is known for her work on the Broadway stage, for which she has won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical twice, in 2002 for her role as Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and in 2011 for her performance as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, a role which she reprised in 2021 for a production in London and for which she received a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Her other Broadway credits include Little Women, The Drowsy Chaperone, Young Frankenstein, Shrek the Musical, Violet, and The Music Man. On television, Foster played the lead role in the short-lived ABC Family comedy-drama Bunheads from 2012 to 2013. From 2015 to 2021, she starred in the TV Land comedy-drama Younger.
Norbert Leo Butz is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his work in Broadway theatre. He is a two-time winner of the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, and is one of only nine actors ever to have won the award twice.
Jennifer Laura Thompson is an American actress and singer, best known for her theatrical performances. She originated the role of Cynthia Murphy in the Tony Award-winning musical, Dear Evan Hansen, and received a Tony Award nomination for her performance as Hope Cladwell in Urinetown. She is also known for being the first replacement for Kristen Chenoweth as Glinda in Wicked on Broadway.
Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, in turn based on L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film adaptation.
Stephanie Janette Block is an American actress and singer, best known for her work on the Broadway stage.
Christian Dominique Borle is an American actor and singer. He is a two-time Tony Award winner for his roles as Black Stache in Peter and the Starcatcher and as William Shakespeare in Something Rotten!. Borle also originated the roles of Prince Herbert, et. al. in Spamalot, Emmett in Legally Blonde, and Joe in Some Like It Hot on Broadway. He starred as Marvin in the 2016 Broadway revival of Falsettos. He also starred as Tom Levitt on the NBC musical-drama television series Smash.
Brian d'Arcy James is an American actor and musician. He is known primarily for his Broadway roles, including Shrek in Shrek The Musical, Nick Bottom in Something Rotten!, King George III in Hamilton, and the Baker in Into the Woods, and has received four Tony Award nominations for his work. On-screen, he is known for his recurring role as Andy Baker on the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, Officer Krupke in West Side Story, and reporter Matt Carroll in Spotlight.
Sebastian Arcelus is an American actor, best known for his roles as Lucas Goodwin in the Netflix TV series House of Cards (2013–2016) and Jay Whitman in the CBS TV series Madam Secretary (2014–2019). Arcelus began his acting career in the early 2000s and spent the first decade of his career on Broadway, having played Roger in Rent, Fiyero in Wicked, Bob Gaudio in Jersey Boys, and Buddy in Elf, among other roles. He returned to Broadway with the 2022 revival of Into the Woods and its subsequent national tour.
Kristoffer Cusick is an American actor of stage, television and film. He has performed in such musicals as Saturday Night Fever, Rent and Wicked.
Andy Karl is an American actor and singer, best known for performing in musical theatre.
A Bronx Tale is an autobiographical one-man show written and performed by Chazz Palminteri. It tells the coming-of-age story of Calogero Anello, a young New Yorker torn between the temptations of organized crime and the values of his hardworking father. It originally premiered in Los Angeles in 1989, before moving Off-Broadway. A film version involving Palminteri and Robert DeNiro was released in 1993. In 2007, Palminteri performed his one-man show on Broadway and on tour.
Katherine "Katie" Rose Clarke is an American musical theater actress.
Kara Lynn Massey, known professionally as Kara Lindsay, is an American stage actress and singer, best known for her roles as Katherine Plumber in Newsies (2012) and Glinda in Wicked.
Kyle Dean Massey is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his leading roles in the Broadway musicals Wicked – for which he has played Fiyero on-and-off from 2007 to 2019 – Next to Normal, and Pippin. He played the recurring role of openly gay country music songwriter Kevin Bicks on the ABC/CMT musical drama series Nashville (2015–2018).
Curt Hansen is an American actor and singer.
Nicolas Dromard is a Canadian singer and stage actor, best known for his performances as Fiyero in the San Francisco sit-down production of the musical Wicked. He also performed in the Broadway musical version of Mary Poppins as part of the original Broadway cast ensemble, and later as Bert on Broadway and in the National Tour. He recently performed in the national tour and Broadway productions of Jersey Boys as Tommy DeVito.
A Bronx Tale is a musical based on the play by the same name with a book by Chazz Palminteri, music by Alan Menken, and lyrics by Glenn Slater. After a ten-year development process, the original one man show was adapted into a new musical and premiered at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey on February 4, 2016, before opening on Broadway December 1 later that year.
Emily Padgett is an American actress, singer, and dancer.