Cast Bios

NORBERT LEO BUTZ (Jean-François Millet). Broadway: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Drama League Award winner, Best Actor, Musical), Wicked (Fiyero, original cast), Thou Shalt Not (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics nominations), Rent (original cast, Broadway debut). Off-Broadway: Buicks (Drama Desk nomination), The Last Five Years (Drama Desk, Lortel nominations; Drama League Award), Juno and the Paycock, Saved. National tour: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Cabaret (Helen Hayes, Jefferson, Dora and Ovation Awards). Regional: Alabama Shakespeare Festival (four seasons), Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. Film: Dan in Real Life. Television: "Playing Chicken," "Comanche Moon." BFA, Webster University; MFA, Alabama Shakespeare Theatre.

JEREMY BOBB (Phelim O'Shaughnessy). Broadway: Translations. Recent NY: The Calamity of Kat Kat and Willie, Love: A Tragic Etude, Hell and Back, Murder in the First. Regional: the O'Neill, Theatreworks (CA), Weston Playhouse, Barrington Stage, Hangar Theatre. TV/film: August; White Lies, Black Sheep; "Law & Order." BFA, Otterbein College. Thanks Cash, Kaiser, Binder and Blakemore. For Mom and Dad, with love.

MARYLOUISE BURKE (Madame Caron). Broadway: Into the Woods and Inherit the Wind. National tour: Lettice and Lovage directed by Michael Blakemore. Recent Off-Broadway includes Fuddy Meers (Drama Desk Award), Kimberly Akimbo (Drama Desk nomination), Wintertime, The Oldest Profession, American Sligo. Films include Sideways, Series 7: The Contenders, Must Love Dogs, A Prairie Home Companion.

PATRICIA CONOLLY (Madame Bathilde). Most recent appearance: The Coast of Utopia (Lincoln Center). Extensive Broadway includes Enchanted April, Judgment at Nuremberg,Waiting in the Wings, The Heiress, The Circle and with the APA/Phoenix at this theatre. Patricia has worked for the Roundabout, MTC, the Guthrie, and many theatres in the U.S., Canada, the UK and Australia, where she grew up.

JENN GAMBATESE (Marie Leroux) most recently starred on Broadway as Jane in Tarzan. Other Broadway: All Shook Up (OCC nomination), Hairspray, A Year With Frog and Toad, Footloose. Off-Broadway: Stairway to Paradise (Encores!), Reefer Madness. Tours (Europe and North America): Fame. TV: "All My Children." Film: The Good Shepherd. Favorite credits: Wife, Daughter, Sister, Aunt, Friend, Student and proud Actors' Equity member.

BYRON JENNINGS (Bastién Andre). Broadway: Inherit the Wind; Noises Off; Heartbreak House, A Touch of the Poet, Twelve Angry Men, The Man Who Came to Dinner, A Month in the Country (Roundabout); Henry IV, Dinner at Eight, The Invention of Love, Carousel (LCT); Sight Unseen (MTC). Off-Broadway: The Foreigner (Roundabout); Dealer's Choice (MTC); Waste, Don Juan (TFANA); Stuff Happens, The Merchant of Venice, On the Open Road, Pericles (Public).

MICHAEL McGRATH (Agamemnon Buckner ["Chicago"]). B'way: Spamalot (Tony/Drama Desk noms.), Wonderful Town, Little Me, Swinging on a Star (Theatre World Award, Drama Desk nom.), The Goodbye Girl, My Favorite Year, Follies and The Boys From Syracuse (Encores!) and Du Barry Was a Lady (Encores!). Off-B'way: The Cocoanuts, The Butter and Egg Man, Game Show, Louisiana Purchase, Forbidden Broadway. TV/film: "The Martin Short Show, " " R e m e m b e r WENN," The Interpreter, Changing Lanes.

JOHN McMARTIN (Papa Leroux). Tony Award nominations: Into the Woods, High Society, Show Boat, Sweet Charity, Don Juan (Drama Desk Award). Other Broadway includes Follies (original company) and Grey Gardens (Drama Desk nomination). Off-Broadway includes Indian Blood, The Visit (with Chita Rivera). Films include The Dish, All the President's Men, Legal Eagles, Sweet Charity, Pennies from Heaven, Native Son. TV includes "Oz," "Tales of the City," "Murrow," "Separate But Equal."

DAVID PITTU (Basil Thorpe, Claude Rivière, Charlie, The King of France). Recent: LoveMusik (2007 Tony, Drama Desk nominations/Outer Critics Circle Award, Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical), The Coast of Utopia, Stuff Happens (Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Ensemble), Celebration and The Room (Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel nominations, Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play), Of Thee I Sing (Encores!), Never Gonna Dance and the Peter Jackson film King Kong.

BRIDGET REGAN (Cecile Leroux). Broadway debut. Theatre: The Scottish Play and Sweet Bird of Youth (both at La Jolla Playhouse). Film: Sex and the City: The Movie and The Babysitters. TV: "The Black Donnellys," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," "New Amsterdam" and "Six Degrees." Education: North Carolina School of the Arts. Thanks to David, friends and family, especially Mom and Dad.

TOM ALAN ROBBINS (Hans von Bismarck ["Dutchy"]). Broadway: The LionKing (Pumbaa), Sunset Boulevard, Jerome Robbins' Broadway, The Threepenny Opera, Once Upon a Mattress. National tour: Les Miz (Thénardier). Off-Broadway: On the Verge, Isn't It Romantic, The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket, The Cradle Will Rock. NYSF: Henry V. Encores!: Tenderloin, Pardon My English. Television: "Seinfeld," "NYPD Blue," "Law & Order." Series regular: "Baby Talk." Alumnus: The Acting Company. Graduate: Juilliard.

SHEFFIELD CHASTAIN (Understudy). Theatre: Actors Theatre of Louisville, San Jose Rep, Dallas Theater Center, Berkeley Rep, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Florida Studio Theatre, Capital Repertory Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Center, Arizona Theatre Company. TV: "Law & Order," "The Knights of Prosperity," "Ed," "Nash Bridges," "Riptide" and "As The World Turns." Film: Charmed & Dangerous and The Knight in Glass Armor.

WILBUR EDWIN HENRY (Understudy). As an understudy, he performed the roles of Orson Welles and Laurence Olivier in Orson's Shadow Off-Broadway. Other NYC: Keen Company's Pullman Car Hiawatha, Outward Bound and In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Regionally: Orson Welles in Orson's Shadow at the Alley, Round House and Philadelphia Theatre Co.

LIV ROOTH (Understudy). Broadway: debut. Off-Broadway: the NY premiere of Chuck Mee's A Perfect Wedding; The Acting Company's Jane Eyre and Still Life/Café Coward, Abingdon; Slant Theatre Project's The Obstruction Plays. Regional: Much Ado About Nothing, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. BA: Dartmouth; MFA: NYU Tisch Graduate Acting (Marcia Gay Harden Scholarship). For my family, friends and Andrew.

PEGGY J. SCOTT (Understudy). Broadway debut. Public Theater, Guthrie, ACT, Mark Taper, LATC, Huntington, Denver Center, Delaware Theatre Company, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Shakespeare Theatre NJ, Adirondack Theatre Festival, Negro Ensemble Company, Cleveland Play House, La MaMa, Flea. TV: "Newhart," "Sesame Street," three years as Jeannie Reilly on "Rescue Me." Upcoming feature: Finding Amanda with Matthew Broderick.

Creative Bios

MARK TWAIN (Playwright). Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), Mark Twain published more than 30 books, hundreds of short stories and essays and gave lecture tours around the world. Often regarded as "the father of American literature" for his keen wit and incisive satire, Twain's works include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi, The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

DAVID IVES (Adapter) is a former Guggenheim Fellow and a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. Probably best known for his evening of one-acts called All in the Timing, he has adapted 19 classic American musicals for Encores! as well as South Pacific and Jubilee for Carnegie Hall and My Fair Lady for the NY Philharmonic. He translated Georges Feydeau's classic French farce A Flea in Her Ear and Yasmina Reza's A Spanish Play and is the author of two young-adult novels, Monsieur Eek and Scrib. His drama, New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza, is part of this season at Classic Stage Company.

MICHAEL BLAKEMORE (Director) is the only director ever to win Tony Awards for both a play, Copenhagen, and a musical, Kiss Me, Kate, in the same year. Other accolades include three Drama Desk Awards and Tony nominations for Joe Egg, Noises Off, City of Angels, Lettice and Lovage and The Life. He was most recently represented on Broadway with Deuce and Democracy and in the West End with Three Sisters. In England, he was Laurence Olivier's associate at the National Theatre and directed him in Long Day's Journey Into Night. For the RSC, he directed Privates on Parade (also the film). He wrote and directed two films, Country Life and A Personal History of the Australian Surf. His books include a novel, Next Season, and his recently published memoir, Arguments With England.

PETER J. DAVISON (Set Design). Broadway credits: Deuce, Copenhagen, Democracy, Medea, Hamlet, Jesus Christ Superstar. For the Met: The Rake's Progress, The Marriage of Figaro, recently Cyrano de Bergerac with Placido Domingo. Musical theatre: Whistle Down the Wind, The Boy From Oz in Sydney; Aladdin, Disney's California Adventure; Show Boat, Royal Albert Hall; and in Vienna the successful Rebecca (dir. Francesca Zambello). Ballet: David Bintley's Edward II, Arthur Parts 1 and 2. Medea was nominated for Tony and Olivier Awards. The DVD of Jesus Christ Superstar won an Emmy.

MARTIN PAKLEDINAZ (Costume Design). NYC: Grease, Gypsy (starring Patti LuPone); The Pirate Queen; The Pajama Game; The Trip to Bountiful; Thoroughly Modern Millie; Wonderful Town; Kiss Me, Kate; Golden Child; The Wild Party (Lippa); The Diary of Anne Frank; The Life; others. Recently in dance: Mark Morris' Mozart Dances (Mostly Mozart) and Christopher Wheeldon's The Nightingale and The Rose (NYCB). Opera, including Iphigenie en Tauride for the Metropolitan Opera this season. Two Tonys, Drama Desk, Obie, Lucille Lortel and others.

PETER KACZOROWSKI (Lighting Design). More than 30 plays and musicals including Young Frankenstein; Curtains; Grey Gardens; The Pajama Game; The Producers; Contact; Kiss Me, Kate. Many productions Off-Broadway and for resident and regional theatres in the U.S. Opera: The Met, NYCO, LAMCO, San Francisco, Houston Grand, Seattle. Abroad: Royal Opera, Scottish Opera, La Fenice, Maggio Festival Florence, L'Arena di Verona, Teatrolirico di Cagliari, Teatro Sao Carlos Lisbon. He is the recipient of Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Drama-Logue and Hewes design awards.

DAVID VAN TIEGHEM (Music & Sound Design). Broadway: Cyrano, Doubt, Mauritius, Inherit the Wind, Frozen, A Touch of the Poet, Reckless, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Crucible, Judgment at Nuremberg. Off-Broadway: Howard Katz, Jack Goes Boating, Wit, Woman Before a Glass, How I Learned to Drive, The Grey Zone. Film/TV: Spinning Into Butter, Eye of God, Working Girls, Penn & Teller, Wooster Group. Dance: Twyla Tharp, Doug Varone, Michael Moschen. Percussionist: Laurie Anderson, Talking Heads, Eno, Steve Reich. www.vantieghem.com

PAUL HUNTLEY (Hair & Wig Design), London born, is a Special Tony Award winner. Current Broadway shows include Hairspray, Curtains, Grease, The Ritz and Young Frankenstein. Movies include Fast Track, Ralph Fiennes in Doris, Jennifer Lopez in El Cantante, Christopher Walken in Balls of Fire and Hairspray, Susan Sarandon in Enchanted and Abigail Breslin in Kit: The American Girl.

PAMELA REMLER (Dance Sequences). As Assistant Choreographer: Spamalot national tour, London and Las Vegas; La Cage Broadway revival; Jubilee (Carnegie Hall); Drop Dead Gorgeous (New Line Cinema); the Broadway-bound Cry-Baby (baton twirling sequences). As Broadway performer: Spamalot (Dance Captain), Gypsy (Dance Captain), The Music Man, A Christmas Carol, NYC Rockette. Thank you Wendy and Michael.

JAY BINDER C.S.A./JACK BOWDAN C.S.A (Casting), with Mark Brandon and Sara Schatz, have cast more than 50 Broadway shows including A Chorus Line, Grease, Inherit the Wind, Journey's End, …Virginia Woolf, Sweet Charity, Wonderful Town, Movin' Out, 42nd Street, The Music Man, The Sound of Music, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Chicago, The King and I, Encores! Film: Hairspray, Dreamgirls, Chicago. Television: "Once Upon a Mattress," "The Music Man." Seven–time Artios Award winner.

101 PRODUCTIONS, LTD. (General Management). Wendy Orshan and Jeffrey M. Wilson founded their company in 1994, after having first worked together at Gatchell & Neufeld, Ltd. Dave Auster joined as their associate in 1998. Current productions: Monty Python's Spamalot (also tour, London and Las Vegas), Curtains, Rock 'n' Roll, The Seafarer and Is He Dead?

STEVEN BECKLER (Production Supervisor) has been the original production stage manager on more than 30 Broadway shows. His favorite experiences have been Tom Moore's 'night, Mother; Jerry Zaks' Guys and Dolls and Six Degrees of Separation; Jack O'Brien's Hairspray; Walter Bobbie's High Fidelity; and any show with Michael Blakemore.

ALEXANDER LIBBY (Stage Manager). Broadway: High Fidelity, La Cage aux Folles and The Woman in White. Equity national tour: Wicked 1st nat'l, personal assistant to actress Carol Kane. Reading: Legally Blonde: The Musical. Other credits include four seasons at MSMT. International: ACC Fashion Show, Taiwan. Member of Actors' Equity.

AURORA PRODUCTIONS (Technical Supervisor). This season's shows: A Bronx Tale, Rock 'n' Roll, 39 Steps, Spamalot (NY, tour, London, Las Vegas, Australia). Aurora Productions has been the technical supervisor of more than 175 Broadway shows and tours. Aurora is Gene O'Donovan, Ben Heller, Bethany Weinstein, Melissa Mazdra, John Horsman, Asia Evans.

BOB BOYETT (Producer). Broadway: Journey’s End (2007 Tony, Best Revival); The Coast of Utopia (2007 Tony, Best Play); Deuce; Coram Boy; Inherit the Wind; The Drowsy Chaperone; The History Boys (2006 Tony, Best Play); Monty Python’s Spamalot (2005 Tony, Best Musical); Bridge & Tunnel; The Woman in White; The Pillowman; Glengarry Glen Ross (2005 Tony, Best Revival); Democracy; The Frogs; Jumpers; Fiddler on the Roof; The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (2002 Tony); Topdog/Underdog (2002 Pulitzer Prize); Sweet Smell…; and The Elephant Man. London: Dealer’s Choice, Boeing-Boeing, The Dumb Waiter, The 39 Steps, Bent, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Donkeys’ Years, Sunday in the Park With George, The Woman in White, Boston Marriage, Lobby Hero, Jumpers, Monty Python’s Spamalot and The Drowsy Chaperone.

ROGER BERLIND (Producer) has been producing for 30 years. Recent productions include Copenhagen; Kiss Me, Kate; Proof; Medea; Anna in the Tropics; Caroline, or Change; Wonderful Town; Doubt; Well; The History Boys; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Faith Healer; The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial; The Vertical Hour; Deuce; The Year of Magical Thinking; Curtains; and Rock ’n’ Roll.

DARYL ROTH (Producer) is privileged to have produced five Pulitzer Prize-winning plays: Anna in the Tropics, How I Learned to Drive, Proof, Three Tall Women and Wit. Also: A Catered Affair; Curtains; Die, Mommie, Die!; August: Osage County; …Allergist’s Wife; Caroline, or Change; Coram Boy; Deuce; The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?; Inherit the Wind; Medea; Salome; Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; The Year of Magical Thinking. Board of directors Lincoln Center Theater, Sundance Institute, New York State Council on the Arts. Love to Steven and my wonderful family.

JANE BERGÈRE (Producer). B’way: Curtains (Tony nom., Best Musical), Glengarry Glen Ross (Tony Award, Best Play Revival); Caroline, or Change (Tony nom., Best Musical); Metamorphoses (Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk and Drama League Awards, Best Play and Tony nom., Best Play). Off-B’way: The Exonerated (Drama Desk Award, Best Play and Lucille Lortel Award, Most Unique Theatrical Experience), Houdini The Musical. Also The Exonerated national tour and London. Upcoming Off-Broadway: Capture Now. She is the former artistic director of Connecticut’s Broadway Theatre in Darien, CT. As an actor, she has performed on Broadway, regionally and on TV.

ELISABETH MORTEN (Producer). Previous productions include the Tony-nominated Caroline, or Change. Elisabeth was a vocal soloist with operatic, Celtic and contemporary ensembles; served as an investment analyst for Citibank and U.S. Steel; and produced the Guildfest concert series. She is president of Westport Country Playhouse and serves on the National Council for the American Theatre.

JODY & PETER ROBBINS (Producer). The Robbins’ have invested in and sponsored many theatrical, musical and artistic projects. Peter sits on the Board of the Manhattan School of Music, Miami MOCA and the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. Jody is an art dealer and a board member of Westport Country Playhouse. Love to Sophie and Noah.

JOHN O’BOYLE (Producer) is currently producing Harvey Fierstein and John Bucchino’s musical, A Catered Affair. He produced August Wilson’s final play, Radio Golf (four Tony nominations) and associate produced My Name Is Rachel Corrie Off-Broadway. Member of Dramatists Guild and ASCAP.

RICKY STEVENS (Producer) is currently producing Harvey Fierstein and John Bucchino’s musical, A Catered Affair. He produced August Wilson’s final play, Radio Golf (four Tony nominations). He has a BFA in arts administration, is a graduate of CTI and has produced/general managed more than 100 productions internationally. Thanks to Dawn.

ROY MILLER (Producer) is producer of the Tony Award-winning musical The Drowsy Chaperone. Mr. Miller also produced High Fidelity (2006) and I’m Not Rappaport (2002) on Broadway, and the tours of A Chorus Line (2002) and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (2000). From 1991 to 2004 he was with Paper Mill Playhouse, producing shows such as Crazy for You (PBS broadcast), Follies (Ann Miller), Gypsy (Betty Buckley) and Stephen Schwartz’s Children of Eden.

SONIA FRIEDMAN (Producer) has produced more than 75 productions since 1991 in London, the West End and Broadway. She founded SFP, a subsidiary of the Ambassador Theatre Group, in 2002, having been their producer since 1998. In 1993, Sonia cofounded Out of Joint Theatre Company, one of Britain’s leading new writing companies.

AMBASSADOR THEATRE GROUP (Producer) is currently the largest theatre group in the West End and separately, the second largest in the UK regions, with a total of 23 venues. ATG is one of the country’s foremost theatre producers, producing some of the most successful and innovative productions in Britain and internationally.

JACKI BARLIA FLORIN (Associate Producer). Managing partner, Davelle LLC. All About Us, April 2007, Westport Country Playhouse. Broadway:Wedding Singer, Chita Rivera: A Dancer’s Life, Brooklyn the Musical, Drowsy Chaperone, The Good Body. Off-Broadway: Fanny Hill, Newsical the Musical, Drama Desk Awards. Emerson College, CTI, board member Transport Group, AFRMC.

ROBERT G. BARTNER (Associate Producer) produced Sondheim’s Company (Tony) in NY and Sweeney Todd both on Broadway and in the West End. Also in NY: Faith Healer, Legally Blonde, Anna and the Tropics (Pulitzer) and Off-Broadway, Wit (Pulitzer). In London, Porgy and Bess, Rock ’n’ Roll, Boeing-Boeing and Guys and Dolls.

TIM LEVY (Producer) is the associate producer for Robert Boyett Theatricals. He previously worked at the Donmar Warehouse and then the National Theatre of Great Britain, working on their Broadway transfers, including Jumpers, Democracy, The Pillowman, The History Boys and Coram Boy. He also worked on and developed shows for the repertoire.

SHELLEY FISHER FISHKIN (Producer) was determined to bring Twain’s Is He Dead? to the stage from the moment she read the manuscript. A professor of English and director of American Studies at Stanford University, she is the award-winning author or editor of more than 30 books, including The Oxford Mark Twain; Was Huck Black?Mark Twain and African American Voices; Lighting Out for the Territory: Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture; and From Fact to Fiction: Journalism and Imaginative Writing in America. She is past president of the American Studies Association and the Mark Twain Circle of America.

MARK TWAIN FOUNDATION. Mark Twain died in 1910, leaving his estate to his sole surviving child, Clara. When Clara Clemens Samossoud died in 1962, and further beneficiaries passed away in 1979, the Clemens assets, including various literary rights, passed to the Mark Twain Foundation, a perpetual charitable trust whose purpose is to enable mankind to enjoy the works of Mark Twain forever. The present trustees of the Foundation are JPMorgan Chase Bank and attorney Richard A. Watson.